One of the main challenges in medicine is to guarantee an appropriate drug supply according to the real needs of patients. Closed-loop strategies have been widely used to develop automatic solutions based on feedback variables. However, when the variable of interest cannot be directly measured or there is a lack of knowledge behind the process, it turns into a difficult issue to solve. In this research, a novel algorithm to approach this problem is presented. The main objective of this study (...) is to provide a new general algorithm capable of determining the influence of a certain clinical variable in the decision making process for drug supply and then defining an automatic system able to guide the process considering this information. Thus, this new technique will provide a way to validate a given physiological signal as a feedback variable for drug titration. In addition, the result of the algorithm in terms of fuzzy rules and membership functions will define a fuzzy-based decision system for the drug delivery process. The method proposed is based on a Fuzzy Inference System whose structure is obtained through a decision tree algorithm. A four-step methodology is then developed: data collection, preprocessing, Fuzzy Inference System generation, and the validation of results. To test this methodology, the analgesia control scenario was analysed. Specifically, the viability of the Analgesia Nociception Index as a guiding variable for the analgesic process during surgical interventions was studied. Real data was obtained from fifteen patients undergoing cholecystectomy surgery. (shrink)

In this paper intergenerational dimensions of reproductive behavior are studied within the context of the experience of a mid-sized Spanish town just before and during the demographic transition. Different indicators of reproduction are used in bivariate and multivariate approaches. Fertility shows a small, often statistically significant intergenerational dimension, with stronger effects working through women and their mothers than those stemming from the families of their husbands. These effects are materialized mainly through duration-related fertility variables, are singularly absent for variables such (...) as age at first birth or birth intervals, and are much stronger in the case of firstborn daughters than with later siblings. There is a substantial increase in the strength of intergenerational effects during the course of the demographic transition, most visible in age at last birth and duration of reproduction (between women and their mothers), as well as in the effects working through the families of their husbands. These results underscore the on-going importance of biological dimensions of reproduction as well as the way attitudes toward reproduction are taught within the family. The changes identified in this study suggest that the transmission of values and attitudes became more important for reproductive outcomes during this period of demographic modernization. (shrink)

Se aborda la delimitación de lo que es una teoría de la verdad y la clasificación de las principales teorías elaboradas durante el siglo XX. Una teoría de la verdad ha de incluir al menos cuatro apartados: definición del concepto de verdad, determinación del criterio de verdad, distinción de los tipos de verdad y fijación del lugar sistemático de la verdad y de la teoría de la verdad en el marco del saber y de la acción. En segundo lugar, se (...) han clasificado las teorías de la verdad en siete grupos: teoría de la correspondencia (semánticas y no semánticas), teorías prooracionales, teorías fenomenologicas, teorías hermeneuticas, teóricas coherenciales, teorías pragmáticas y teorías intersubjetivistas de la verdad. (shrink)

ObjectiveTest anxiety is a construct that has scarcely been studied based on Lang’s three-dimensional model of anxiety. The objective of this article is to investigate the repercussion of sociodemographic and academic variables on different responses for each component of anxiety and for the type of test in adolescent students.MethodA total of 1181 students from 12 to 18 years old participated, of whom 569 were boys and 612 girls. A sociodemographic questionnaire and the Cuestionario de Ansiedad ante los examenes-Adaptado [Test Anxiety (...) Questionnaire-Adapted] an adaptation for Spanish secondary school levels and Bachillerato were administered.ResultsGirls scored higher on the cognitive and physiological components of TA than boys, the intensity of the physiological response increasing with age. Bachillerato level students reported more physiological anxiety than those of ESO level. Students with better marks in the previous year presented more anxiety in the cognitive component, while those who obtained the lower mark presented higher anxiety values in the behavioral component. Participants reported that the types of tests that cause them more anxiety were oral tests in front of the class, oral presentation in front of a panel, and mathematics tests.ConclusionAdolescents show a differential response of TA based on the physiological, cognitive and motor components, mediated by the variables of gender, age, grade, academic performance and type of exam. These results serve to design specific intervention programs to manage anxiety in situations of academic assessment. (shrink)

One of the objectives in the field of artificial intelligence for some decades has been the development of artificial agents capable of coexisting in harmony with people and other systems. The computing research community has made efforts to design artificial agents capable of doing tasks the way people do, tasks requiring cognitive mechanisms such as planning, decision-making, and learning. The application domains of such software agents are evident nowadays. Humans are experiencing the inclusion of artificial agents in their environment as (...) unmanned vehicles, intelligent houses, and humanoid robots capable of caring for people. In this context, research in the field of machine ethics has become more than a hot topic. Machine ethics focuses on developing ethical mechanisms for artificial agents to be capable of engaging in moral behavior. However, there are still crucial challenges in the development of truly Artificial Moral Agents. This paper aims to show the current status of Artificial Moral Agents by analyzing models proposed over the past two decades. As a result of this review, a taxonomy to classify Artificial Moral Agents according to the strategies and criteria used to deal with ethical problems is proposed. The presented review aims to illustrate the complexity of designing and developing ethical mechanisms for this type of agent, and that there is a long way to go before this type of artificial agent can replace human judgment in difficult, surprising or ambiguous moral situations. (shrink)

La autonomía es parte esencial de la fundamentación moral de la sociedad contemporánea y ha dado lugar en el ámbito asistencial a un nuevo modelo de relación y de toma de decisiones clínicas. El objetivo de este artículo es exponer el significado de la autonomía del paciente a través de la distinción de tres dimensiones: autonomía decisoria, autonomía informativa y autonomía funcional o ejecutiva, la periodización de su evolución normativa a lo largo de tres etapas, y la propuesta de cuestiones (...) o desafíos que merecen ser objeto de estudio y aplicación en el futuro. (shrink)

In this article, from the characterization of technoscience of the English historian J. Pickstone and the recognition of the importance of models and modelling in research and teaching of chemistry, the term technochemistry is introduced as a way of chemical knowledge. With the above new possibilities, rethinking the chemistry curriculum is opened.

Under the influence of naturalistic approaches, contemporary philosophy of science tends to characterize scientific objectivity not by virtue of the individualistic following of rules or satisfying epistemic utilities, but as a property arising from the organisational features of groups. This paper presents a critical review of one such proposal, that of Helen Longino, probing some of its main features against the debate between Pasteur and Pouchet in mid-nineteenth-century France regarding the spontaneous generation of life. After considering some weaknesses and strengths, (...) it is argued that Longino’s social epistemology is only able to generate normativity by implicitly assuming a classic procedural notion of epistemic acceptability. The paper also aims to use this historical case to shed light on the complex, multidimensional nature of the dynamics of actual science, arguing both against purely epistemic and exclusively social approaches in a satisfactory meta-scientific explanation of controversies. (shrink)

Pedro de Toledo’s translation, Enseñador e Mostrador delos Turbados, is the earliest and most extensive philosophical text to appear in Spanish. The first translation into a vernacular language of RaMBaM’s Guide for the Perplexed is presented in Ms. 10289 of the Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid. The text seems an intellectual battle-field. It presents some interesting and peculiar characteristics at once: a text covered with glosses of the translator himself, and comments, variant translations, philosophical and theological disagreements, the use of rabbinic and (...) scriptural sources, by an anonymous critical commentator. These discrepancies show how the sensitive nature of the Maimonides ideas demands a particular hermeneutics, and offers an interesting view about the Spanish Jewish controversy in the fifteenth century. (shrink)

El pensamiento utópico es un producto especialmente significativo de la modernidad occidental y, por tanto, no debe sorprender que la crisis que se ha cebado sobre ella lo arrastre consigo como pieza herida de muerte. A medida que nuestra postmodernidad, largamente anunciada desde Nietzsche, ha ido configurándose como nueva etapa en la que las pretensiones de la razón moderna evidencian el resquebrajamiento de lo que parecían sus bases más sólidas, el pensamiento utópico a través del cual plasmó sus ideales resulta (...) fuertemente cuestionado, tanto que apenas si es posible una honrosa salida de la escena cultural mediante revisión autocrítica de sus planteamientos. Achicado al máximo el espacio para la utopía en la reflexión filosófica contemporánea, ni siquiera cabe una cura de adelgazamiento de pensar utópico para hacerlo sostenible en medio de nuestras perplejidades. Hoy, y en cualquier caso venciendo un pudor difícilmente superable, cuesta asumir la defensa de lo utópico, y si se ha puesto muy complicado hablar de utopía es por el riesgo de caer bajo la doble acusación de ingenuidad y de cinismo. ¿Quién lo iba a decir, cuando el pensamiento utópico logró afirmarse como ariete de la crítica del orden establecido frente al pragmatismo de los defensores del statu quo? (shrink)

Filosofía e Historia dormían en la placidez uterina del mito, cuando quizá el hecho del principio era el principio del hecho, donde acaso no era consciente la distinción entre el origen cronológico y el origen lógico. Pero Filosofía e Historia despertaron y, no acordándose de su matricial maridaje, acordaron mutuamente su divorcio. Tal vez fuera la querella entre Ilustración y Romanticismo la expresión "ideal" de esa escisión efectiva entre lo racional y lo histórico. No obstante, la propia conciencia histórica de (...) la separación aportó justamente la posibilidad de su superación: la "conciencia histórica" misma. Y ése era el requisito necesario para una Filosofía de la Historia. La Scienza Nuova lo cumple porque, contando cómo efectivamente se reúnen Filosofía y Filología, relata idealmente la supresión del enfrentamiento ilustrado-romántico. Vico aporta una conciencia histórica que narra una nueva racionalidad, una modificación de la mente en que haciendo de la razón Historia y de la Historia razón se le restituye al mito su condición histórica y racional, a la par que Filosofía e Historia recuperan su mítica originalidad. (shrink)

José Antonio Marina –reincidiendo en su condición de detective cultural– se enfrenta en este libro a un nuevo caso. Durante milenios, la humanidad ha desconfiado de la fuerza del deseo. La sociedad opulenta en que vivimos altera esa tradición. Tiene que estimular constantemente los deseos para sobrevivir. Antes, la economía estaba dirigida por la demanda. Producía lo que era necesario. Ahora se rige por la oferta: crea en el público la necesidad de lo producido. Padecemos así un ansia (...) inacabable, porque siempre nos convencerán de que nos falta algo. Nuestro detective descubre que carecemos de una «teoría del deseo». ¿Qué es, de dónde procede, cuáles son sus determinismos, cómo se manipulan o se educan? A lo lejos resuena Spinoza: «La esencia del hombre es el deseo.» Éstas son palabras mayores. Todo se puede desear. Los placeres elevan arquitecturas arborescentes. Al fragmentarse sus deseos, también la esencia humana se fragmenta, y necesita una operación de bricolaje que la unifique. Al final, aparece un nuevo personaje: el espíritu. (shrink)

Desde su primera juventud, inquietó a José Antonio Maravall la pregunta acerca de quién hace la Historia y hasta qué punto ésta determina nuestra vida. Este ensayo, donde aborda el tema con profusión, lo escribió durante los cuatro años siguientes a su regreso de París en 1954. En el lustro que estuvo allí al frente del Colegio de España, el trato asiduo con varios de los historiadores que entonces dominaban la escena internacional, abrió sus horizontes de respuesta a (...) la pregunta apuntada, respuesta que es, a la vez, un mentís a los determinismos históricos de la Europa de preguerra, y una cortapisa a las utopías del liberalismo individualista. En la Teoría del saber histórico se abordan también los problemas epistemológicos y metodológicos del momento, con la preocupación por la introducción de conceptos y categorías tomadas de las ciencias sociales, y la apertura a nuevos campos de investigación. Pionera en su terreno, y durante tiempo ejemplar único, la obra gozó de gran respeto y mucha influencia. (shrink)

The catalyst for much of classical pragmatist political thought was the great waves of migration to the United States in the early 20th century. José-Antonio Orosco examines the work of several pragmatist social thinkers, including John Dewey, W. E. B. Du Bois, Josiah Royce, and Jane Addams, regarding the challenges large-scale immigration brings to American democracy. Orosco argues that the ideas of the classical pragmatists can help us understand the ways in which immigrants might strengthen the cultural foundations (...) of the United States in order to achieve a more deliberative and participatory democracy. Like earlier pragmatists, Orosco begins with a critique of the melting pot in favor of finding new ways to imagine the civic role of our immigrant population. He concludes that by applying the insights of American pragmatism, we can find guidance through controversial contemporary issues such as undocumented immigration, multicultural education, and racialized conceptions of citizenship. (shrink)

Since Darwin, emotions have been defined as adaptive reactions that increase the probability of survival. In this framework, a situation in which individuals fight for their life with an imposing, aggressive animal should be an ideal elicitor of emotions and their corresponding facial expressions. We tested the correspondence between the facial expressions of 22 bullfighters and their reported emotions at different stages of the fight. Toreros reported intense experiences of happiness or fear, but there were no observable instances of the (...) facial expressions predicted for these emotions. Instead toreros displayed frowning, nostril dilatation, parted lips, and, protruding funneled lips in particular. In a second study we found that 149 judges could not recognize toreros’ facial movements as expressions of emotion. Absence of a universal signal value strongly suggests that toreros’ expressions are not an undescribed expression of basic emotions. The observed non-correspondence between intense reported emotions and their predicted expressions casts doubt on one of the most popular assumptions in contemporary psychology and provides new evidence for an alternative theoretical view. In this view, facial expressions are not signals of emotion, but actions that are roughly coextensive with other processes and structures in the framework of an emotional episode. (shrink)

Santo Antônio de Lisboa, na qualidade de pregador, deixou um legado de sermões, nos quais encontra-se toda uma visão de vida cristã. A obra não pode ser qualificada como pertencente a um filósofo, tal como se deu este nome a outros seus contemporâneos, mas possui denso conteúdo teórico, como, por exemplo, no que se refere à dimensão ética do conceito de justiça.

Es recomendable leer los libros en su idioma original, para entablar un trato inmediato con su sintaxis, su léxico y su contexto y para comprender de forma genuina el pensamiento y el propósito de su autor. Al mismo tiempo hay que celebrar las traducciones, ya que introducen en otra lengua reflexiones extranjeras o menos conocidas y despiertan o avivan nuestro interés por ellas. Esto último acontece con Confesiones de un médico, versión española de Confessions of a Medicine Man de Alfred (...) J. Tauber, gracias a la pulcra y precisa traducción de Antonio Casado da Rocha. .. (shrink)

This article provides an overview of recent contributions to the debate on the ethical use of previously collected biobank samples, as well as a country report about how this issue has been regulated in Spain by means of the new Biomedical Research Act, enacted in the summer of 2007. By contrasting the Spanish legal situation with the wider discourse of international bioethics, we identify and discuss a general trend moving from the traditional requirements of informed consent towards new models more (...) favourable to research in a post-genomic context. (shrink)

En este trabajo se discuten algunos problemas epistemológicos de la teoría de la mente de Searle, que derivan de su realismo externo (metafísico) e ingenuo. Éste le lleva, en primer lugar, a una problemática separación entre ontología y epistemología, que le permitirá sostener que hay hechos evidentes, previos e independientes a las teorías. Entre esos hechos incuestionables, en segundo lugar, sitúa las características que el sentido común atribuye a la mente y que trata de encajar, aunque es dudoso que lo (...) consiga, en un planteamiento científico, que exigiría cambiar la idea de objetividad. Finalmente, el realismo le aboca a un dualismo implícito contrario a su pretendido fisicalismo y más radical que el que le gustaría admitir. (shrink)

This study reviews and classifies the most common uses of the terms “enemy” and “enmity” within the context of traditional philosophical discourse. In order to contribute to a structured understanding of these concepts, we proceed in two steps. We first explore the auxiliary uses of the terms, which we distinguish from each other according to their axiological connotations. In a second part, we review the technical uses of the concepts known to philosophy of law. Here, we distinguish between two different (...) approaches to the concept, one of which defines it through qualitative criteria, and a second approach that uses the term as a quantifier. (shrink)