Biobanks correspond to different situations: research and technological development, medical diagnosis or therapeutic activities. Their status is not clearly defined. We aimed to investigate human biobanking in Europe, particularly in relation to organisational, economic and ethical issues in various national contexts. Data from a survey in six EU countries were collected as part of a European Research Project examining human and non-human biobanking. A total of 147 institutions concerned with biobanking of human samples and data were investigated by questionnaires and (...) interviews. Most institutions surveyed belong to the public or private non-profit-making sectors, which have a key role in biobanking. This activity is increasing in all countries because few samples are discarded and genetic research is proliferating. Collections vary in size, many being small and only a few very large. Their purpose is often research, or research and healthcare, mostly in the context of disease studies. A specific budget is very rarely allocated to biobanking and costs are not often evaluated. Samples are usually provided free of charge and gifts and exchanges are the common rule. Good practice guidelines are generally followed and quality controls are performed but quality procedures are not always clearly explained. Associated data are usually computerised. Biobankers generally favour centralisation of data rather than of samples. Legal and ethical harmonisation within Europe is considered likely to facilitate international collaboration. We propose a series of recommendations and suggestions arising from the EUROGENBANK project. (shrink)

Originally published in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War, the country was split into pro-fascists and pro-communists, the author felt that the conflict in Spain threatened to develop into an international war, perhaps an international civil war since the issue cut across frontier lines. The situation had no parallel at the time. The author looks back to wars of the sixteenth century to find a precedent for this dramatic duel between two political conceptions. Using examples from Europe including the conflict (...) between Catholics and Protestants he shows that, as in England who led their own way at the time, there are alternative solutions and hopefully a way to find a middle ground. (shrink)

BackgroundThe landscape of clinical research has evolved over the past decade. With technological advances, the practice of using electronic informed consent (eIC) has emerged. However, a number of challenges hinder the successful and widespread deployment of eIC in clinical research. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the views of various stakeholders on the potential advantages and challenges of eIC.MethodsSemi-structured interviews were conducted with 39 participants from 5 stakeholder groups from across 11 European countries. The stakeholder groups included physicians, patient organization representatives, (...) regulator representatives, ethics committee members, and pharmaceutical industry representatives, and all were involved in clinical research. Interviews were analyzed using the framework method.ResultsInterviewees identified that a powerful feature of eIC is its personalized approach as it may increase participant empowerment. However, they identified several ethical and practical challenges, such as ensuring research participants are not overloaded with information and offering the same options to research participants who would prefer a paper-based informed consent rather than eIC. According to the interviewees, eIC has the potential to establish efficient long-term interactions between the research participants and the research team in order to keep the participants informed during and after the study. Interviewees emphasized that a personal interaction with the research team is of utmost importance and this cannot be replaced by an electronic platform. In addition, interviewees across the stakeholder groups supported the idea of having a harmonized eIC approach across the European Member States.ConclusionsInterviewees reported a range of design and implementation challenges which needs to be overcome to foster innovation in informing research participants and obtaining their consent electronically. It was considered important that the implementation of eIC runs alongside the face-to-face contact between research participants and the research team. Moreover, interviewees expect that eIC could offer the opportunity to enable a personalized approach and to strengthen continuous communication over time. If successfully implemented, eIC may facilitate the engagement of research participants in clinical research. (shrink)

Retail banking is facing many challenges, not least the loss of its customers’ trust and loyalty. The economic crisis is forcing banks to examine their relationships with stakeholders and to offer greater reassurance that their brand promises will be delivered. More than ever, banks need to stand for something positive and valued by stakeholders. One way to achieve this is through paying more attention to brand values. Our article explores how values are adopted by employees within a bank. When employees (...) ‘live’ their brand’s values, their behaviour during customer interactions reflects this, encouraging the strengthening of customer relationships. Specifically, we test the relationship between leadership style, employee commitment, and the adoption of values. Data was collected from a survey of 438 branch employees in a leading Irish retail bank. The study found that a structured and directive leadership style was effective at encouraging the adoption of the bank’s values. Moreover, when employees are committed to the organisation, this has a significant impact on their adoption of values. Thus, this study supports the literature which suggests that leadership and commitment are prerequisites for values adoption. (shrink)

Cet ouvrage est une réédition numérique d’un livre paru au XXe siècle, désormais indisponible dans son format d’origine.

Cet ouvrage est une réédition numérique d’un livre paru au XXe siècle, désormais indisponible dans son format d’origine.

Colombia is the second country with the highest number of internally displaced persons. In the last 10 years, more than 400,000 young people carry, in their life experiences, the title of victims. The psychological and social circumstances that determine the lives of displaced young people in the world are not unknown. Fear, the poor resources for social adaptation available to them, and the possible reproduction of the cycle of violence, represent psychosocial risk factors in the young and displaced population. In (...) this context, the Victims Law in Colombia stipulated various measures of repairment, including Relocation and Return provided the conditions of voluntariness, security, and dignity are present. A hypothesis that well-being will be better in the returnees was set, since they would strengthen the social support networks between neighbors and other victims in their old spaces of life. To test the hypothesis, the scales of Psychological Well-being, Social Well-being, the Satisfaction with Life Scale, and the Psychosocial Trauma Scale were applied to young returnees and relocated in Colombia. The Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis was performed to extract the general measure of well-being and psychosocial trauma followed by the comparison between the groups. Significance, power, and effect size indicators were obtained, and finally, the partial correlation between the groups was made in relation to psychosocial trauma and well-being. Results showed that returnees have greater well-being and clearer indicators, with respect to that of relocated. In addition, the well-being of returnees has fewer trauma factors, who in turn are quasi-moderated by the situation of return or relocation. (shrink)

Asuntos interiores: Palabras y sentidos. ¿Orden libre o estado vaca?--Asuntos comundiales: Falacias frente a hechos. ¿Orden triple u orden libre?

Reprint. Originally published: London: Macmillan and Co., 1921.

The present work attempts to evaluate in what manner the Marian virtues marked out throughout the Middle Ages with respect to women, contribute powerfully to the dignification of women and their redemption from the traditional accusations that they are a perverting influence on humanity.

Notre travail s’inscrit dans les ancrages théoriques de l’ethnométhodologie et de l’analyse conversationnelle. Notre intérêt est avant tout d’analyser les pratiques interactionnelles entre joueurs en situation de jeux vidéo ; et d’autre part, de comparer différents jeux sur le plan de leur organisation interactionnelle ainsi que leur structure séquentielle et multimodale. Á partir des pratiques de joueurs, nous questionnons les problèmes et contraintes rencontrés, d’une part lors des analyses de ces données en situation de jeux vidéo, et d’autre part lors (...) de présentations académiques de nos recherches. Une étude en cours, sur les séquences d’encouragement et d’instruction dans les interactions entre joueurs, nous permet de montrer qu’il est indispensable de contextualiser le type de jeu joué, ses règles, ses options spécifiques parfois, les relations entre les joueurs, les rôles de chacun à l’instant de l’extrait, et aussi les actions en cours dans l’univers du jeu lui-même qui donneraient du sens à l’analyse. Ces contextualisations et prises en compte des ressources multimodales permettent d’expliquer et de décrire plus clairement et objectivement le phénomène linguistique, l’action ou encore la problématique analysée. (shrink)

The benefits of homework on student learning and academic achievement, to a large extent, depend on the degree of student engagement. Motivational engagement (my intention or why I do the homework), cognitive engagement (how I get involved in homework), and behavioral engagement (how much homework I do, how much time I devote to it, how I manage that time) are key aspects that condition the quality of the process of doing homework, learning, and academic achievement. Prior academic achievement is one (...) of the variables that seems to be positively related to student engagement (both due its motivational component and to the training to do homework). The main purpose of this work was to study in detail this relationship in students of the last stage of Primary Education (N = 516). The results showed that (i) as achievement levels rise, the use of a shallow focus to doing homework decreases (and the use of a deep approach increases); (ii) there is also a progressive increase in the amount of homework done and in the management of the time dedicated to homework. On another hand, as in previous research, (iii) no relationship was observed between the levels of prior achievement and the amount of time spent doing homework. (shrink)

Tradicionalmente, el patrimonio se ha relacionado con la educación histórica desde una perspectiva restrictiva que dejaba fuera a buena parte de las manifestaciones patrimoniales, entre ellas, las que se incluyen en el ámbito del patrimonio inmaterial. En este sentido, el presente trabajo se centra en la relación entre patrimonio inmaterial y pensamiento histórico dentro de la formación del profesorado de Educación Primaria. Desde el paradigma interpretativo se han analizado 27 propuestas didácticas de un total de 54 estudiantes del Grado de (...) Educación Primaria, con el propósito de conocer la percepción que poseen del uso del patrimonio inmaterial para trabajar los conceptos asociados al desarrollo del pensamiento histórico. Los datos obtenidos apuntan a la existencia de una alta consideración del patrimonio inmaterial para trabajar el pensamiento histórico en la Educación Primaria. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThe Introduction presents the special issue of Critical Horizons which purpose is to do justice to Young’s conception of political responsibility by gathering essays that present, analyse and comment on it, demonstrating its value for contemporary political philosophy. Several aspects differentiate Young’s view from what could be called a classic conception of responsibility. This special issue gathers four articles that show Young’s innovative conception of responsibility. The first clarifies the logic of Young’s social connection model; the second extends its theoretical (...) framework; the third elaborates on its intuitions; the fourth applies it to a specific context in a way that reveals its interest. (shrink)

Volver nuestra atención hacia la lectura pausada y el estudio detenido de los clásicos resulta siempre enriquecedor, reconfortante, pero a la vez necesario, porque nos ayuda a tomar verdaderamente conciencia de que numerosos conceptos filosóficos y estructuras argumentativas, que son tenidas por modernas, encuentran sin embargo su fuente original en el caudal inagotable del pensamiento griego. Ello pone de mani esto el impetuoso afán humano por desentrañar el origen primero de las cosas, ya existente de forma notable, en los albores (...) del conocimiento, en donde se puede percibir ―como la doctrina ha señalado con acierto― el tránsito del mito al logos, acaecido de manera paralela a la construcción paulatina de la filosofía como saber supremo, que toma su asiento en una racionalización de los mitos, y que tiene su causa postrera en el deslumbramiento del hombre en presencia de las cosas, y en la búsqueda incansable del por qué de los fenómenos. (shrink)

This paper explores the managerial aspects of the relationship with stakeholders, under the assumption that transfer of knowledge is being made from relationship marketing and market orientation perspectives. These marketing tools may prove useful to manage the relationship with other stakeholders, as has been the case with customers. This study focuses on a sample of Spanish companies representing 43% of listed companies with the largest market capitalization. Given that this is the first time that corporate relationship with stakeholders is analyzed (...) in Spain, a qualitative technique (case analysis) was used. The main conclusion of the study is that most of the participant companies have a reactive position vis-à-vis stakeholders management systems. This attitude is reflected in their concern exclusively about ethical indexes managers. (shrink)