This article examines the NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) youth in Romania, employing the secondary analysis of quantitative data and focusing on the socio-economic, cultural and systemic factors contributing to this phenomenon. The analysis highlights how economic instability, poverty and limited access to education exacerbate the challenges faced by this demographic group. Gender disparities, driven by traditional roles and labour market discrimination, further limit opportunities for young women. Additionally, structural deficiencies in the labour market, such as job shortages (...) and mismatches between skills and demand, hinder employment prospects. Cultural expectations and societal norms also play a significant role in influencing youth participation in education and employment. Young citizens of Romania, particularly women and members of the Roma community, face significant barriers to employment, with low wages, poor working conditions and inadequate investment in education and vocational training contributing to high NEET youth rates. Patriarchal norms, especially within the Roma community, further exacerbate cycles of poverty and marginalisation by limiting educational and economic opportunities. (shrink)

The somatic mutation theory (SMT) of cancer has been and remains the prevalent theory attempting to explain how neoplasms arise and progress. This theory proposes that cancer is a clonal, cell‐based disease, and implicitly assumes that quiescence is the default state of cells in multicellular organisms. The SMT has not been rigorously tested, and several lines of evidence raise questions that are not addressed by this theory. Herein, we propose experimental strategies that may validate the SMT. We also call attention (...) to an alternative theory of carcinogenesis, the tissue organization field theory (TOFT), which posits that cancer is a tissue‐based disease and that proliferation is the default state of all cells. Based on epistemological and experimental evidence, we argue that the TOFT compellingly explains carcinogenesis, while placing it within an evolutionarily relevant context.magnified imagemagnified imageAna Soto and Carlos Sonnenschein are at Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA. (shrink)

The contemporary confluence of globalization and ethical pluralism is at the origin of many ethical challenges that confront business nowadays, both in practice and in theory. One of the challenges arising from the development of globalization has to do with respect for cultural diversity. It is often said that the success of economic globalization tends towards social and cultural homogeneity. To the extent that cultural diversity is usually seen as a valuable reality, that global trend seems to contradict our efforts (...) to respect ethical pluralism, both personal and cultural, within society. In this paper I argue that (a) ethical minimalism, despite its emphasis on tolerance and justice, does not take pluralism seriously into account in present-day society, and (b) ethical minimalism is not suited to balancing the homogenizing trend of globalization. Certainly ethical norms are necessary, but by no means are they sufficient in themselves to encourage either justice or tolerance; nor are they sufficient to inspire and encourage good practices and sound regulations. Instead, virtue-based ethics has the capacity of inspiring and encouraging good practices. Particularly, virtue-based ethics is able to inspire a serious dialogue about ethical and legal issues both in the public arena and within organizations. (shrink)

There are competing accounts of the birth of bioethics. Despite the differences among them, these accounts share the claim that bioethics was not born in a single disciplinary home or in a single social space, but in numerous, including hospitals, doctors' offices, research laboratories, courtrooms, medical schools, churches and synagogues, and philosophy classrooms. This essay considers the interdisciplinarity of bioethics and the contribution of new disciplines to bioethics. It also explores the implications of interdisciplinarity for bioethics education. As bioethics develops, (...) it will be helpful to identify essential elements in the education of bioethicists and to distinguish between members of other disciplines who make important contributions to bioethics and bioethicists. (shrink)

The somatic mutation theory has been the prevailing paradigm in cancer research for the last 50 years. Its premises are: (1) cancer is derived from a single somatic cell that has accumulated multiple DNA mutations, (2) the default state of cell proliferation in metazoa is quiescence, and (3) cancer is a disease of cell proliferation caused by mutations in genes that control proliferation and the cell cycle. From this compelling simplicity, an increasingly complicated picture has emerged as more than 100 (...) oncogenes and 30 tumor suppressor genes have been identified. To accommodate this complexity, additional ad hoc explanations have been postulated. After a critical review of the data gathered from this perspective, an alternative research program has been proposed. It is based on the tissue organization field theory, the premises of which are that carcinogenesis represents a problem of tissue organization, comparable to organogenesis, and that proliferation is the default state of all cells. The merits of these competing theories are evaluated herein. BioEssays 26:1097–1107, 2004. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Nursing Sciences are at a moment of paradigmatic transition. The aim of this paper is to reflect on the new epistemological paradigms of nursing science from a critical approach. In this paper, we identified and analysed some new research lines and trends which anticipate the reorganization of nursing sciences and the paradigms emerging from nursing care: biotechnology‐centred knowledge; the interface between nursing knowledge and new information technologies; body care centred knowledge; the human body as a cyborg body; and the rediscovery (...) of an aesthetic knowledge in nursing care. (shrink)

Vardanyan’s Theorems [36, 37] state that $\mathsf {QPL}(\mathsf {PA})$ —the quantified provability logic of Peano Arithmetic—is $\Pi ^0_2$ complete, and in particular that this already holds when the language is restricted to a single unary predicate. Moreover, Visser and de Jonge [38] generalized this result to conclude that it is impossible to computably axiomatize the quantified provability logic of a wide class of theories. However, the proof of this fact cannot be performed in a strictly positive signature. The system $\mathsf (...) {QRC_1}$ was previously introduced by the authors [1] as a candidate first-order provability logic. Here we generalize the previously available Kripke soundness and completeness proofs, obtaining constant domain completeness. Then we show that $\mathsf {QRC_1}$ is indeed complete with respect to arithmetical semantics. This is achieved via a Solovay-type construction applied to constant domain Kripke models. As corollaries, we see that $\mathsf {QRC_1}$ is the strictly positive fragment of $\mathsf {QGL}$ and a fragment of $\mathsf {QPL}(\mathsf {PA})$. (shrink)

The term ‘culture wars’ has been used to describe deep, apparently intractable, disagreements between groups for many years. In contemporary discourse, it refers to disputes regarding significant moral matters carried out in the public square and for which there appears to be no way to achieve consensus or compromise. One set of battle lines is drawn between those who hold traditional Christian commitments and those who do not. Christian bioethics is nested in a set of moral and metaphysical understandings that (...) collide with those of the dominant secular culture. The result is a gulf between a moral life and an approach to bioethics framed in the face of a transcendent God and a final judgment versus a moral life and an approach to bioethics framed as if the world were without ultimate meaning and as if death were the end of personal existence. These approaches are separated by a moral and metaphysical gulf that sustains incompatible life worlds and incompatible understandings of bioethics. Attempts to bridge the gulf with secular reason are ineffective because there is no shared conception of reason or standard of evidence. Efforts to use the state to enforce a particular set of metaphysical and moral commitments, whether secular or religious, lead to public disputes with a war-like character. (shrink)

Mary Livermore'sMy Story of the Waris a valuable piece of travel writing written from the point of view of a nurse who documented her unexpected personal and professional journey to administer the Sanitary Commission of the United States Union Army and provide nursing care during the American Civil War. Although Livermore's pre‐war background had not been solely limited to the domestic sphere, her wartime experience involved a public negotiation between the traditional domestic realm assigned to women and new nursing professional (...) functions that emerged during the war. In a context in which the general access of women to public writing was rather limited and in which nursing was not a formally regulated professional activity, Livermore's triumphal narrative reflects the increasing connection between progressively professional nursing functions that emerged in the context of war and a new women's rights leadership forged during her autobiographical journey. (shrink)

For the last 50 years the dominant stance in experimental biology has been reductionism in general, and genetic reductionism in particular. Philosophers were the first to realize that the belief that the Mendelian genes were reduced to DNA molecules was questionable. Soon, experimental data confirmed these misgivings. The optimism of molecular biologists, fueled by early success in tackling relatively simple problems has now been tempered by the difficulties encountered when applying the same simple ideas to complex problems. We analyze three (...) examples taken from experimental data that illustrate the shortcomings of this sort of reductionism. In the first, alterations in the expression of a large number of genes coexist with normal phenotypes at supra-cellular levels of organization; in the second, the supposed intrinsic specificity of hormonal signals is negated; in the third, the notion that cancer is a cellular problem caused by mutated genes is challenged by data gathered both from the reductionist viewpoint and the alternative view proposing that carcinogenesis is development gone awry. As an alternative to reductionism, we propose that the organicist view is a good starting point from which to explore these phenomena. However, new theoretical concepts are needed to grapple with the apparent circular causality of complex biological phenomena. (shrink)

El discurso primordialista sobre el origen de las identidades sociales etno-nacionales sigue latiendo en algunos enfoques históricos, antropológicos, políticos y jurídicos de las sociedades modernas, camuflado en otras formas iusnaturalistas y biologicistas de concebir los atributos culturales, étnicos, religiosos, conductuales, e incluso económicos de los pueblos. Este artículo pretende presentar, por el contrario, la construcción de las identidades nacionales desde el punto de vista modernista y analizar su papel como discurso que pretende reforzar estructuras de poder, producidas porque tienen utilidad (...) estratégica para el logro de bienes materiales o políticos, formalmente en nombre del grupo, pero de hecho solamente con objeto de dar ventaja a los líderes o las élites. Cuando llevan aparejado un carácter político, las identidades nacionales, culturales y étnicas son susceptibles de provocar conflictos violentos, la naturalización de la violencia y la deshumanización de otros grupos tienen lugar a menudo cuando de conflictos etno-nacionalistas se trata. (shrink)

Sister chromatid cohesion mediated by the ring‐shaped cohesin complex is essential for faithful chromosome segregation. A tight spatial and temporal control of cohesin release is observed in mitosis and meiosis, and a family of proteins known as shugoshins play a major role in this process. Shugoshin (Sgo) protects centromeric cohesin from dissociation in early mitosis and from cleavage by separase in meiosis I. Three exciting new reports indicate that this is accomplished by recruiting the serine/threonine protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) to (...) centromeres.(1–3) The proposed targets of PP2A activity include cohesin and Sgo, both of which would otherwise dissociate from chromosomes upon phosphorylation by Polo kinase. Thus, a balance of kinase and phosphatase activities seems to be the key to the conserved mechanism that regulates the stepwise release of cohesin from mitotic and meiotic chromosomes. Additional evidence, however, suggests that this is only part of the story, and that Sgo has also a role independent of PP2A. BioEssays 28: 775–779, 2006. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

The subject of this paper is the debate between externalism and internalism about mental content presented by Tim Crane in Chapter 4 of his book Elements of Mind. Crane’s sympathies in this debate are with internalism. The paper attempts to show that Crane’s argumentation is not refuting the Twin Earth argument and externalism, and that in its basis it does not differ much from externalism itself Crane’s version of the argument for externalism features two key premises: (1) The content of (...) a thought determines what the thought is about/what it refers to (the Content Determines Reference Principle); and (2) Twins are referring to different things when they use the word “water”. From these, in a few simple steps, Crane’s externalist infers: Therefore, their thoughts are not “in their heads”. Crane suggests denying the Content Determines Reference Principle in the light of indexical thoughts. In the first stage, Crane reduces “content” to “some aspect of content”, although he needs all aspects of content to secure identity of thoughts. However, his view then comes close to something acceptable to externalists. In the second stage, Crane makes content relative to context, but then reference still determines content. (shrink)

En el presente artículo se pretende hacer un recorrido por aquellas herramientas metodológicas utilizadas por Foucault para el estudio de la institución educativa disciplinaria y su posible aplicación al nuevo panorama educativo en las sociedades de control. Foucault analiza los discursos y prácticas como formas de poder en la sociedad disciplinaria, los cuales configuran una individualidad determinada: el cuerpo dócil. Tras la Segunda Guerra Mundial, nuevas modalidades de poder dan lugar a la sociedad de control, conformando una individualidad autogobernada. En (...) la educación secundaria actual aparecen tanto formas del régimen disciplinario como del régimen de control. (shrink)

La figura de Medea, mujer y extranjera, es el hilo conductor que trata de ofrecer un análisis sobre la pasión de la ira desde la tradición clásica, que la rechaza como pasión destructiva, hasta la apropiación realizada por el feminismo negro norteamericano de Lorde. Ambas iras tendrán algo en común: Audre Lorde hablará de la rabia por la misoginia, homofobia y racismo sufrido y en Medea habrá ira por la misoginia y xenofobia de la época. Para ello en primer lugar (...) el artículo analiza el vocabulario relacionado con la cólera y la ira tanto en griego y en latín. A partir de ahí desarrollan dos hilos. En el primero se ofrece la lectura tradicional del mito de la Medea infanticida que es la que se encuentra en la tragedia de Séneca y que se relacionada con su tratado filosófico _Sobre la ira_. De ese modo se convierte a Medea en _exemplum e contrario_ y contraimagen del sabio estoico. En el segundo se recupera la otra tradición del mito según la cual Medea no fue la que mató a sus hijos sino los corintios. Este segundo hilo del enfoque clásico de la ira para mostrar su validez como herramienta de cambio. (shrink)

This book focuses on the role of philosophy across disciples. It gives several examples of how philosophical theories or particular concepts or lines of arguments, can be used in other (non-philosophical) disciplines, such as politics, business, psychology, art, and film studies.

The emergence and development of 'national sciences' in Latin American countries were not, until very recently, part of the agenda of historians of science because the 'traditional' history of sciences was not interested in the scientific activity of peripheral areas. The history of science is a recent discipline in Mexican historiographic studies. The methodological interest in the history of science, the creation of schools and institutes that deal with it, the establishment of particular chairs, the organization of national societies, and (...) the publication of books and periodicals are all very recent. It is important to carry out studies in the history of science that examine the development of Mexican science introducing the 'local' context, and study how this development has influenced the formation of scientific societies and the development of scientific disciplines in the country. We want to explore the introduction of genetics in Mexico as applied to agriculture between 1930 and 1960. This matter has not been investigated in Mexico and therefore this work would represent one of the first studies of this subject and one of the first studies in the general field of Mexican scientific history. (shrink)

Reflexión sobre el desafío al que nos enfrentamos los docentes si deseamos integrar la inteligencia artificial (IA) en la educación, sin perder de vista los valores humanos y la esencia de la enseñanza. La importancia de encontrar un equilibrio entre la tradición y la innovación, con el objetivo de apoyarnos en la tecnología como una herramienta para enriquecer la interacción humana en el aula. La clave está en aprovechar el potencial de la IA para reforzar la experiencia educativa, sin perder (...) de vista el valor insustituible del vínculo humano en el proceso de aprendizaje. (shrink)

In this paper, the different theories about science and technology relationships are analyzed. All of them have some virtues, but also one main defect: these theories do not take into account other well-founded possible relationships. The origin of this problem is the narrow view about science and technology. In this paper another characterization about technology based on Ronald Giere’s perspective is suggested. In the light of this new description, six different relationships between science and technology arise. Some of these relations (...) had been explained in the before analyzed theories, but others emerge from the new portrayal. (shrink)

O artigo examina a descriçáo e a crítica nietzscheanas do método dialético socrático, bem como o método de investigaçáo nietzscheano – a genealogia. Nietzsche considera o ser humano um criador de conceitos e de métodos de investigaçáo. Os métodos de investigaçáo, por sua vez, sáo associados a tipos humanos e a suas formas de relacionamento com a realidade efetiva. A genealogia analisa a vontade de potência que produz os conceitos e a considera como sintoma de um tipo humano. Nietzsche critica (...) o método dialético socrático, principalmente, por ser criaçáo de um tipo humano decadente. (shrink)

Partiendo de un pasaje de una obra de Shakespeare, se revisará el papel de la fidelidad en la configuración de la identidad personal. el artículo se centra en dos tendencias principales en la concepción de la misma, enraizadas en la comprensión narrativa del yo: la fidelidad como permanencia frente al cambio y la fidelidad como apertura y avance hacia aquello que hace ser, que da unidad y sentido. Pero el yo se descubre en ambos casos dividido, necesitado de narrar para (...) ser, luchando con el tiempo, ya se presente como amenaza o como obstáculo para ser uno y distinto. la alternativa que aquí se propone consiste en una fidelidad como retorno a lo esencial, donde el ser y la unidad del yo permanecen, en tanto que éste se abre a la novedad de aquéllo fundamental. dicha apertura consiste básicamente en un diálogo, en el cual el yo recibe y entrega lo propio, poniendo en juego su ser en el espacio dramático, actualizando así cada vez el yo, su unidad y su sentido. (shrink)

Este artículo refiere a una investigación etnográfica, iniciada en 2009, con el objetivo de estudiar las experiencias formativas de las jóvenes generaciones rurales en el sudoeste de Misiones, Argentina. Recuperando algunas discusiones conceptuales acerca del sentido común que se desarrollaron en las ciencias sociales, describiré cómo los niños y jóvenes articulan conocimientos que provienen de su participación en actividades prediales con su experiencia escolar, donde la explicitación verbal ocupa un lugar central –aunque diferenciado– en ambos contextos. Propondré el término de (...) traducciones fundadas en habilidades para referirme a estos procesos de articulación verbal de disposiciones y redescubrimiento guiado, considerando las características que asumen en la conformación de comunidades de práctica concretas en contextos de desigualdad social. (shrink)

As its title is meant to suggest, this paper is a reply to Sir Tim Lankester’s article “International Aid: Experience, Prospects and the Moral Case”, published in the World Economics last year 1 . Therefore, I would like to begin by expressing my gratitude for the author’s responsiveness to my interest and queries in the area of development economics. The main point of Sir Lankester’s article was, I believe, to strengthen the case for international aid by showing first, that it (...) was not just a theoretical matter 2 and second, that its efficiency was not a self-evident fait accompli, but a still-to-achieve objective, entirely contingent upon human and institutional factors such as the will, interests, and past experience of donors, as well as the system of governance and existing policies from the recipient countries. Moreover, the human factor is actually two-fold, in the sense that one can focus either on the external part engaged in the aid mission – the donor –, or on the internal one – the recipient. Sir Tim Lankester looks into what motivates the former, whereas I intend to unpack the life-experience of the latter, for I strongly believe that what ultimately decides the success or failure of development projects has more to do with understanding their life situation, than with the actual quantum of aid. Although the two cases grounded on the above-mentioned claims may seem completely separated in Tim Lankester’s article for he allocates distinct sections to them, I have reasons to believe that they are not only inter-connected, but also deeply inter-dependent, which is crucial for the kind of existentialist scenario that I intend to outline here. In order to prove this, I am going to combine two sets of argumentative tools: one will be logical, the other – empirical. The former will help us address the issues at stake in Tim Lankester’s moral case, and find ways of strengthening it; the latter will help reminding the real goal of this attempt – which is to improve the prospects of aid missions in real-life scenarios, rather than in theory. The first, rather theoretical section will consist of an extended analysis of the moral case that Sir Lankester started to build. The focus will be not only on the supposedly fruitful aspects of social justice theories, but also on their potential risks; both heroes and villains will emerge from the analysis, and new leads will be discovered. The main criterion for testing whatever findings will remain the pragmatic one: questioning their implications on the life-experiences of the poor. The other approach that I have mentioned will consist of providing a description of life in a particular community, which I have known and learnt from. In this case, the ‘empirical’ obviously means more than just the use of examples – which can be invented, or refined: it actually involves relying on a set of personal experiences and convictions, thereby testifying in – rather than just advocating – the case for aid and development projects, under discussion here. Again, the purpose will be not so much to prove that my claim has the sort of objective validity that a theoretician would normally seek to achieve, as to enforce it by whatever relevant testimonies – be them contextual, perhaps even biased; in this case, the ‘biased’ aspect consists of using an example derived from lifeexperiences in a particular developing country: my own. And it is exactly what I regard as the strength of it; indeed, I would not be writing this, had I not learnt that lesson. (shrink)