Background: Ethical and legal issues are increasingly being reported by health caregivers; however, little is known about the nature of these issues in geriatric care. These issues can improve work and care conditions in healthcare, and consequently, the health and welfare of older people. Aim: This literature review aims to identify research focusing on ethical and legal issues in geriatric care, in order to give nurses and other health care workers an overview of existing grievances and possible solutions to take (...) care of old patients in a both ethical and legally correct way. Methods: Using a systematic approach based on Aveyard, a search of the PubMed, CINAHL, and Ethicshare databases was conducted to find out the articles published on ethical and legal issues in geriatric care. Ethical considerations: The approval for the study was obtained from UMIT-The Health and Life Sciences University, Austria. Results: Only 50 articles were included for systematic analysis reporting ethical and legal issues in the geriatric care. The results presented in this article showed that the main ethical issues were related to the older people’s autonomy, respect for their needs, wishes and values, and respect for their decision-making. The main legal issues were related to patients’ rights, advance directives, elderly rights, treatment nutrition dilemma, and autonomy. Conclusion: Further education for professional caregivers, elderly people, and their families is needed on following topics: care planning, directive and living wills, and caregiver-family member relationships to guide and support the elderly people within their decision-making processes and during the end-of-life care. (shrink)

Central and East Europeans have a great deal in common, both historically and culturally, with West Europeans and North Americans, but tend to be more interdependent. Interdependence has been shown to be linked to holistic cognition. East Asians are more interdependent than Americans and are more holistic. If interdependence causes holism, we would expect Central and East Europeans to be more holistic than West Europeans and North Americans. In two studies we found evidence that Central and East Europeans are indeed (...) more holistic than Westerners on three tasks, one of which examined categorization and two of which measured patterns of visual attention. These studies support the argument that cross-cultural differences in cognition are due to society level differences in independence/interdependence. (shrink)

Reduced self-awareness is a well-known phenomenon investigated in patients with vascular disease; however, its impact on neuropsychological functions remains to be clarified. Importantly, selective vascular lesions provide an opportunity to investigate the key neuropsychological features of reduced self-awareness in neurocognitive disorders. Because of its rarity, we present an unusual case of a woman affected by a combined polar and paramedian bilateral thalamic infarction. The patient underwent an extensive neuropsychological evaluation to assess cognitive, behavioral, and functional domains, with a focus on (...) executive functions. She was assessed clinically in the acute phase and after 6 months from the stroke, both clinically and by magnetic resonance imaging. The patient developed a cognitive impairment, characterised by prevalent executive dysfunction associated with reduced self-awareness and mood changes, in terms of apathy and depression. Such condition persisted after 6 months. In May 2020, the patient underwent the serology test in chemiluminescence to detect IgG antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. The result of the quantitative test highlighted a high probability of previous contact with the virus. We suggest that reduced self-awareness related to executive dysfunction and behavioral changes may be due to combined polar and paramedian bilateral thalamic lesion. Metacognitive–executive dysfunction affecting the instrumental abilities of everyday life might make people less able to take appropriate precautions, facilitating the risk of SARS-CoV-2 contagion. (shrink)

The main aim of the present research is to analyze the predictive value of individual characteristics such as online self-efficacy, adaptability to uncertainty, and sources of stress during online learning on learning engagement. We also aimed to highlight if these relationships could be mediated by the online self-regulated learning strategies, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The participants were 529 university students and the design was cross-sectional. The results showed significant associations of the sources of stress in online learning with self-efficacy, leaning (...) engagement and self-regulated learning strategies. Self-regulated strategies—task strategies and goal setting represent mediators of stressors perceived by the students under the conditions of the sudden shift to online activity and online learning engagement. The most relevant self-regulation strategies seemed to be goal setting and task strategies, which confirm the need for a clear structure of learning in the context of online activities. The implications of this study reside in the increased awareness regarding how learning engagement in online learning can be predicted by individual characteristics. (shrink)

Background: Depressive disorder is one of the main health problems worldwide. Many risk factors have been associated with this pathology. However, while the association between risks factors and adult depression is well established, the mechanisms behind its impact remains poorly understood. A possible, yet untested explanation is the mediating impact of levels of personality functioning, i.e., impairments with regard to self and interpersonal.Method: Around 162 patients were assessed at the beginning of their therapy, with regard to risk factors, such as (...) sociodemographic, physical, hereditary, and adverse childhood experiences. Depressive symptoms and personality functioning were also measured. Associations between the related variables as well as other possible covariates were examined by means of zero-order correlations and bootstrapping-based mediation analysis.Results: Of all the risk factors taken into account, level of education and physical illness were associated with depression. On the other hand, the most significant predictor of depressive symptomatology was ACE, and this relationship was mediated by personality functioning. This indicates that patients presenting adverse childhood experiences are more likely to develop deficiencies in personality functioning, which in turn increases their likelihood of developing depressive symptomatology.Conclusion: These results reaffirm the importance of incorporating risk and vulnerability factors such as personality functioning in understanding depression. (shrink)

Heredity and reproduction have always been matters of concern. Eugenics is a story that began well before the Holocaust, but the Holocaust completely changed the way eugenics was perceived at that time. What began with Galton as a scientific movement aimed at the improvement of the human race based on the theories and principles of heredity and statistics became by the beginning of the 20th century an international movement that sought to engineer human supremacy. Eugenic ideas, however, trace back to (...) ancient Greek aristocratic ideas exemplified in Plato’s Republic, which played an important role in shaping modern eugenic social practices and government policies. Both positive and negative eugenics focused on the encouragement of healthy and discouragement of unhealthy reproduction. All these practices were often based on existing prejudices about race and disability. In this article, we will focus on the rise of eugenics, starting with the publication of Origin of Species to the Holocaust. This examination will be multidisciplinary, utilizing genetics, legal history and bioethical aspects. Through this examination, we will discuss how provisional understandings of genetics influenced eugenics-based legislation. We will also discuss the rise of biopolitics, the change of medical ethos and stance towards negative eugenics policies, and the possible power of bioethical principles to prevent such phenomena. (shrink)

We propose to present the clinical case of a woman diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. The descriptive and comprehensive analysis of his biography and the psychotherapeutic relationship is carried out against the background of existential psychoanalysis and the progressive-regressive method formulated by Jean-Paul Sartre. The need for the psychotherapist to have a reflective and critical awareness of how the relationship with the client is established is the fundamental point, considering that it is a dialectical relationship and being under the same (...) aegis of the ambivalence reported by the philosopher to explain how human reality is, in phenomenological-hermeneutic terms, constructed. The detailing of the case promotes reflections, understanding, in practice, the existential and phenomenological project of being. Finally, the study leads us to reflect that the procedures with these psychopathological cases require much more than the professional role of a psychotherapist ordinarily fulfills, because it is only when one manages to be aware of their experience in the relationship, that one can hermeneutically situate how the client apprehends herself originally and existentially. (shrink)

El presente artículo aborda la estrategia escritural de Daniela Catrileo. Se propone revisar la elaboración del concepto de piñen examinando la relación entre lenguaje y colonialidad, para, de ese modo, subrayar el potencial político y reivindicativo que comporta en la novela del mismo nombre, Piñen (2019). Dicha hipótesis articulará el ejercicio de lectura aquí propuesto, atendiendo principalmente las estrategias narrativas empleadas –servirse de un polilingüismo que rompe estructuras gramaticales– para descentrar el lenguaje de su determinismo colonial. Así, interpretamos dicha (...) estrategia escritural en consonancia con las potencias micropolíticas y descolonizadoras del arte descritas por Suely Rolnik y, en consecuencia, apostando por la posibilidad de diagramar un devenir minoritario que dispute los imaginarios del inconsciente colonial-capital. (shrink)

Resumen: Dada la multiplicidad de planos que acompañan a las observaciones de la actual pandemia, importa identificar aquellas que alcanzan una mayor resonancia. Así, observamos cómo los ciudadanos y los agentes de decisión han incrementado sus demandas de informaciones validadas por medio de la aplicación de la racionalidad, los métodos y los procedimientos de la ciencia de manera exponencial. En este trabajo desarrollamos en forma sintética un conjunto seleccionado de lineamientos sobre cómo se aborda la actual pandemia desde las ciencias (...) sociales sistémicas, para luego exponer algunas de sus propuestas respecto a las condiciones, a nivel organizacional, las cuales podrían permitir alcanzar los niveles de diálogo y cooperación requeridos para enfrentar la pandemia actual.: Given the multiplicity of perspectives that accompany the observation of the current pandemic, becomes relevant to identify those that achieve the greatest resonance. Thus, it is observed how citizens and decision makers have increased their demands for valid information by applying rationality, methods, and procedures of science in an exponential manner. In this paper we develop a synthetic set of selected guidelines on how the current pandemic is approached from systemic social sciences, and then present some of their proposals regarding the conditions, at the organizational level, which could enable the achievement of the levels of dialogue and cooperation required to address the current pandemic. (shrink)

We provide results allowing to state, by the simple inspection of suitable classes of posets , that the corresponding intermediate propositional logics are maximal among the ones which satisfy the disjunction property. Starting from these results, we directly exhibit, without using the axiom of choice, the Kripke frames semantics of 2No maximal intermediate propositional logics with the disjunction property. This improves previous evaluations, giving rise to the same conclusion but made with an essential use of the axiom of choice, of (...) the cardinality of the set of the maximal intermediate propositional logics with the disjunction property. (shrink)

Comparative study of the knowledge of IVF in medical students of universities with different ethical and humanistic valuesEstudo comparativo do conhecimento das técnicas de reprodução assistida em estudantes de Medicina de universidades com diferentes ideários éticos e humanísticosIn vitro fertilization continues to be presented as a relatively simple solution to produce a pregnancy without exposing the medical and ethical problems that this represents. This project consisted of conducting a survey to medical students from three medical schools in Mexico City with (...) different ethical and humanistic ideas with the aim of evaluating knowledge about IVF techniques and their ethical implications. The survey was applied to 404 medical students. Students in schools with personalistic ethics had a greater recognition of the bioethical principles involved in the use of these techniques. Knowledge of the technique and ethical issues involved in assisted reproduction could improve the sensitivity of medical students to ethical dilemmas that arise in their professional practice.Para citar este artículo / To reference this article / Para citar este artigoCantú-Quintanilla G, Vidal-Sentíes C, Marcó-Bach FJ, Camargo-Prieto F, Aguiñaga-Chiñas N, Contreras-Estrada D. Estudio comparativo del conocimiento de las técnicas de reproducción asistida en estudiantes de medicina de universidades con diferentes idearios éticos y humanísticos. Pers Bioet. 2020;24:166-176. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5294/pebi.2020.24.2.4Recibido: 04/09/2019Aceptado: 05/08/2020Publicado: 27/11/2020. (shrink)

For families all over the world, going through a pandemic has presented a number of challenges. In particular, social distancing measures involving the closure of schools and day care centers, as well as increasing work hours at home, made parents face very demanding situations. However, we know little about whether parents’ burnout levels are influenced by the age of their children. This study sought to determine whether levels of parental burnout are higher in families with at least one child under (...) the age of four than in families with older children. The second goal was to explore whether having children under 4 years of age moderates the relationship between parental cooperation and PB. A cross-sectional study was conducted with a sample of 651 participants since May 18th until August 27th, 2020. The main results showed that child age is a predictor of PB. Besides, having a child aged 0–4 years old moderates the relationship between parental cooperation and PB. Finally, it was found that in cases where there was at least one child under 4 years of age in the family, with one of the partners who worked remotely, the respondent’s PB rose by 7.9 points. The implications of these results with respect to the consideration of children’s ages in the different parental scenarios were discussed. (shrink)

Jewish law has a history stretching from the early period to the modern State of Israel, encompassing the Talmud, Geonic and later codifications, the Spanish Golden Age, medieval and modern responsa, the Holocaust and modern reforms. Fifteen distinct periods are separately studied in this volume, each one by a leading specialist, and the emphasis throughout is on the development of the institutions and sources of the law.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the association between attachment dimensions and neural correlates in response to the Rorschach inkblots. Twenty-seven healthy volunteers were recruited for the electroencephalographic registration during a visual presentation of the Rorschach inkblots and polygonal shapes. The Attachment Style Questionnaire was administered to participants. Correlations between the ASQ scores and standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography intensities were performed. The Rorschach inkblots elicited several projective responses greater than the polygonal shapes. Only during the Rorschach (...) inkblots presentation, discomfort with closeness and relationships as secondary subscales were negatively correlated with the activation of right hippocampus, parahippocampus, amygdala, and insula; need for approval subscale was negatively correlated with the activation of orbital and prefrontal cortex and left hippocampus. Moreover, the correlations between attachment dimensions and neural activation during the Rorschach inkblots were significantly higher compared to the same correlations in response to polygonal shapes. These findings suggest that attachment style can modulate brain activation during the projective activity of the Rorschach inkblots. (shrink)

En este trabajo se indaga en el comportamiento de la atenuación en los verbos que expresan duda, presentes en el corpus AMERESCO de conversaciones coloquiales de Santiago de Chile. Se describen las funciones de la atenuación de estos verbos de acuerdo con (1) el tipo de acto de habla, (2) la actividad de imagen y (3) algunas características sintáctico-discursivas. Los principales hallazgos demuestran que la atenuación se manifiesta a través de verbos doxásticos (_creer_, _parecer_, _cachar_, etc.), verbos modales (_poder_, _deber_) (...) y el verbo “saber” con polaridad negativa (“_no sé_”). Esta surge cuando se presenta lo dicho como una duda, bien para suavizar una opinión contraria o crítica, en cuyo caso su significado es de opinión, bien para informar sobre un estado de cosas, cuando su significado es epistémico. En el reconocimiento de su carácter atenuante, resultan clave el tipo de acto de habla en el que ocurren, el rol proyectado por el hablante en la conversación, la gestión de las imágenes y sus características sintáctico-discursivas, elementos que determinan si estas construcciones verbales expresan mayor o menor atenuación. (shrink)

IntroductionThe assessments of the motor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease are usually limited to clinical rating scales, and it depends on the clinician’s experience. This study aims to propose a machine learning technique algorithm using the variables from upper and lower limbs, to classify people with PD from healthy people, using data from a portable low-cost device. And can be used to support the diagnosis and follow-up of patients in developing countries and remote areas.MethodsWe used Kinect®eMotion system to capture the spatiotemporal (...) gait data from 30 patients with PD and 30 healthy age-matched controls in three walking trials. First, a correlation matrix was made using the variables of upper and lower limbs. After this, we applied a backward feature selection model using R and Python to determine the most relevant variables. Three further analyses were done using variables selected from backward feature selection model, movement disorders specialist, and all the variables from the dataset. We ran seven machine learning models for each model. Dataset was divided 80% for algorithm training and 20% for evaluation. Finally, a causal inference model using the DoWhy library was performed on Dataset B due to its accuracy and simplicity.ResultsThe Random Forest model is the most accurate for all three variable Datasets followed by the support vector machine. The CIM shows a relation between leg variables and the arms swing asymmetry and a proportional relationship between ASA and the diagnosis of PD with a robust estimator.ConclusionsMachine learning techniques based on objective measures using portable low-cost devices are useful and accurate to classify patients with Parkinson’s disease. This method can be used to evaluate patients remotely and help clinicians make decisions regarding follow-up and treatment. (shrink)

Background: As a non–European Union member state, Albania is increasingly orienting itself on Western models regarding human rights, patient rights, and legal regulations for healthcare. Due to its limited fiscal and legal power, enforcing legal and ethical regulations poses a major problem. Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate nurse’s knowledge and experiences regarding ethical and legal issues in Albanian elder care in state-funded and privately run institutions. Research design: The study was conducted using an inductive and qualitative (...) design, utilizing a focused ethnographic approach, based on Roper and Shapira’s framework. Method: Data were collected between June 2017 and September 2018 using participant observation, field notes, and semi-structured interviews with 15 nurses in seven different elder care institutions. In total, 100 h of observation and 15 interviews were performed. Data analysis was based on Mayring’s qualitative content analysis. Ethical consideration: The approval for the study was obtained from UMIT—The Health and Life Sciences University, Austria. Findings: The findings of the study fell into the following main categories: “Everyday care issues,” “End-of-life issues,” “Legal issues,” and “Ethical-legal education and conflicts.” Discussion: The participants reported many ethical and legal issues when describing their everyday challenges and displayed a strong lack of ethical and legal education. Despite a wide spectrum in the quality of care between private and state-funded nursing homes, older people mostly do not know their own diagnosis. Conclusion: This study indicates that further ethical and legal education is needed. Furthermore, nurses need to be better prepared for ethical conflicts with families, as strengthening patient rights could come into conflict with traditional rights of the Albanian family. (shrink)

El artículo analiza el caso de científicas negras en universidades colombianas, desde dos cuestiones fundamentales: El lugar que ocupan dichas mujeres dentro del campo científico, tomando en cuenta tanto los sistemas de medición oficiales como las asignaciones que ellas mismas, de modo reflexivo, otorgan a su papel dentro del sistema. Y segundo, analiza cómo a partir de prácticas comunicativas concretas, que asumimos como constitutivas del quehacer científico, estas mujeres se contactan con aquellos que están fuera del campo científico y se (...) constituyen como públicos no expertos. Nuestro análisis parte de la idea de que estas prácticas comunicativas construyen tecnologías del contacto, que pueden comprenderse desde un ethos del cuidado que aboga por un sentido de reparación y repolitización de la producción de conocimiento científico. (shrink)

It is thought that just as hunger itself, the expectancy to eat impacts attention and cognitive control toward food stimuli, but this theory has not been extensively explored at a behavioral level. In order to study the effect of expectancy to eat on attentional and cognitive control mechanisms, 63 healthy fasting participants were presented with an affective priming spatial compatibility Simon task that included both food and object distracters. The participants were randomly assigned to two groups: an “immediate expectancy” group (...) made up of participants who expected to eat immediately after the task and a “delayed expectancy” cohort made up of individuals who expected to eat a few hours later. Slower reaction times toward the food and non-food distracters and a more pronounced effect on the RTs in the incompatible condition [i.e., the Simon effect ] were noted in both groups. The effect of the food and non-food distracters on the RTs was more pronounced in the immediate with respect to the delayed expectancy group. The magnitude of the SE for the food and the non-food distracters was also greater in the immediate with respect to the delayed expectancy group. These results seem to indicate that when the expectancy to eat is short, the RTs are delayed, and the SE is more pronounced when food and non-food distracters are presented. Instead, when the expectancy to eat is more distant, the distracters have less of an effect on the RTs and the correspondence effect is smaller. Our results suggest that the expectancy to eat can modulate both attention orienting and cognitive control mechanisms in healthy fasting individuals when distracting details are competing with information processing during goal directed behavior. (shrink)