Este artículo tiene como objetivo exponer las ideas de algunos filósofos sobre la defensa y protección de los animales desde una postura ética que compagina con la práctica del veganismo, para mostrar que ésta debe ser reconocida en las sociedades contemporáneas desde los puntos de vista multicultural y cosmopolita.

In the United States most people have adopted a worldview based on the core tenets of liberal democracy, capitalism, science, religion and the social sciences. Scientific advances, though, have persuaded many individuals to revise this traditional view and adopt an alternative belief system. Thus some people embrace social democracy, regulated capitalism or a more extreme political philosophy. Others adopt non-theistic religions or break their affiliation with any religion. The latter include naturalists who reject supernatural explanations and take science as the (...) best description of reality. Many people reject the blank slate doctrine and hold that human behaviour results from the interaction of the environment with innate biological factors. (shrink)

Naturalism is a worldview that rejects supernatural events and affirms that a complete account of reality can be given by entities and processes that occur in the natural world. It has a political, moral and spiritual dimension compatible with the Humanist Manifesto. In this paper, I present a description of naturalism based on recent developments in physics and biology. In my view, naturalism is based on scientific realism and accepts indeterminism as postulated by quantum mechanics. Because I cannot prove that (...) only physical entities populate the world, I embrace methodological rather than ontological naturalism. I believe that complex systems exhibit behaviors such as emergence and chaos that can only be explained by non-reductive physicalism. We do not know the origin of life or the universe but there are many plausible theories under investigation. The theory of evolution is the best explanation we have for the amazing variety and complexity in the living world. It is unclear how brain events cause mind events; I suspect that mind is an emergent property of neural circuits in the brain. Religious beliefs have a socialevolutionary origin; I am an agnostic who rejects positive atheism and agrees that science may be compatible with Deism, pantheism and some liberal religions. (shrink)

In this study, a hybrid model based on intelligent techniques is developed to predict the active power generated in a bioclimatic house by a low power wind turbine. Contrary to other researches that predict the generated power taking into account the speed and the direction of the wind, the model developed in this paper only uses the speed of the wind, measured mainly in a weather station from the government meteorological agency (MeteoGalicia). The wind speed is measured at different heights, (...) against the usual measurements in others researches, which uses the wind speed and the direction measured in a weather station on the wind turbine nacelle. The prediction is performed 30 minutes ahead, what ensures that the Building Management System knows the energy generated by the low power wind turbine 30 minutes before, and it can adapt the consumption of different equipment in the house to optimize the power use. The main objective is to allow the Building Management System to optimize the uses of energy, taking into account the predicted amount of energy that will be produced and the energy consumed in the house. The developed model uses a hybrid topology with four clusters to improve the prediction, achieving an error lower than 6.5% for Mean Absolute Error measured in a final test. To perform this test, part of the original dataset was isolated from the beginning of the training process to check the model with a dataset that is not used before, simulating the model as it is receiving new data. (shrink)

Introducción a la comprensión del mito -- Los orígenes de la tradición mitológica occidental -- Poética de las tradiciones narrativas -- La recepción del mito en la cultura audiovisual contemporánea -- Los argumentos universales -- Los argumentos universales (II): el viaje a un planeta desconocido.

El presente estudio hace referencia a los efectos emocionales ocasionados por el COVID-19. La humanidad vivió una situación sin igual en el año 2020, conllevándola a la concentración mundial y al despliegue de acciones que pudieran mitigar a todos los efectos sanitarios ocasionados por un virus de concentración mundial, como fue el llevar al confinamiento a la mayoría de la población humana, pero descuidándose los efectos emocionales del mismo, es por ello que adelantaremos un análisis sobre el concepto del miedo, (...) desde los postulados del pensador griego Aristóteles, como punto de partida para apreciar el actual entorno pandémico y su capacidad para generar situaciones de concentración y distractoras en relación a la verdad, teniendo en cuenta que el temor puede llegar a servir como un instrumento distractor de las certezas. (shrink)

This article draws on concepts from cognitive psychology to explore the significance of the narrative climax, focusing on the final climax of the series The Americans as a case study. Two aspects of the aesthetic experience are considered: the special intensity that climaxes elicit, and the diversity of the cognitive content they generate, which can include both aesthetic and non-aesthetic properties. The climax is experienced in a state of absorption triggered by a set of strategies of temporal prolongation related to (...) the main suspenseful moments and plotlines, to character engagement, and to the multiplot structure, involving the content of the narrative itself and the aesthetic qualities that define it. The source of this absorption during the climax lies in the interplay between emotion and cognition in a temporal process that may last for a whole series. To demonstrate this idea, this study identifies key narrative comprehension processes, drawing on the explanatory potential of mental model theory to clarify the importance of memory and interrelated inferential processes. The aim of this research is to contribute to explanations of the role of the climax in serialized television and other artistic works. (shrink)

Although entrepreneurial intention has been widely studied using cognitive models, we still lack entrepreneurial vocation and, therefore, lack disruptive innovations. Entrepreneurship scholars have some understanding of the reasons underlying this weakness, although there is much room for improvement in our learning concerning how to promote entrepreneurship among university students, especially in the transformed context of digital technologies. This paper focuses on the early stages of start-up, and in particular seeks to evaluate what role social and psychological factors play in the (...) development of entrepreneurial intentions. Drawing on network theory, we consider the impact of social networks on entrepreneurial intention. Specifically, we analyze the influence of two types of social networks: face-to-face and online social networks, with the latter proving especially important in digital transformations. In addition, based on affective congruency theory, we relate affect with entrepreneurial intention. Particularly, we evaluate the influence of positive and negative dispositional affectivity on the formation of entrepreneurial intentions. Finally, since affect and emotions can also be related with social relationships, we analyze whether dispositional affectivities influence entrepreneurial intention through the mediation effect of social networks. Using structural equation modeling, we confirm the impact of both online and face-to-face social networks, as well as positive dispositional affectivity on entrepreneurial intention for 589 higher education students in Spain. However, negative dispositional affectivity is not seen to influence entrepreneurial intention. Furthermore, both face-to-face and online social networks are influenced by positive dispositional affectivity. Moreover, these two types of networks can even partially mediate the relationship between positive dispositional affectivity and entrepreneurial intention. Positive dispositional affectivity can thus influence entrepreneurial intention in two different ways: directly and indirectly through both face-to-face and online social networks. This study provides further insights and adds to the literature on affect, social networks, and entrepreneurial intention. From a broader perspective, we also contribute to the literature on disruptive innovations by explaining how the development of entrepreneurial intentions would have positive consequences for university students vis-à-vis achieving these disruptive innovations. (shrink)

Realizar un estudio reflexivo del concepto de relato y cómo desde éste, podemos apreciar al ser humano en su diario vivir, el cual se ofrece en la posibilidad de crecimiento social y emocional al permitir ser reconocido y compartir nuestra vida con los demás; Sin embargo, la crítica de la filosofía posmoderna a los macrorelatos derivó en una proliferación de microrrelatos, afectando los procesos de verdad y de identidad personal. Por ello, busco analizar desde las aportaciones de Lyotard cómo, desde (...) el acto humano de sacrificarse, se rescata a la narrativa dentro de la multiplicidad de pequeños relatos, presupuesto que configura el reconocimiento de la persona en el otro, además de reconstruir los procesos de certezas y generando colectivos narrativos en los espacios empresariales y ciudadanos. (shrink)

Adopting an ecological perspective on children’s functioning and psychological well-being, we investigated the association between agency and life satisfaction, and its bearing on trauma symptoms and negative emotions in a group of Bedouin children living in the occupied Palestinian territories. Specifically, we hypothesized that the more children were agentic, the more they would be satisfied with their lives; and that greater life satisfaction would be associated with reduced trauma symptoms. A sample of 286 Bedouin children attending primary schools in four (...) different villages in the Jordan Valley completed the Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (MSLSS), Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale for Children (PANAS-C), Children’s Impact of Event Scale (CRIES-13), and the Children’s Hope Scale (CHS). Structural equation modelling was performed to evaluate the cumulative network of direct and indirect effects between children’s agency, life satisfaction, and trauma symptoms. The findings confirmed the key role of life satisfaction in mitigating traumatic reactions. Higher levels of life satisfaction were associated with reduced negative emotions and trauma symptoms, suggesting that agency may be viewed as a pre-determining factor with the potential to protect children from trauma symptoms. We discuss the implications for research and clinical practice. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to explore the interaction between aesthetic properties and cognitive value in serial television. This study is based on a survey focused specifically on one television series: the second season of My Brilliant Friend, created by Saverio Costanzo. The survey was designed with the aim of getting respondents to express their perceptions of the relationship between the aesthetic qualities of the series and their assessment of it in cognitive terms. The responses obtained in the survey (...) offer a clear answer to the key question of concern for this article. The vast majority of respondents (more than 90% in almost all cases) believe that aesthetic and cognitive qualities mutually influence one another. Additionally the qualitative results invite us to further explore interactionism conceptually: the cognitive content is taken as a criterion for evaluating the season’s aesthetic value overall, suggesting a link between meaning and narrative form. (shrink)

Este trabajo plantea, en primer lugar, una visión global acerca de la evolución de la representación de la naturaleza en la cultura artística visual europea del Alto Medievo. Resultado de la misma es la detección de una parálisis en la evolución estética de la representación de la naturaleza que sin embargo había pasado previamente por fases de esplendor decorativo y simbólico. A continuación se examinan diferentes propuestas historiográficas acerca de la evolución de la relación entre ser humano y naturaleza en (...) la Alta Edad Media y su posible contextualización con el cuadro evolutivo artístico trazado. Esa contextualización lleva finalmente a la búsqueda de una relación del fenómeno detectado con los fundamentos teológicos de la cultura monástica y sus planteamientos escatológicos. This paper first presents an overview about the evolution of the representation of nature in European artistic culture of the High Middle Ages. A result of this is the detection of a paralysis in the aesthetic evolution of nature in visual arts after previous phases of decorative and symbolic richness. Different historiographic proposals on the evolution of the relationship between man and nature in the Middle Ages show a possible contextualization with the artistic paralysis we have stated. That path leads to the search for a relation of the phenomenon detected with the theological foundations of the monastic culture and its eschatological discourses. (shrink)

El presente artículo describe la conexión entre los espacios culturales rurales de la cultura mapuche y aquellos recreados en centros urbanos y su vinculación con la construcción de la identidad étnica en adolescentes mapuches urbanos. El estudio es cualitativo descriptivo y los datos se abordan desde el enfoque de análisis del discurso de la psicología discursiva y el enfoque de identidades espaciales de Proshansky . La muestra corresponde a treinta adolescentes mapuches hombres y mujeres residentes en la ciudad de Santiago (...) y treinta de la ciudad de Temuco, quienes participaron en entrevistas conducidas por un entrevistador mapuche. Los resultados revelan que el rol de los espacios culturales recreados en contextos urbanos es desarrollar una función mediadora del cambio desde el lugar de origen a nuevos espacios lo que permite reforzar la identidad étnica de los adolescentes. This article describes the connection between Mapuche rural cultural spaces and those re-created in urban areas and their connection with the construction of ethnic identity in urban Mapuche adolescents. This is a qualitative and descriptive study and the data is analyzed through the approach of discourse analysis of discursive psychology and considers the notion of place identity by Proshansky . The research population were thirty Mapuche adolescents living in Santiago and thirty living in Temuco. These adolescents were interviewed by a Mapuche interviewer. The findings reveal that the re-created urban cultural spaces fulfill a mediating role in the change from original places to new ones , which allows these adolescents to reinforce their ethnic identity construction. (shrink)

La presente investigación se efectuó con el objetivo de evaluar el impacto de la introducción y generalización del resultado científico: La educación en valores mediante la aplicación de medios de enseñanza - aprendizaje en la disciplina de Morfofisiología en la Licenciatura en Enfermería, a través de indicadores diseñados de acuerdo a las particularidades de la investigación. Se aplicaron encuestas, se realizó una revisión documental de bibliografía relacionada con la temática y de documentos de los departamentos e instituciones en que ha (...) incidido este resultado, lo cual permitió constatar la amplia y efectiva aplicación práctica de los resultados obtenidos de forma sistemática, a través de publicaciones, posgrados, presentación en eventos científicos y su generalización en diversas instituciones educacionales. This research was conducted with the objective of assessing the impact of the introduction and generalization of the scientific result: Values education through the application of teaching aids- learning in Morphophysiology subject in the Nursing Degree through indicators designed according to the research characteristics. Surveys were carried, furthermore, a documentary bibliographic review related to the subject matter and a review of documents from departments and institutions affected by this result were made. They enabled to verify the wide and effective practice of the results got in a systematic way, through publications, postgraduate courses and presentations in scientific events as well as its generalization in different educational institutions. (shrink)

This book posits an interconnection between the ways in which contemporary television serials cue cognitive operations, solicit emotional responses, and elicit aesthetic appreciation. The chapters explore a number of questions including: How do the particularities of form and style in contemporary serial television engage us cognitively, emotionally, and aesthetically? How do they foster cognitive and emotional effects such as feeling suspense, anticipation, surprise, satisfaction, and disappointment? Why and how do we value some serials while disliking others? What is it about (...) the particularities of serial television form and style, in conjunction with our common cognitive, emotional, and aesthetic capacities, that accounts for serial television's cognitive, socio-political, and aesthetic value, and its current ubiquity in popular culture? This book will appeal to postgraduates and scholars working in television studies as well as film studies, cognitive media theory, media psychology, and the philosophy of art. (shrink)

Nowadays, batteries play an important role in a lot of different applications like energy storage, electro-mobility, consumer electronic and so on. All the battery types have a common factor that is their complexity, independently of its nature. Usually, the batteries have an electrochemical nature. Several different test are accomplished to check the batteries performance, and commonly, it is predictable how they work depending of their technology. The present research describes the hybrid intelligent system created to accomplish fault detection over a (...) Lithium Iron Phosphate—LiFePO4 power cell type, commonly used in electro-mobility applications. The approach is based on the cell temperatures behaviour for voltage and current specific values. Taken into account the operating range of a real system based on a LiFePO4 cell, a large set of points of operation have been used to achieve the dataset. The different behaviour zones have been obtained by clustering as a first step. Then, different regression techniques have been used over each cluster. Polynomial regression, artificial neural networks and support vector regression were the combined techniques to develop the hybrid intelligent model proposed. The intelligent system gives very good results over the operating range, detecting all the faults tested during the validation. (shrink)

A large part of technological advances, especially in the field of industry, have been focused on the optimization of productive processes. However, the detection of anomalies has turned out to be a great challenge in fields like industry, medicine or stock markets. The present work addresses anomaly detection on a control level plant. We propose the application of different intelligent techniques, which allow to obtain one-class classifiers using real data taken from the correct plant operation. The performance of each classifier (...) is assessed and validated with real created faults, achieving successful overall results. (shrink)

Closed-loop administration of propofol for the control of hypnosis in anesthesia has evidenced an outperformance when comparing it with manual administration in terms of drug consumption and post-operative recovery of patients. Unlike other systems, the success of this strategy lies on the availability of a feedback variable capable of quantifying the current hypnotic state of the patient. However, the appearance of anomalies during the anesthetic process may result in inaccurate actions of the automatic controller. These anomalies may come from the (...) monitors, the syringe pumps, the actions of the surgeon or even from alterations in patients. This could produce adverse side effects that can affect the patient postoperative and reduce the safety of the patient in the operating room. Then, the use of anomaly detection techniques plays a significant role to avoid this undesirable situations. This work assesses different one-class intelligent techniques to detect anomalies in patients undergoing general anesthesia. Due to the difficulty of obtaining real data from anomaly situations, artificial outliers are generated to check the performance of each classifier. The final model presents successful performance. (shrink)

The similarity of documents in a large database of published Fractals articles was examined for redundancy. Three different text matching techniques were used on published Abstracts to identify redundancy candidates, and predictions were verified by reading full text versions of the redundancy candidate articles. A small fraction of the total articles in the database was judged to be redundant. This was viewed as a lower limit, because it excluded cases where the concepts remained the same, but the text was altered (...) substantially. Far more pervasive than redundant publications were publications that did not violate the letter of redundancy but rather violated the spirit of redundancy. There appeared to be widespread publication maximization strategies. Studies that resulted in one comprehensive paper decades ago now result in multiple papers that focus on one major problem, but are differentiated by parameter ranges, or other stratifying variables. This ‘paper inflation’ is due in large part to the increasing use of metrics (publications, patents, citations, etc) to evaluate research performance, and the researchers’ motivation to maximize the metrics. (shrink)

The similarity of documents in a large database of published Fractals articles was examined for redundancy. Three different text matching techniques were used on publisheds to identify redundancy candidates, and predictions were verified by reading full text versions of the redundancy candidate articles. A small fraction of the total articles in the database was judged to be redundant. This was viewed as a lower limit, because it excluded cases where the concepts remained the same, but the text was altered substantially.Far (...) more pervasive than redundant publications were publications that did not violate the letter of redundancy but rather violated the spirit of redundancy. There appeared to be widespread publication maximization strategies. Studies that resulted in one comprehensive paper decades ago now result in multiple papers that focus on one major problem, but are differentiated by parameter ranges, or other stratifying variables. This ‘paper inflation’ is due in large part to the increasing use of metrics (publications, patents, citations, etc) to evaluate research performance, and the researchers’ motivation to maximize the metrics. (shrink)

The similarity of documents in a large database of published Fractals articles was examined for redundancy. Three different text matching techniques were used on published Abstracts to identify redundancy candidates, and predictions were verified by reading full text versions of the redundancy candidate articles. A small fraction of the total articles in the database was judged to be redundant. This was viewed as a lower limit, because it excluded cases where the concepts remained the same, but the text was altered (...) substantially.Far more pervasive than redundant publications were publications that did not violate the letter of redundancy but rather violated the spirit of redundancy. There appeared to be widespread publication maximization strategies. Studies that resulted in one comprehensive paper decades ago now result in multiple papers that focus on one major problem, but are differentiated by parameter ranges, or other stratifying variables. This ‘paper inflation’ is due in large part to the increasing use of metrics (publications, patents, citations, etc) to evaluate research performance, and the researchers’ motivation to maximize the metrics. (shrink)

Automatic control of physiological variables is one of the most active areas in biomedical engineering. This paper is centered in the prediction of the analgesic variables evolution in patients undergoing surgery. The proposal is based on the use of hybrid intelligent modelling methods. The study considers the Analgesia Nociception Index to assess the pain in the patient and remifentanil as intravenous analgesic. The model proposed is able to make a one-step-ahead prediction of the remifentanil dose corresponding to the current state (...) of the patient. The input information is the previous remifentanil dose, the ANI variable and the electromyogram signal. Modelling techniques used are Artificial Neural Networks and Support Vector machines for Regression combined with clustering methods. Both training and validation were done with a real dataset from different patients. Results obtained show the potential of this methodology to calculate the drug dose corresponding to a given analgesic state of the patient. (shrink)

The ambiguous-cue task is composed of two-choice simultaneous discriminations involving three stimuli: positive (P), ambiguous (A) and negative (N). Two different trial types are presented: PA and NA. The ambiguous cue (A) served as an S- in PA trials, but as an S+ in NA trials. When using this procedure, it is typical to observe a less accurate performance in PA trials than in NA trials. This is called the ambiguous-cue effect. Recently, it was reported in starlings that the ambiguous-cue (...) effect decreases when the stimuli are presented on an angled (120°) panel. The hypothesis is that the angled panel facilitates that the two cues from each discrimination are perceived as a compound, precluding value transfer via a second-order conditioning mechanism. In this experiment, we used pigeons and a flat panel. Nevertheless, our data were quite similar to the previous data in starlings. We conclude that the form of the panel cannot explain the ambiguous-cue effect. Several alternatives to be explored in future experiments are suggested. The riddle of the ambiguous-cue problem still remains unsolved. (shrink)

This paper reports the experience of using the PAELLA algorithm as a helper tool in robust regression instead of as originally intended for outlier identification and removal. This novel usage of the algorithm takes advantage of the occurrence vector calculated by the algorithm in order to strengthen the effect of the more reliable samples and lessen the impact of those that otherwise would be considered outliers. Following that aim, a series of experiments is conducted in order to learn how to (...) better use the information contained in the occurrence vector. Using a contrively difficult artificial data set, a reference predictive model is fit using the whole raw dataset. The second experiment reports the results of fitting a similar predictive model but discarding the samples marked as outliers by PAELLA. The third experiment uses the occurrence vector provided by PAELLA in order to classify the observations in multiple bins and fit every possible model changing which bins are considered for fitting and which are discarded in that particular model. The fourth experiment introduces a sampling process before fitting in which the occurrence vector represents the likelihood of being considered in the training data set. The fifth experiment considers the sampling process as an internal step to be performed interleaved between the training epochs. The last experiment compares our approach using weighted neural networks to a state of the art method. (shrink)

The paper presents a reconstruction of the metaphysical core of Dante’s political thought as expressed in the Monarchy, following on the footsteps of Guido Vernani’s critique of Dante’s political ideas in his De reprobatione Monarchie composite a Dante (Bologna, 1327-1334). The paper focuses on the link between Dante’s alleged Averroism, an accusation formulated for the first time by the Dominican friar, but latter repeated by philosophical historiography, and the interpretation of the Monarchy as a sign of the beginning of (...) modern philosophy. (shrink)

Os nomes de Guido de Almeida, Ricardo R. Terra, Valerio Rohden e Zeljko Loparic representam, sem dúvida, uma marca nos estudos kantianos que não pode ser negligenciada nem mesmo pelo leitor mais desatento. Qualquer aproximação dos escritos de Immanuel Kant que demande o debate de idéias e o confronto de argumentos não deve ignorar as obras destes filósofos que, nas últimas décadas, balizaram o rumo das pesquisas filosóficas no Brasil. A maturidade do pensamento se reflete aqui na heterogeneidade de (...) abordagens, na especificidade das discussões, na riqueza dos temas e na precisão conceitual. Este livro reúne textos importantes que certamente permitem ver com clareza a orientação dos trabalhos da filosofia transcendental nos âmbitos cognitivo, prático e estético. (shrink)

Tuberculosis en América Latina y el Caribe: reflexiones desde la bioética Tuberculose na América Latina e no Caribe: reflexões da bioética The objective of this article is to analyze the conditions of access to health services by people with tuberculosis in Latin America and the Caribbean, reflecting on the public health aspects involved from a bioethical perspective. A literature review of the context of tuberculosis in LAC based on epidemiological data was performed. The results were analyzed from its relationship with (...) the social determinants of health and the ethical principles that guide medical practice. Tuberculosis is a pressing public health problem in the region because of its family, social, economic and health impact. It mainly affects vulnerable individuals and populations. Health services violate ethical principles. Tuberculosis is a serious ethics and public health problem in the region that causes death, disability and increased poverty. It is imperative to ensure the right to health services and to understand the individual and public health consequences of non-adherence to treatment. It is important that national tuberculosis control strategies include principles of dignity and non-discrimination of the sick, changes in the social determinants of the disease, and respect for the ethnicity, language culture and identity of patients. Para citar este artículo / To reference this article / Para citar este artigo Muñoz del Carpio-Toia A, Sánchez-Pérez HJ, Verges de López C, López-Dávila LM, Sotomayor-Saavedra MA, Sorokin P. Tuberculosis en América Latina y el Caribe: reflexiones desde la bioética. pers. bioét. 2018; 22: 331-357. DOI: 10.5294/pebi.2018.22.2.10. (shrink)

Polysemy has only recently entered the debate on semantic minimalism and contextualism. This is surprising considering that the key linguistic examples discussed in the debate, such as ‘John cut the grass’ or ‘The leaf is green’ appear to be prime examples of polysemy. Moreover, François Recanati recently argued that the mere existence of polysemy falsi!es semantic minimalism and supports radical contextualism. The aim of this paper is to discuss how the minimalism-contextualism debate relates to polysemy. This connection turns out to (...) be far from clear-cut. This is partly due to the fact that the term ‘polysemy’ is used in a number of different ways in the literature, which will be reviewed in this paper. Finally, I discuss and reject Recanati’s claim that the existence of polysemy supports radical contextualism against moderate versions and semantic minimalism. I show that minimalism has a number of plausible options to account for polysemy. (shrink)

Requiring family authorization for apnea testing subtracts health professionals control over death determination, a procedure that has traditionally been considered a matter of clinical expertise alone. In this commentary, we first provide evidence showing that health professionals’ (HPs) disposition to act on death determination without family’s prior consent could be much lower than that referred to by Berkowitz and Garrett (2020). We hypothesize that HPs may have reservations about their own expertise as regards death, and may thus hesitate to impose (...) their views on patients’ families. We then address the theoretical question of clinical expertise in death determination by distinguishing judgments about facts (e.g., the presence or absence of spontaneous breathing) from interpretations given of these facts (i.e., their meaning for the vital status of an individual). We argue that, while clinicians may claim some expert authority on the former, they hold no particular authority on the latter. (shrink)