Currently, the concept of the cell as a society or an ecosystem of molecular elements is gaining increasing acceptance. The basic idea arose in the 19th century, from the surmise that there is not just a single unit underlying an individual’s appearance, but a plurality of entities with both collaborative and conflicting relationships. The following hypothesis is based around this model. The incompatible activities taking place between different original elements, which were subsumed into the first cell and could not be (...) eliminated, had to be controlled very closely. Similarly, a strong level of control had to be developed over many cellular elements after the cell changed its genome to DNA. We assume that at least some of those original RNA agents and other biomolecules which carry incompatibilities and risks, are retained within current cells, although they are now under strict control. A virus functions as a signal informing these repressed cellular RNAs and other elements of ancient origin how to restore suppressed degrees of molecular freedom, favoring pre-existing molecular affinities and activities, re-establishing ancient molecular webs of interactions, and giving fragments of ancient coded information the opportunity to be re-expressed. Collectively, these newly activated mechanisms lead to different possibilities for pathological cell states. All these processes are opposed by cell-control mechanisms. Thus, in this new scenario, the battle is considered intracellular rather than between the virus and the cell. And so the virus is treated as the signal that precipitates the cell’s change from a latent to an active pathological state. (shrink)

This paper focuses on the description and analysis of three codices from Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid with the aim of redefining their origin, dating, authorship, and content. Connecting their production to the environment of the Sacromonte affair and identifying Pedro de Castro’s hand allows to expand what was known so far about his attempts to learn Arabic and delve into the most controversial aspects of the Lead Books. The grammatical and religious contents, in addition to the copious marginal notes linked (...) to the sources he used, provide valuable information on his selection of works. Grammatical materials such as al-Āŷurrūmiyya, of which different versions are preserved in these codices, were being published in Rome and Leiden and would be widely disseminated. The building up of his library, to which these codices must have belonged, runs in parallel to the construction of an orientalist knowledge in modern Europe. (shrink)

Playing traditional games has a direct impact on the mood states of the players, and this is the reason why physical education is an ideal setting for teaching how to recognize them and be aware about how they can swing. The objective of the study was to determine if participating in traditional opposition games causes changes to the participants' mood states. A total of 102 students participated. Each participant recorded the intensity of the mood state experienced at the beginning and (...) at the end of the sessions, using the validated Profile of Mood States instrument. The pedagogical experience was planned as 4 sessions with 6 and 5 opposition games each: with competition in mixed groups, equally and unequally mixed; without competition in mixed groups, equally and unequally mixed; with competition in same-gender groups; and without competition in same-gender groups. When comparing the different mood states according to session, the mood states of the depression, fatigue, and vigor dimensions were significantly different, with higher scores in the sessions with competition for the mood states of vigor and fatigue. Also, when comparing the mood states depending on session grouping and group type, the results showed differences in the scores obtained for the dimensions fatigue and anger, and general mood state. These differences were found at the start of the session and at the end, with the dimension fatigue being the only one with differences in both situations when comparing the same-gender, equally-mixed, and unequally-mixed groups for the two types of traditional opposition games compared. In addition, after an analysis of the mood states depending on gender was performed, the results and therefore the significant differences found, were very similar to those obtained according to group type. Lastly, it was concluded that the type of group, and gender were decisive, causing variations in the mood states of the students. This provides valuable information for teaching professionals about the structuring and organization of PE sessions, aiming to promoting positive motor experiences. (shrink)

Las tareas de descripción documental en los Archivos de la Catedral y del Arzobispado de Sevilla han permitido identificar un documento pontificio original de Gregorio IX, datado en el año 1227, dirigido a las curias eclesiásticas a las que manda proteger y favorecer a la Orden de Predicadores en su expansión y misión evangelizadora, veintiún años antes de la restauración del culto cristiano en Sevilla por Fernando III en 1248, convirtiéndose en el documento original más antiguo conservado hasta la fecha (...) en estos Archivos. En este artículo profundizamos en el análisis del contexto de producción del documento, lo ponemos en relación con otros de contenido idéntico, y trazamos su historia archivística, Todo ello nos permite valorar su interés y destacado papel como testimonio de un proceso histórico de la Iglesia bajomedieval, más allá de su singular antigüedad o de su breve contenido. (shrink)

Perceptual expertise refers to learning that is specific to a domain, that transfers to new items within the trained domain, and that leads to automatic processing in the sense that expertise effects can be measured across a variety of tasks. It can be argued that most of us possess some degree of perceptual expertise in a least one, if not several domains, thereby giving the study of perceptual expertise broad application. Some object categories may in fact be objects of perceptual (...) expertise to the majority of people: Faces appear to be one such example. Thus, the use of face stimuli, or the comparison of face and object perception, can be a powerful way to ask whether a given process is influenced by perceptual expertise. Here, we emphasize one characteristic way that face processing appears to differ from nonface processing: that is, the degree to which they recruit a “holistic” rather than a “featural” perceptual strategy. This review brings evidence that expertise influences perceptual processing together with recent findings that the capacity of visual short-term memory is greater in perceptual experts and explores the relationship between the two. (shrink)

In this paper we discuss differing discourses of research ethics committees and the clinical research field. Reflections on our experience of conducting research in a nursing home are used to highlight the tensions and inconsistencies that arise from these discourses and the need to behave ethically in the field. While accepting the need for adherence to guiding principles of duty based ethics, we have found that practical moral decisions in the field required that, as individual researchers, we needed to exercise (...) discretionary judgement, informed by the ethic of care and the concern for the well‐being of research participants. (shrink)

Emotions are the fundamental pillar of neuromarketing, the perception of hedonic, utilitarian value, the emotions experienced by customers during the buying process and the effect the behavior of each stage is seen from the brain structures of the mind. The sample selected for the study was 354 real customers of supermarkets in the city of Riobamba and the sample of 8 participants with the use of eye tracking glasses in the store tour during this process. The results, in three stages (...) of the process system (inputs, processes and results) with the emotions involved in each stage. Stage I are: uncertainty, joy, anger/anger/anxiety, happiness, curiosity. The emotions in stages II and III are joy, surprise, satisfaction, security, and confidence and the emotions felt in the Evaluation Stage are satisfaction, exhaustion, demotivation, joy, and anger/anger/anxiety. There are hormones and neurotransmitters that are involved with emotions at different stages of the buying process. The right brain hemispheres are activated in negative emotions, left in positive emotions in all stages of the buying process. Brain structures are also activated at each stage of the buying process. The results of the Eye tracking in the comparative analysis analyzed Meditation, Attention and Blinking in the stages of the purchase process. It is concluded that repurchase and recommendation intentions are determined by positive emotions which, in turn, are determined by the hedonic and utilitarian value of the product and services that reduce negative emotions. (shrink)

El artículo constituye un acercamiento a las razones que sustentan la necesidad de elevar la calidad de la orientación a las familias de niños en la primera infancia y su objetivo consistió en capacitar al personal de la salud para desarrollar la orientación familiar en función de la prevención de desviaciones en el desarrollo en esta etapa. En él se aborda el rol que tiene la familia en la formación de los niños y la incidencia de los médicos y enfermeras (...) en su orientación; se encuentran reflexiones y comentarios sobre cómo elevar la calidad de la orientación para que la familia pueda desarrollar, en las condiciones de convivencia familiar, la prevención de desviaciones en el desarrollo mediante la realización de un proceso educativo de calidad. The article is an approach to the reasons that support the need to improve the quality of the guidance given to families of early childhood children and its objective consisted on training health staff to develop family guidance according to the prevention of deviations in development during this stage. It deals with the role family plays in children's education and the impact of doctors and nurses on its guidance. Thoughts and comments on how to improve the quality of guidance can also be found so that the family can develop, on family living conditions, the prevention of deviations in development through a quality educational process. (shrink)

"Meaning, the complex phenomenon of individuation and the definition of identity are the core theme of this work. Grounded on a theoretical framework that gives particular emphasis to the semiotic process common to all forms of cognition, human cognitionis conceived here as specific of organisms that, in the course of their interactions, produce symbolic forms, defining the specific physical, social and cultural environments in which they evolve. Individuation, inherent to that semiotic process, is complex and double-sided. It involves, on one (...) hand, the definition of semantic identities and their acknowledgment as world objects naming; on the other hand, it comprehends the specific lexical and morphosyntactic strategies different languages have found todesignate particular entities referring. The definition of world objects and its symbolic translation presents variations from language to language. In the second part of the book, we define what we have called a 'structure-motivated ontology' to represent how this symbolic translation is accomplished in English and European Portuguese. Plus, we try to show how the nature of this symbolic translation affects structural realisation, namely the individuation of reference and the construal of 'one-off referring' expressions."--Publisher's description. (shrink)

All the osteological data analyzed in this article belongs to two muslim necropolis of Toledo. This study has enabled us to make inferences about the physical characteristics of the Andalusian population who lived in the city in the 8th-11th centuries. We have to keep in mind that Toledo has been a city open to the mixing of cultures and therefore, has received a great weight of external influences during Antiquity and the Middle Ages. For this reason, archaeologists must examine in (...) great detail characteristics such as the extension of the cemetery areas, the proportions of the graves and the placement of the bodies. However, the simplicity of the Muslim ritual, makes the skeletal remains one of the main subject of study. However, the special relevance that these maqābir have had for centuries, contrasts with the absence of scientific publications in relation to its anthropological study. In this sense, this work offers consistent and unpublished documentation of a society, whose strong indigenous component, has maintained its own impact during the process of Islamization. (shrink)

Cet article se concentre sur deux aspects : les liens très forts unissant le contexte politique et la création des musées en Amérique latine et le développement des centres de culture scientifique, technique et industrielle pour parer la carence d’une éducation scientifique de qualité. L’argumentation est construite autour de quatre angles principaux : le contexte de création des premiers musées d’histoire naturelle ; l’émergence des communautés scientifiques, la prise en compte de la nécessité de la popularisation des sciences pendant le (...) processus de transition à la démocratie et le développement des centres de culture scientifique, technique et industrielle à partir 1978.This article focuses on two aspects: the strong links between political context and museum creation in Latin America, and the development of centres of scientific, technical and industrial culture to remedy the gap in high-quality scientific education. Our argument here is built up from four main angles: the context in which the first natural history museums were created, the emergence of scientific communities, the acknowledged need for science popularisation during the transition to democracy and the development, since 1978, of centres of scientific, technical and industrial culture. (shrink)

Mentioning products or brands on Facebook enables individuals to display an ideal self to others through a form of virtual conspicuous consumption. Drawing on conspicuous donation behaviour literature, we investigate ‘conspicuous virtue signalling’, as conspicuous consumption on Facebook. CVS occurs when an individual mentions a charity on their Facebook profile. We investigate need for uniqueness and attention to social comparison information as antecedents of two types of CVS–self-oriented and other-oriented. We also explore the relationship between CVS and self-esteem, and offline (...) prosocial and unethical behaviour intentions. Data from two studies, a college survey and an adult survey via MTurk, were analysed using structural equation modelling. Results indicate that NFU predicts both forms of CVS, while ATSCI influences both forms of CVS for adults and other-oriented CVS for students. Self-esteem is enhanced by self-oriented CVS. Self-oriented CVS predicts donation intention whereas other-oriented CVS significantly reduces donation intention for both samples. Furthermore, a significant relationship between CVS and purchase intention of counterfeit luxury goods is revealed. Findings provide insights into conspicuous virtue signalling and the relationship between CVS on Facebook and offline behavioural intentions. (shrink)

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the race to find an effective vaccine or treatment saw an ‘extraordinary number’ of clinical trials being conducted. While there were some key success stories, not all trials produced results that informed patient care. There was a significant amount of waste in clinical research during the pandemic which is said to have hampered an evidence-based response. Conducting trials which could have been predicted to fail to answer the research question (e.g. because they are not large enough (...) to provide a definitive result) is not only a waste of resources but also a breach of research participants’ trust and a violation of research ethics. The issues seen in COVID-19 clinical trials are symptomatic of a wider trial design crisis where many trials do not provide informative results. This paper examines the roles of key stakeholders in delivering ethical and informative trials and whether guidance published by ‘The Good Clinical Trials Collaborative’ could be used to align key stakeholder groups and enable a joined-up approach to improve clinical trial design. (shrink)

This research lies within the scientific and pedagogic scope of Philosophy for Children, more specifically its implementation in a community of philosophical inquiry, the pedagogic and epistemological model of the Philosophy for Children, with pre-school children. The purpose was to research the type of answer this community of inquiry would give to some logic problems by resorting to Venn Diagrams. Specifically, the observation of problem-solving through the intersection of sets was under scrutiny, and the conclusion was that this logic resource (...) is not only viable in the context of pre-schooling, as well as relevant for the formation of thinking. (shrink)

The aim of our research is to analyze how different religions influence business ethics. We develop an index of practices in the field of business ethics, made up of 19 items containing practices related to workers, consumers, products, human rights, management of ethical conflicts, and crime prevention. Also, we consider a wide range of religion affiliations. To undertake this research, we use a panel data sample composed of 11,956 firm‐year observations from 18 countries. Drawing on stakeholder theory, we posit some (...) hypotheses based on the religions considered. The results obtained show that a higher percentage of religious adherents in the country where a company does business usually involve the implementation of more ethical practices in the corporate field. These findings are obtained for Christian, Islamic, Jewish, and Hindu religions. In contrast, this does not stand for Buddhist and folk religions. Also, countries where there is no predominant religion do not show a confluence between religion and ethical corporate practices. (shrink)

El presente trabajo profundiza el estudio de los procesos de aprendizaje del niño asociados a la utilizaciónde nuevas tecnologías (tablet) en el aula. Estudios experimentales y cuasiexperimentales a nivel internacional de la última década analizan el aprendizaje como el aumento y repetición del contenido ofrecido en el dispositivo móvil, omitiendo la experiencia del aprehender o procesos de aprendizaje que permiten la apropiación de dicho conocimiento. Por esta razón se plantean las preguntas: ¿La tablet colabora o irrumpe el acto de aprehender? (...) ¿Es pertinente considerar la tablet como mediadora de los procesos de aprendizaje? Para dar respuesta a estas interrogantes se propuso una investigación cualitativa con un marco teórico psicoanalítico en seis escuelas fiscales del Ecuador. Los resultados permiten identificar al playing (juegos sin regla), concepto propuesto por Winnicott como uno de los elementos centrales en los procesos del aprehender. De ahí que los niños sobrepasan la actividad programada por el software creando figuras y formas en la pantalla, y exploran posibilidades numéricas que les permiten pensar más allá de la actividad propuesta en la tablet. También, se ha identificado que es el docente quien facilita los procesos de aprendizaje: los niños acuden a él a mostrarle los resultados, usan sus palabras y ritmos para resolver las tareas que se les solicita a través del uso de la tablet. Se concluye que el vínculo educativo en los procesos de aprendizaje frente al uso de tecnologías es significativo, ubicando al docente como mediador y a la tablet como un posible intermediario. (shrink)

The main objective of this piece of work is to reflect upon the evolution of the socially responsible mutual funds industry in Europe over the recent years. In order to do this, we shall analyse the evolution of the number of ethical funds offered, the growth of its assets, its size, the typology of commercialised funds, and the main companies included in its investment portfolios, showing the importance that socially responsible mutual funds are gaining in Europe over these first few (...) years of the 21st century. (shrink)

Chris Stewart’s account of his experiences after purchasing a farm in Andalusia, in an isolated farmhouse in the mountains adjacent to Granada, are far from the traditionally bucolic depictions of a pastoral landscape, in which the drawbacks of agricultural life become unquestionably compensated by the bliss of life in nature. Even though, as the title indicates, he seems to be a born romantic and optimist, undefeated by the inconveniences of a life without the everyday commodities of a First-World country in (...) the twenty-first century, his memoir narrative is soon balanced by his own testimony, which provides a realistic counterbalance to Stewart’s initial idealistic portrayal of life in rustic Alpujarras. Nonetheless, as this article intends to demonstrate, it is precisely this necessary demystification of the rural setting prevailing in certain areas in Andalusia that becomes crucial for the establishment of an essential complicity with the audience, thereby trained to appreciate—and even become enthralled by—the reality of the rural surroundings which the contemporary reader can no longer envision as merely a place of “vales and hills” softly covered by “a host of golden daffodils”. El relato que lleva a cabo Chris Stewart acerca de sus experiencias tras adquirir una finca en Andalucía, en un lugar apartado de la sierra lindante con Granada, se aleja de las descripciones bucólicas de paisajes pastorales en los que las desventajas de la vida agrícola quedaban incuestionablemente compensadas por el gozo de la vida en mitad de la naturaleza. Incluso pese a que, tal y como el título de su novela indica, Chris Stewart parece ser un romántico y un optimista de nacimiento, que no se deja vencer por los inconvenientes de una vida sin las comodidades cotidianas de un país del primer mundo en el siglo xxi, su memoria-narrativa se ve inmediatamente equilibrada por su propio testimonio, que proporciona un contrapunto realista al idealizado retrato inicial de la vida en las rústicas Alpujarras. No obstante, como el presente artículo pretende demostrar, es precisamente esta necesaria desmitificación del entorno rural de ciertas zonas de Andalucía lo que resulta crucial para poder establecer una esencial complicidad con el lector, que llega, de este modo, a valorar, e incluso, a sentirse fascinado, por la realidad del contexto agrario, el cual deja ya de percibir meramente como un lugar de «valles y colinas» delicadamente cubierto por «una cohorte de dorados narcisos». (shrink)

The use of images in education has received little attention despite the dual role of images in school textbooks, one aimed at the acquisition of knowledge and the other at the transmission of attitudes, values and norms, that constitute a valuable source of historical, educational and communicative research. We will study, through the analysis of content, the characteristics of the catechisms, the legislation of the time related to the publication of school textbooks, the presence of images, types, the didactic function (...) and the transmission of social models and ideology. The research suggests that the images of school catechisms are not simply reflections of a reality that facilitates the learning of the contents taught in schools, but that they also become an effective tool in the transformation of the values and ideological thinking of the social context in which they are produced. (shrink)

Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, EarlyView.

What is it for history to matter? Stephen Gould argued that unpredictability is part of the answer. For example, the “fact“ that repeated replays of the history of life would end differently every time is a sign that history matters to the course of evolution. But there is a problem here: if a particular point in the past leaves open alternative possible futures, then in what sense does that point in the past matter with regard to which of the outcomes (...) occurs? We argue that unpredictability is central to the importance of history. However, it is not the unpredictability of the future, but rather the unpredictability of the past itself that is the key. History matters when a particular future depends on a particular past that was not bound to happen, but did. (shrink)

This paper considers Cicero's political and legal philosophy, focussing on the ciceronian concepts of republic, law and virtue, on which Cicero's systematic construction of the State and the Right rests.