This paper shows that, for a large range of parameters, the journal editor prefers to delegate the choice to review the manuscript to the biased referee. If the peer review process is informative and the review reports are costly for the reviewers, even biased referees with extreme scientific preferences may choose to become informed about the manuscript’s quality. On the contrary, if the review process is potentially informative but the reviewer reports are not costly for the referees, the biased reviewer (...) has no incentive to become informed about the manuscript. Furthermore, if the reports are costly for referees but the peer review processes are not potentially informative, the biased reviewers will never become informed. In this paper, we also present a web resource that helps editors to experiment with the review process as a device for information transmission. (shrink)

The removal of water from mines was one of the key issues that former miners had to deal with. Roman colonists brought new technology to the Iberian Peninsula that addressed this problem. However, they did not invent this technology because it had already been applied to the growth of other endeavours in the Hellenistic society throughout the Eastern Mediterranean. In the mine, the Archimedes screw, waterwheels, bucket pulleys, and Ctesibius pumps were the primary drainage systems. In this essay, the primary (...) characteristics, and modes of operation of machines are examined. Without leaving out the most significant finds made in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula, one of the regions with the longest history of mining exploitation. To serve as a foundation for future research in this field, this work compares the primary mining mechanisms in ancient Huelva on a qualitative and quantitative level by the implementation of a TOPSIS methodology, a multi-criteria decision analysis method. (shrink)

Several studies have explored differences between North American and European doctor patient relationships. They have focused primarily on differences in philosophical traditions and historic and socioeconomic factors between these two regions that might lead to differences in behaviour, as well as divergent concepts in and justifications of medical practice. However, few empirical intercultural studies have been carried out to identify in practice these cultural differences. This lack of standard comparative empirical studies led us to compare differences between France and the (...) USA regarding end-of-life decision-making. We tested certain assertions put forward by bioethicists concerning the impact of culture on the acceptance of advance directives in such decisions. In particular, we compared North American and French intensive care professional's attitudes toward: (1) advance directives, and (2) the role of the family in decisions to withhold or withdraw life-support. (shrink)

Synaesthesia is a condition in which one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another, as when the hearing of a sound produces photisms, i.e. mental percepts of colours. R is a 20 year old colour blind subject who, in addition to the relatively common grapheme-colour synaesthesia, presents a rarely reported cross modal perception in which a variety of visual stimuli elicit aura-like percepts of colour. In R, photisms seem to be closely related to the affective valence of stimuli and (...) typically bring out a consistent pattern of emotional responses. The present case study suggests that colours might be an intrinsic category of the human brain. We developed an empirical methodology that allowed us to study the subject's otherwise inaccessible phenomenological experience. First, we found that R shows a Stroop effect (delayed response due to interference) elicited by photisms despite the fact that he does not show a regular Stroop with real colours. Secondly, by manipulating the colour context we confirmed that colours can alter R's emotional evaluation of the stimuli. Furthermore, we demonstrated that R's auras may actually lead to a partially inverted emotional spectrum where certain stimuli bring out emotional reactions opposite to the normal ones. These findings can only be accounted for by considering R's subjective colour experience or qualia. Therefore the present paper defends the view that qualia are a useful scientific concept that can be approached and studied by experimental methods. (shrink)

Nowadays the world is the witness of en acceleration in the economic regional union -either in craes of free trade or in custom association- as an intermediary step to the consolidation of the economical globalization. In the Ainerican spheres. The United Stares showed en ancient interest in this sense. The history of the economical union emerges the decada of 1950 with the specific case of Centroamerica which has a common political past. This experience has been recently reactivated after the "last (...) decade". The structural plans of adjustment and the politics o market liberation have been imposed in countries such as Nicaragua, suffered from economic conditions extremely weakmakins worse the population's life conditions. Officers of politics and economy of the country express their view about some aspects of this process. (shrink)

Los avances científico-tecnológicos han abierto una brecha en cuanto a los tratamientos médicos y los valores morales que deben sustentar la atención de salud. El profesional de enfermería no está exento de estos peligros, por lo que se ha generado un nuevo modelo ético que se integre al proceso de atención de enfermería. Con el objetivo de determinar los conocimientos y opiniones de estos profesionales, del área de cirugía de mínimo acceso, acerca de la aplicación del modelo en el contexto (...) de estos servicios, se diseñó una investigación de tipo observacional descriptiva con empleo de metodología cualitativa. Como técnica de exploración se usó la entrevista en profundidad, así como un panel de expertos para la construcción de la guía de entrevista. Se entrevistó a 34 enfermeras que laboraban en el Centro Nacional de Cirugía de Mínimo Acceso durante el período del estudio. Se concluye que la práctica de la cirugía de mínimo acceso es propicia para que médicos y enfermeras hagan una mayor observancia del derecho de autonomía de los pacientes. Se reconoce la capacidad de este personal para tomar decisiones independientes de los médicos en cuanto a las acciones de cuidado, lo que implica una mayor responsabilidad. Scientific and technological advances have opened a gap between medical treatments and the moral values that should support health care. The nurse is not exempt from these dangers. As such, a new ethical model that integrates to the process of nursing care has emerged. In order to determine the knowledge and opinions of the professionals who work in minimal access surgery services on the implementation of this model, a descriptive, observational study was designed utilizing qualitative methodology. In-depth interviewing was used as the primary testing technique. A panel of experts from the National Center of Minimal Access Surgery was consulted to develop the interview guide. Thirty-four nurses from the National Center for Minimal Access Surgery were interviewed over the course of the study period. Results suggest that the setting of minimal access surgery is conducive to medical professionals making greater observance of the right to patient autonomy. The ability of this staff to make independent decisions regarding medical care action is recognized, which implies greater responsibility. (shrink)

En 1968 Raquel Carson comenzaba una revolución en el pensamiento, quizá una de las de mayor peso en la actualidad. En su libro "La primavera silenciosa" acusaba del deterioro ambiental al poder ilimitado del ser humano. La creencia surgida en la modernidad de que todo lo que el hombre decidía era en sí mismo lo mejor por haber sido fruto de una voluntad libérrima, daba primacía y legitimidad absoluta a su acción sobre la naturaleza. Surgieron con gran fuerza numerosos grupos (...) ecologistas que adoptaron un pensamiento que responde al nombre de "ecología profunda" o "Deep Ecology" descrito por primera vez por Arme Naess en un artículo publicado por la revista Inquiry y titulado "The Shallow and the Deep, Long Range Ecology Movement". Los principios que proponía este movimiento (Naess 1984) pueden ser resumidos en ocho grandes puntos: 1) la vida de los seres no humanos es un valor en sí: 2) la riqueza y la diversidad de estas formas de vida son también valores en sí; 3) los seres humanos no pueden intervenir de manera destructiva en la vida; 4) a este respecto, la intervención humana actual es eminentemente excesiva; 5) por consiguiente, las reglas de juego deben ser radicalmente modificadas; 6) esta modificación radical debe hacerse tanto a nivel de las estructuras económicas como de las estructuras ideológicas y culturales; 7) a nivel ideológico, el cambio principal consiste en apreciar más la calidad de la vida que el goce de los bienes materiales; 8) las personas que acepten estos principios tienen la obligación de contribuir, directa o indirectamente a la realización de los cambios fundamentales que aquellos implican. (shrink)

The objective of this article is to analyse cultural influences when French companies cooperate with Mexican companies (subsidiaries of the French, established in Mexico) in the field of automotive manufacturing. An OEM supplier and a final assembly plant were selected to perform the study. Interviews with the workers, supervisors and managers have been performed. Case studies were collected in order to analyse the problems and to illustrate technical as well as cultural solutions. The analysis showed that important differences and coincidences (...) in the manufacturing solutions could be explained from the cultural (French and Mexican) standpoint. The conclusions integrate some recommendations for French and Mexican companies that are in actual cooperation or that are planning to globalise in the corresponding countries. (shrink)

Presentation of issue No 66 about epistemic injustices.

Despite continuing controversies regarding the vital status of both brain-dead donors and individuals who undergo donation after circulatory death (DCD), respecting the dead donor rule (DDR) remains the standard moral framework for organ procurement. The DDR increases organ supply without jeopardizing trust in transplantation systems, reassuring society that donors will not experience harm during organ procurement. While the assumption that individuals cannot be harmed once they are dead is reasonable in the case of brain-dead protocols, we argue that the DDR (...) is not an acceptable strategy to protect donors from harm in DCD protocols. We propose a threefold alternative to justify organ procurement practices: (1) ensuring that donors are sufficiently protected from harm; (2) ensuring that they are respected through informed consent; and (3) ensuring that society is fully informed of the inherently debatable nature of any criterion to declare death. (shrink)

Recommending the identity of bidders in public procurement auctions has a significant impact in many areas of public procurement, but it has not yet been studied in depth. A bidders recommender would be a very beneficial tool because a supplier can search appropriate tenders and, vice versa, a public procurement agency can discover automatically unknown companies which are suitable for its tender. This paper develops a pioneering algorithm to recommend potential bidders using a machine learning method, particularly a random forest (...) classifier. The bidders recommender is described theoretically, so it can be implemented or adapted to any particular situation. It has been successfully validated with a case study: an actual Spanish tender dataset which has 102,087 tenders from 2014 to 2020 and a company dataset which has 1,353,213 Spanish companies. Quantitative, graphical, and statistical descriptions of both datasets are presented. The results of the case study were satisfactory: the winning bidding company is within the recommended companies group, from 24% to 38% of the tenders, according to different test conditions and scenarios. (shrink)

Previous studies using the dot-perspective task postulated that people automatically take into account others' perspective even when it prevents them from achieving their own goals. This human ability may be of key importance for the ascription of mental states and social interactions. The cognitive and emotional determinants of automatic perspective taking is still matter of debate. To address this issue, we examined the performance in the Samson et al. APT task in 91 healthy adults who underwent a detailed neuropsychological testing (...) including assessment of their general intelligence, attention and impulsivity, alexithymia, and measures of affective empathy and explicit theory of mind. Univariate and multiple linear regression models were used to explore the association between mean reaction times in the APT task, and the CPT-II parameters, WAIS global score, TAS, and GeSoCS and mini-SEA scores. Only the CPT-II parameters were significantly associated with the mean reaction times. Increased omissions, commissions, and detectability as well as hit reaction time standard error in CPT-II were all related to worse performances both in Self and Other conditions. The mean number of errors was negatively associated with the GeSoCS score. Among the variables studied, only CPT-II parameters had a significant impact on egocentric and altercentric interference. Neither global intelligence nor alexithymia have an effect on dot-perspective task performance. The present findings suggest that people with lower attentional resources and increased impulsivity display worse performances in the APT task and are less responsive to both egocentric and altercentric interference. (shrink)

Accordingto the mass media, a postfeminist era emerged in the 1990s. The first objective is to develop a definition of the postfeminist perspective. Based on an informal content analysis of popular articles, the authors identify four postfeminist claims: overall support for the women’s movement has dramatically eroded because some women are increasingly antifeminist, believe the movement is irrelevant, and have adopted a “no, but..”.version of feminism. The second objective is to determine the extent of empirical support for these claims. Usingexistingpublic (...) opinion data, the authors find little support for the four postfeminist claims. Implications of the unsubstantiated post-feminist argument are discussed. (shrink)

Resumen En la crítica del Cantar de los Cantares no hay acuerdo acerca del problema estructural del libro. Las teorías se dividen en aquellas que abogan por un carácter fragmentario contra otras que ven un carácter unitario de los poemas. El estudio intenta revisar esta problemática y proponer que el Cantar de los Cantares es una colección de poemas sueltos que un redactor/recopilador juntó e intentó poner en cierto orden, incorporando el conjuro de 2,7; 3,5; 5,8; 8,4 como estribillo con (...) función articuladora, de tal manera que el conjuro quedó puesto como hito divisorio entre grandes bloques poéticos que se relacionan entre sí por un tema común u otro recurso de mano redaccional, configurando así un ordenamiento estructural de todo el libro.In the criticism of the Song of Songs there is no agreement on the structural problem of the book. Theories are divided into those advocating a fragmentary against others who see a unitary character of poems. The study attempts to revise this problems and propose that the Song of Songs is a loose collection of poems that a compiler gathered and tried to give some order, incorporating the adjuration of 2, 7; 3,5; 5,8; 8,4 as refrain with articulate function, such that the adjuration was set as milestone dividing between large blocks poetic that interrelate by a common theme or other resource or literary technique thus configuring a structural arrangement of the whole book. (shrink)

We present here a direct elementary construction of continuous utility functions on perfectly separable totally preordered sets that does not make use of the well-known Debreu’s open gap lemma. This new construction leans on the concept of a separating countable decreasing scale. Starting from a perfectly separable totally ordered structure, we give an explicit construction of a separating countable decreasing scale, from which we show how to get a continuous utility map.

We review the organization and contents of the 20th Gatherings in Biosemiotics. As the organizers, we share our insights from organizing a community research project in the year where the Covid-19 pandemic halted international travel. We try to describe the challenges of putting together the yearly conference on Biosemiotics and the main content that was presented by the research community.

A systematic literature review was conducted on the production and publication of research articles related to the study of variables, financial technology (Fintech), and Bioeconomy. The purpose of this research was to know the main characteristics of the publications registered in the SD, WoS, and Scopus databases during the period 2007-2024, to February 8, 2024, achieving the identification of 46 publications in total. The information provided by these platforms was organized using graphs and figures, categorizing the information by CO-occurrence of (...) Keywords, Year of Publication, Country of Origin, and Area of Knowledge. Once these characteristics were described, a qualitative analysis was conducted to refer to the position of the different authors on the proposed topic. Among the main results of this research, Germany and the United States were the countries with the highest number of publications, with a total of 7 publications each, followed by Brazil with 6 publications, while 60% of the publications are concentrated and originate in European countries. The area of knowledge that contributed the most to the study variables was Environmental Sciences, with 18 articles. This systematic literature review allowed us to conclude that the study of the intersection of bioeconomy and financial technologies is an issue that is gaining attention. There has been a boom in scientific publications in the last decade. (shrink)

Religion and faith are often central aspects of an individual’s self-concept, and yet they are typically avoided in the workplace. The current study seeks to replicate the findings about the role of religious beliefs and practices in shaping an employee’s reactions to stress/burnout and job attitudes. Second, we extend the literature on faith in the workplace by investigating possible relationships between religious beliefs and practices and citizenship behaviors at work. Third, we attempted to study how one’s perceived freedom to express (...) his/her religious identity at work was related to workplace attitudes and behaviors. Mixed results suggest that religiosity can be related to stress and burnout, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and Organizational Citizenship Behavior. More research is needed to further qualify the results and explore the effects of one’s perceived freedom to express his/her religious identity in the workplace. (shrink)

This research sought to evaluate the impact of a gamified resource program on inclusive education learning and the strengthening of inclusive skills in university students in the city of Machala, Ecuador; focusing on knowledge and understanding. The research has a quantitative approach, with a quasi-experimental design, used an Educational Inclusion questionnaire with multiple options which was based on a Likert scale, was used as a data collection instrument, with a representative sample of 60 students of the seventh semester of the (...) Pedagogy of Experimental Sciences career. After the implementation of the learning sessions, a significant improvement was observed in the experimental group, evidenced by an increase in the "Achieved" category and a significant reduction in the "Start" category. Inferential analysis showed that the program had a significant impact compared to the control group, with a significance level of 0.001. In conclusion, the program proved to be an effective tool to strengthen the dimension of knowledge and understanding in university students, thus contributing to Sustainable Development Goal number 4 on quality education. (shrink)

The American Journal of Bioethics, Volume 11, Issue 8, Page W4-W6, August 2011.