En el contexto de los riesgos generados por la creciente aplicación de las neurotecnologías en el cerebro humano, se destaca la aparición de un nuevo derecho conocido como la libertad cognitiva, que se constituye como la libertad de las personas a tomar sus propias decisiones sin la interferencia de las neurotecnologías en su cerebro. El surgir de este nuevo derecho ha traído consigo profundas reflexiones éticas y jurídicas. En ese marco, desde un enfoque de derechos humanos, existen diversos argumentos que (...) reconocen, o no, la factibilidad de reconocer a este nuevo derecho en la categoría de un derecho humano y/o fundamental. (shrink)

IntroductionIncorporating technology in cognitive interventions represents an innovation, making them more accessible, flexible, and cost-effective. This will not be feasible without adequate user-technology fit. Bearing in mind the importance of developing cognitive interventions whose technology is appropriate for elderly people with cognitive impairment, the objective of this systematic review was to find evidence about usability and user experience measurements and features of stimulation, training, and cognitive rehabilitation technologies for older adults with mild cognitive impairment or dementia.MethodThe Medline, PubMed, Scopus, ScienceDirect, (...) and PsycINFO databases were searched for literature published in the last 10 years, and three researchers independently reviewed potentially eligible studies, following specific inclusion criteria. A systematic review of the studies was conducted, presenting a qualitative synthesis of usability and UX measures with their outcomes, study characteristics and features of the cognitive intervention technologies.ResultsTen studies were selected: five were cognitive stimulation and five were cognitive training. Most of them were computer-based programs with a serious game format. Efficiency and effectiveness were the most frequent measurements used for collecting objective usability data, showing that elderly people with cognitive impairment require more time and help but can complete tasks. Regarding UX or subjective usability data, questionnaires and scales were the most used methods, reporting positive experience despite certain difficulties with the interface in five studies.ConclusionMeasuring usability and UX in cognitive intervention technologies for older adults with MCI or dementia provides an integrated view that can contribute to their development according to the needs and characteristics of the target population. More research is required to include this population group in usability and UX studies, as well as standardized tools and consensus on the relationship of these terms to guarantee the future effectiveness of cognitive intervention technologies.Review registrationThis review was registered in the PROSPERO International Register of Systematic Review Protocols. (shrink)

IN THE LAST PART of the Theory of Moral Sentiments, Adam Smith puts his theory in a class with those of his contemporaries Francis Hutcheson and David Hume, namely, the systems that make sentiments the principle of approbation. Despite recognizing important differences with both of them, he thinks that since he has placed the origin of moral sentiments in sympathy, and in particular the fact that we are able to enter into the motives of the agent and get pleasure from (...) finding them appropriate to their cause, sentiments are the foundation of his theory of morals. Many of Smith’s commentators, in fact almost all of the most important studies over the last few years, reaffirm the author’s self-description. However, my aim in this paper is to challenge this view by showing that Smith’s system can also be plausibly seen as a theory of practical reasoning, and in some important aspects very similar to Aristotelian ethics. Surprisingly few scholars have seen this parallel. Laurence Berns, Samuel Fleischacker, Charles Griswold, and Gloria Vivenza are the latest exceptions, identifying several points of coincidence between Adam Smith and Aristotle’s ethics. None of them, however, has tied all these similarities under a unified interpretation, such as the one I propose here: The basic analogy between these theories, and the source of those particular coincidences, is the operation of practical reason. Moreover, and besides the common elements with Aristotle’s ethics, Smith’s reconstruction of practical reason simultaneously announces some of the main features of modern accounts of ethics, such as impartiality and universality as preconditions of moral judgment. The integration of these ancient and modern elements in a single coherent theory allows Smith’s TMS to overcome the insufficiencies and paradoxes of both these traditions, and it constitutes one of the most interesting and challenging proposals of modern ethics. (shrink)

Ernesto Volkening leyó, reescribió y comentó los Escolios a un texto implícito de Nicolás Gómez Dávila, labor interpretativa desarrollada mediante un diario de lectura con aspiraciones aforísticas y críticas. Este artículo recuerda el contenido de sus valoraciones y destaca cómo estas sirven en la definición de glosas, máximas y aforismos; así mismo, se concentra en la voluntad de estilo de los fragmentos que conforman la obra. Lo anterior favorece el examen de la forma de la escritura en las tareas críticas (...) de Volkening y la reafirmación de lazos entre diario de lectura, formas argumentativas breves y ensayo. (shrink)

ALGUNAS FORMAS MENORES EN LA CULTURA ARGENTINA DE FINES DEL SIGLO XX.

The aim of this paper lies in characterizing the explanations and models used in the field of evolutionary developmental biology throughout its history. While manipulative experiments in controlled conditions have been useful to set the bases of the discipline and are still routinely performed, this approach supposes a tension between the reliability and the representativity of the conclusions. Given the recent changes in the understanding of evolutionary phenomena, different authors currently emphasize the need of avoiding excessive simplifications in experimental approaches, (...) incorporating the complexity of the analyzed systems as a relevant trait in the study of biological diversity. On the other hand, the fragile and contingent nature of evolutionary processes and the impossibility of intervening some of these phenomena underscore the importance of non-manipulative models that allow the elucidation of how-possibly mechanisms. We argue that a pluralism characterized by the integration of different kinds of explanations, models and metaphors used in evo-devo allows to exploit their respective advantages, favours interdisciplinarity and can contribute to form a representative description of evolutionary processes without relinquishing the local and detailed study of actual mechanisms. (shrink)

Resumen Los filósofos sentimentalistas escoceses David Hume y Adam Smith proponen dos estrategias distintas para restringir las tendencias egoístas de la naturaleza humana. A pesar de las evidentes similitudes de sus propuestas morales, Smith encuentra dentro del ser humano la capacidad para transformar sus pasiones parciales y aspirar hacia ideales de perfección. El sentimentalismo de Hume, en cambio, no permite la autotransformación de la persona, y debe apoyarse en convenciones sociales para manipular y redirigir los impulsos egoístas desde fuera. Ambos (...) logran su objetivo. Pero mientras Hume se conforma con una moral funcional para la vida social, Smith abre una nueva dimensión de desarrollo para el ser humano.The Scottish sentimentalist philosophers David Hume and Adam Smith suggest different strategies for restricting and accommodating human selfish tendencies. In spite of the obvious similarities of their moral proposals, Smith finds within the human being the capacity to transform his partial passions and to aspire to ideals of perfection. In contrast, Hume's sentimentalism does not allow for self-transformation, and must rely on social conventions to manipulate and redirect selfish impulses from without. Both attempts achieve their goal. However, while for Hume peaceful social interaction seems to be the only aim of morality; for Smith morality also opens a new dimension of development for the human being. (shrink)

In this paper, I argue that, in his Theory of Moral Sentiments, Adam Smith conflates two different meanings of ?self-command?, which is particularly puzzling because of the central role of this virtue in his theory. The first is the matrix of rational action, the one described in Part III of the TMS and learned in ?the great school of self-command?. The second is the particular moral virtue of self-command. Distinguishing between these two meanings allows us, on the one hand, to (...) solve some apparent paradoxes of the text; and, on the other, to identify various features of both the practical reason and deontological ethical traditions that are present in Smith's sentimentalism, enriching his phenomenological account of moral actions. (shrink)

RESUMEN En este artículo discuto acerca de la polémica entre Harry Frankfurt y Susan Wolf respecto a si es o no es importante que aquello que amamos sea objetivamente valioso, y si una vida completamente inmoral es tan valiosa como otra vida moral. Sostengo que aunque Frankfurt tiene razón al decir que el solo hecho de amar ya es valioso, eso no basta para una praxis plena. Dado que nuestros fines determinan nuestras elecciones, aquello que amemos determinará el tipo de (...) vida que tengamos y no cualquiera da igual. ABSTRACT In this paper I discuss the controversy between Harry Frankfurt and Susan Wolf as to whether or not it is important that what we care about is objectively valuable, and whether a completely immoral life is as valuable as a moral life. I argue that although Frankfurt is right in saying that the mere act of caring is already valuable, that is not enough for a meaningful praxis. Given that our ends in life determine our choices, whatever we love will determine the kind of life we have, and different kinds of life are not equally valuable. (shrink)

RESUMEN: En su Teoría de los Sentimientos Morales Adam Smith propone una ética que concilia dos paradigmas habitualmente considerados como incompatibles: una ética de virtudes, con normas orientativas e ideales de excelencia, y una ética con reglas universales que se aplican en todos los casos sin excepción. Smith lo hace cambiando el punto de vista desde el que se realiza el juicio moral, a una perspectiva que llamaré "simpatético-imparcial", y que corresponde a "los sentimientos simpatéticos de un espectador imparcial y (...) bien informado". Este novedoso punto de vista le permite introducir características modernas a la ética clásica de la virtud para dar una nueva justificación a las virtudes positivas, así como cambiar el modo de entender las "reglas o principios universales". De este modo, Smith construye una ética capaz de dar cuenta, dentro del mismo marco teórico, tanto de los ideales de excelencia propios de la virtud, como de los imperativos universales modernos. ABSTRACT: In his Theory of Moral Sentiments, Adam Smith reconciles two moral paradigms that are usually considered incompatible: an ethics of virtue, with general guidelines and ideals of excellence, and an ethics with universal rules, which must be applied to all cases without exceptions. Smith makes this possible by shifting the perspective from which moral judgments are assessed to what I call the 'sympathetic-impartial' perspective, which stands for "the sympathetic feelings of an impartial and well-informed spectator". From this new standpoint, Smith is able to introduce some modern features into classic virtue ethics and provide a different justification for positive virtues, as well as to change the way 'universal norms or principles' are understood. Accordingly, Smith's theory accounts simultaneously, and within the same theoretical framework, for both ancient-like virtues and their ideals of excellence and for modern-like universal imperatives. (shrink)

en las últimas décadas la bioética se ha vuelto un tema crucial para la Iglesia. La dinámica propia de la técnica, que se auto-propulsa y avanza con independencia de criterios éticos, amenaza de modo inminente la dignidad humana. En la actualidad ya existe la posibilidad de producir artificialmente seres humanos, incluso sin la mediación de gametos. Pero lo que no existe son los índices para reconocer cuándo una célula intervenida sigue siendo sólo una célula -eventualmente pluripotencial y por tanto con (...) grandes promesas terapéuticas; o cuando ya es una célula totipotencial, un cigoto, un organismo humano: una persona. Ciencia, filosofía y teología, como se mostrará en este artículo, se unen en la reflexión bioética para encontrar de modo urgente esas señales; puesto que la biotecnología sigue avanzando, y hay de tomar posición sobre sus descubrimientos. La Iglesia no puede callar frente a una posible producción artificial, instrumentalización y destrucción de personas; que aunque estén en su fase unicelular y hayan llegado al mundo como artefactos, siguen siempre siendo el reflejo del Rostro de Dios. (shrink)

Strauss claims that the general crisis in Western world is closely related to the crisis which political philosophy as such is undergoing. Apart from that, the latter is the result of the revolutionary changes introduced by the creators of modern political philosophy, whose conclusions insist that it is necessary to break with tradition in order to construe a new political science. The article examines the straussian’s vision of Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke and finally, Nietzsche. Based on this description, Strauss proposes that (...) a "return" is needed as an adequate response to failure -or maybe triumph?- of the modern utopia. But the “return”, would not take into account the changes which have affected the world and humanity until the present, as it is just impossible to simply reconstruct the past. In this context, the article poses the question about at which moment of history should the "return" begin and, particularly which elements of the complex thinking heritage should be claimed. In this respect, Strauss suggests that the reform of political philosophy (the intent to base it on some new rules, though known in the past) is necessarily equivalent to an amendment of totality. This is so because political philosophy is a part of philosophy which, at the same time, "means the search to know God, the world and the man”, furthermore, it means the search to know the essences of all things. In this way, it is stated here that the great problem about the return lies mainly in that it is not clear where the return aims at. (shrink)

El trabajo que aquí compartimos surge de nuestras prácticas de enseñanza-aprendizaje de metodología de la investigación. En donde nos preguntamos cómo se produce conocimiento en la Facultad de Ciencias Económicas de la Universidad Nacional de Cuyo (FCE-UNCUYO), qué saberes aparecen en aquellas investigaciones, qué supuestos epistemológicos amparan los conocimientos producidos y cuáles silencian los saberes y las experiencias que se cuelan en los textos. Partimos de una sospecha: detrás de una aparente confusión entre producción de conocimientos e investigaciones para la (...) intervención, se encuentra la producción de saberes específicos del campo de las ciencias económicas, con frecuencia no reconocidos en instancias académicas por su escasa sistematización. Nuestra búsqueda intenta dilucidar, a partir de una epistemología crítica, los supuestos epistemológicos de las investigaciones de grado realizadas en la FCE-UNCUYO para dar cuenta de las experiencias que subyacen a los saberes. El proceder metodológico buscó mirar entre, sin aislar nuestro objeto de su contexto de producción, ensayando un mirar háptico para leer el saber. En este trayecto identificamos tres lenguas que nos permiten acceder a diferentes experiencias en la producción de saberes y conocimiento: la lengua materna, la disciplinar y la extranjera. (shrink)

In Older Adults (OAs), Electroencephalogram (EEG) slowing in frontal lobes and a diminished muscle atonia during Rapid Eye Movement sleep (REM) have each been effective tracers of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), but this relationship remains to be explored by non-linear analysis. Likewise, data provided by EEG, EMG (Electromyogram) and EOG (Electrooculogram)—the three required sleep indicators—during the transition from REM to Non-REM (NREM) sleep have not been related jointly to MCI. Therefore, the main aim of the study was to explore, with (...) results for Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (DFA) and multichannel DFA (mDFA), the Color of Noise (CN) at the NREM to REM transition in OAs with MCI vs. subjects with good performances. The comparisons for the transition from NREM to REM were made for each group at each cerebral area, taking bilateral derivations to evaluate interhemispheric coupling and anteroposterior and posterior networks. In addition, stationarity analysis was carried out to explore if the three markers distinguished between the groups. Neuropsi and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) were administered, as well as other geriatric tests. One night polysomnography was applied to 6 OAs with MCI (68.1 ± 3) and to 7 subjects without it (CTRL) (64.5 ± 9), and pre-REM and REM epochs were analyzed for each subject. Lower scores for attention, memory and executive funcions and a greater index of arousals during sleep were found for the MCI group. Results confirmed that EOGs constituted significant markers of MCI, increasing the CN for the MCI group in REM sleep. The CN of the EEG from the pre-REM to REM was higher for the MCI group vs. the opposite for the CTRL group at frontotemporal areas. Frontopolar interhemispheric scaling values also followed this trend as well as right anteroposterior networks. EMG Hurst values for both groups were lower than those for EEG and EOG. Stationarity analyses showed differences between stages in frontal areas and right and left EOGs for both groups. These results may demonstrate the breakdown of fractality of areas especially involved in executive functioning and the way weak stationarity analyses may help to distinguish between sleep stages in OAs. (shrink)

La ética que describe Adam Smith no es una ética relativista. Aunque muchas normas son convencionales, existen otras interculturales, en concreto las de justicia. ‘No dañar a un igual’ es una norma con dos elementos: el daño, que puede entenderse como relativo a la cultura; y los iguales, que aunque no sean siempre reconocidos, no dependen de las distintas culturas. En el daño a estos últimos se fundarían las normas interculturales de justicia.

Francis Hutcheson es un reconocido proto-utilitarista. Sin embargo, Adam Smith, su discípulo más prominente y sucesor en la cátedra de Filosofía Moral de la Universidad de Glasgow, tomó otros aspectos de la ética sentimentalista de su maestro y fundó, sobre la base del mismo sentimentalismo, una teoría moral completamente distinta. En este trabajo exploraré qué rasgos de la ética de Smith -en particular, los de la simpatía y espectador imparcial- se encuentran ya en germen en la ética de Hutcheson y (...) cómo Smith desarrolló esas intuiciones para, introduciendo una instancia de racionalidad en los juicios morales y sin traicionar la tradición sentimentalista, incluir también en su teoría moral elementos propios de la razón práctica.Francis Hutcheson is known as a proto-utilitarian. Adam Smith, though, his most prominent student an successor on the Chair of Moral Philosophy in the University of Glasgow, focuses on some different trends of his teacher's ethics and founds, based on the same sentimentalism, a completely different theory of morals. On this paper I explore what aspects of Hutcheson's ethics -particularly those of ‘sympathy' and the ‘impartial spectator'- where already present in his theory, and how Smith develops those intuitions in order to introduce a moment of rationality in moral judgments, whereby he is able to construct a theory that includes practical reasoning, without betraying the Scottish sentimentalist tradition. (shrink)

En este artículo postulo que, analizado a la luz de las enseñanzas del Magisterio de la Iglesia, tanto el llamado rescate como la adopción de embriones criopreservados abandonados debe considerarse una acción moralmente ilícita, al margen de la buena intención de las rescatistas y las trágicas circunstancias de los embriones. A diferencia de otros autores que se oponen por razones prudenciales o la relación de esta adopción con los bienes del matrimonio, yo propongo que el objeto de esta acción, la (...) transferencia heteróloga de un embrión criopreservado, es en sí una violación a la dignidad del embrión y en cuanto tal un mal intrínseco. Este es uno de los difíciles casos en que el respeto a la dignidad de la persona obliga a respetar su muerte antes que empeñarse por cualquier medio por salvar su vida. (shrink)

El propósito del trabajo es exponer las reflexiones epistemológicas hechas por investigadores que integran un grupo interdisciplinario y que elaboran un diagnóstico durante la primera fase de una Investigación Acción Participativa (IAP). El proyecto se centra en la atención a la salud integral de cuatro comunidades en estado de alta y muy alta marginación, ubicadas en la Meseta Comiteca-Tojolabal, Chiapas, México, durante el periodo 2021-2022. Este artículo, de corte cualitativo, descriptivo y crítico reflexivo, permite repensar la investigación fundada en las (...) relaciones lineales. Se entiende que, una filosofía de la educación transdisciplinar, delinea una praxis compleja que genera transformaciones sociales. Primero, se define el método de IAP y sus desafíos. Luego, se exponen los retos experimentados por los investigadores, desde que planean acciones para atender a las solicitudes de la convocatoria emitida por el Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT), hasta el momento de una segunda reflexividad en el que comprenden lo que hicieron en tanto hicieron (Giddens, 2011). Los principales resultados revelan que el acercamiento y diálogo constante entre el cuerpo de investigadores y de éstos con las comunidades genera sensibilidad intercultural cuando coexisten diferentes epistemologías y formas plurales de entenderlas. Lo anterior, favorece la proyección de diversas estrategias metodológicas que tejen esfuerzos a favor del bienestar comunitario y permite que el investigador asuma una actitud socialmente responsable. (shrink)

En este trabajo, en base a análisis realizados en población adulta argentina que vinculan patrones de salud a nivel poblacional con una hipótesis de la biología evolutiva, buscamos poner en evidencia las limitaciones y problematizar algunos de los supuestos y enfoques de la epidemiología “clásica” para explicar condiciones complejas no transmisibles como, en este caso, la diabetes tipo 2. Asimismo, a través de este análisis cuestionamos la adopción acrítica y descontextualizada de criterios diagnósticos y categorías desarrolladas de acuerdo a intereses (...) particulares e impuestas través de relaciones desiguales de poder. (shrink)

Brings together a range of practitioners and academics from the world of business who examine corporate social responsibility in policy and practice in a series of case studies from across the globe.

We read Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments as a critical response to David Hume's moral theory. While both share a commitment to moral sentimentalism, they propose different ways of meeting its main challenge, that is, explaining how judgments informed by (partial) sentiments can nevertheless have a justified claim to general authority. This difference is particularly manifest in their respective accounts of ‘moral optics’, or the way they rely on the analogy between perceptual and moral judgments. According to Hume, making (...) perceptual and moral judgments requires focusing on frequently co-occurring impressions (perceptions of objects or reactive sentiments) for tracking an existing object with its perceptual properties or an agent's character traits. Smith uses visual perception for the purpose of illustrating one source of the partiality of the sentiments people feel in response to actions. Before making a moral judgment, people have to disregard this partiality and accept that they are all equally important. Smith and Hume's different ways of relying on the same analogy reveals the still-overlooked and yet profound differences between their moral theories. (shrink)

Gender Dysphoria in Children and Controversies about its Treatment: Two Different Conceptions of Gender Identity Disforia de gênero em crianças e controvérsias em seu tratamento: duas concepções diferentes sobre a identidade de gênero Gender dysphoria is a marked mismatch between the sex felt or expressed by an individual and that assigned to them at birth. It is associated with clinically significant discomfort or social impairment and can occur in children, adolescents, and adults. The literature mainly describes three approaches for preadolescents: (...) therapeutic model, watchful waiting, and gender affirmative model. However, there is currently no consensus on its treatment nor any evidence that favors one approach over another. This paper provides a brief review of the existing literature on gender dysphoria, explains various approaches for children, and discusses the anthropological views behind them. We argue that at least two ways of understanding gender identity have given rise to disagreements over the proposed treatments. It is quite important to comprehend the anthropological assumptions on which these models are based since they underlie different conceptions of the person’s sex-gender relationship and, therefore, the role of corporality and self-awareness in gender identity. Para citar este artículo / To reference this article / Para citar este artigo Cox P, Carrasco MA. Disforia de género en niños y controversias en su tratamiento: dos concepciones distintas sobre la identidad de género. Pers bioet. 2020;24:57-76. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5294/pebi.2020.24.1.5 Recibido: 30/10/2019 Aceptado: 03/01/2020 Publicado: 07/05/2020. (shrink)

RESUMEN Diversos estudios han concluido que los pacientes con daño en la Corteza Frontal -CF- o Corteza Prefrontal Ventromedial -CPV- muestran una disposición a herir directamente a otra persona con el fin de salvar varias vidas en sus respuestas a los "dilemas morales personales", revelando una posible carencia de empatía. No obstante, cuando evalúan conductas carentes de empatía sin justificación utilitarista, sus respuestas son normales. Defendemos aquí que los pacientes sufren una deficiencia cognitiva relacionada con la hipótesis de marcador somático (...) de Damasio y con juicios de valor. Criticamos la hipótesis del "paciente utilitarista", que se ha atrincherado en la neurociencia cognitiva. ABSTRACT In their answers to questions regarding "personal moral dilemmas", patients with lesions to the Frontal Cortex -FC- or Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex -vmPFC- display a disposition to directly injure another person in order to save lives, thus revealing a possible lack of empathy. However, their answers are normal when they evaluate behaviors lacking in empathy but without a utilitarian justification. We here defend that those patients suffer from a cognitive deficiency associated with Damasio's somatic marker hypothesis and with value judgments. The article critiques the "utilitarian patient" hypothesis that has become deeply rooted in cognitive neuroscience. RESUMO Diversos estudos têm concluído que os pacientes com danos no Córtex Frontal (CF) ou Córtex Pré-frontal Ventromedial (CPV) mostram uma disposição a ferir diretamente a outra pessoa com o objetivo de salvar várias vidas em suas respostas aos "dilemas morais pessoais", o que revela uma possível carência de empatia. Contudo, quando avaliam condutas carentes de empatia sem justificativa utilitarista, suas respostas são normais. Defendemos aqui que os pacientes sofrem uma deficiência cognitiva relacionada com a hipótese de marcador somático de Damásio e com juízos de valor. Criticamos a hipótese do "paciente utilitarista", que vem se refugiando na neurociência cognitiva. (shrink)

El peritaje es un medio de prueba. Desde la historiografía, se ha estudiado como referente de la monopolización que la mirada médica ejerció desde aproximadamente 1930 en el proceso judicial. Desde entonces, el peritaje se ha concebido como medicalizado. Si bien esto explica el proceso mediante el cual el conocimiento médico se inserta en los procesos penales, no agota la comprensión del peritaje, puesto que deja por fuera la reflexión sobre otros conocimientos que se involucran en el informe pericial. Para (...) explicar qué es el peritaje y qué tipo de conocimientos se involucran en él, a partir de una investigación de corte documental, este artículo realiza una lectura del peritaje desde la codificación como una expresión relacional de la experticia. Para hacerlo, propone un análisis de la codificación penal y procesal colombiana desde el año de 1873 hasta el año de 1980, con el fin de evidenciar que sus articulados traducen una visión del legislador donde el perito se muestra como una figura relacional en medio de conocimientos, partes, actuaciones procesales y decisiones del juez. Todo esto con el fin de demostrar que la concepción del peritaje debe entenderse en relación con la experticia y con la capacidad que tiene el perito de relacionar y validar su conocimiento en el proceso judicial. (shrink)

Interest in ethical aspects associated to product acquisition and consumption is a growing trend among consumers. In this context, the concept of “product with ethical attributes” has arisen to refer to products with explicit social and environmental characteristics. However, one of the factors that most hinders the purchasing of these products is certainly price. Given the difficulty of reducing price, the question that arises is the extent to which other product attributes can attenuate the negative impact of price on perceived (...) value. We assume that the special benefits associated to this type of products are, at a different level, attenuators of the relationship between price and perceived value. Focusing on Fair Trade organic coffee, hypotheses are tested regarding survey data from 407 customers. They were interviewed in an actual purchasing scenario. The models are tested using conventional Structural Equation Models and the Latent Moderated Structural Equation method. The results obtained shed some light on a highly generalised belief that the marketing of these products can only be improved by reducing their price. However, although a price reduction could be desirable, albeit complicated in this product category, its effects could be reduced by acting on other variables such as the ethical aspects, quality and healthiness of this product category. (shrink)

Objetivo: El siguiente artículo tiene como propósito la revisión de la literatura existente cuyo enfoque sea las herramientas tecnológicas utilizadas para el abordaje del paciente con síntomas de salud mental, de manera virtual, para describir las ventajas, la eficacia, la efectividad y los beneficios de estas herramientas, a partir de la literatura encontrada. Métodos: se realizó una búsqueda en las bases de datos Pubmed, Elsevier, UpToDate, Journal of Medical Internet Research y Google Académico. Se identificó un total de 58 artículos (...) que versan sobre la eficacia y efectividad de las diferentes modalidades digitales (tales como aplicaciones, cuestionarios en línea, mensajes de texto, etc.) que tratan la salud mental. Resultados: la búsqueda realizada arrojó un total de 58 artículos. Tras la eliminación de duplicados, el número fue de 50 artículos. Después de la caracterización de la información basada en la revisión de la totalidad del contenido, fueron elegidos 30 artículos para que sirvieran como base para la construcción de la síntesis de datos. Conclusiones: las herramientas virtuales utilizadas en salud mental ofrecen un sin fin de beneficios para prestar un servicio con un acceso más sencillo a la población, de forma económica y efectiva, sin temor a que los pacientes sean estigmatizados al momento de buscar ayuda, como se pudo evidenciar en los artículos presentados. Además, las herramientas digitales utilizadas en psiquiatría han demostrado ser eficaces y seguras, sin embargo, son de reciente aparición y cuentan con una cantidad limitada de estudios que demuestren objetivamente su eficacia en esta área. (shrink)

The study of biodiversity spans many disciplines and includes data pertaining to species distributions and abundances, genetic sequences, trait measurements, and ecological niches, complemented by information on collection and measurement protocols. A review of the current landscape of metadata standards and ontologies in biodiversity science suggests that existing standards such as the Darwin Core terminology are inadequate for describing biodiversity data in a semantically meaningful and computationally useful way. Existing ontologies, such as the Gene Ontology and others in the Open (...) Biological and Biomedical Ontologies (OBO) Foundry library, provide a semantic structure but lack many of the necessary terms to describe biodiversity data in all its dimensions. In this paper, we describe the motivation for and ongoing development of a new Biological Collections Ontology, the Environment Ontology, and the Population and Community Ontology. These ontologies share the aim of improving data aggregation and integration across the biodiversity domain and can be used to describe physical samples and sampling processes (for example, collection, extraction, and preservation techniques), as well as biodiversity observations that involve no physical sampling. Together they encompass studies of: 1) individual organisms, including voucher specimens from ecological studies and museum specimens, 2) bulk or environmental samples (e.g., gut contents, soil, water) that include DNA, other molecules, and potentially many organisms, especially microbes, and 3) survey-based ecological observations. We discuss how these ontologies can be applied to biodiversity use cases that span genetic, organismal, and ecosystem levels of organization. We argue that if adopted as a standard and rigorously applied and enriched by the biodiversity community, these ontologies would significantly reduce barriers to data discovery, integration, and exchange among biodiversity resources and researchers. (shrink)

The acquisition and evolution of speech production, discourse and communication can be negatively impacted by brain malformations. We describe, for the first time, a case of developmental dynamic dysphasia (DDD) in a right-handed adolescent boy (subject D) with cortical malformations involving language-eloquent regions (inferior frontal gyrus) in both the left and the right hemispheres. Language evaluation revealed a markedly reduced verbal output affecting phonemic and semantic fluency, phrase and sentence generation and verbal communication in everyday life. Auditory comprehension, repetition, naming, (...) reading and spelling were relatively preserved, but executive function was impaired. Multimodal neuroimaging showed a malformed cerebral cortex with atypical configuration and placement of white matter tracts bilaterally and abnormal callosal fibers. Dichotic listening showed right hemisphere dominance for language and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) additionally revealed dissociated hemispheric language representation with right frontal activation for phonology and bilateral dominance for semantic processing. Moreover, subject D also had congenital mirror movements (CMM), defined as involuntary movements of one side of the body that mirror intentional movements of the other side. Transcranial magnetic stimulation and fMRI during voluntary unimanual (left and right) hand movements showed bilateral motor cortex recruitment and tractography revealed a lack of decussation of bilateral corticospinal tracts. Genetic testing aimed to detect mutations that disrupt the development of commissural tracts correlating with CMM (e.g., Germline DCC mutations) was negative. Overall, our findings suggest that DDD in subject D resulted from the underdevelopment of the left inferior frontal gyrus with limited capacity for plastic reorganization by its homologous counterpart in the right hemisphere. Corpus callosum anomalies probably contributed to hinder interhemispheric connectivity necessary to compensate language and communication deficits after left frontal involvement. (shrink)