Seeing is a matter of perspective. A perspective is the vantage point by which we view the reality or the world around us. That is why it is called a worldview or paradigm. In other words, what we see is a by product of how we look at the reality around us based on our idea and image of ourselves. Thus, a philosopher once said that if a bird is given the necessary intelligence and the faculty to express its idea (...) of God it will speak of a God that majestically sings and flies with His mighty wings. (shrink)

IntroductionThe prefrontal cortex plays a crucial role in cognition, particularly in executive functions. Cortical reactivity measured with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation combined with Electroencephalography is altered in pathological conditions, and it may also be a marker of cognitive status in middle-aged adults. In this study, we investigated the associations between cognitive measures and TMS evoked EEG reactivity and explored whether the effects of this relationship were related to neurofilament light chain levels, a marker of neuroaxonal damage.MethodsFifty two healthy middle-aged adults from (...) the Barcelona Brain Health Initiative cohort underwent TMS-EEG, a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment, and a blood test for NfL levels. Global and Local Mean-Field Power, two measures of cortical reactivity, were quantified after left prefrontal cortex stimulation, and cognition was set as the outcome of the regression analysis. The left inferior parietal lobe was used as a control stimulation condition.ResultsLocal reactivity was significantly associated with working memory and reasoning only after L-PFC stimulation. No associations were found between NfL and cognition. These specific associations were independent of the status of neuroaxonal damage indexed by the NfL biomarker and remained after adjusting for age, biological sex, and education.ConclusionOur results demonstrate that TMS evoked EEG reactivity at the L-PFC, but not the L-IPL, is related to the cognitive status of middle-aged individuals and independent of NfL levels, and may become a valuable biomarker of frontal lobe-associated cognitive function. (shrink)

Have invisible barriers for women been broken in 2007, or do we still have to break through medicine's glass ceiling? Data from two of the most prestigious university hospitals in Barcelona with 700-800 beds, Hospital Clínic (HC) and Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau (HSCSP) address this issue. In the HSCSP, 87% of the department chairs are men and 85% of the department unit chiefs are also men. With respect to women, only 5 (13%) are in the (...) top position (department chair) and 4 (15%) are department unit chiefs. Similar statistics are also found at the HC: 87% of the department chairs and 89% of the department unit chiefs are men. Currently, only 6 women (13%) are in the top position and 6 (11%) are department unit chiefs. Analysis of the 2002 data of internal promotions in HC showed that for the first level (senior specialist) sex distribution was similar. Nevertheless, for the second level (consultant) only 25% were women, and for the top level (senior consultant) only 8% were women. These proportions have not changed in 2007 in spite of a 10% increase in leadership positions during this period. Similar proportions were found in HSCSP where 68% of the top promotions were held by men. The data obtained from these two different medical institutions in Barcelona are probably representative of other hospitals in Spain. It would be ethically desirable to have males and females in leadership positions in the medical profession. (shrink)

Tras su consagración como filósofa de referencia en cuestiones de ética, epistemología social, filosofía feminista y filosofía política, la obra cumbre de Miranda Fricker, _Injusticia epistémica, _ha sido traducida al castellano y publicada por Herder. Doctora en Filosofía por la Universidad de Oxford, Fricker ya había publicado anteriormente, junto con Jennifer Hornsby, _The Cambridge Companion to Feminism in Philosophy _, así como recientemente _The Epistemic Life of Groups: Essays in the Epistemology of Collectives _junto con Michael S. Brady. En la (...) obra que aquí nos ocupa, la autora explora dos tipos de injusticias específicamente epistémicas: la testimonial y la hermenéutica. Mientras que la primera se produce cuando los prejuicios llevan a un oyente a disminuir la credibilidad de los juicios de un emisor, no en un instante de exclusión accidental sino de forma estructural-sistemática, la segunda se corresponde con una fase anterior en la que una falta en los recursos de interpretación colectivos dificulta a un sujeto la comprensión de sus propias experiencias. (shrink)

En fecha reciente el jugador Josy Altidore fue víctima de insultos racistas en el Campeonato Holandés. Cada vez que tocaba la pelota, los hinchas del equipo contrario comenzaban a imitar un mono. La respuesta del jugador a estas manifestaciones de hostilidad y racismo fue la siguiente:“¿Qué se puede hacer? Apenas espero que esos hinchas encuentren un medio de mejorar (como personas). Uno solo pude rezar por ellas. Yo siento como si tuviese una obligación con mi club y mi familia, de (...) no reacci.. (shrink)

“Bajo los adoquines la playa...”Símbolo de Mayo del 68. Se lucha, se vive, siempre hay esperanzas de una sociedad más libre, más lúdica. La historia de tantos jóvenes que prefirieron el abrazo confortable del asfalto, y otros tantos que siguieron soñando con la arena, no claudicando en su rebeldía y en la construcción de una contra-cultura.Daniel Cohn-Bendit, el líder del movimiento 22 de marzo de 1968, que colocó en jaque al gobierno de De Gaulle y desató la explosión juvenil mundial (...) más im.. (shrink)

Reseña del último libro de la filósofa italo-australiana Rosi Braidotti: Feminismo Posthumano (2022).

Resumen: Nueva ilustración radical, obra con la que Marina Garcés ganó el Premio Ciudad de Barcelona 2017 en la categoría de ensayo, está estructurada en tres partes precedidas por un preámbulo: condición póstuma, radicalismo ilustrado y humanidades en transición. La primera se centra en el carácter insostenible del mundo contemporáneo, en el análisis de lo que hay después de la Modernidad y la Posmodernidad y en lo que la autora ha llamado “la catástrofe de tiempo”. En la segunda parte (...) se presentan los conceptos de “servidumbre cultural”, “analfabetismo ilustrado”, “neutralización de la crítica” e “inteligencia delegada”. En la tercera y última se exponen cinco hipótesis sobre el estado actual de los saberes humanísticos.: New Radical Enlightenment, by Marina Garcés, won the 2017 City of Barcelona Award in the category of essay. The work is structured in three parts, preceded by a preamble: posthumous condition, illustrated radicalism and Humanities in transition. The first focuses on the unsustainable nature of the contemporary world, on the analysis of what there is after Modernity and Postmodernity and on what the author calls “the catastrophe of time”. The second part presents the concepts of “cultural servitude”, “enlightened illiteracy”, “neutralization of criticism” and “delegated intelligence”. In the third and last, she presents five hypotheses about the current status of Humanities. (shrink)

La universidad vive inmersa en un proceso de cambio impulsado por la creación del Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior. El objetivo principal de este proceso es hacer que la Universidad contribuya a hacer de Europa el Espacio Económico más competitivo del mundo. Se quiere hacer de la Universidad un pilar de la Europa del Conocimiento. Y la Sociedad del Conocimiento se interpreta fundamentalmente en clave económica mercantilista. En la sociedad postindustrial, la principal fuente de ventaja e..

En el análisis internacional contemporáneo, es un error ignorar a uno de los países que tiene una de las mayores tasas de crecimiento de los últimos años. El autor del libro es especialista en la región de Asia y en particular de China. En el texto se ofrece un análisis serio y profundo de la evolución de un país que se mantiene por la senda del crecimiento. Jean-Luc Domenach es autor de libros como: “China: el olvidado archipiélago (1992)”; “China 1949-1994 (...) (1994)”; “Asia en situación de ri.. (shrink)

Tomando como ponto de partida o diálogo "Clara", escrito por Schelling, o autor faz da conexão da Natureza com o Espírito o fio condutor da trajetória do pensamento schellinguiano. É, antes de tudo, na disputa com as filosofias de Fichte e Hegel, que se revela a convergência entre a concepção transcendental do Espírito e a filosofia da Natureza, dando-se assim a entender a importância de um conceito especulativo da Natureza como acesso ao mundo real. Taking the dialogue "Clara", written by (...) Schelling, as a starting point, the author uses the conection of Nature with the Spirit as a guiding line for his exposition of Schelling’s thought. It is, above all, the dispute with the philosophies of Fichte e Hegel that reveals the convergence between a transcendental conception of Spirit and the philosophy of Nature. Thus, the author implies the importance of speculative concept of Nature as an access to the real world. (shrink)

I De las muchas cosas que lleva ya escritas Jorge Riechmann sobre problemas sustantivos relacionados con la crisis ecológica, la última publicada, Cuidar la T(t)ierra, es seguramente la más notable. Y, sin duda, es la aportación más sugerente que ha aparecido por estos pagos al concepto de sostenibilidad y a su práctica en el mundo actual. Se trata de un libro de más seiscientas páginas en el que el lector atento apreciará un montón de cosas que sólo excepcionalmente suelen darse (...) juntas: la .. (shrink)

Esta obra colectiva presenta un compendio de textos que abordan la problemática de la globalización desde diversos ángulos reflexivos, como la economía, la política, la tecnología o el arte. Se trata de un libro poliédrico en cuanto a su forma, pero profundo en su reflexión filosófica. Sus editores lo han estructurado en cinco secciones pensadas para el ámbito de habla hispana, tanto en América como en Europa:1) Historia de fenómenos culturales de la globalización2) Mass media, tecnologías au..

The A. compares the psalmus contra partem Donati, written by Augustin about 394, with the anonymous psalmus responsorius from a papyrus preserved in the Benedictine abbey in Montserrat, near Barcelona, under the shelf mark P.Monts.Roca inv. 128-178, dating maybe to the mid-IV century AD, from which only the strophes from A to L are complete. Particularly, he focuses on four lines before the acrostic strophes, whose reading is very controversial, and whose prosody he presents as different from the common (...) one, restoring it fully to its function of hypopsalma: Páter qui ómnia régis péto / Chrísti nós sciás herédes / Chrístus uérbo nátus pér quem pópulús est líberátus. (shrink)

Se trata de una breve reseña del volumen colectivo editado por Fina Birulés, Antonio Gómez Ramos y Concha Roldán (eds.), Vivir para pensar. Ensayos en homenaje a Manuel Cruz , Herder, Barcelona, 2012, 458 p. En este volumen participan veintisiete autores españoles y de otros países europeos, iberoamericanos y de habla inglesa.

Emociones morales. El clamor de la evidencia desde el corazón constituye una pieza clave en la serie de obras dedicadas por Anthony Steinbock a la exploración de la persona y los nexos interpersonales y, especialmente, a la reivindicación del análisis de las emociones para afrontar dicha tarea. Esta obra, publicada originalmente en inglés en 2014 por Northwestern en la serie Studies in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, ha sido traducida al español por Ignacio Quepons Ramírez y publicada en 2022 por la (...) editorial Herder. En Emociones morales Steinbock se propone realizar una descripción fenomenológica de la naturaleza propia de las emociones. En sus palabras, el objetivo es describir “su propia estructura, sus propios tipos de evidencia, sus estilos ‘cognitivos’ únicos, y cómo ellas son reveladoras de las personas como interpersonales” (p. 19). Este objetivo es aplicado no solo a la descripción de la esencia de las emociones consideradas de modo general, en su diferencia respecto de experiencias no emocionales, sino también a cada una de las emociones analizadas en particular. Se trata de describir la estructura, modalidades, modos de cumplimiento y decepción de cada una de las emociones en su singularidad; no solo lo que comparten, por ejemplo, el orgullo, la envidia y la culpa, sino también lo que las distingue y las hace únicas. (shrink)

“Resistir significa en primer lugar rechazar. Hoy, la insurgencia consiste en ese rechazo que no tiene nada de negativo, que es un acto indispensable, vital “ V. F.Hace ya seis años, en 1997, dos importantes editoriales publicaron en Barcelona, México y Buenos Aires, una traducción al español de El horror económico, y tres años después apareció en nuestra lengua Una extraña dictadura, ambos de la destacada ensayista y novelista francesa Vivianne Forrester. Estas obras se convirtieron en éxit..

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Bonhoeffer the Assassin? Challenging the Myth, Recovering His Call to Peacemaking by Mark Thiessen Nation, Anthony G. Siegrist, and Daniel P. UmbelDallas J. GinglesBonhoeffer the Assassin? Challenging the Myth, Recovering His Call to Peacemaking Mark Thiessen Nation, Anthony G. Siegrist, and Daniel P. Umbel grand rapids, mi: baker academic, 2013. 272 pp. $29.99In their new book Bonhoeffer the Assassin?, Mark Thiessen Nation, Anthony G. Siegrist, and Daniel P. (...) Umbel painstakingly reread primary texts in order to challenge the widely held belief that Dietrich Bonhoeffer participated in an attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Their alternative to the usual narrative of Bonhoeffer’s life holds that early in his career, long before the crisis of the Confessing Church and the rise of Nazism, Bonhoeffer made a commitment to [End Page 205] Christian pacifism that endured even through the war years and his resistance to Hitler.To argue for this alternative telling, the authors analyze Bonhoeffer’s three main “ethical” texts: the early “Barcelona lectures,” Discipleship, and finally Ethics. On their telling, while the early ethics lectures were theologically deficient, by the time that Bonhoeffer wrote Discipleship he had developed “integration,” which was “the primary theological catalyst for the ethical transition from Barcelona to Discipleship” (129). Discipleship is, they conclude, the pinnacle of Bonhoeffer’s thought, and anything that comes after it, including Ethics, cannot in any fundamental way differ from it.Alongside this diachronic analysis of Bonhoeffer’s main ethics texts, the authors emphasize two letters that Bonhoeffer wrote in 1935 and 1936. In the first, Bonhoeffer asserts that, because of his theology, he is “sometimes perceived as fanatical” (223). The second he wrote describing his “conversion experience” in 1930, in relation to the Sermon on the Mount and “Christian pacifism.” Read singly, these letters are interesting examples of Bonhoeffer’s thought and life of faith. As the authors present the argument, though, the letters comprise a unified narrative and function as an interpretive lens by which the primary texts should be understood. They think that the “fanaticism” of the first letter refers to the faith brought about in the conversion experience described in the second. The “fanaticism” letter is important because in it he asserts that, “if he were to become more ‘reasonable,’ he would have to ‘chuck [his] entire theology’” (223).Because Bonhoeffer wrote that he would have to “chuck” his theology if he made it more “reasonable,” the authors think that the theology that emerged from the conversion experience has a foundational role in his later works. Whatever Bonhoeffer wrote in Ethics, then, simply cannot disagree with the “fanaticism” that “is most fully articulated in … Discipleship” (223). Because of the importance of the “Christian pacifism” of the conversion and Discipleship, it is thus impossible—or at least highly unlikely—that Bonhoeffer participated in the assassination attempts.Bonhoeffer scholars and nonspecialists alike will find this text provocative and interesting. The conclusions, though, are finally unconvincing. For the authors, the “conversion experience” is the central key to understanding Bonhoeffer, and it is clear that they understand “Christian pacifism” to be of primary importance in the conversion, but they never tell us to what variety of Christian pacifism Bonhoeffer converted. It is very likely that Bonhoeffer’s Christian pacifism was different in kind than the Christian pacifism that the authors seem to endorse. That anachronistic reading alone renders the conclusions of the text suspect.Apart from simple historical questions, the methodology the authors use to construct their hermeneutical lens is also problematic. It is difficult to submit [End Page 206] Bonhoeffer’s entire corpus to two earlier letters that he wrote a full year apart. While readers may understand and agree that Bonhoeffer was not, in reality, an assassin (the minor claim), it will be hard to convince readers of the impassibility of his “Christian pacifism” (the major claim).Dallas J. GinglesSouthern Methodist UniversityCopyright © 2015 Society of Christian Ethics... (shrink)

This work presents results of improvement in the productivity of Arthrospira platensis in a company dedicated to its production. The six sigma methodology was applied in production processes that require the use of bioreactors. Starting from the analysis of the current state, aspects, physical and chemical variables that directly influence the productivity achieved were identified. Various culture media were tested and subsequently scaled for industrial production. In addition, the incorporation of carbon into the culture medium was controlled, optimizing the range (...) of potential hydrogen pH. The identified parameters were measured and six sigma methodology strategies were assigned. An improvement in productivity corresponding to 66% was verified with the same quality of final product. Keywords: Six sigma, Bioreactors, Productivity, Arthrospira platensis. References [1]E. Ariawan and A. Makalew, “Smart Micro Farm: Sustainable Algae Spirulina Growth Monitoring System” in 10th International Conference on Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, Bali, 2018, pp.1-4. [2]L. Socconini and C. Reato, Lean six sigma: sistema de gestión para liderar empresas. Primera edición. Barcelona: Marge Books, 2019. [3]H. Gutiérrez, Calidad and productividad. Cuarta edición. México D.F.: McGraw-Hill Interamericana, 2014. [4]G. Usharani, P. Saranraj and D. Kanchana, “Spirulina Cultivation: A Review” in International Journal of Pharmaceutical & Biological Archives, vol. 3, no. 6, pp. 1327-1336, December 2012. [5]J. Udin, O. Gani, A. Mahato, I. Sakib and M. Rakiuzzaman, SPIRULINA PRODUCTION IN DIFFERENT PHOTOBIOREACTORS ON ROOFTOP, International Journal of Business, Social and Scientific Research, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 15-19, January 2020. [6]M. Arredondo, Contabilidad y análisis de costos. Primera edición. México D.F.: Grupo Editorial Patria, 2015. [7]J. García, Contabilidad de costos. Cuarta edición. México D.F.: McGraw-Hill Interamericana, 2014. [8]L. Socconini, Certificación Lean Six Sigma Green Belt para la excelencia en los negocios. Primera edición. Barcelona: Marge Books, 2015. [9]A. Vian, Introducción a la Química Industrial. Segunda edición. Buenos Aires: Reverté, 2012. [10]S. Milton, Estadística para Biología y Ciencias de la Salud. Tercera edición. Madrid: McGraw-Hill Interamericana, 2014. (shrink)