Microcredit has emerged as an effective instrument for achieving financial inclusion, stimulating productive activities, and with this support, reinforcing economic growth. This study aims to examine the characteristics of microcredit financing in Ecuador and to quantify its impact on economic growth. The study employs quarterly data from 2013 to 2023. An Error Correction (VEC) model was utilized to ascertain the short- and long-term effects of microcredit and investment on GDP. The findings indicate that microcredit and investment do not exert a (...) significant short-term influence on GDP. However, in the long term, a 1% change in investment is associated with a 0.11% positive impact on GDP. Similarly, a 1% shift in microcredit is linked to a 1.17% favorable effect on GDP. Ultimately, there is a unidirectional causal relationship between GDP and microcredit. (shrink)

Artículos Naturaleza, carácter y violencia: derivas a partir de Schopenhauer. Nature, character and violence: roads from Schopenhauer. Grave, Crescenciano Sobre la posibilidad de un fundamento analógico y simbólico. Ensayo de hermenéutica analógica. About the possibility of an analogical and symbolic fundament. Essay of analogical hermeneutic.Maldonado, Rebeca Consideraciones biojurídicas sobre la vida en el embrión humano. Biojuridical considerations on life of the human embryo. Parra Tapia, Ivonne La Europa unificada según Leibniz: irenismo y política. A unified Europe according to Leibniz: irenism (...) and politics. Rensoli Laliga, Lourdes Repensar el "dilema" comunitarista-liberal en Venezuela. To rethink the communitarism-liberalism "dilemma" in Venezuela. Seoane C., Javier B. Una introducción a la doctrina platónica del alma. An introduction to the platonic doctrine of the soul. Suzzarini, Andrés De vuelta al tribuno. Back to the tribune. Terán Pimentel, Milagros Discusiones en torno a la reparación del daño moral. Discussions about the redress of pain and suffering. Vielma Mendoza, Yoleida Interdisciplinares El giro en la obra de Milan Kundera: un reflejo de la contemporaneidad. The turning on Milan Kundera´s work: a reflex of contemporaneity. Pérez Lo Presti, Alirio Aproximación histórica sobre el consumo de drogas en Venezuela. Historical approach about drug consumption in Venezuela. Salazar, Teresa Informaciones Índice acumulado. (shrink)

Consider two similarity facts: a is similar to b with respect to G, and c is similar to d with respect to G. According to the Platonist approach to similarity, the analysis of such facts forces us to admit that similarity facts are to be analyzed into facts about universal similarities of the form: a is similar to b with respect to G, and c is similar to d with respect to G, where similarity is a universal. In this paper, (...) I defend Neutralism, a view according to which there are properties and similarities, but these are not universals, particulars, or of other categories. After presenting the Platonist analysis of similarity proposed by Russell and Grossmann, I examine the question of whether or not the Platonist analysis of similarity leads us inevitably to a conception of similarity as a universal. Then I offer a novel, alternative analysis of similarity free of commitment to universals. (shrink)

An l-hemi-implicative semilattice is an algebra $$\mathbf {A} = $$ A= such that $$$$ is a semilattice with a greatest element 1 and satisfies: for every $$a,b,c\in A$$ a,b,c∈A, $$a\le b\rightarrow c$$ a≤b→c implies $$a\wedge b \le c$$ a∧b≤c and $$a\rightarrow a = 1$$ a→a=1. An l-hemi-implicative semilattice is commutative if if it satisfies that $$a\rightarrow b = b\rightarrow a$$ a→b=b→a for every $$a,b\in A$$ a,b∈A. It is shown that the class of l-hemi-implicative semilattices is a variety. These algebras provide (...) a general framework for the study of different algebras of interest in algebraic logic. In any l-hemi-implicative semilattice it is possible to define an derived operation by $$a \sim b := \wedge $$ a∼b:=∧. Endowing $$$$ with the binary operation $$\sim $$ ∼ the algebra $$$$ results an l-hemi-implicative semilattice, which also satisfies the identity $$a \sim b = b \sim a$$ a∼b=b∼a. In this article, we characterize the commutative l-hemi-implicative semilattices. We also provide many new examples of l-hemi-implicative semilattice on any semillatice with greatest element. Finally, we characterize congruences on the classes of l-hemi-implicative semilattices introduced earlier and we characterize the principal congruences of l-hemi-implicative semilattices. (shrink)

This study sets out the main points in Leonardo Polo’s theory of moral development, which systematically articulates goods, norms, and virtues. To make them easier to understand, each point has been compared with Kohlberg’s theory of moral development, which is well known to specialists and radically different to it. We have chosen three aspects of Kohlberg’s theory of moral development to highlight the uniqueness of Polo’s theory: a) Kohlberg does not account for the specificity of voluntary acts, particularly the act (...) of deciding; b) The options that solve Kohlberg’s dilemmas are isolated from potential prior and subsequent decisions, so his moral development ignores any internal biographical storyline to the decisions themselves; and c) The Kohlbergian morality is an ethics of justice and duty, thereby relegating the friendship, which to Polo is the culmination of ethics, to a morally irrelevant level. (shrink)

El trabajo propone un análisis discursivo del diálogo entre Jerjes y Demarato previo al ataque persa contra los griegos, dramatizado por Heródoto en 7. 101-104. Se examina la interacción entre los interlocutores a los fines de: a) identificar los roles discursivos y estrategias argumentativas puestas en juego por ambos participantes, b) analizar las identidades sociales construidas en la interacción y la eventual -y remisa- demarcación de un éthos griego y bárbaro, c) especular sobre el significado del episodio en el contexto (...) de las Historias y las connotaciones ideológicas de la presunta relación entre la autocracia persa y la realeza espartana. The paper offers a discursive analysis of the dialogue between Xerxes and Demaratus, prior to the Persian attack on the Greeks, as dramatized in Herodotus 7. 101-104. The interaction between the interlocutors is closely explored in order to: a) outline the discursive roles and argumentative strategies deployed by either participant, b) address the social identities constructed throughout the interaction and the prospective, albeit hazy, delineation of a Greek and barbarian éthos, c) speculate on the significance of the episode in the context of the Histories and the ideological implications of the alleged relationship between the Persian autocracy and Spartan kingship. (shrink)

The autho r , after pointing out the reasons w h y the debate in the EU and in Spain continue to ignore w hat he calls the radical l y political meaning of the phenomenon of mig ration, tries to a r gue that the conditions and the consequences of the re c o gnition of immigration are a political question ( e v en the political question). He focuses in pa r ticular on the pro b lem of (...) immi g rants ' access to citizenship, to propose, li k e Rubio or Carens, a g radual g ranting (in time and space) but mere l y temporary -based on sta b le residence- of citizenship to immi g rants that is understood as pa r t of a plural multiple and inclus i v e concept of citizenship. (shrink)

La finalidad de este artículo es triple. Primero, las secciones 1 y 2 expondrán la estructura del argumento de Jürgen Habermas respecto a las tecnologías de mejora humana. Para ello, éste será descompuesto en tres partes, que son sus pilares básicos: a) los sujetos diseñados no pueden auto-concebirse a sí mismos como autores únicos de sus vidas; b) la distinción kantiana entre objetos y personas se desvanece como consecuencia del modo en que los sujetos modificados experiencian su cuerpo; c) la (...) relación entre los padres y su descendencia se vuelve asimétrica, de modo que es contraria a las normas de la acción comunicativa. Segundo, en la sección 3, que es concebida como un diálogo entre Habermas y sus críticos, se presentarán algunas objeciones teóricas a su argumento. Tercero, la sección 4 analizará la validez de los argumentos habermasianos y afirmará firmemente que la posición de Habermas arroja luz sobre el modo correcto de analizar las tecnologías de mejora humana desde un punto de vista moral. A saber, en función de la influencia que tienen sobre el modo en que los sujetos se auto-conciben como seres autónomos y responsables.The aim of this paper is threefold. First, the structure of Jürgen Habermas’ argument on human enhancement technologies shall be exposed in sections 1 and 2. In order to do so, this paper shall discompose Habermas’ argument in the following three parts, which will be taken to be its central pillars: a) designed people cannot self-conceive themselves as the sole authors of their lives; b) the Kantian distinction between objects and persons falls apart due to the way in which modified people experience their bodies; c) the relationship between parents and their modified offspring turns into an asymmetric one, so it is contrary to the rules of communicative action. Secondly, several objections to Habermas’ claims shall be exposed in section 3, which is mainly conceived as a dialogue between Habermas and his critics. Thirdly, section 4 shall analyse the validity ofHabermas’ claims. It shall firmly argue that his position sheds light on the right way to analyse human enhancement technologies from a moral point of view. (shrink)

A hemi-implicative lattice is an algebra \((A,\wedge,\vee,\rightarrow,1)\) of type (2, 2, 2, 0) such that \((A,\wedge,\vee,1)\) is a lattice with top and for every \(a,b\in A\), \(a\rightarrow a = 1\) and \(a\wedge (a\rightarrow b) \le b\). A new variety of hemi-implicative lattices, here named sub-Hilbert lattices, containing both the variety generated by the \(\{\wedge,\vee,\rightarrow,1\}\) -reducts of subresiduated lattices and that of Hilbert lattices as proper subvarieties is defined. It is shown that any sub-Hilbert lattice is determined (up to isomorphism) by (...) a triple (_L_, _D_, _S_) which satisfies the following conditions: _L_ is a bounded distributive lattice, _D_ is a sublattice of _L_ containing 0, 1 such that for each \(a, b \in L\) there is an element \(c \in D\) with the property that for all \(d \in D\), \(a \wedge d \le b\) if and only if \(d \le c\) (we write \(a \rightarrow _D b\) for the element _c_), and _S_ is a non void subset of _L_ such that _S_ is closed under \(\rightarrow _D\) and _S_, with its inherited order, is itself a lattice. Finally, the congruences of sub-Hilbert lattices are studied. (shrink)

Introduction Adolescents’ physical activity (PA) behavior can be driven by several psychosocial determinants at the same time. Most analyses use a variable-based approach that examines relations between PA-related determinants and PA behavior on the between-person level. Using this approach, possible coexistences of different psychosocial determinants within one person cannot be examined. Therefore, by applying a person-oriented approach, this study examined a) which profiles regarding PA-related psychosocial variables typically occur in female sixth-graders, b) if these profiles deliver a self-consistent picture according (...) to theoretical assumptions, and c) if the profiles contribute to the explanation of PA. Materials and Methods The sample comprised 475 female sixth-graders. Seventeen PA-related variables were assessed: support for autonomy, competence and relatedness in PE as well as their satisfaction in PE and leisure-time; behavioral regulation of exercise (five subscales); self-efficacy and social support from friends and family (two subscales). Moderate-to-vigorous PA was measured using accelerometers. Data were analyzed using the self-organizing maps (SOM) analysis, a cluster analysis including an unsupervised algorithm for non-linear models. Results According to the respective level of psychosocial resources, a positive, a medium and a negative cluster were identified. This superordinate cluster solution represented a self-consistent picture that was in line with theoretical assumptions. The three-cluster solution contributed to the explanation of PA behavior, with the positive cluster accumulating an average of six minutes more moderate-to-vigorous PA per day than the medium cluster and ten minutes more than the negative cluster. Additionally, SOM detected a subgroup within the positive cluster that benefited from a specific combination of intrinsic and external regulations with regard to PA. Discussion The results underline the relevance of the assessed psychosocial determinants of PA behavior in female sixth-graders. The results further indicate that the different psychosocial resources within a given person do not develop independently of one another, which supports the use of a person-oriented approach. In addition, the SOM analysis identified subgroups with specific characteristics, which would have remained undetected using variable-based approaches. Thus, this approach offers the possibility to reduce data complexity without overlooking subgroups with special demands that go beyond the superordinate cluster solution. (shrink)

Sections R1 to R3 attempt to take the sting out of hostile commentaries. Sections R4 to R5 engage Berlin and Kay and the World Color Survey to correct the record. Section R6 begins the formulation of a new theory of colour as an engineering project with a technological developmental trajectory. It is recommended that the colour space be abandoned.

We apply an online optimization process based on machine learning to the production of Bose-Einstein condensates. BEC is typically created with an exponential evaporation ramp that is optimal for ergodic dynamics with two-body s-wave interactions and no other loss rates, but likely sub-optimal for real experiments. Through repeated machine-controlled scientific experimentation and observations our ’learner’ discovers an optimal evaporation ramp for BEC production. In contrast to previous work, our learner uses a Gaussian process to develop a statistical model of the (...) relationship between the parameters it controls and the quality of the BEC produced. We demonstrate that the Gaussian process machine learner is able to discover a ramp that produces high quality BECs in 10 times fewer iterations than a previously used online optimization technique. Furthermore, we show the internal model developed can be used to determine which parameters are essential in BEC creation and which are unimportant, providing insight into the optimization process of the system. (shrink)

In recent years, many philosophers of science have rejected the “value-free ideal” for science, arguing that non-epistemic values have a legitimate role to play in scientific inquiry. However, this philosophical position raises the question of how to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate influences of values in science. In this paper, we argue that those seeking to address this “new” demarcation problem can benefit by drawing lessons from the “old” demarcation problem, in which philosophers tried to find a way of distinguishing (...) between science and non-science. Many of those who worked on this problem ultimately found that efforts to provide necessary and sufficient conditions for defining science failed, and most concluded that the best solution to the problem was to characterize scientific hypotheses, theories, and research programs in terms of some common norms. We suggest that those seeking to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate value influences on science would do well to adopt a similar approach. Rather than attempting to establish necessary and sufficient conditions for identifying appropriate value influences, it will be more fruitful to evaluate scientific activities based on their adherence to a set of epistemic and ethical norms that can be implemented in scientific practice by means of rules, conventions, policies, and procedures. (shrink)

The ACA shifted U.S. health policy from centering on principles of actuarial fairness toward social solidarity. Yet four legal fixtures of the health care system have prevented the achievement of social solidarity: federalism, fiscal pluralism, privatization, and individualism. Future reforms must confront these fixtures to realize social solidarity in health care, American-style.

Objectives: To explore how subjects in a placebo-controlled vitamin A supplementation trial among Ghanaian women aged 15–45 years perceive the trial and whether they know that not all trial capsules are the same, and to identify factors associated with this knowledge.Methods: 60 semistructured interviews and 12 focus groups were conducted to explore subjects’ perceptions of the trial. Steps were taken to address areas of low comprehension, including retraining fieldworkers. 1971 trial subjects were randomly selected for a survey measuring their knowledge (...) that not all trial capsules are the same. The subjects’ fieldworkers were also interviewed about their characteristics and trial knowledge. Factors associated with knowledge were explored using multi-level modeling.Results: Although subjects knew they were taking part in research, most thought they were receiving an active and beneficial medication. Variables associated with knowledge were education and district of residence. Radio broadcasts benefited those with some schooling. Fieldworkers’ characteristics were not associated with subjects’ knowledge.Conclusions: Research and debate on new or improved consent procedures are urgently required, particularly for subjects with little education. (shrink)

The sequencing of the human genome and decreasing costs of sequencing technology have led to the notion of ‘personalized medicine’. This has been taken by some authors to indicate that personalized medicine will provide individualized treatments solely based on one’s DNA sequence. We argue this is overly optimistic and misconstrues the notion of personalization. Such interpretations fail to account for economic, policy and structural constraints on the delivery of healthcare. Furthermore, notions of individualization based on genomic data potentially take us (...) down the road of genetic reductionism obscuring the role of environmental factors in disease and ill health. We propose that one should see personalized medicine as a way of using personal genomic information to stratify individuals into subpopulations and suggest that personalized medicine be seen within a broader idea of personalized healthcare, reflecting healthcare that integrates personal genomic data into cultural, environmental and personal contexts. (shrink)

Aims: To review the literature on perceptions of nursing students and/or educators on the contribution of ethics education to ethical competence in nursing students. Background: Nurses do not always demonstrate the competencies necessary to engage in ethical practice. Educators continue to debate about the best ways to teach ethics to nurses so that they can develop ethical competencies. Data sources: MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Web of Science. Review methods: A total of 15 articles with a quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-methods (...) design published between January 1992 and March 2012 were analyzed. Results: According to students and educators, ethics education increases ethical perception of nursing students and the development of reflective and analytical skills. However, its contribution to the development of ethical behavior was barely mentioned. The accounts of students and educators revealed essential features of effective ethics education: active involvement of students in case study discussions and use of ethical frameworks. The use of activating educational strategies requires a safe learning environment where students can openly reflect on values at stake in their care practice. Conclusion: A better understanding of how students learn to develop ethical skills and of influencing factors can guide educators to develop ethics courses for nursing curriculum. Future research needs to focus on the methodological accuracy of sampling and measuring instruments. (shrink)

Arguing that Sartre's social philosophy is both heuristic and normative, Greene's book represents a major contribution to the study of Sartre. He desires to eschew any evaluative judgments on Sartre's work and to concentrate on how to unravel the social philosophy of Sartre. But herein lies the major shortcoming: although warning the reader to be wary when interpreting Sartre's fiction and insisting that the major source of Sartre's doctrine is to be found in Being and Nothingness, Greene neither indicates how (...) to interpret Sartre's fiction, nor satisfactorily explicates Sartre's major work. The basic themes of Greene's exposition are that: Sartre is only concerned with the intellectual environment of the twentieth century; Sartre criticizes liberalism, Marxism and Catholicism in order to describe social reality and to define the proper relationship between the individual and society; Sartre has an ethics.—C. E. B. (shrink)

An historical and critical survey of the various theories of totemism. Lévi-Strauss believes almost every theory explaining the relation held to exist between man and certain natural objects can be demolished: there seems to be no general biological or cultural framework which can account for totemism as an isolated phenomenon. But if totemism is seen as a way of thinking metaphorically, of correlating opposites, or of associating by contrariety then it becomes an example of a mode of thinking common to (...) sophisticated as well as primitive peoples. Observations by Bergson and Rousseau, made outside the framework of modern anthropology, bear out Lévi-Strauss' thesis. A fascinating work, marred only by a rather stiff translation.—C. L. B. (shrink)

When environmental health researchers study hazards in the home, they often discover information that may be relevant to protecting the health and safety of the research subjects and occupants. This article describes the ethical and legal basis for a duty to warn research subjects and occupants about hazards in the home and explores the extent of this duty. Investigators should inform research subjects and occupants about the results of tests conducted as part of the research protocol only if the information (...) is likely to be accurate, reliable, and medically useful. Investigators should warn subjects and occupants about hazards they happen to discover while they are in the home, if a reasonable person would warn the subjects and occupants about those hazards. Investigators should not report illegal hazards discovered in the home to the authorities, unless those hazards constitute abuse or neglect of children or mentally disabled people living in the home. When investigators decide to warn research subjects and occupants about hazards in the home, they should take some steps to help them make effective use of this information, such as providing additional counselling or making a referral for remediation or medical treatment. Investigators should discuss these issues with research subjects during the informed consent process. (shrink)

Etienne Gilson once remarked that if philosophers cannot agree about the nature or meaning of being, they will in all likelihood agree about very little else. This observation is certainly applicable to Professor Webster’s putative "dialogue" with Anglo-American philosophy on the problem of being, rational thought and natural theology. He contends that a genuinely fundamental interpretation of scientism, logicism or linguisticism necessitates a philosophical strategy based on unity as a transcendental which is accessible to logic. This initial confrontation leads to (...) another involving being as a radical transcendental. The author claims that whether we regard What is being? as the most primordial of questions, or as a meaningless phrase, or as a Scheinproblem, modern philosophical developments, antimetaphysical and metaphysical alike, provide the solution to that question in spite of themselves. He thinks that the various different forms of contemporary analytical philosophy represent a renewal of the radical Cartesian demand for univocity. Yet for him being is least of all univocal; rather it is analogous in a nonmathematical sense. His orientation is Thomistic and the book is basically an attempt "to show the functioning of being, univocity and analogy as they inevitably appear against the background of the dominant trends in Anglo-American philosophy." After outlining some general approaches to the respective problems of being, realism, and truth, he devotes almost two thirds of the volume to an analysis of the consequences of exclusive univocity and the logic of being. The remainder of the book turns to a philosophical consideration of the human being and some additional but rather peripheral matters. Webster writes with fervor on behalf of the inevitability of metaphysics, but his valuable insights are somewhat vitiated by the haphazard character of his overall presentation.—C. F. B. (shrink)

This interesting selection of Burke's writings and speeches is marred by two editorial flaws. Stanlis never indicates the sources of the selections. This failure is compounded by the fact that, contrary to his asserted purpose, he has omitted relevant material on almost every page.--C. E. B.

The present volume contains Part Four, "The Great Shift," of Susanne Langer’s projected six-part magnum opus entitled, Mind: An Essay on Human Feeling. The first volume dealt with three parts: "Problems and Principles," "The Import of Art," and "Natura Naturans;" Volume II rests squarely on these three foundational parts. The balance of the work will be concerned with "The Moral Structure," and with "Knowledge and Truth." In this reviewer’s opinion, Professor Langer’s essay is easily the most significant theory of mind (...) yet developed in contemporary Anglo-American philosophy. The central task of her essay is to establish the total qualitative difference that divides human from animal mentality by showing that the nature and origin of that difference is explicable in terms of a continuous course of biological development. "The great shift" to human being as a mode of life typified by all that we understand as culture is accomplished, according to the conceptual framework extended throughout Volume II of the work, without recourse to metaphysical assumptions of nonzoological factors. By carefully locating a vast amount of exact psychobiological information in a conceptual structure that extends scientific definitions by modification, she makes the biological concept of human mentality adequate to the extraordinary reality it is intended to make comprehensible. Through the incorporation of highly sophisticated detail, she investigates repertoire and instinct; animal acts and ambients; animal values; interpretation of animal acts; the specialization of man; symbols and the evaluation of mind; and, finally, symbols and the human world. It is difficult to imagine that a reader could find fault with Susanne Langer’s method, because she never expands her conceptual structure by metaphorical extension, but only by modifying definitions in scientific terms so as to comprehend domains wider than those conventionally assigned to the sciences themselves. Her study, however, is not only eminently adequate methodologically, it is immensely satisfying in helping us understand that the uniqueness of human being can be fully articulated and intellectually sustained without resorting to a vitalistic discontinuity of any order. If, as Susanne Langer herself contends, the value of a philosophical outlook rests ultimately on its "serviceability," then this masterwork will serve all manner of investigators for a long time to come.—C.F.B. (shrink)

Introduction: conceptual analysis of teaching, by B. P. Komisar and T. W. Nelson.--A concept of teaching, by B. O. Smith.--The concept of teaching, by I. Sheffler.--A topology of the teaching concept, by T. F. Green.--Teaching: act and enterprise, by B. P. Komisar.--Must an education have an aim? By R. S. Peters.--Curriculum as a field of study, by D. Heubner.--Can and should means-ends reasoning be used in teaching? By C. J. B. Macmillan and J. E. McClellan.

Without extensive argument or elaboration of implications, the author presents Smith's views on ethical matters peculiarly important to our own era. Having previously assumed that Smith's statement alone is sufficient, the author permits him to speak extensively.--C. E. B.

A collection of essays aiming to present a historical study of the problematics of a philosophy of science. Relying upon a questionable understanding of Kant and his effect on later thought, the author exhausts his subject more by flank action than by direct, sharp attack. Each thinker is treated separately. Conclusions, he asserts, can be found as a chain of thought from article to article; but that chain resists detection. --C. E. B.