The social and cultural changes of the last century have transformed death from an everyday fact to something hidden from view. Shifting between the practical and the theoretical, the professional and the intimate, the real and the fictitious, this collection of essays explores the continued power of death over our lives. It examines the idea and experience of death from an interdisciplinary perspective, including studies of changing burial customs throughout Europe; an account of a"dying party" in the Netherlands; examinations of (...) the fascination with violent death in crime fiction and the phenomenon of serial killer art; analyses of death and bereavement in poetry, fiction, and autobiography; and a look at audience reactions to depictions of death on screen. By studying and considering how death is thought about in the contemporary era, we might restore the natural place it has in our lives. (shrink)

Nowadays, the quality standards of higher education institutions pay special attention to the performance and evaluation of the students. Then, having a complete academic record of each student, such as number of attempts, average grade and so on, plays a key role. In this context, the existence of missing data, which can happen for different reasons, leads to affect adversely interesting future analysis. Therefore, the use of imputation techniques is presented as a helpful tool to estimate the value of missing (...) data. This work deals with the academic records of engineering students, in which imputation techniques are applied. More specifically, it is assessed and compared to the performance of the multivariate imputation by chained equations methodology, the adaptive assignation algorithm based on multivariate adaptive regression splines and a hybridization based on self-organisation maps with Mahalanobis distances and AAA algorithm. The results show that proposed methods obtain successfully results regardless the number of missing values, in general terms. (shrink)

Batteries are a fundamental storage component due to its various applications in mobility, renewable energies and consumer electronics among others. Regardless of the battery typology, one key variable from a user’s perspective is the remaining energy in the battery. It is usually presented as the percentage of remaining energy compared to the total energy that can be stored and is labeled State Of Charge (SOC). This work addresses the development of a hybrid model based on a Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) (...) power cell, due to its broad implementation. The proposed model calculates the SOC, by means of voltage and electric current as inputs and the latter as the output. Therefore, four models based on k-Means, Agglomerative Clustering, Gaussian Mixture and Spectral Clustering techniques have been tested in order to obtain an optimal solution. (shrink)

This paper aims to enhance security in IoT device networks through a visual tool that utilizes three projection techniques, including Beta Hebbian Learning (BHL), t-distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE) and ISOMAP, in order to facilitate the identification of network attacks by human experts. This work research begins with the creation of a testing environment with IoT devices and web clients, simulating attacks over Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) for recording all relevant traffic information. The unsupervised algorithms chosen provide a set (...) of projections that enable human experts to visually identify most attacks in real-time, making it a powerful tool that can be implemented in IoT environments easily. (shrink)

Background Considering the extensive debate that is currently taking place in Spain regarding euthanasia, it is important to examine the attitude of professionals who perform most of their duties at the bedside of these patients and their families. Objectives The aim of the present study was to present an adaptation and validation of the Euthanasia Attitude Scale and to evaluate its psychometric properties among a sample of nursing students in Spain. Research design A cross-sectional study design was conducted. Participants and (...) research context Non-probabilistic sampling was used to recruit 396 Spanish nursing students. Methods A self-report questionnaire, including socio-demographic data and the Euthanasia Attitude Scale, were used for data collection. The psychometric properties of the Euthanasia Attitude Scale were assessed, including reliability and validity. Fit indices of the overall model were computed. Ethical considerations This study was approved by the Hospital Ethical Committee. Students were informed of the aims and procedures and provided written informed consent prior to data collection. Results The factorial solution comprised four domains and the scale demonstrated adequate internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha =.878). For the exploratory factor analysis, the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin index of sampling adequacy was.905 and the Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity was 2972.79 (p <.001). The initial factorial solution revealed four factors with eigenvalues of 6.78 for the first factor, 1.90 for the second one, 1.29 for the third, and 1.10 for the fourth factor. Moreover, there was a significant relationship between religiosity and the domains of the Euthanasia Attitude Scale. Discussion This study obtained a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of.88 which is in consonance with the findings reported by other studies whereby none of the items were removed and the initial structure based on four domains was conserved, with a factorial solution that explains 52.79% of the total variance. The displacement of some items of the domain may be explained by certain religious and/or cultural components as, in accordance with other studies, people with firm religious beliefs are more inclined to refuse euthanasia. Conclusion According to the findings of this study, the Euthanasia Attitude Scale is a reliable and valid instrument to measure the attitudes toward euthanasia in a sample of Spanish nursing students. This Spanish adaptation will be valuable in future studies examining the attitude and implication of nurses, understanding that nurses are key figures in the euthanasia debate. (shrink)

El artículo se propone examinar la tensión entre la lengua castellana y la gramática en la novela El cuervo blanco, escrita por el controvertido escritor colombiano Fernando Vallejo, hoy radicado en México. Se trata de un texto híbrido que explora el pensamiento y la biografía del célebre filólogo Rufino José Cuervo. El libro indaga en sus papeles, cartas y libros; documentos en donde recoge sus conversaciones filosófico-filológicas con lingüistas europeos a propósito de las modalidades y formas idiomáticas que (...) adquiere el castellano en Colombia y Latinoamérica. La característica de este libro es su forma de narración, ya que más que darle primacía a los acontecimientos se preocupa de los tropos, giros, citas y efectos gramaticales que construyen la lógica de los documentos relacionados con la lengua de Estado. A nivel metafórico, Rufino José Cuervo es presentado como un “pájaro negro de alma blanca que tiene el don de la palabra”, es decir un “Cuervo blanco”, cuyo color es un índice de su excepcionalidad, nombre con el que lo identifica en una de sus cartas el lingüista alemán August Friedrich Pott, pero que el narrador convierte en el título de este curioso libro. (shrink)

Francisco Ramos Mexía y su nieto José María, célebres personalidades de la historia argentina, contaban con diferentes visiones de la naturaleza. Para uno, ésta era producto de la acción de un creador inteligente; para el otro, la biodiversidad era resultado de la acción exclusiva de la evolu- ción, prominentemente impulsada por la selección natural. Este trabajo consiste en un breve análisis de estas posiciones encontradas.Francisco Ramos Mexía and one of his grandchildren, José María, who were important figures in (...) the history of Argentina, sustained different views on nature. For one of them, nature was the result of the work of an intelligent Creator; for the other, biodiversity was a result of the exclusive action of evolution, prominently driven by natural selection. This paper briefly dis- cusses these two opposing views. (shrink)

Resumen: España fue el último de los viejos imperios coloniales en abolir el comercio de esclavos. Inglaterra, una de las naciones más beneficiadas por el tráfico de personas, lo hizo en 1807. Con todo, desde primeros de siglos, surgió en España, en el seno del primer liberalismo, un inicial movimiento en favor de la abolición del comercio de negros. Este artículo trata de tres hitos: la defensa de la abolición del comercio negrero por parte de Isidoro de Antillón en su (...) Disertación, leída en Madrid en 1802; los debates de las Cortes de Cádiz sobre la esclavitud, principalmente, el de la sesión del 2 de abril de 1811; finalmente, de la aportación a la discusión de José Mª Blanco White y la publicación en 1814 de su Bosquejo del comercio de esclavos. Abstract: Spain was the last of the old colonial empires to abolish the slave trade. England, one of the nations that most benefited from trafficking, did so in 1807. However, since the early century XIX, within the first liberalism an initial movement for the abolition of the slave trade emerged in Spain. This paper focuses on three milestones: the defense of the abolition of the slave trade by Isidoro Antillon in his Disertación, read in Madrid in 1802; the Cortes de Cadiz debates on slavery, mainly the session of April 2, 1811; finally, José María Blanco White's contribution to the discussion and the publication in 1814 of his Bosquejo del comercio de esclavos. (shrink)

The relationship between aesthetic value and other moral and cognitive values has been a key theme within contemporary aesthetic discussion. In this article, I explore once again the implications of this relationship, but from what I think might be a different angle. With few exceptions, notably Dominic Lopes, most of the contributions to this issue have dealt with the impact that moral or cognitive values could possibly have on the overall aesthetic value of a work of art. In this article, (...) I explore instead how aesthetic properties or merits could play a role in explaining moral and cognitive properties. To do so, I first offer some examples that I think may reasonably exemplify the phenomenon we are considering. Second, I argue that a proper account of interactionism should meet at least two constraints: the relevance constraint and the autonomy constraint. Finally, I try to clarify how it is possible that aesthetic properties substantially contribute to other values by appealing to the notions of expression and the affective character of aesthetic properties. (shrink)

La idea de convergencia es una de las nociones más difundidas en el lenguaje tecnocientífico actual. Sin olvidar el éxito que está teniendo en el diseño de la política europea, no cabe duda de que es un concepto clave en la financiación de las investigaciones integradas en el marco de lo que se ha denominado las NBCI (nano-bio-cogno-info-tecnologías). Con ello, pretendemos analizar hasta qué punto se está difundiendo algún sesgo axiológico a través de esta noción. Algo que cobra especial interés (...) si tenemos en cuenta la acogida que está teniendo en los recientes estudios sobre el nuevo modo de producción del conocimiento tecnocientífico (Gibbons, Nowotny, Funtowicz…) y el giro económico que estos han experimentado en los últimos años. (shrink)

This paper focuses on natural aesthetics as it relates to an ecological ethics informed by Aldo Leopold and by two contemporary environmental ethicists inspired by him: Callicott and Rolston. By contrast to Callicott, Rolston's work emphasises the distinctive character of natural beauty and gives reasons to understand such beauty as foundational for acting morally in the natural world. This paper argues, on these theoretical grounds, that an informed natural aesthetics is a requirement of an environmental ethics on account of the (...) co-relational link between the integrity, balance and beauty of the biotic community. This more objective foundation can better support conservationist movements in practice, bringing together natural beauty and duty in the pursuit of a closer harmony between humankind and the natural world. (shrink)

Two seemingly contradictory aspects have marked art’s appreciation – and aesthetic appreciation in general. While an experience of pleasure seems to ground judgments of aesthetic value, some artworks seem to gain our praise by the very negative – unpleasant – experience they provoke. Known as the paradox of negative emotions, aestheticians have, at least since Aristotle, tried to deal with these cases and offer different explanations of the phenomenon. In this article, María José Alcaraz León does not directly offer (...) an alternative explanation; rather she focuses on the apparent tension between an understanding of aesthetic experience in terms of a certain kind of pleasure and the negative aspect that is necessarily involved in our appreciation of painful art. The purpose of her article is to show that cases of artistic appreciation that involve negative emotions do not need to give up on the idea that aesthetic value is ultimately grounded upon an experience of pleasure. (shrink)

La vulneración de derechos en la atención sanitaria en Latinoamérica representa una problemática creciente que afecta la calidad de los servicios y la equidad en la salud. Este estudio tiene como objetivo analizar las principales causas y consecuencias de la violación de derechos en los sistemas de salud de la región, enfocándose en los derechos humanos, el acceso a la atención médica, la discriminación y la corrupción. Se realizó una revisión bibliográfica que incluye legislación, artículos que abordan la temática y (...) sentencias sobre la vulneración del derecho a la atención sanitaria. Los resultados indican que las vulneraciones más frecuentes incluyen la falta de acceso a servicios adecuados, el trato desigual hacia poblaciones vulnerables y la carencia de recursos. Se concluye que es urgente implementar reformas estructurales en los sistemas de salud de Latinoamérica para garantizar la protección efectiva de los derechos humanos y mejorar la calidad de la atención sanitaria. (shrink)

Comentamos y discutimos, en esta nota, algunas de las reconceptualizaciones normativas y aplicaciones diversas del paradigma de la Justicia Global. Los trabajos de Pogge compilados en Hacer justicia a la humanidad proporcionan una visión de conjunto del objetivo pragmático de su pensamiento: erradicar la pobreza severa. Discutimos, en primer lugar, su operación de otorgar carácter negativo a los derechos económicos y sociales por considerarlo erróneo y desencaminado tanto en la teoría como en sus repercusiones prácticas. Finalmente, enjuiciamos favorablemente su reflexión (...) acerca de la Equidad de Género en el contexto de los debates en torno a la medición de la pobreza y la analítica de las desigualdades. Su problematización a este respecto, permitiría una fructífera intersección con la crítica feminista a los marcos teóricos hegemónicos del desarrollo humano y a los impactos de la globalización sobre las mujeres. (shrink)

El objeto de este artículo es presentar las dimensiones intersubjetivas y objetivas de la responsabilidad que formularon Hannah Arendt y Hans Jonas. La versión jurídica e individual de la responsabilidad como mero correlato de la libertad ha quedado sobrepasada por la magnitud de las consecuencias de la acción humana consignadas en el siglo XX. A título de ejemplo, señalaremos a los totalitarismos, a la crisis ecológica o al impacto de las biotecnologías. Una escala de acción de tales magnitudes exige pensar (...) una responsabilidad «ampliada». Conectar las dimensiones intersubjetivas y objetivas de la responsabilidad con el juicio moral en un modelo complejo y multifactorial es nuestra propuesta aquí. (shrink)

This paper seeks a legal approach to the question of the implications of various religious beliefs in food. To begin with, it will be made a descriptive analysis of how the religious event influences and conditions the food consumption of believers, approaching both the three majoritarian or most representative religions of our country as well as several minority religions. Next, we will go on to observe and point out the obligations arising from Spanish Law regarding this aspect. Finally, once these (...) two areas have been analyzed and with what they illustrate, we will focus the main objective of this study giving our opinion on whether this is an issue that depends on the Law and that depend on a legislator or if, on the contrary, it is a question that belongs more to the internal sphere of citizens. (shrink)

Some business schools have come under considerable criticism for what observers see as their complicit involvement in the corporate scandals and financial crises of the last 15 years. Much of the discussion about changes that schools might undertake has been focused on curriculum issues. However, revisiting the curriculum does not get at the root cause of the problem. Instead, it might create a new challenge: the risk of decoupling the discussion of the curriculum from broader issues of institutional purpose. In (...) this article, we argue that the most pressing need facing business schools is not to teach new courses to be responsive to social demands and stay relevant. Instead, it is to revisit their basic mission—the principles and beliefs on which they were founded—and then to re-evaluate their curriculum design choices in this light. We contrast the Spartan and Athenian educational paradigms as a way of shedding light on the nature of a coherent response. (shrink)

The subversion of tradition of ethics carried out by Kant in his Critique of Practical Reason is, according to Lacan, the intelligibility background on which it is possible a science of the subject as developed by Freud. This would be shown up in a particularly effective way if comparing Kant’s moral theory with Sade’s antimoral one. It is not difficult to show the formal-structural identity of the state of affairs established by inconditionality of law in both theoretical systems, and thus (...) expose the possibility of that anti-moral as a kind of Kantian variation. Moreover, Lacan holds, it is necessary to recognize in Sade’s Philosophy in the Bedroom the truth of Critique of Practical Reason. Our study proposes an examination of this well-known Lacanian thesis. On the one hand, we seek to establish the exact content of this thesis and the diagnosis of the relationship that it involves between Kant and Freud (between Enlightenment and psychoanalysis). On the other hand, we seek to confront that diagnosis with the reconstruction of the specific terms of the practical subject question in Kant’s philosophy. The ultimate aim is at least to raise a question about the place of the concept of “Reason” in psychoanalysis, that is, about the margin that the truth of the subject discovered by this theory leaves for making the difference (at least de iure) between the weight of reason and the illusions of moral masochism, and about the very conditions of psychoanalysis as a theory. (shrink)

Nuevos espacios de participación de los afrodescendientes en América y el Caribe.

In this paper, I use an extension of Russell’s theory of descriptions to give further support to an analysis of truth ascriptions that stems back to Ramsey and has been further developed by Dorothy Grover and Christopher J. F. Williams. It is the view that the truth predicate vanishes in the logical form of the sentences in which it occurs in favour of a combination of quantifiers and propositional variables. I argue that Russell’s theory of descriptions can be used as (...) a technical way of giving flesh to the sometimes-vague characterisation of truth terms as expressive. In my analysis, I assume the Fregean analysis of quantifiers, Frege’s context principle, and the Fregean distinction between grammatical structure and logical form. These three ground-breaking insights are crucial to the Russellian interpretation of denoting phrases and the analysis of truth ascriptions that I advocate. In section one, I explain the sense in which truth is a higher-level concept and which consequences follow from this claim, one of them being the linguistic flexibility of the concept of truth. In section two, I apply Russell’s insights to truth ascriptions and show that the truth predicate dissolves in their logical form in favour of propositional variables and quantifiers. The disappearance of the predicate in the logical form is the precise sense that I give to the claim that truth terms possess expressive meaning. As propositional quantification has been felt as a serious obstacle to the Ramseyian approach, I show in section three that the Quinean arguments usually addressed against higher-order quantification are weaker than the received view has taken them to be. I also address the objection that rests on the normative nature of truth. I argue in section four that the approach to truth ascriptions introduced by Ramsey provides an accurate and technically irreproachable account of the semantic expressivism associated with the concept of truth. (shrink)

Al escribir este articulo intento recuperar, para la discusión más contemporánea sobre los universales, al menos una parte de las ideas del lógico y filósofo medieval Pedro Abelardo. En particular, hay ciertas formas de nominalismo, léase, el mentalismo, el nominalismo de conjuntos, y el nominalismo de semejanza(s), que han reaparecido con fuerza nueva en metafísica analítica contemporánea. Abelardo, como nominalista que fue, no sólo argumentó contra tesis de corte realista;, sino que también evaluó y criticó otras formas de nominalismo diferentes (...) a la suya y, en concreto, las mencionadas. Mi objeto principal es confrontar los argumentos de Abelardo con ellas, mostrando cómo sus argumentos aún prevalecen. (shrink)

En un momento de tensión y polémica por la situación que tiene la enseñanza de la filosofía dentro de la l. o. g. s. e., es útil hacer una reflexión comparativa con el modo en el que se esta dando respuesta a la didáctica de la filosofía en otro país europeo, en Italia.

This monographic section contains the three papers delivered by Philip Kitcher as Raimundus Lullius Lectures during the VII Conference of the Spanish Society of Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science, that took place in Santiago de Compostela (July 18th-20th, 2012). It also includes three of the contributions presented to the Symposium on Kitcher’s work in the same Conference.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the variation of the second-person object clitic te [‘you’] and the clitic se [lit. ‘it’] in advertising discourse from a cognitive viewpoint. The main explanatory notion will be cognitive salience; both clitics, te and se, exhibit this to varying degrees. The second-person te is more salient than the clitic se; therefore, the meanings conveyed by each in media discourse will be notably different. Results indicate that the distribution and usage of the clitics (...) te vs. se constitutes a different strategy of persuasion in advertising discourse. In general terms, te is used when a special deictic stance is needed, such as indexing a second-person as a potential consumer of the product or idea, whereas se tends to appear in utterances that describe the general and objective benefits of the product or idea advertised, denoting a desubjectivizing stance. The sociosituational distribution of this variation according to the target consumers will be analyzed. (shrink)

There has been little consensus around the sequential relationship between organizational affective commitment and workers’ wellbeing. In line with the Conservation of Resources Theory, results of this two-wave study with a contact center employee sample showed that organizational affective commitment decreases work ill-being and increases work wellbeing. Furthermore, in keeping with the loss spiral assumption of this theory, the mediating role of burnout in the affective commitment-health relationship was supported in this study. However, in accordance with the Job Demand-Resources, work (...) engagement was found not to prevent effects on health. The findings have implications for the organizational affective commitment theory, as well as for organizational occupational health policies and interventions. (shrink)