Regularization may be used as an alternative to dimensionality reduction when the number of variables in a model is much larger than the number of available observations. In a recent study from our group regularized regression was employed to quantify brain functional connectivity in a sample of healthy controls using a brain parcellation and resting state fMRI images. Here regularization is applied to evaluate resting state connectivity abnormalities at the voxel level in a sample of patients with schizophrenia. Specifically, ridge (...) regression is implemented with different degrees of regularization. Results are compared to those delivered by the weighted global brain connectivity method, which is based on averaged bivariate correlations and from the non-redundant connectivity method, a dimensionality reduction approach that applies supervised principal component regressions. Ridge regression is able to detect a larger set of abnormally connected regions than both GBC and NRC methods, including schizophrenia related connectivity reductions in fronto-medial, somatosensory and occipital structures. Due to its multivariate nature, the proposed method is much more sensitive to group abnormalities than the GBC, but it also outperforms the NRC, which is multivariate too. Voxel based regularized regression is a simple and sensitive alternative for quantifying brain functional connectivity. (shrink)

This paper aims to provide a philosophical and theoretical account of biological communication grounded in the notion of organisation. The organisational approach characterises living systems as organised in such a way that they are capable to self-produce and self-maintain while in constant interaction with the environment. To apply this theoretical framework to the study of biological communication, we focus on a specific approach, based on the notion of influence, according to which communication takes place when a signal emitted by a (...) sender triggers a change in the behaviour of the receiver that is functional for the sender itself. We critically analyse the current formulations of this account, that interpret what is functional for the sender in terms of evolutionary adaptations. Specifically, the adoption of this etiological functional framework may lead to the exclusion of several phenomena usually studied as instances of communication, and possibly even of entire fields of investigation such as synthetic biology. As an alternative, we reframe the influence approach in organisational terms, characterising functions in terms of contributions to the current organisation of a biological system. We develop a theoretical account of biological communication in which communicative functions are distinguished from other types of biological functions described by the organisational account (e.g. metabolic, ecological, etc.). The resulting organisational-influence approach allows to carry out causal analyses of current instances of phenomena of communication, without the need to provide etiological explanations. In such a way it makes it possible to understand in terms of communication those phenomena which realise interactive patterns typical of signalling interactions – and are usually studied as such in scientific practice – despite not being the result of evolutionary adaptations. Moreover, this approach provides operational tools to design and study communicative interactions in experimental fields such as synthetic biology. (shrink)

Como han puesto de relieve Evans y García-Carpintero, uno de los problemas más importantes respecto de la aserción en el marco de una concepción relativista radical de los discursos evaluativos es dar un tratamiento coherente de los compromisos y de las responsabilidades que la aserción misma genera cuando sus condiciones de corrección son inestables. Construyendo sobre la base de un trabajo de Losada, el presente trabajo busca ofrecer dicho tratamiento.

El presente estudio se basa en las colecciones de los manuscritos árabes que se conservan actualmente en España. Para ello se hace un análisis de las colecciones existentes. A continuación se lleva a cabo un estudio de los catálogos e inventarios aparecidos, desde los primeros en el siglo XVI hasta la actualidad, deteniéndose en los más destacados. La segunda parte del estudio se centra en la técnica del análisis documental, que engloba los trabajos de catalogación y descripción bibliográfica. Se repasa (...) la normativa vigente, para terminar con reflexiones personales de los datos que deben aparecer en los catálogos y cómo deben aparecer. (shrink)

El presente artículo es la primera traducción española de un artículo del jurista alemán Hermann Heller titulado "¿Liberalismo autoritario?", en el que pretende dar cuenta de una nueva forma de articulación política que se desarrolla al comienzo de los años 30 en Alemania y que combina el autoritarismo político con el liberalismo económico.

Information-seeking interactions in multi-agent systems are required for situations in which there exists an expert agent that has vast knowledge about some topic, and there are other agents (questioners or clients) that lack and need information regarding that topic. In this work, we propose a strategy for automatic knowledge acquisition in an information-seeking setting in which agents use a structured argumentation formalism for knowledge representation and reasoning. In our approach, the client conceives the other agent as an expert in a (...) particular domain and is committed to believe in the expert’s qualified opinion about a given query. The client’s goal is to ask questions and acquire knowledge until it is able to conclude the same as the expert about the initial query. On the other hand, the expert’s goal is to provide just the necessary information to help the client understand its opinion. Since the client could have previous knowledge in conflict with the information acquired from the expert agent, and given that its goal is to accept the expert’s position, the client may need to adapt its previous knowledge. The operational semantics for the client-expert interaction will be defined in terms of a transition system. This semantics will be used to formally prove that, once the client-expert interaction finishes, the client will have the same assessment the expert has about the performed query. (shrink)

BackgroundDiagnosis and treatment of differentiated thyroid carcinomas cause anxiety and depression. Additionally, these patients suffer hormonal alterations that are associated with psychological symptoms. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a psycho-oncological intervention based on counseling to reduce anxiety and depression related to the treatment in patients with DTC.MethodsA non-randomized controlled study, with two groups [experimental group, n = 37, and control group, n = 38] and baseline and posttreatment measures, was designed. Patients in the EG received a psycho-oncological (...) intervention based on counseling in addition to the standard treatment. The independent variable was the assigned group and the dependent one was the evolution of anxiety and depression, which were analyzed separately, and both were evaluated using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Other relevant covariables related to the quality of life were also analyzed using Short Form-36 Health Survey and Psychological General Wellbeing Index scales.ResultsThe difference of the posttreatment-baseline variation showed a statistically significant reduction in anxiety and depression in the EG in relation to the CG. The mean of the Psychological General Wellbeing Index scales score increased significantly in the EG and decreased significantly in the CG. All the baseline and the posttreatment scores of the variables evaluated showed a statistically significant improvement in the EG vs. the CG.ConclusionThis study demonstrates significant benefits of psycho-oncological intervention based on counseling in anxiety, depression, QoL, and wellbeing of the patient with differentiated thyroid carcinomas. (shrink)

El primer día que llegué a mi trabajo, una prisión, no sabía qué me iba a encontrar. Pensaba que tras los muros, las rejas y aquella enorme alambrad habría criminales y monstruos dispuestos a cualquier cosa. Sin embargo, cuando atravesé la puerta me encontré jardines, magníficos dibujos en la pared y personas al otro lado. Sí, personas comos las que te encuentras en tu vida diaria. No llevaban pendientes, ni tatuajes, ni un cuchillo en la mano. Me saludaban cordialmente y (...) se dirigían a mí de usted. (shrink)

Kant emphatically denied the people’s right to resist legally established authority. Nevertheless, this posture leads to critical difficulties on his conception of politics. This paper encompasses such issue, attempting to show the tensions resulting from such denial, compared to other ideas focused on his political philosophy and to the value he assigns to modern revolutions. Moreover, some relevant interpretations of these discussions are critically analyzed and a way to appropriately understand the sense and scope of Kant’s point of viewis proposed.

A partir de uma revisão crítica da literatura, estuda-se um desafio do anarquismo filosófico à teoria da autoridade jurídica de J. Raz: seguir uma ordem de que se discorda seria irracional, pois equivaleria a agir contra o que se considera mais justificado. Utilizando referências atinentes à teoria da decisão e à epistemologia, além de exemplos sobre ferramentas de auxílio à tomada de decisão do cotidiano (como experts e programas), esboçamos duas possíveis respostas, que correspondem a duas concepções instrumentais distintas de (...) autoridade: numa, é justificável para o agente colocar-se numa situação que o leve a agir de forma inconsistente com suas crenças – a ideia de “submeter-se à autoridade”, afim a uma “confiança cega”; noutra, utilizando a teoria dos “pontos-cegos”, delineiam-se restrições que uma teoria da racionalidade impõe à teoria da autoridade. (shrink)

El texto intenta mostrar los rasgos que señalan la vinculación de la obra cosmológica de Bruno con el acontecimiento histórico cultural denominado Revolución Copernicana, y se centra en una primera fase que documenta las relaciones entre infinitismo y astronomía copemicana. El horizonte de la argumentación lo constituye la intención de situar el pensamiento de Bruno entre las primeras aportaciones teóricas a la modernidad.

As critical research has revealed, climate change scepticism and inaction are not about science but ideas, and specifically the ideas that conform our worldview. Drawing on key theoretical approaches to climate change denial from the social sciences and humanities, this paper discusses the ideological dimension and, more especially, the anthropocentric denial underlying our failure to respond to climate change. We argue that the speciesist anthropocentrism inherent in the current dominant ethics is what prevents humanity from reacting to the main human-induced (...) drivers of global warming. Encouraged to do so by current mainstream ethics, humans overpopulate the planet, grow at the expense of other species, and indulge in cruel, unhealthy and unsustainable practices. We counterpose this ethics against the egalitarian, non-speciesist approach of the animal ethics movement, positing that it represents the next radical reflexive movement and could be used to break the climate deadlock. Animal ethics allows links with inegalitarianism and privilege that may help address climate contrarianism and climate inaction much more effectively. (shrink)

The explanatory role of natural selection is one of the long-term debates in evolutionary biology. Nevertheless, the consensus has been slippery because conceptual confusions and the absence of a unified, formal causal model that integrates different explanatory scopes of natural selection. In this study we attempt to examine two questions: (i) What can the theory of natural selection explain? and (ii) Is there a causal or explanatory model that integrates all natural selection explananda? For the first question, we argue that (...) five explananda have been assigned to the theory of natural selection and that four of them may be actually considered explananda of natural selection. For the second question, we claim that a probabilistic conception of causality and the statistical relevance concept of explanation are both good models for understanding the explanatory role of natural selection. We review the biological and philosophical disputes about the explanatory role of natural selection and formalize some explananda in probabilistic terms using classical results from population genetics. Most of these explananda have been discussed in philosophical terms but some of them have been mixed up and confused. We analyze and set the limits of these problems. (shrink)

¿Dónde hallar al marxismo hoy? Contestar esta pregunta suscita el problema que Jacques Derrida (1995: 40) asume cuando sostiene: “hay más de uno, debe haber más de un (Marx)”. ¿Cuál es entonces el Marx que Althusser nos invita a leer y a llevar a la acción política? El objetivo de este texto es rastrear los lineamientos del Marx que sugiere Althusser (a través de los conceptos de práctica política y práctica teórica) en el pensamiento de Álvaro García Linera.Estos conceptos althusserianos (...) nos llevan a plantear a Álvaro García Linera como “heredero” (Derrida, 1995) de la filosofía marxista. Por su condición de militante y vicepresidente de Bolivia, su producción teórica se desarrolla dentro de una coyuntura muy particular. Es así como podemos entender que García Linera no hace más que abordar en su producción teórica un problema que está objetivamente planteado por el proceso en el que se encuentra: la potencia emancipadora del componente comunitario indígena.Pondremos el foco en la relectura del Manifiesto comunista que propone García Linera a través de estos conceptos althusserianos para adentrarnos en un pensamiento que invoca a Marx al mismo que tiempo que resalta la necesidad de pensar dentro de la coyuntura. De esta manera, no buscamos sacar conclusiones sobre su verdad o falsedad sino más bien producir un análisis político de su discurso con el fin de rastrear las contradicciones que surgen de leer a Marx a través de las variantes que propone la coyuntura, y así profundizar los análisis en comunicación y política.También nos valdremos de entrevistas, conferencias y otros escritos suyos para situar su pensamiento en la actualidad. Finalmente nos proponemos rastrear una serie de interlocutores con los que discute y argumenta para sentar las bases de un proyecto de investigación que profundice el análisis de su obra. (shrink)

Dewey and the Task before Us: The Making of the Democratic Experience This book review could also be entitled “John Dewey: Old and New,” recalling a distant resemblance to one of the most well known books of Dewey, Individualism Old and New (1930). But in this case the subject pursued under this title would be the development in the reception of John Dewey’s work in the past century. This is a genuine hermeneutical reflection on the significance of one of the (...) most important American intellect... (shrink)

ArgumentThis paper focuses on the uses of electroencephalograms in Mexico during their introductory decade from 1940 to 1950. Following Borck, I argue that EEGs adapted to fit local circumstances and that this adjustment led to the consolidation of different ways of making science and the emergence of new objects of study and social types. I also maintain that the way EEGs were introduced into the institutional networks of Mexico entangled them in discussions about the objective and juridical definitions of social (...) groups, thereby preempting concerns about their technical and epistemic limitations. This ultimately enabled the use of EEGs as normative machines and dispositifs. To this end, the paper follows the arrival of EEGs and the creation of institutional networks then analyzes the extent to which the styles of thinking behind the uses of EEGs and attempts to reify a notion of normal electrical brain behavior—particularly by applying EEGs to a community of Otomí Indians—correlated with the difficulties of defining the socio-anthropological notions that articulated legal and disciplinary projects of the time. Finally, it unveils the shortcomings of alternative attempts to define a brain model and to resist the production of ontological determinations. (shrink)

Despite the availability of safe vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, some people will remain vulnerable because they will not be vaccinated. Who are these non-vaccinated people? We can distinguish two groups: (i) persons who cannot be vaccinated for clinical reasons and who, despite having been vaccinated, have not achieved immunity; (ii) persons who voluntarily refuse to get vaccinated. These groups have in common an immune system that will make them vulnerable to COVID-19. The reasons for their vulnerability and the ethical judgment they (...) deserve are different; the solutions offered to them are also different. In the case of those who voluntarily avoid vaccination, States are not compromised to introduce new protective policies. In the case of people who remain involuntarily vulnerable, instead, the response should be articulated on the same rules and principles that inform the social model of disability because they will live with an organic disability. (shrink)

Este trabajo de investigación revela las pruebas documentales que han hecho posible la reconstrucción genealógica de los descendientes del emir Muley Hacén; la familia conocida como Muley Fez. Hemos logrado reconstruir genealógicamente a la familia en el decurso de seis generaciones consecutivas, desde finales del s. XV hasta finales del s. XVI, identificando y documentando a un elenco familiar que asciende a treinta y siete individuos en total. El cruce y puesta en común de más de una veintena de manuscritos (...) inéditos, de diversa procedencia y naturaleza, han puesto al descubierto una extensa red de parentesco familiar. La reconstrucción del árbol genealógico, pese a ser un fin en sí mismo, es también un paso previo y necesario para rehacer la historia y el devenir de uno de los más importantes linajes de la aristocracia morisca del s. XVI. (shrink)

El objetivo a perseguir por el presente artículo, es analizar tres de las principales teorías humanístico-filosóficas, respecto a la concepción del ciclo vital de que han sido participes diversas comunidades humanas a lo largo de la historia. Con base en tres propuestas de periodización histórica, se expondrán los enfoques temporales sobre los procesos y el fin de la historia teorizados por los filósofos e historiadores Giambatista Vico, Oswald Spengler y Arnold Joseph Toynbee.

Perner and Roessler Causing human action: new perspectives on the causal theory of action, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp 199–228, 2010) hold that children who do not yet have an understanding of subjective perspectives, i.e., mental states, explain actions by appealing to objective facts. In this paper, we criticize this view. We argue that in order to understand objective facts, subjects need to understand perspectives. By analysing basic fact-expressing assertions, we show that subjects cannot refer to facts if they do (...) not understand two types of perspectivity, namely, spatial and doxastic perspectivity. To avoid conceptual confusion regarding different ways of referring to facts, we distinguish between reference to facts de re and de dicto. (shrink)

This dialogue between Achilles and the Tortoise – in the spirit of those of Carroll and Hofstadter – argues against the idea, identified with the “traditional” interpretation of Aristotle’s “sea battle argument”, that future contingents are an exception to the Principle of Bivalence. It presents examples of correct everyday predictions, without which one would not be able to decide and to act; however, doing this is incompatible with the belief that the content of these predictions lacks a truth-value. The cost (...) of using a non-classical logic to cope with that may be too high for Stagirite’s defenders, and they would still need to explain why our ordinary predictions seem to have a binary truth-value. In the end, the paper suggests that the problem of future contingents – and of free will – is not a logical problem at all, but rather a limit on what an agent can believe before taking a decision. (shrink)