Ideally, decisions regarding one’s health should be made after assessing the objective probabilities of relevant outcomes. Nevertheless, previous beliefs and emotional reactions also have a role in decision-making. Furthermore, the comprehension of probabilities is commonly affected by the presentation format, and by numeracy. This study aimed to assess the extent to which the influence of these factors might vary between different medical conditions. A sample of university students were presented with two health scenarios containing statistical information on the prevalence of (...) breast cancer and hypertension either through icon arrays ( N = 71) or natural frequencies ( N = 72). They also received information regarding a preventive measure (mammogram/low-sodium diet) and the likelihood of a positive mammogram or a rich-sodium diet either when suffering or not suffering from the disease. Before seeing the data, participants rated the severity of the disease and the inconvenience of the preventive measure. After reading the health scenario, participants had to rate its difficulty, and how worrisome it was. They had also to rate the prior probability of suffering from this medical condition, and the posterior probability of it, provided a positive mammogram or a rich-sodium diet. Finally, they rated the extent to which they would recommend the preventive measures. All the rates used the same 1 (little)-8 (a great deal) scale. Participants’ numeracy was also assessed. The scenarios differed significantly in perceived severity and worry, with the cancer scenario obtaining higher scores. Importantly, regression analyses showed that the recommendations in the two health scenarios depended on different variables. A model taking into consideration severity and worry rates best explained decisions in the cancer scenario; in contrast, in the hypertension scenario the model that best explained the recommendations comprised both the posterior probability estimate and the severity rate. Neither numeracy nor presentation format affected recommendation but both affected difficulty, worrying and probability rates. We conclude that previous perceptions of the severity of a health condition modulate the use of probabilistic information for decision-making. The roles of presentation format and numeracy in enabling patients to understand statistical information are also discussed. (shrink)

The goal of this article is to contribute to the development of an interdisciplinary political theory across a conceptual link between Aristotle’s political philosophy and complex systems theory. Aristotelian doctrine of the wisdom of the multitude is connected with the concept of emergence belong..

An essential requirement for increasing human confidence in computer systems is knowing an event’s origin. Therefore, it is necessary to have an efficient method to record such information. It is especially challenging in robotics, where unexpected behaviours can have unpredictable consequences, endangering the interests of people or even their safety. Furthermore, to analyse an incident’s cause or anticipate future behaviours, we must identify the events that cause a specific action. Although it is common to use logging systems for such purposes, (...) issues such as partial recording of events, unhelpful data or the impact on robot performance suggest conceiving new accountability solutions that assist when determining the responsible entities or the provenance of specific information. This paper presents a general-purpose approach to developing an accountability system for autonomous robots. It consists of four main components: a system event logger, a message producer, a distributed event streaming platform and a database. Our proposal is completely decoupled from the monitored system and allows real-time analysis, improving flexibility, besides system protection and transparency. Finally, the need to reduce the impact of the audit process and logging tasks on robot performance has promoted the development of different assessment scenarios to determine the best strategy for providing accounting services. (shrink)

Uno de los componentes más importantes del proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje de los estudios de Arquitectura Técnica es la realización de un proyecto final que aglutina todos los conocimientos y competencias desarrollados en las diferentes disciplinas que configuran el Plan de Estudios. El objetivo de esta propuesta es visualizar la evolución del proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje en el Proyecto Fin de Grado en los estudios de Arquitectura Técnica e Ingeniería de Edificación de la Universidad de Burgos, mostrando las diferentes adaptaciones (...) de los contenidos y la tipología elegida para su desarrollo. (shrink)

El trabajo desarrollado en este artículo muestra una experiencia docente basada en la Metodología Activa del Aprendizaje Basado en Proyectos en la asignatura de Instalaciones II de la titulación del Grado en Arquitectura Técnica de la Universidad de Burgos. Para alcanzar la excelencia del proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje, se ha diseñado una metodología de trabajo basada en el desarrollo progresivo de un Proyecto de Ejecución mediante subproyectos, con el objetivo de conseguir mejores resultados en el proceso de aprendizaje mediante (...) el desempeño personal, la retroalimentación de procesos y el trabajo cooperativo, todo ello orientado a la excelencia académica y profesional de los estudiantes. Los resultados obtenidos muestran que el ABP es una excelente metodología para el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje de la asignatura de Instalaciones II y para el futuro desempeño profesional de los estudiantes. (shrink)

Despite abundant evidence associating CD38 overexpression and CD4 T cell depletion in HIV infection, no causal relation has been investigated. To address this issue, a series of mechanisms are proposed, supported by evidence from different fields, by which CD38 overexpression can facilitate CD4 T cell depletion in HIV infection. According to this model, increased catalytic activity of CD38 may reduce CD4 T cells’ cytoplasmic nicotin‐amide adenine dinucleotide (NAD), leading to a chronic Warburg effect. This will reduce mitochondrial function. Simultaneously, CD38's (...) catalytic products ADPR and cADPR may be transported to the cytoplasm, where they can activate calcium channels and increase cytoplasmic Ca2+ concentrations, further altering mitochondrial integrity. These mechanisms will decrease the viability and regenerative capacity of CD4 T cells. These hypotheses can be tested experimentally, and might reveal novel therapeutic targets. (shrink)

Quillagua es un pequeño oasis junto al río Loa. La etnohistoria registra la convivencia de poblaciones indígenas de distinta tradición cultural. Picas tenían derechos territoriales hacia abajo de un poste de madera pintado y cepillado, mientras Atacamas hacia arriba. Estas categorías no eran geográficas sino indicaciones de una organización social dual. Aquí, indagamos en las expresiones materiales y visuales de esta tensa ocupación intercultural. Ponemos atención al registro arqueológico posterior al 900 d. C., época en que los actores desarrollaron numerosos (...) ejercicios político-sociales, mediante la construcción de un paisaje visual. (shrink)

According to expressivism about avowals, the meaning of typical self-ascriptions of mental states is a matter of expressing an attitude, rather than describing a state of affairs. Traditionally, expressivism has been glossed as the view that, qua expressions, avowals are not truth-evaluable. Contemporary neoexpressivists like Finkelstein and Bar-On have argued that avowals are expressions, and truth-evaluable besides . In contrast, this paper provides a defence of the view that avowals are, qua expressions, truth-evaluable. This defence is based on an argument (...) from disagreement, to the effect that an adequate explanation of the existence of disagreement involving both cases of avowals and cases of nonlinguistic expression (like winces) supports a view according to which genuine (sincere, truthful) expression is what truth amounts to in avowals. (shrink)

An obstacle for the attribution of self-consciousness to animals is that they lack the linguistic ability to use the first-person pronoun. To overcome the obstacle, current tests rely on the availability of behavioural measures of self-consciousness in the absence of language. However, this is not sufficient, for unless a distinction is drawn between epistemic and expressive varieties of self-consciousness, further puzzles threaten the validity of the research. This paper defends the distinction and shows how to re-evaluate current research into animal (...) self-consciousness in its light, so as to improve conceptual clarity in this area. (shrink)

We distinguish two pathways people may follow when they join violent groups: compliance and internalization. Compliance occurs when individuals are coerced to join by powerful influence agents. Internalization occurs when individuals join due to a perceived convergence between the self and the group. We searched for evidence of each of these pathways in field investigations of former members of two renowned terrorist organizations: the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and Islamist radical groups. Results indicated that ex-fighters joined LTTE for reasons (...) associated with both compliance and internalization but that ex-fighters joined Islamist radical groups primarily for reasons associated with internalization. When compliance occurred, it often took the form of coercion within LTTE but involved charismatic persuasion agents within Islamist groups. This evidence of systematic differences in the reasons why fighters enter violent groups suggests that strategies for preventing radicalization and fostering de-radicalization should be tailored to particular groups. (shrink)

This paper defends a Wittgenstein-inspired conception of the nature of mind and self-knowledge. Thus, it is claimed that the mind is to be conceived as expressive behaviour; and that knowledge of one’s own mind is not to be thought of as a matter of first-person access, i.e. a special sort of access available to oneself alone, but rather as a matter of ordinary access, similar to other people’s. It is also argued that this conception does not undermine the distinctness of (...) the first-person perspective, including the asymmetry with the third-person perspective, which should be construed semantically, rather than epistemically. As a result, an alternative to contemporary conceptions of mind and self-knowledge is provided. (shrink)

El presente trabajo pretende dar cuenta de qué es la subjetividad y la acción en su aspecto individual como social y para ellos es necesario tener en cuenta cómo se conforma el ser humano y la necesidad del otro para dicha conformación personal. Gracias al lenguaje y la presencia del otro se puede establecer una serie de premisas plausibles que permiten explicar cómo se lleva a cabo la acción en el ser humano. El escrito expone los elemento antropológico que permiten (...) llegan a una comprensión de la acción, elemento indispensable para comprender cómo se generan los cambios en la sociedad. (shrink)

Pure virtue epistemology faces the fake barn challenge. This paper explains how it can be met. Thus, it is argued that the thought experiment contains a hidden ambiguity concerning the visual ability typically ascribed to, or denied, fake barn subjects. Disambiguation shows fake barn subjects to have limited knowledge of the target proposition. This accords with a pure virtue-theoretic conception of knowledge that predicts and explains all the intuitions elicited by the thought experiment. As a result, the relationship between knowledge, (...) luck and ability is illuminated, and our epistemological theorizing improved. (shrink)

This paper claims that we have direct and complete perceptual access to other people’s emotions in their bodily and behavioural expression. The claim is understood, not by analogy with the perception of three-dimensional objects or physical processes, but as a form of Gestalt perception. In addition, talk of direct perceptual access to others’ emotions is shown not to entail a behaviourist view of mind; and talk of complete perceptual access is shown to include both the phenomenological character and the dispositional (...) nature of emotions. (shrink)

The objective of this paper is to discuss the nature of nonconceptual, as opposed to conceptual, states and their content, by exploring the suggestion that the distinction between the conceptual and the nonconceptual be mapped onto the distinction between the linguistic and the nonlinguistic. This approach gives special relevance to our intuitions about the cognitive relationship between small children and adults, especially regarding the acquisition of concepts, in the course of normal cognitive development. Assuming that there is a developmental challenge (...) to be met, the paper considers both the conceptualist and nonconceptualist strategies used to meet it; and concludes that conceptualism is a more satisfying option. (shrink)

It is sometimes claimed that we perceive people’s mental states in their expressive features. This paper clarifies the claim by contrasting two possible readings, depending on whether expression is conceived relationally or non-relationally. A crucial difference between both readings is that only a non-relational conception of expression ensures direct access to other minds. The paper offers an argument for a non-relational conception of expression, and therefore for the view that we directly perceive people’s mental states in their expressive features.

Este artículo, elaborado en 1999, ofrece una panorámica de la realidad del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas en la actualidad. Repasa su organización, su volumen de publicaciones, sus indicadores de productividad, su capacidad de obtener recursos y, en suma, su lugar en el conjunto del sistema español de Ciencia y Tecnología, considerado en sí mismo y en relación con la Universidad. Como conclusión del repaso de datos, se afirma que, aunque la fórmula del CSIC, como organismo nacional e interdisciplinario, no (...) es la única posible, la organización del Estado de las Autonomías, así como la evaluación de los datos con que se cuenta, la hacen vivamente recomendable. No hay, pues, sino que seguir con su desarrollo. (shrink)

Peacocke's explanation of the first-person concept provides non-circu/ar possession conditions for such a concept, accommodating two different constraints: the noncircularity requirement and Evans's Thesis. In this paper, it is argued that Peacocke's explanation faces some difficulties: on the one hand, it appears unable to meet a serious objection facing the non-circularity requirement; on the other hand, it misunderstands the constitutive constraints imposed by Evans's Thesis on a correct account of the first person.

In her helpful response, Carrie Figdor provides answers to the two criticisms I raised against her defense of literalism in my review article. In doing so, she usefully clarifies the argument for t...

The topic of this paper is the conceptual possibility of being someone else. This thought occurs in the first person, and in principle it could be entertained by any subject of experience. The paper will focus on the examination of the content of such a thought: i.e., what exactly is meant by the possibility of being someone else? By way of comparing this thought with other possibilities (e.g., the possibility of being taller), it will be shown that the possibility of (...) being someone else lacks coherence, mainly because it goes against many reasonable and well-established beliefs held about ourselves and our identity. (shrink)

There is a recent popular reconstruction of Wittgenstein's thinking about animal minds, according to which animals and humans share a set of expressive abilities, prior to, and independent of, the onset of linguistic-cum-conceptual abilities; a reconstruction that in turn entails a duality of expression and linguistic-cum-conceptual abilities, in adult humans. This paper contends that the reconstruction is implausible and at odds with Wittgenstein's thinking, regarding both the developing minds of children and the minds of non-linguistic animals. Instead, it argues that (...) Wittgenstein's thinking is shaped by an anthropological outlook, according to which linguistic abilities signal the existence of a distinctive human form of life, within which animals do not belong, but into which children are progressively introduced. As a result, there is neither a shared set of expressive abilities in animals, children and adult humans; nor a duality of expression and linguistic-cum-conceptual abilities in humans. (shrink)

This paper argues that the weaker elements in the anti-sceptical strategy deployed by Sosa in "A Virtue Epistemology" can be improved, within the general framework provided by virtue epistemology, if internalism about perceptual experience is abandoned.

La conocida obra Muʿǧam al-buldān (Diccionario de los países), terminada por el geógrafo y erudito Yāqūt al-Rūmī al-Ḥamawī (m. 626/1229) un año antes de su muerte, ofrece una valiosa información sobre los múltiples topónimos recogidos por este autor. Dicha información no se limita solo a los aspectos geográficos, sino también a los literarios y biográficos, y ha sido abordada en trabajos relacionados con al-Andalus. Mi propósito en el presente artículo es realizar una primera aproximación a la imagen que Yāqūt proyecta (...) del Mágreb a través de algunos ejemplos concretos, realizando un breve recorrido de las fuentes que empleó, entre las cuales destacó especialmente el geógrafo andalusí Abū ʿUbayd al-Bakrī (m. 487/1094), muy citado en toda la obra. (shrink)