Jose Lopez

This article describes and analyzes the process of institutionalizing studies on science, technology, and society in Cuba, and the social and academic circumstances in which these studies are implemented there. The authors give a brief account of how science and technology have evolved in Cuba over the last four decades. The authors argue that the promotion of science and technological innovation in Cuba has purposely taken the form of social innovation. The authors offer our view of how the changes and demands on science, technology, and education can take advantage of the approaches and proposals of STS studies. The authors consider the traditions of thought that have influenced Cuban culture and construct a specific conceptual framework through which contemporary developments in STS are assimilated. Finally, on the basis of the above analysis, the authors describe experiences of the institutionalization of STS and their underlying objectives.

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.

Water is one of the most valuable assets on the planet. Each day, this resource’s economic value increases geometrically, but its availability at the same time decreases. Nowadays, access to drinking water connotes economic, environmental and social costs. In response, to the growth of private sector involvement in water supply management globally, anti-privatization campaigns for human rights to water have emerged in recent years. The privatization of water services is one of the most controversial issues in freshwater management at the international level. This paper attempts to analyze the public and private goods provided by water Management. The authors argue that the regional natural and socioeconomic characteristics of Portugal call for a new differentiated approach in dealing with water resources.

Al abordar el estudio de la obra de Primo Levi, encontramos, ligada al núcleo de referencias que tienen como fuente su experiencia como superviviente del Holocausto, una temática singular, concebida por el autor como ejemplo de respuesta de la razón humana frente a la barbarie. El trabajo creativo, el mundo de los oficios, recorre como profunda reivindicación moral toda la obra de Levi, siendo la línea de fuerza positiva más importante que puede hallarse en la misma. En el presente artículo vamos a abordar críticamente este fecundo ámbito de referencialidad, analizando su concepción, sus vinculaciones y sus límites.

Este trabajo pretende colaborar a facilitar la tarea docente del profesorado, que debe desarrollar a través de sus decisiones de departamento, la enseñanza del hecho religioso como alternativa a unas enseñanzas de las religiones confesionales, en los dos últimos cursos de la ESO y en el primer curso del Bachillerato. Este aspecto nos orienta a desarrollar el currículo de esta nueva materia, preferentemente, hacia el vector cultural y social del hecho religioso, reservado a las enseñanzas comprometidas con una determinada crrencia religiosa -voluntariamente elegida por el alumnado- la preferencia en el desarrollo de los contenidos confesionales de la religión

Levi es un defensor de la capacidad de la razón para propiciar el progreso ético del hombre. Consecuentemente con ello, su literatura, tanto en su aspecto profundo como en el meramente estilístico, estará al servicio de esa causa. La violencia inútil y gratuita infligida sobre millones de inocentes, el escándalo de un Dios presentado como bondad y omnipotencia confrontado a la muerte de los campos, la inutilidad alienante del trabajo exterminador, la exigencia violenta de la regresión a lo bestial y la existencia de amplísimas zonas de indefinición moral donde víctimas y verdugos se difuminan en un todo aberrante, son cuestiones que representan un profundo reto al esfuerzo de su transformación como material de experiencia creativa y reflexiva, con vocación de exigencia ética. Los últimos años de la vida de Levi representan la irrupción de un vector negativo solapado a lo largo de su obra, la enfatización del posible sinsentido de todos los esfuerzos devorados por la nada y el olvido

This paper argues that narrative elements from the science fiction (SF) literary genre are used in the discourse of Nanoscience and Technology (NST) to bridge the gap between what is technically possible today and its inflated promises for the future. The argument is illustrated through a detailed discussion of two NST texts. The paper concludes by arguing that the use of SF narrative techniques poses serious problems to the development of a critical analysis of the ethical and social implications of NST