Fernando Lopez

A conflict of interest is a set of circumstances or relationships that create the risk that professional judgment or actions regarding a primary interest will be unduly influenced by a secondary interest. Secondary interests may be internal, meaning limited to the personal sphere, or external, linked to the interests of third parties or institutions. Internal interests are related to individual identity and personality, and tend to be perfectly aligned with the primary professional interest. Therefore, we usually only speak of a conflict of interest when external secondary interests, usually of a financial nature, are opposed to the primary professional interest (preserving the health of the population in the case of public health). In addition, biases due to internal interests are bidirectional and difficult to quantify, while those deriving from financial conflicts of interest are predictable, unidirectional and large-scale. Although they are different phenomena, they are often mixed up with one another to create confusion and divert attention from financial conflicts of interest. In public health, conflicts of interest can arise in the field of research when studies are conducted on the health effects of pharmaceuticals, chemicals, tobacco, alcohol or food and in decision-making regarding policies related to these same products. In this chapter we present several examples of conflicts of interest in public health and a series of recommendations for their management, beyond their public declaration, which is necessary but insufficient. All public health organizations should adopt standards to avoid, detect, eliminate or minimize the impact of conflicts of interest and ensure that these are put into practice.

Con motivo del primer centenario de la revista Ciencia Tomista, y a propósito del artículo entonces publicado por fr. Norberto del Prado sobre la verdad fundamental de la filosofía cristiana, el autor repasa los avatares acerca de esta filosofía y de la noción de verdad. A lo largo de estos cien años la evolución cultural ha problematizado ambas nociones hasta haber llegado, por una parte a la negación de un estatuto preciso de la filosofía cristiana y por otra al desdibujamiento de la verdad, dispersa en las verdades parciales de las ciencias y oculta tras un escepticismo generalizado. No obstante, en los humanos permanece el deseo y la capacidad de encuentro con la verdad, más allá de las conjeturas y de la explicación rentable de lo inmediato. Queda mucho por hacer para seguir intentando satisfacer ese deseo.On the occasion of the first anniversary of the journal Ciencia Tomista and because of the article on the fundamental truth of Christian philosophy then published by fr, Norberto del Prado, the author reviews the ups and downs of this philosophy and the idea of truth. Along this century the cultural evolution has caused problems to both notions to the point of denying the Christian philosophy a precise statute on the one hand, and on the other hand, the fading of the truth, scattered among the science partial truths, and hidden behind a generalized skepticism. However, the desire and the capability of meeting the truth in the humans stay beyond suppositions and the payable explanation of the immediate. It is still a long way to continue trying to fill that desire

El núcleo central del artículo gira en torno al relativismo respecto del conocimiento científico. El autor quiere defender la posibilidad del conocimiento objetivo, sin renunciar por ello a la idea de una perspectiva humana. De este modo se enfrenta a quienes conciben la objetividad como el abandono de cualquier perspectiva humana. En este contexto el escepticismo es valioso, al cuestionar las apariencias ligadas a una perspectiva más subjetiva y fomentar la adopción de una perspectiva objetiva, en la que consiste el conocimiento científico

Current discussions about education suggest that a transformative pedagogy that goes beyond the acquisition of knowledge and skills is needed. However, there is no agreement as to the inputs needed for a correct development of the educational model. In this sense, we can identify the presence of two different approaches to human and social capital which embody distinct educational worldviews. On the one hand, the ‘Marketable Human Capital’ or ‘Personal Culture’ approach, and on the other hand, the ‘Non-Marketable Human Capital’ or ‘Civic Culture’ approach. The first, which is linked to mainstream economic theory, sees education as any stock of knowledge that contributes to an improvement in the productivity of the worker and individual well-being. The second, which is rooted in the Mediterranean tradition of political thought, highlights the role of civic virtues, reciprocity, and public action within the educational process and its influence on public happiness. In this article, we analyse these connections in order to introduce the eighteenth-century Mediterranean tradition of economic thought into discussions about human and social capital theories and the role of education in them. Focusing on education through these prisms, national and international agendas must be reoriented towards the integral development of people to include broader global debates.

_BMC Medical Ethics_ is an open access journal publishing original peer-reviewed research articles in relation to the ethical aspects of biomedical research and clinical practice, including professional choices and conduct, medical technologies, healthcare systems and health policies. _BMC __Medical Ethics _is part of the _BMC_ series which publishes subject-specific journals focused on the needs of individual research communities across all areas of biology and medicine. We do not make editorial decisions on the basis of the interest of a study or its likely impact. Studies must be scientifically valid; for research articles this includes a scientifically sound research question, the use of suitable methods and analysis, and following community-agreed standards relevant to the research field. Specific criteria for other article types can be found in the submission guidelines. _BMC series - open, inclusive and trusted_.

If social science's "cultural turn" has taught us anything, it is that knowledge is constrained by the time and place in which it is produced. In response, scholars have begun to reassess social theory from the standpoints of groups and places outside of the European context upon which most grand theory is based. Here a distinguished group of scholars reevaluates widely accepted theories of state, property, race, and economics against Latin American experiences with a two-fold purpose. They seek to deepen our understanding of Latin America and the problems it faces. And, by testing social science paradigms against a broader variety of cases, they pursue a better and truly generalizable map of the social world. Bringing universal theory into dialogue with specific history, the contributors consider what forms Latin American variations of classical themes might take and which theories are most useful in describing Latin America. For example, the Argentinian experience reveals the limitations of neoclassical descriptions of economic development, but Charles Tilly's emphasis on the importance of war and collective action to statemaking holds up well when thoughtfully adapted to Latin American situations. Marxist structural analysis is problematic in a region where political divisions do not fully expresses class cleavages, but aspects of Karl Polanyi's socioeconomic theory cross borders with relative ease. This fresh theoretical discussion expands the scope of Latin American studies and social theory, bringing the two into an unprecedented conversation that will benefit both. Contributors are, in addition to the editors, Jeremy Adelman, Jorge I. Domínguez, Paul Gootenberg, Alan Knight, Robert M. Levine, Claudio Lomnitz, John Markoff, Verónica Montecinos, Steven C. Topik, and J. Samuel Valenzuela.