M. Julia Martínez

In this paper, using a multilevel approach, we defend the positive role of natural selection in the generation of organismal form. Despite the currently widespread opinion that natural selection only plays a negative role in the evolution of form, we argue, in contrast, that the Darwinian factor is a crucial (but not exclusive) factor in morphological organization. Analyzing some classic arguments, we propose incorporating the notion of ‘downward causation’ into the concept of ‘natural selection.’ In our opinion, this kind of causation is fundamental to the operation of selection as a creative evolutionary process

Este ensayo acomete un análisis del concepto de fantasmagoría en el marco de los materiales del proyecto inacabado del Libro de los pasajes de Walter Benjamin. Para ello, parte de la relación que en ellos se traza entre este término y el carácter fetichista que Marx atribuye a la mercancía, a fin de mostrar cómo dicho carácter, así como la noción de ideología que se segrega de él, constituyen el fundamento de la utilización por parte de Benjamin del concepto de fantasmagoría. Sobre esta base, se defiende que el sentido que Benjamin confiere a esta noción implica una ampliación del concepto marxiano de ideología que obedecería a un doble objetivo: incluir bajo su alcance aspectos de la autocomprensión de la sociedad moderna no tematizados por Marx y adaptarlo a los resultados de la evolución del capitalismo. Por último, se estudia la conexión que la noción de fantasmagoría guarda con lo que Benjamin llama el «despertar» en el contexto de su reflexión sobre la tarea del historiador materialista.

In this article we argue that the classical—linear and bottom-up directed—models of causation in biology, and the ‘‘proximate/ultimate’’ dichotomy, are inappropriate to capture the complexity inherent to biological processes. We introduce a new notion of ‘‘multilevel causation’’ where old dichotomies such as proximate/ultimate and bottom-up/ top-down are reinterpreted within a multilevel, web-like, approach. In briefly reviewing some recent work on complexity, EvoDevo, carcinogenesis, autocatalysis, comparative genomics, animal regeneration, phenotypic plasticity, and niche construction, we will argue that such reinterpretation is a necessary step for the advancement of the ‘‘Extended Synthesis.’’.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the Spanish mobile phone industry to determine how mobile phone companies and certain institutions can improve protection for children who use mobile phones. We carried out a multivariate statistical analysis using anonymous primary data from mobile phone companies, and institutions and associations that protect children, to compare these stakeholders’ opinions and to put forward solutions. We proved that, even though some European countries have made an effort to provide safer ICT services, all stakeholders still need to cooperate and agree on solutions to the commercial problems associated with children using mobile phones. This can be done by signing codes of conduct. We found that even though some companies implement measures to protect children from accessing harmful content via their mobile phones, they do so for reasons of legal and not social responsibility

The tree-based data structure of -tree for propositional formulas is introduced in an improved and optimised form. The -trees allow a compact representation for negation normal forms as well as for a number of reduction strategies in order to consider only those occurrences of literals which are relevant for the satisfiability of the input formula. These reduction strategies are divided into two subsets (meaning- and satisfiability-preserving transformations) and can be used to decrease the size of a negation normal form A at (at most) quadratic cost. The reduction strategies are aimed at decreasing the number of required branchings and, therefore, these strategies allow to limit the size of the search space for the SAT problem.

Con el objetivo de contribuir al diálogo sugerido por Heidegger entre su pensamiento y la obra de Marx, este trabajo pretende poner de manifiesto la confluencia existente entre la interpretación heideggeriana de la modernidad y el análisis llevado a cabo por Marx en El capital del modo de producción capitalista. Para ello se estudia la prevalencia que, desde su perspectiva ontológica, Heidegger otorga a la idea del producir en la época moderna a partir de la transformación del sentido de la poíesis griega y en conexión con la esencia de la técnica, a la vez que se defiende el carácter igualmente ontológico que cabe atribuir a la noción marxiana de mercancía. En atención a la concepción del tiempo uniformizado y homogéneo que subyace a dicha noción, equivalente al establecido en la ciencia moderna, se plantea además la tesis de que la presencia moderna del ente como objeto incondicionalmente producible y calculable descrita por Heidegger coincide con la constitución de las cosas en mercancías como productos del trabajo que revela El capital

La Segunda Guerra Mundial y las atrocidades cometidas en investigaciones con los prisioneros en los campos de concentración nazis y japoneses, despertaron la conciencia por el desarrollo de los derechos humanos que se habían conquistado paulatinamente a lo largo de la historia. Por ello se conforman una serie de leyes, normas y declaraciones donde se tratan los aspectos bioéticos en los ensayos clínicos. Se debe prestar vital atención a la relación médico-paciente en el curso de las investigaciones y considerar la relación beneficio/riesgo cuando se va a experimentar en seres humanos. La retinopatía diabética proliferativa es una de las afecciones oftalmológicas que más ensayos ha suscitado. El objetivo de este trabajo consiste en analizar algunos aspectos éticos en la experimentación en pacientes con esta afección. The Second World War and the atrocities committed in research with prisoners in Japanese and Nazi concentration camps, awakened consciousness for the development of human rights that had gradually been conquered throughout history. That´s why a series of laws, rules and statements that deal with bioethical aspects in clinical trials, were passed. Special attention must be given to the doctor-patient relationship during the research and consider the benefit/risk ratio when conducting experiments on human beings. Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy is one of the ophthalmological disorders that has given rise to more trials. The research goal is to analyze some ethical aspects when experimenting on patients with this condition

Spain has become a country receiving immigrants in the last years. The majority of the items of news related to immigration that appear in the press exhibit negative characteristics. The main purpose of this article is to observe the linguistic and visual representation of Sub-Saharan immigrants in a sample of the Spanish press in order to answer the following research questions: how are Sub-Saharan immigrants portrayed linguistically and visually in the given press? What are the implications of the choices in language and images? The researcher collected all the pieces of news related to Sub-Saharan immigrants in the three most popular Spanish newspapers, i.e. El País, ABC and El Mundo from 1 June 2011 to 31 March 2013. Visual grammar and critical discourse analysis will be used in order to deconstruct the visual and linguistic representation of such immigrants. In addition, van Leeuwen's [2008 Discourse and practice. New tools for critical discourse analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.] classification of social actors will be used in the analysis. The analysis demonstrates that the representation of Sub-Saharan immigrants displays the following characteristics: they are represented as vulnerable, lacking autonomy, as victims, etc. This representation does not contribute to the fact that the autochthonous population favours the integration of immigrants into the socio-economic structure, exercising the same rights as the Spanish population.

In order to examine whether the usual identification of neoliberal ideas with an ideological discourse is valid, this paper starts off with an analysis of what Marx terms commodity fetishism in Capital, based on which a certain sense of the concept of ideology may be inferred which would result in its being both true and false. In order to determine whether this definition of ideology may be applied to neoliberal theory, we look at its fundamental features and how they continue with or break away from economic liberalism as studied in Michel Foucault’s Birth of biopolitics. Attention is later moved to the characteristics detected by David Harvey in the socalled flexible accumulation as the latest stage of capitalism which coincides with the political implementation of neoliberal doctrine. At the end of the road travelled, it is hypothesised that this theory would be a form of ideology containing a dimension of both truth and falsehood, in line with Marx’s thought.

Este texto aborda la problemática relación entre verdad y palabra, específicamente aquello que hace que un enunciado tenga estatus de verdad. A partir de ciertas consideraciones históricas sobre el problema del dogmatismo teórico, se realiza una breve aproximación a distintas formas en las que el problema de la verdad ha estado presente en el pensamiento moderno. Para de este modo desarrollar el aporte específico del psicoanálisis sobre la materia, cuestión que atañe también al modo de concebir la clínica y la misma teoría psicoanalítica. Finalmente, se sostiene que desde la perspectiva psicoanalítica es posible concebir de otro modo el problema de la verdad de los enunciados.

The tree-based data structure of △-tree for propositional formulas is introduced in an improved and optimised form. The △-trees allow a compact representation for negation normal forms as well as for a number of reduction strategies in order to consider only those occurrences of literals which are relevant for the satisfiability of the input formula. These reduction strategies are divided into two subsets (meaning- and satisfiability-preserving transformations) and can be used to decrease the size of a negation normal form A at (at most) quadratic cost. The reduction strategies are aimed at decreasing the number of required branchings and, therefore, these strategies allow to limit the size of the search space for the SAT problem