Com coneixen Descartes i Hume? : Una petita història del coneixement i les seves conseqüències contemporànies

És una anàlisi sobre el problema del coneixement als segles XVII (racionalisme) i XVIII (empirisme) i la seva influència en l'epistemologia contemporània. En concret, es comparen les teories del coneixement de René Descartes i de David Hume, es demostra la seva vigència al segle XXI i es proposa una aplicació extrafilosòfica al seu pensament.

Rene Molinier (Paris 1 juny 1899 - Marsella 20 juny 1975)

Fili de pares occitans, nasqué accidentalment a Paris i passa la infantesa a Algeria, on el seu pare era funcionari. Feu estudis a l'escola normal de Tolosa de Llenguadoc i exerci com a mestre. Més tard fou professor a l'Escola Primària Superior Professional de Rodez. En aquesta situació prepara la llicenciatura en ciències naturals a la Universität de Tolosa. El 1946 entra com a encarregat de curs a la Universität de Marsella, de la qual esdevingué professor titular el 1958. Ensenyà en aquesta Universität fins a la jubilació, l'any 1969.

Naturaleza humana y lenguaje en el pensamiento de Descartes

Frente a interpretaciones estandarizadas, el presente trabajo pretende poner de relieve elmomento de trascendencia del cogito, acudiendo al concepto de 'naturaleza' y a la noción de 'lenguaje'. Destácase la importancia del concepto de 'encarnación' como idea clave para la constitución del 'hombre verdadero', así como su dimensión intersubjetiva.

La passió segons Renée Vivien i el miratge-miracle del mirall

In this article, Rosa Cabré discusses Marçal¿s novel and illustrates how, according to the author, the desire of love, which is a source of pleasure often accompanied by guilt and distress, can lead to the creation or the illusion of an absolute beauty, like poetry. She explains in what way the mirror and the mask, recurring motifs in Marçal¿s work, symbolise identity and ¿otherness¿ and how these unite the real and the symbolic level. The novel contains an infinite number of mirrors, both external and internal ones, which enable the characters to see themselves reflected. This reflection is linked to feminity and to the possibilities of discovering one¿s own identity.

La passió segons Renée Vivien i el miratge-miracle del mirall

In this article, Rosa Cabré discusses Marçal¿s novel and illustrates how, according to the author, the desire of love, which is a source of pleasure often accompanied by guilt and distress, can lead to the creation or the illusion of an absolute beauty, like poetry. She explains in what way the mirror and the mask, recurring motifs in Marçal¿s work, symbolise identity and ¿otherness¿ and how these unite the real and the symbolic level. The novel contains an infinite number of mirrors, both external and internal ones, which enable the characters to see themselves reflected. This reflection is linked to feminity and to the possibilities of discovering one¿s own identity.

Descartes wears Converse: Liberal Arts for the Twenty-First Century Student

Students today have a different way of relating to information due to the new media channels that have arisen in the last decades. These have changed the way high-school and undergraduate students learn and they have altered the manner by which they perceive the world. Today’s Education Theory must take this fact into account in order to enhance the student’s learning process. The objective of this project is to give an example of how this enhancement may be achieved. First, it will give a brief overview of the relation between today’s young generations and the different channels of information; secondly, it will analyze the cognitive, psychological and educational theories that explain how the human brain learns and the important value that nonverbal information has for the memory system; afterwards, it will focus on this nonverbal information, looking at the possible effects that it may have on human memory and learning; finally, it will give an example of the practical implementation of this theory through the presentation of three animated instructional videos that have been created with the specific aim of enhancing the young generation’s understanding of some complex subjects of the Liberal Arts.

La Adaptación de la asignatura historia económica mundial en el Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior: objetivos y primeros resultados en la Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales de la UAB

El crédito ECTS (European Credit Transfert System) no es solamente un instrumento de transferencia que facilita el reconocimiento de los títulos en toda la UE y la movilidad de estudiantes y profesores, sino un nuevo marco normativo donde los estudios de grado y postgrado se desarrollan a lo largo de un proceso acumulativo de aprendizaje. El objetivo de la reforma, una vez sentadas las bases del adiestramiento personal, es que el mencionado aprendizaje pueda continuar actuando a lo largo de toda la vida (Long Life Learning – LLL). La asignatura de Historia Económica Mundial (HEM) puede constituir una plataforma privilegiada sobre la cual aplicar los planes pilotos de transición hacia la implantación definitiva del EEES. La existencia de esta materia de estudio en los programas de las actuales titulaciones de Economía y Administración y Dirección de Empresas, destinadas a convertirse en el grado de Economía, se hace más necesaria que nunca, dado que reúne una serie de características intrínsecas que favorecen las prácticas de autoaprendizaje.

Diseño de un juego para pantalla LCD gráfica y controlado por el microprocesador HCS12

En una época como la actual, en la que se hace necesario disponer de equipos con grandes características y recursos para poder disfrutar de los últimos lanzamientos en juegos, no dejan de producirse equipos de bajo coste basados en microcontroladores que pueden entretener al mismo nivel que los más caros. Este proyecto reúne el diseño de la configuración, interconexión y programación de código necesarios para ejecutar un juego sencillo. Para ello se ha utilizado una pantalla LCD táctil y un microcontrolador HCS12.

Efectos de lo real. Discursos acerca de los cuerpos artificiales

Los cuerpos artificiales ( muñecos, autómatas, maniquíes) son tratados a través de tres tipos de discurso: del artificio, de la mirada y del deseo. Esta perspectiva permite abordarlos, no como representaciones ni como dobles (Döppelgänger) sino como significantes en el discurso , como objetos de deseo y como puntos de articulación de la mirada. En el discurso del artificio se pasa revista al binomio natural/artificial y , a través de distintos textos , El tratado de Hombre de René Descarrtes, la “teoría de los maniquíes” y la “generatio aequivoca” de Bruno Schulz, y el film Jidlo (Comida) de Jan Svankmajer, se hace lo propio con los paradigmas desde los que se ha metaforizado al cuerpo humano. En el discurso de la mirada, se los aborda desde la perspectiva psicoanalítica del campo escópico, a través de El hombre de la arena, de ETA Hoffmann. Los discursos del deseo tratan de algunos aspectos de esta pulsión : el deseo masculino desde La Eva futura de Villiers de l’Isle Adam, el “deseo de hijo”, a través del film Otesánek de Jan Svankmajer y la genericidad del deseo en dos novelas de Gaston Leroux , La muñeca sangrienta y la máquina de asesinar . Los cuerpos artificiales, así, podrían ser considerados, en su potencia significativa, no ya como dobles , sino como efectos de lo real, como “pequeños otros”, como “objetos a” lacanianos y como simulacros.

The first steps of a secondary school teacher: experiences and studies of a student-teacher

This dissertation aims at fostering the professional development of the EFL teacher. This document compiles two small scale empirical studies carried out during the practicum periods of the TED's course. The first one is based on the role of the teacher's talk in the EFL classroom and the second one focuses on students’ small group talk, analysing the impact of cooperative learning in the EFL classroom by examining students' conversation. The following section gathers the teacher's personal reflections upon the process of professionalization. The paper concludes with a summary of the major findings and further professional improvement proposals

Usabilitat en entorns de telèfons mòbils

Aquí es reuneix la documentació tècnica actual per a fer-ne un anàlisi de facilitat d'ús des del punt de vista de l'usuari. Se centra en les funcionalitats, les tecnologies actuals i les interfícies. La metodologia emprada per a fer les anàlisis i arribar a les conclusions consta de tres fases: fer un recull de la tecnologia i les funcionalitats necessàries i analitzar-ne la facilitat d'ús; establir grups d'usuaris amb necessitats comunes o perfils d'usuari, i definir els paràmetres de facilitat d'ús que fem servir en els tests d'usuaris-dispositius i en els dissenys de tests.

Quantifying rock fabrics: a test of autocorrelation of the spatial distribution of cristals

A novel test of spatial independence of the distribution of crystals or phases in rocksbased on compositional statistics is introduced. It improves and generalizes the commonjoins-count statistics known from map analysis in geographic information systems.Assigning phases independently to objects in RD is modelled by a single-trial multinomialrandom function Z(x), where the probabilities of phases add to one and areexplicitly modelled as compositions in the K-part simplex SK. Thus, apparent inconsistenciesof the tests based on the conventional joins{count statistics and their possiblycontradictory interpretations are avoided. In practical applications we assume that theprobabilities of phases do not depend on the location but are identical everywhere inthe domain of de nition. Thus, the model involves the sum of r independent identicalmultinomial distributed 1-trial random variables which is an r-trial multinomialdistributed random variable. The probabilities of the distribution of the r counts canbe considered as a composition in the Q-part simplex SQ. They span the so calledHardy-Weinberg manifold H that is proved to be a K-1-affine subspace of SQ. This isa generalisation of the well-known Hardy-Weinberg law of genetics. If the assignmentof phases accounts for some kind of spatial dependence, then the r-trial probabilitiesdo not remain on H. This suggests the use of the Aitchison distance between observedprobabilities to H to test dependence. Moreover, when there is a spatial uctuation ofthe multinomial probabilities, the observed r-trial probabilities move on H. This shiftcan be used as to check for these uctuations. A practical procedure and an algorithmto perform the test have been developed. Some cases applied to simulated and realdata are presented.Key words: Spatial distribution of crystals in rocks, spatial distribution of phases,joins-count statistics, multinomial distribution, Hardy-Weinberg law, Hardy-Weinbergmanifold, Aitchison geometry

Automated Segmentation of Cerebral Vasculature with Aneurysms in 3DRA and TOF-MRA using Geodesic Active Regions: an Evaluation Study

Purpose: To evaluate the suitability of an improved version of an automatic segmentation method based on geodesic active regions (GAR) for segmenting cerebral vasculature with aneurysms from 3D X-ray reconstruc-tion angiography (3DRA) and time of °ight magnetic resonance angiography (TOF-MRA) images available in the clinical routine.Methods: Three aspects of the GAR method have been improved: execution time, robustness to variability in imaging protocols and robustness to variability in image spatial resolutions. The improved GAR was retrospectively evaluated on images from patients containing intracranial aneurysms in the area of the Circle of Willis and imaged with two modalities: 3DRA and TOF-MRA. Images were obtained from two clinical centers, each using di®erent imaging equipment. Evaluation included qualitative and quantitative analyses ofthe segmentation results on 20 images from 10 patients. The gold standard was built from 660 cross-sections (33 per image) of vessels and aneurysms, manually measured by interventional neuroradiologists. GAR has also been compared to an interactive segmentation method: iso-intensity surface extraction (ISE). In addition, since patients had been imaged with the two modalities, we performed an inter-modality agreement analysis with respect to both the manual measurements and each of the two segmentation methods. Results: Both GAR and ISE di®ered from the gold standard within acceptable limits compared to the imaging resolution. GAR (ISE, respectively) had an average accuracy of 0.20 (0.24) mm for 3DRA and 0.27 (0.30) mm for TOF-MRA, and had a repeatability of 0.05 (0.20) mm. Compared to ISE, GAR had a lower qualitative error in the vessel region and a lower quantitative error in the aneurysm region. The repeatabilityof GAR was superior to manual measurements and ISE. The inter-modality agreement was similar between GAR and the manual measurements. Conclusions: The improved GAR method outperformed ISE qualitatively as well as quantitatively and is suitable for segmenting 3DRA and TOF-MRA images from clinical routine.

Beyond the glass ceiling: Does gender matter?

The representation of women in top corporate officer positions is steadily increasing. However, little is known about the impact this will have. A large literature documents that women are different from men in their choices and in their preferences, but most of this literature relies on samples of college students or workers at lower levels in the corporate hierarchy. If women must be like men to break the glass ceiling, we might expect gender differences to disappear among top executives. In contrast, using a large survey of all directors of publicly-traded corporations in Sweden, we show that female and male directors differ systematically in their core values and risk attitudes. While certain population gender differences disappear at the director level, others do not. Consistent with the findings for the Swedish population, female directors are more benevolent and universally concerned, but less power-oriented than men. However, they are less traditional and security-oriented than their male counterparts. Furthermore, female directors are slightly more risk-loving than male directors. This suggests that having a women on the board need not lead to more risk-averse decision-making.

Fermat's treatise on quadrature: A new reading

The Treatise on Quadrature of Fermat (c. 1659), besides containing the first known proof of the computation of the area under a higher parabola, R x+m/n dx, or under a higher hyperbola, R x-m/n dx with the appropriate limits of integration in each case , has a second part which was not understood by Fermat s contemporaries. This second part of the Treatise is obscure and difficult to read and even the great Huygens described it as'published with many mistakes and it is so obscure (with proofs redolent of error) that I have been unable to make any sense of it'. Far from the confusion that Huygens attributes to it, in this paper we try to prove that Fermat, in writing the Treatise, had a very clear goal in mind and he managed to attain it by means of a simple and original method. Fermat reduced the quadrature of a great number of algebraic curves to the quadrature of known curves: the higher parabolas and hyperbolas of the first part of the paper. Others, he reduced to the quadrature of the circle. We shall see how the clever use of two procedures, quite novel at the time: the change of variables and a particular case of the formulaof integration by parts, provide Fermat with the necessary tools to square very easily curves as well-known as the folium of Descartes, the cissoid of Diocles or the witch of Agnesi.