¿Tenemos libre albedrío? Objeciones empíricas y filosóficas a Benjamin Libet.

Benjamin Libet ha argumentado que cambios específicos en la actividad electroencefalográfica del córtex cerebral son registrados varios cientos de milisegundos antes que las personas tengan la intención consciente para actuar. Según Libet este hallazgo prueba que los movimientos voluntarios se inician de manera inconsciente. Siendo así, pone en duda nuestra percepción de libre albedrío según la cual nosotros somos iniciadores conscientes de nuestras acciones voluntarias. En este artículo haré objeciones empíricas a su modelo experimental argumentando que Libet no mide en realidad lo que él cree que está midiendo y, que el uso de electroencefalografía con electrodo de registro en cuero cabelludo no suministra datos fiables que permitan correlacionar cambios de la actividad cerebral y fenómenos psíquicos. También haré objeciones teóricas a las conclusiones filosóficas derivadas de sus experimentos, argumentado que la acción simple (mover el dedo) no puede ser una acción paradigmática para estudiar libre albedrío y que Libet al no estudiar la naturaleza de las intenciones distales ni su probable rol causal en la formación de intenciones proximales, no puede demostrar que el cerebro decide inconscientemente iniciar la acción. Concluyo que Libet nunca llega a probar que no actuamos por nuestro propio libre albedrío.

Davis, soldier missionary : a biography of Rev. Jerome D. Davis, D.D., Lieut-Colonel of volunteers and for thirty-nine years a missionary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in Japan

http://www.archive.org/details/davissoldiermiss00davirich

In the wake of the war canoe ; a stirring record of forty years' successful labour, peril & adventure amongst the savage Indian tribes of the Pacific coast, and the piratical headhunting Haidas of the Queen Charlotte Islands, B.C., with an introduction by the Lord Bishop of Derry.

http://www.archive.org/details/inwakeofwarcanoe00collrich

The political principles of Mencius / by Francis C.M. Wei.

http://www.archive.org/details/thepoliticalprin00weicuoft

Life and letters of Fathers Ponziglione, Schoenmakers, and other early Jesuits at Osage mission. Sketch of St. Francis' church. Life of Mother Bridget. By W.W. Graves . .

http://www.archive.org/details/ponziglionescho00gravrich

Pioneering in the Congo. by John McKendree Springer ...

http://www.archive.org/details/pioneeringincong00spririch

Old Spain in new America , by Robert McLean ... and Grace Petrie Williams ... Issued by the Council of women for home mission.

http://www.archive.org/details/oldspaininnewame00mcleiala

Economic return of clinical trials performed under the pediatric exclusivity program.

CONTEXT: In 1997, Congress authorized the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to grant 6-month extensions of marketing rights through the Pediatric Exclusivity Program if industry sponsors complete FDA-requested pediatric trials. The program has been praised for creating incentives for studies in children and has been criticized as a "windfall" to the innovator drug industry. This critique has been a substantial part of congressional debate on the program, which is due to expire in 2007. OBJECTIVE: To quantify the economic return to industry for completing pediatric exclusivity trials. DESIGN AND SETTING: A cohort study of programs conducted for pediatric exclusivity. Nine drugs that were granted pediatric exclusivity were selected. From the final study reports submitted to the FDA (2002-2004), key elements of the clinical trial design and study operations were obtained, and the cost of performing each study was estimated and converted into estimates of after-tax cash outflows. Three-year market sales were obtained and converted into estimates of after-tax cash inflows based on 6 months of additional market protection. Net economic return (cash inflows minus outflows) and net return-to-costs ratio (net economic return divided by cash outflows) for each product were then calculated. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Net economic return and net return-to-cost ratio. RESULTS: The indications studied reflect a broad representation of the program: asthma, tumors, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, hypertension, depression/generalized anxiety disorder, diabetes mellitus, gastroesophageal reflux, bacterial infection, and bone mineralization. The distribution of net economic return for 6 months of exclusivity varied substantially among products (net economic return ranged from -$8.9 million to $507.9 million and net return-to-cost ratio ranged from -0.68 to 73.63). CONCLUSIONS: The economic return for pediatric exclusivity is variable. As an incentive to complete much-needed clinical trials in children, pediatric exclusivity can generate lucrative returns or produce more modest returns on investment.

La discapacidad en la literatura infantil y juvenil.

El Centro Internacional del Libro Infantil y Juvenil de la Fundación Germán Sánchez Ruipérez, la Fundación CNSE para la supresión de las barreras de comunicación y el Servicio de Asuntos Sociales de la Universidad de Salamanca, presentan conjuntamente esta bibliografía dedicada a la discapacidad. La publicación ofrece una amplia y representativa muestra de las obras infantiles y juveniles editadas en castellano que tocan el tema de la discapacidad, de forma directa o indirectamente, o que incluyen en sus tramas personajes con alguna discapacidad. El contenido bibliográfico se divide en dos grandes bloques: Discapacidad de papel, donde se referencian obras de ficción para niños y jóvenes; y La discapacidad, los niños y los libros, que recoge artículos y monografías en los que se analiza y reflexiona desde distintas perspectivas sobre el tema monográfico.

De la ontología de la imagen-cine a la ética del primer plano

Este texto propone un análisis ontológico y ético de la imagen-cine como simulacro. Se consideran tres posturas diferentes: la platónica, la bergsoniana y la deleuziana. El cine de Ingmar Bergman utiliza los elementos de la nueva imagen-cine y resalta el primer plano por expresar el devenir subjetivo y las relaciones interpersonales.

Cholinergic modulation of intrinsic fibre-evoked excitatory transmission contains a nicotinic component in immature but not adult rat piriform cortex, in vitro

The piriform cortex (PC) is highly prone to epileptogenesis, particularly in immature animals, where decreased muscarinic modulation of PC intrinsic fibre excitatory neurotransmission is implicated as a likely cause. However, whether higher levels of acetylcholine (ACh) release occur in immature vs. adult PC remains unclear. We investigated this using in vitro extracellular electrophysiological recording techniques. Intrinsic fibre-evoked extracellular field potentials (EFPs) were recorded from layers II to III in PC brain slices prepared from immature (P14-18) and adult (P>40) rats. Adult and immature PC EFPs were suppressed by eserine (1muM) or neostigmine (1muM) application, with a greater suppression in immature ( approximately 40%) than adult ( approximately 30%) slices. Subsequent application of atropine (1muM) reversed EFP suppression, producing supranormal ( approximately 12%) recovery in adult slices, suggesting that suppression was solely muscarinic ACh receptor-mediated and that some 'basal' cholinergic 'tone' was present. Conversely, atropine only partially reversed anticholinesterase effects in immature slices, suggesting the presence of additional non-muscarinic modulation. Accordingly, nicotine (50muM) caused immature field suppression ( approximately 30%) that was further enhanced by neostigmine, whereas it had no effect on adult EFPs. Unlike atropine, nicotinic antagonists, mecamylamine and methyllycaconitine, induced immature supranormal field recovery ( approximately 20%) following anticholinesterase-induced suppression (with no effect on adult slices), confirming that basal cholinergic 'tone' was also present. We suggest that nicotinic inhibitory cholinergic modulation occurs in the immature rat PC intrinsic excitatory fibre system, possibly to complement the existing, weak muscarinic modulation, and could be another important developmentally regulated system governing immature PC susceptibility towards epileptogenesis.

3D surface point and wireframe reconstruction from multiview photographic images

This paper describes a new method for reconstructing 3D surface points and a wireframe on the surface of a freeform object using a small number, e.g. 10, of 2D photographic images. The images are taken at different viewing directions by a perspective camera with full prior knowledge of the camera configurations. The reconstructed surface points are frontier points and the wireframe is a network of contour generators. Both of them are reconstructed by pairing apparent contours in the 2D images. Unlike previous works, we empirically demonstrate that if the viewing directions are uniformly distributed around the object's viewing sphere, then the reconstructed 3D points automatically cluster closely on a highly curved part of the surface and are widely spread on smooth or flat parts. The advantage of this property is that the reconstructed points along a surface or a contour generator are not under-sampled or under-represented because surfaces or contours should be sampled or represented with more densely points where their curvatures are high. The more complex the contour's shape, the greater is the number of points required, but the greater the number of points is automatically generated by the proposed method. Given that the viewing directions are uniformly distributed, the number and distribution of the reconstructed points depend on the shape or the curvature of the surface regardless of the size of the surface or the size of the object. The unique pattern of the reconstructed points and contours may be used in 31) object recognition and measurement without computationally intensive full surface reconstruction. The results are obtained from both computer-generated and real objects. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Optimal 3D surface reconstruction from a small number of conventional 2D X-ray images

This paper describes a method for reconstructing 3D frontier points, contour generators and surfaces of anatomical objects or smooth surfaces from a small number, e. g. 10, of conventional 2D X-ray images. The X-ray images are taken at different viewing directions with full prior knowledge of the X-ray source and sensor configurations. Unlike previous works, we empirically demonstrate that if the viewing directions are uniformly distributed around the object's viewing sphere, then the reconstructed 3D points automatically cluster closely on a highly curved part of the surface and are widely spread on smooth or flat parts. The advantage of this property is that the reconstructed points along a surface or a contour generator are not under-sampled or under-represented because surfaces or contours should be sampled or represented with more densely points where their curvatures are high. The more complex the contour's shape, the greater is the number of points required, but the greater the number of points is automatically generated by the proposed method. Given that the number of viewing directions is fixed and the viewing directions are uniformly distributed, the number and distribution of the reconstructed points depend on the shape or the curvature of the surface regardless of the size of the surface or the size of the object. The technique may be used not only in medicine but also in industrial applications.

La construcción del cuerpo de la mujer en el gimnasio. 'Análisis de la relación de las mujeres con sus cuerpos en los gimnasios de la ciudad de La Plata'

El presente trabajo tiene la intención de indagar en la problemática del Género en el gimnasio, particularmente en cómo se construye el cuerpo de la mujer y su representación dentro del Gimnasio Enigma de la Ciudad de La plata. Dicho gimnasio está ubicado en las calles 55 entre 7 y 8, y en el mismo se realizaron observaciones, entrevistas y encuestas. Uno de los objetivos principales del trabajo es analizar la relación que se genera entre las mujeres y sus cuerpos dentro del gimnasio, por lo tanto la información recolectada en las entrevistas resulta muy relevante para el desarrollo del tema, sin embargo se busca entrecruzar la información de las entrevistas y las observaciones con dos discursos más tradicionales y complejos sobre el tema de Género, como lo son las perspectivas del feminismo y postfeminismo y por otro lado los discursos del psicoanálisis. Para desarrollar la perspectiva del feminismo se tomo como autora central y más representativa a Simone de Beauvoir cuyos aportes teóricos fueron los más importantes para la corriente feminista del siglo XX. Gracias a su teoría se empezó a pensar en el devenir de la mujer, en una mujer que se construye, con un cuerpo que es más una situación histórica que un hecho natural. Como todo proyecto del siglo XX dice Butler, es un proyecto en crisis, incompleto y que ya no sirve para nuestro tiempo, y aunque esta autora reconoce los aportes de Beauvoir señala que para superar sus límites hay que aceptar un postfeminismo, por lo tanto elegimos a Butler como representante del discurso posfeminista, discurso que plantea la posibilidad de que ni el género, ni el sexo existen, ya que ambos son constructos sociales, creados para cumplir y organizar un modelo de reproducción y heterosexualidad. Con respecto a la perspectiva del psicoanálisis seleccionamos a las autoras Benjamin Jessica, quien critica y supera el modelo Edípico creado por Freud, y por otro lado citamos a Fernández Ana María, que hace referencia a la mujer y su cuerpo como una ilusión, con un cuerpo que sostiene un mito y crea una identidad