El conocimiento religioso a la luz de las concepciones metodológicas de Kuhn y Lakatos

The article based on Kuhn’s paradigmatic approach and Lakatos’ methodology of scientific research programmes, analyses certain aspects of selected cognitive functions of religous beliefs. Our approach is based on the search for angalogy between scientific theories on one hand and systems of religious beliefs on the other hand. Contemporary philosophy of science demonstrates that scientific models are the products of creative analogous immagination, data are theory-laden, theories as a whole are resistent to falsification and it is hard (if at all) to find reliable criterions for the selection of a paradigm. These «subjective features» are more evident within religion, since a wider range of models, greater impact of interpretations on data, greater arduousness in regard to the commitment to a paradigm and more ambiguity in the process of the selection of a paradigm, exist in this area. However, with each of these features, I see the difference between science and religion in their degree and not in absolute contrast.El artículo analiza algunos aspectos de las funciones cognitivas seleccionadas de las convicciones religiosas en base a la teoría paradigmática de Kuhn y a la metodología de Lakatos. Nuestro proceso se fundamenta en la búsqueda de analogía entre las teorías científicas por una parte y los sistemas de las convicciones religiosas por la otra. La filosofía contemporánea de la ciencia muestra que los modelos científicos son productos de la imaginación análoga y creativa, los datos son influidos por la teoría y las teorías en su globalidad son resistentes a la falsificación y muy difícilmente (si es que se puede) es posible encontrar los criterios de confianza para la selección de un paradigma. Estas características subjetivas son más visibles en la religión, donde existe una mayor diversidad de modelos, mayor influencia en la interpretación de los datos, mayor empeño en la fidelidad al paradigma y mayor imprecisión en la selección del paradigma. Sin embargo en cada una de las características mencionadas se ve la diferencia entre la ciencia y la religión en su grado, pero no en su oposición absoluta

Challenging Freedom: Neoliberalism and the Erosion of Democratic Education

Goodlad, et al. (2002) rightly point out that a culture can either resist or support change. Schein’s (2010) model of culture indicates observable behaviors of a culture can be explained by exposing underlying shared values and basic assumptions that give meaning to the performance. Yet culture is many-faceted and complex. So Schein advised a clinical approach to cultural analysis that calls for identifying a problem in order to focus the analysis on relevant values and assumptions. This project starts with two assumptions: (1) The erosion of democratic education is a visible overt behavior of the current U.S. macro-culture, and (2) this is a problem. I intend to use this problem of the erosion of democratic education as a basis for a cultural analysis. My essential question is: What are the deeper, collective, competing value commitments and shared basic assumptions that hinder efforts for democratic education? The purpose of this paper is to start a conversation about particular cultural limitations and barriers we are working with as we move toward recapturing the civic mission of education

May It Please the Court: Questions About Policy at Oral Argument

This Article examines the questions that Supreme Court Justices ask during oral argument. The authors content-coded questions asked in fifty-three cases argued during the October 2009, 2010, and 2011 terms—a total of 5,115 questions. They found that the Justices vary significantly in the extent to which they ask about different aspects of a case, including threshold issues, precedent, facts, external actors, legal argument, and policy. They also found that the Justices were more likely to ask policy-oriented questions in education cases than in constitutional cases that did not arise in a school setting. The authors included a case study of Camreta v. Greene to illustrate with specific examples each current Justice\u27s questioning style. The Study concludes that oral argument plays an important role in the Supreme Court\u27s decision-making process, giving the Justices the opportunity to ask questions that are of concern to them

May It Please the Court: Questions About Policy at Oral Argument

This Article examines the questions that Supreme Court Justices ask during oral argument. The authors content-coded questions asked in fifty-three cases argued during the October 2009, 2010, and 2011 terms—a total of 5,115 questions. They found that the Justices vary significantly in the extent to which they ask about different aspects of a case, including threshold issues, precedent, facts, external actors, legal argument, and policy. They also found that the Justices were more likely to ask policy-oriented questions in education cases than in constitutional cases that did not arise in a school setting. The authors included a case study of Camreta v. Greene to illustrate with specific examples each current Justice\u27s questioning style. The Study concludes that oral argument plays an important role in the Supreme Court\u27s decision-making process, giving the Justices the opportunity to ask questions that are of concern to them

Tolerance to environmental stresses:Do fungal endophytes mediate plasticity in <i>Solanum dulcamara</i>?

Salinity imposes constraints on plant growth and development. Efforts have been made to develop salt-tolerant crops by different methods, the outcomes have not yet been sufficiently satisfactory. Plants depend on their symbiotic partners such as fungal symbionts to cope with stress conditions such as salinity. Bittersweet nightshade (Solanum dulcamara) has a wide ecological amplitude. Although S. dulcamara is becoming a model plant species, its associated fungal symbionts have hardly been studied. Here we propose that its symbiotic, endophytic fungi may be responsible for S. dulcamara's wide ecological amplitude. We examined the composition of endophytic fungal communities in S. dulcamara from contrasting habitats, i.e., dry and wet regions. We developed a method to select potential isolates based on their ability to colonize, grow and impart tolerance under stress conditions. The isolates identified from this study could potentially be used to improve crop productivity under suboptimal conditions

Analysis of growth characteristics in short-term divergently selected Japanese quail

This study was carried out to examine the effect of short-term selection for 5-weeks of age body weight in divergent lines of Japanese quail. Growth curves for both sexes within each selection group resembled the general sigmoid shape of a typical growth curve. Gompertz model curves and the observed growth curves were very similar. In both males and females the parameter estimates of the Gompertz growth curve were obtained with a high determination coefficient (0.9898 &#8805; R2 &#8805; 0.9840). Sex differences in asymptotic weight were found to be significant across lines. Similarly, in both sexes a significant divergent selection effect was determined for parameter A. The growth rate in all the Japanese quail lines was significantly higher in males than in females. There was also a significant increase in growth rate of the females selected for increased 5-week body weight over the control females, as well as a significant decline in growth rate of males selected for decreased 5-week body weight compared to the unselected control group. Keywords: Gompertz model; growth curve; asymmetric response;growth rate South African Journal of Animal Sciences Vol. 35 (2) 2005: pp.83-8

Controlling Static and Dynamic Multiferroic Effects with Nanoscale Structure

This thesis explores magnetization dynamics in materials to help design future low-power electromagnetic devices. In this thesis, we explore materials for multiferroic composites that can couple electricity and magnetism through voltage, rather than current, allowing for the possibility of low power control of magnetism. We study both thin film systems and explore the effect of nanostructure on strain-mediated composites, which utilize a ferroelectric material that exhibits a strain response to an applied voltage, coupled to a magnetostrictive material, which changes magnetization in response to the strain produced by the ferroelectric. In the first part of the thesis, yttrium iron garnet (YIG) is studied as a model system for low loss magnetic materials – a necessary requirement for high-frequency multiferroic devices. YIG is an ideal magnetic material for high-frequency devices, as it exhibits narrow magnetic resonances, but pure YIG has low magnetostriction. Using sol-gel chemistry, we were able to survey a range of cerium- and ruthenium-doped YIG compositions, which have both been shown to increase YIG’s magnetostriction to useful levels in bulk crystals. Homogeneously doped materials were synthesized and characterized, but the polycrystalline nature of the films led to significant magnetic losses at high frequency. In the second part of the thesis, we explore three-dimensionally coupled porous multiferroic composites. These composites were synthesized by first using block-copolymer templating to create a nanoporous magnetostrictive framework. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) was then used to partially coat the inner surface of the pores with a thin layer of ferroelectric material, the thickness of which could be varied to change the extent of residual porosity. We found that composites with larger residual porosities exhibited a larger magnetoelectric coupling, due to the mechanical flexibility of the pores, which enabled larger strains. We first studied ferroelectric lead zirconate titanate (PZT) in magnetostrictive cobalt ferrite (CFO), and observed modest increases in magnetoelectric coupling with increasing porosity. We hypothesized that this was due to the weaker ferroelectricity observed in extremely thin PZT films. Upon switching the ferroelectric to bismuth ferrite (BFO), we find that large (&lt;50%) changes in magnetization were possible in samples with the most residual porosity