"Illiteracy" Revisited: What Ortega and Rodríguez Read in the Household Survey

This paper challenges the conclusions of an econometric analysis by Daniel Ortega and Francisco Rodríguez on the effects on literacy of the Misión Robinson program in Venezuela. Their analysis concludes "most of our estimates of program impact represent qualitatively small and rarely statistically significant effects of Robinson, while some point estimates are actually negative." This CEPR paper shows that the econometric analysis used by Ortega and Rodríguez does not provide statistical evidence regarding the size of the Misión Robinson national literacy program in Venezuela, partly because the Household Survey data on which the authors relied are too crude a measure to make such an estimate. In addition, the statistical tests the authors used are not appropriate to test (falsify) the hypothesis that the program was a large-scale program.Venezuela, social programs, literacy, Latin America

The law and the idea of state in José Ortega y Gasset:its impact on today’s philosophy of law doctrine

Se cumplen ahora sesenta años de la inauguración del último ciclo de conferencias dictadas por José Ortega y Gasset en el Instituto de Humanidades de Madrid (1949-1950). Aunque el objetivo principal de estas lecciones magistrales era el de sentar las bases de una nueva sociología, en realidad sólo sirvió para bosquejar una tesis sobre qué es “lo social”. Aparentemente Ortega había fracasado en su intento de avanzar un concepto definitivo de sociedad, aunque formularía ideas suficientes como para que, siete años después de este “naufragio sociológico”, fuera publicado un libro póstumo, acaso el más “jurídico” de su gigantesca obra: El hombre y la gente. La tesis principal que defiende Ortega en este trabajo es que cualquier caracterización del fenómeno jurídico requiere el estudio previo de la teoría de la vida social. Las reflexiones que se exponen a continuación han surgido, precisamente, a propósito de la lectura de este libro y de la posterior meditación sobre los temas iusfilosóficos que en él se contienen.Today marks the 60th anniversary of the opening of the last cycle of lectures given by José Ortega y Gasset at the Institute of Humanities in Madrid (1949-1950). Although the main goal of these masterly lessons was setting the basis of a new sociology, it really just helped outline a hypothesis on what is “the social thing”. Ortega had seemingly failed in his attempt to pose a definitive concept of society, though he would formulate enough ideas so that, seven years after this “sociological shipwreck”, a posthumous book were published, perhaps the most “legal” of his huge work: The Man and the People. The main thesis defended by Ortega in this book is that any characterization of the legal phenomenon requires the previous study of the theory of social life. The reflections set out next have come up, precisely, à propos of the reading of this book and the subsequent meditation over the philosophy of law issues it contains

Distinct ubiquitin binding modes exhibited by SH3 domains: Molecular determinants and functional implications

SH3 domains constitute a new type of ubiquitin-binding domains. We previously showed that the third SH3 domain (SH3-C) of CD2AP binds ubiquitin in an alternative orientation. We have determined the structure of the complex between first CD2AP SH3 domain and ubiquitin and performed a structural and mutational analysis to decipher the determinants of the SH3-C binding mode to ubiquitin. We found that the Phe-to-Tyr mutation in CD2AP and in the homologous CIN85 SH3-C domain does not abrogate ubiquitin binding, in contrast to previous hypothesis and our findings for the first two CD2AP SH3 domains. The similar alternative binding mode of the SH3-C domains of these related adaptor proteins is characterised by a higher affinity to C-terminal extended ubiquitin molecules. We conclude that CD2AP/CIN85 SH3-C domain interaction with ubiquitin constitutes a new ubiquitin-binding mode involved in a different cellular function and thus changes the previously established mechanism of EGF-dependent CD2AP/CIN85 mono-ubiquitination. © 2013 Ortega Roldan et al

Some issues in Ortega y Gasset's critique of Heidegger's doctrine of Sein

Journal ArticleThe purpose of this paper is to propose a hypothesis to illuminate Ortega's critical response to Heidegger's question of being (Seinsfrage). While Ortega integrated the classical requirements for the idea of Being into his idea of human life as radical reality, Heidegger's delineation of human life (Dasein) was only preliminary to the final philosophical task of understanding the question of Being itself (Sein) as the transcendent horizon for human life

Optimal reduction

We generalize various symplectic reduction techniques to the context of the optimal momentum map. Our approach allows the construction of symplectic point and orbit reduced spaces purely within the Poisson category under hypotheses that do not necessarily imply the existence of a momentum map. We construct an orbit reduction procedure for canonical actions on a Poisson manifold that exhibits an interesting interplay with the von Neumann condition previously introduced by the author in his study of singular dual pairs. This condition ensures that the orbits in the momentum space of the optimal momentum map (we call them polar reduced spaces) admit a presymplectic structure that generalizes the Kostant--Kirillov--Souriau symplectic structure of the coadjoint orbits in the dual of a Lie algebra. Using this presymplectic structure, the optimal orbit reduced spaces are symplectic with a form that satisfies a relation identical to the classical one obtained by Marle, Kazhdan, Kostant, and Sternberg for free Hamiltonian actions on a symplectic manifold. In the symplectic case we provide a necessary and sufficient condition for the polar reduced spaces to be symplectic. In general, the presymplectic polar reduced spaces are foliated by symplectic submanifolds that are obtained through a generalization to the optimal context of the so called Sjamaar Principle, already existing in the theory of Hamiltonian singular reduction. We use these ideas in the construction of a family of presymplectic homogeneous manifolds and of its symplectic foliation and we show that these reduction techniques can be implemented in stages in total analogy with the case of free globally Hamiltonian proper actions.Comment: 42 page

The symplectic reduced spaces of a Poisson action

During the last thirty years, symplectic or Marsden--Weinstein reduction has been a major tool in the construction of new symplectic manifolds and in the study of mechanical systems with symmetry. This procedure has been traditionally associated to the canonical action of a Lie group on a symplectic manifold, in the presence of a momentum map. In this note we show that the symplectic reduction phenomenon has much deeper roots. More specifically, we will find symplectically reduced spaces purely within the Poisson category under hypotheses that do not necessarily imply the existence of a momentum map. On other words, the right category to obtain symplectically reduced spaces is that of Poisson manifolds acted canonically upon by a Lie group.Comment: 8 pages. To appear in C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris S\'er. I Mat

The optimal momentum map

The presence of symmetries in a Hamiltonian system usually implies the existence of conservation laws that are represented mathematically in terms of the dynamical preservation of the level sets of a momentum mapping. The symplectic or Marsden--Weinstein reduction procedure takes advantage of this and associates to the original system a new Hamiltonian system with fewer degrees of freedom. However, in a large number of situations, this standard approach does not work or is not efficient enough, in the sense that it does not use all the information encoded in the symmetry of the system. In this work, a new momentum map will be defined that is capable of overcoming most of the problems encountered in the traditional approach.Comment: 35 pages. To appear in: Geometry, Dynamics, and Mechanics: 60th Birthday Volume for J.E. Marsden. P. Holmes, P. Newton, and A. Weinstein, eds., Springer-Verlag, New York, 200

Relative normal modes for nonlinear Hamiltonian systems

An estimate on the number of distinct relative periodic orbits around a stable relative equilibrium in a Hamiltonian system with continuous symmetry is given. This result constitutes a generalization to the Hamiltonian symmetric framework of a classical result by Weinstein and Moser on the existence of periodic orbits in the energy levels surrounding a stable equilibrium.The estimate obtained is very precise in the sense that it provides a lower bound for the number of relative periodic orbits at each prescribed energy and momentum values neighboring the stable relative equilibrium in question and with any prefixed (spatiotemporal) isotropy subgroup. Moreover, it is easily computable in particular examples. It is interesting to see how in our result the existence of non trivial relative periodic orbits requires (generic) conditions on the higher order terms of the Taylor expansion of the Hamiltonian function, in contrast with the purely quadratic requirements of the Weinstein--Moser Theorem, which emphasizes the highly non linear character of the relatively periodic dynamical objects.Comment: 30 page