English Language for successful integration : Learning from the Bologna process.

The Bologna Process aims to provide tools to connect the European national educational systems. The purpose of this paper is to analyze what we have learned and what challenges remain today. Since the beginning all participating countries had to agree on a comparable three cycle degree system for undergraduates (Bachelor degrees or Grades) and graduates (Master and PhD degrees) in order to create compatibility and comparability for achieving international competitiveness and a worldwide degree of attractiveness in higher education. The Bologna Declaration, originally signed by 29 countries, has now reached 47 countries, engaged in the process of creating a European Higher Education Area (EHEA), searching to be competitive to launch the European Academia of the 21st Century. The European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) has turned out to be the perfect tool to design, describe, and deliver programs and award higher education qualifications. Markets and European universities are going to be able to compete overseas in the future if the new regulations let them to create profitable business in the education area. As expected, European Universities have responded promptly and actively to the call. In the case of small countries like Spain, it is an opportunity to internationalize Spanish universities; moreover, there is the opportunity for the expansion and consolidation of the Spanish language as the second most important foreign language. The 2009 Report highlights that early teaching of a foreign language is advancing in Europe. In lower secondary education, earlier teaching of English is becoming widespread; and the three Nordic countries, Germany, and the UK are the highest innovation performers. The result is a system of higher education more competitive and more attractive for Europeans and non-Europeans students and scholars. Reform is needed today if Europe wants to match the performance of the best performing higher education systems in the world. The English language seems to be the response in the search for a common European answer to solve common European problems

Modelling Complex Dynamics and Distributed Generation of Knowledge with Bacterial-Based Algorithms

This study aimed to test that connected and heterogeneous societies with peer-to-peer (P2P) exchanges are more resilient than centralized and homogeneous ones. In agent-based modeling, agents with bounded rationality interact in a common environment guided by local rules, leading to Complex Adaptive Systems that are named 'artificial societies'. These simplified models of human societies grow from the bottom up in computational environments and can be used as a laboratory to test some hypotheses. We have demonstrated that in a model based on free interactions among autonomous agents, optimal results emerge by incrementing diversity and decentralization of communication structures, as much as in real societies Internet is leading to the emergence of improvements in collective intelligence. In order to achieve a real “Knowledge Society”, what we have named a “P2P Society”, it is necessary to increase decentralization and heterogeneity through information policies, distributed communication networks, open e-learning approaches and initiatives like public domain licenses, free software and open data

Biological Peer-to-Peer Networks: From Bacterial Communication to the Development of Synthetic Distributed Systems

Poster presented at the ESC-EBSCO Conference: Biology of plastids: Towards a blueprint for synthetic organelles which took place in 2014 June 21-23, in Pultusk (POLAND). The Web Site of the event: http://bioplastids.esf.org/This communication was supported by a European Science Foundation gran

In Memoriam por el ?maestro? Lorenzo Ferrer Figueras. Los Modelos Sistémicos aplicados en el proceso de balcanización y contradicción global. Algunas ilustraciones para entender el Paradigma Sistémico en un marco de Complejidad-In Memoriam : Lorenzo Ferrer Figueras. Systemic Models applied to balkanization process and global contradictions. Illustrations to understand Systemic Paradigm within a framework of Complexity

El problema crucial que la Ciencia tiene que encarar hoy es hacer frente con éxito a la complejidad creciente de la sociedad. Para entender el sistema al que pertenecemos, es necesario comprender la naturaleza de la interdependencia: mientras mayor sea la interdependencia, mayor será la necesidad de comunicación y cooperación. El modelo europeo, que inicialmente prometía ser un modelo social y regional, descentralizado y democrático, está bloqueado. Una situación que podemos calificar de no evolución, que paralelamente también sufre España como Europa, a la hora de progresar hacia un estado maduro y democrático, lo que se apuntaba en el principio de la transición hacia la democracia. El debate cabe pensarlo desde el ?Comité Europeo de las Regiones? (CoR) o la ?Europa de las regiones?, o desmontar ese tópico, lo que conllevaría una involución a partir de la reducción de descentralización y heterogeneidad que sostiene una superior complejidad

Quo Vadis Complexity Science? Una visión de la complejidad a partir del enfoque sistémico

La ciencia del siglo XX ha constatado que los sistemas no pueden ser comprendidos por medio del simple análisis. Las propiedades de las partes sólo pueden ser explicadas en el contexto de un conjunto mayor. El pensamiento sistémico es 'contextual', y el pensamiento evolucionista requiere una nueva ciencia de la complejidad en la cual los conceptos y principios sistémicos puedan ser aplicados en distintos campos de estudio. En el comienzo del nuevo milenio, nuestra supervivencia y competitividad va a depender de nuestra capacidad de comprender y aprehender esta 'ciencia de la totalidad' o 'Ciencia de la Complejidad'. Para esto, necesitamos crear nuevos centros e institutos científicos que nos permitan entender y debatir los presupuestos sistémicos así como resolver los nuevos acuciantes problemas que se nos plantean en un contexto de creciente complejidad y globalización. The twentieth-century science has verified that systems cannot be understood by analysis. We can understand the properties of the parts only within the context of the large whole. Systems thinking is 'contextual', and evolutionary thinking required a new science of complexity where systemic concepts and principles can be applied in many diferent fields of study. At the beginning of the new millennium, our survival and competitiveness will depend on our ability to understand this 'general science of wholeness' or 'Complexity Science'. For this reason we need to create new scientific centers for learning and discussing the characteristics of systems thinking and for being able to solve the new problems coming up from an increasing complexity and globalization context

Decentralization and heterogeneity in complex adaptative systems

Following a bacterial-based modeling approach, the authors want to model and analyze the impact of both decentralization and heterogeneity on group behavior and collective learning. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Inspired by bacterial conjugation, the authors have defined an artificial society in which agents’ strategies adapt to changes in resources location, allowing migration, and survival in a dynamic sugarscape-like scenario. To study the impact of these variables the authors have simulated a scenario in which resources are limited and localized. The authors also have defined three constraints in genetic information processing (inhibition of plasmid conjugation, inhibition of plasmid reproduction and inhibition of plasmid mutation). The results affirmed the hypothesis that efficiency of group adaptation to dynamic environments is better when societies are varied and distributed than when they are homogeneous and centralized.The authors have demonstrated that in a model based on free interactions among autonomous agents, optimal results emerge by incrementing heterogeneity levels and decentralization of communication structures, leading to a global adaptation of the system. This organic approach to model peer-to-peer dynamics in complex adaptive systems (CAS) is what the authors have named “bacterial-based algorithms” because agents exchange strategic information in the same way that bacteria use conjugation and share genome

P2P Societies: The impact of Decentralization and Heterogeneity in Complex Systems

Poster presented at the 16th WOSC Congress: Our Self-organising World: from Disruption to Reparation which took place in 2014, 15-17 October, in Ibagué (COLOMBIA). The Web Site of the event: http://wosc-congress.unibague.edu.co

Abordando un desafío glocal: integrar la participación de ciudadanos y gobiernos en la búsqueda de soluciones para un canal interoceánico Pacífico-Atlántico en el siglo XXI

El proyecto, concluido en 2016, de ampliación del Canal de Panamá, condiciona un cambio substancial de planteamientos en la toma de decisiones del siglo XXI respecto a lo acontecido en 1914 -cuando básicamente fue una maniobra económico-militar. A partir del método analítico y documental descomponemos el reto para ser capaces de hacer comparaciones que permitan plantear el problema desde una perspectiva global y sistémica. Fue una ampliación limitada e insuficiente con relación a las necesidades de capacidad en número y tamaño de buques, que no caben ya por el mismo, lo que ha motivado nuevas propuestas de realizar un Gran Canal en alguno de los países de la zona. En nuestro trabajo se valoran las repercusiones potenciales de las posibles rutas de construcción de un nuevo canal interoceánico y el reto glocal (de carácter global y local), que va a suponer para las poblaciones y territorios afectados, que deberían articular mecanismos de participación comunitaria, para poder valorar adecuadamente sus opciones y necesidades, así como una aproximación holística o sistémica desde las naciones del mundo, que puedan pronunciarse respecto al magnífico reto de si construir un Gran Canal y dónde sería pertinente que se hiciere. *** The project for the expansion of the Panama Canal, concluded in 2016, impacts a substantial change in the decision-making processes of the 21st century compared to what occurred in 1914 -then basically an economicmilitary maneuver. We break down the issue using analytical and documentary methods to be able to make comparisons that pose the problem from both global and systemic perspectives. The project was a limited and insufficient expansion to the canal with respect to the demands of modern ship size and traffic, which are still unable to be met, and has therefore led to new proposals for a Grand Canal in some of the countries in the area. Our work evaluates the potential repercussions of the possible construction routes for a new interoceanic canal as well as the glocal (of both global and local nature) challenge which will be assumed by the affected populations and territories. As a holistic and systemic assessment from the nations of the world, it enables said groups, which should define their own mechanisms of community participation, to be able to adequately assess their options and needs, so they can make a decision on the grand challenge of whether to build a Grand Canal and where it would be pertinent to do so

Una revisión de las aportaciones concibiendo la empresa como 'sistema' en el campo de la Economía de la Empresa.

El planteamiento de la empresa como sistema, dentro de la perspectiva económica y empresarial, es el objeto de estudio del presente trabajo donde realizamos una revisión de las distintas corrientes epistemológicas de la disciplina de la Economía de la Empresa. Se analiza su potencial carácter científico y la evolución histórica acontecida a partir de su especialización. La redefinición le proporciona esa dimensión sistémica (que la Economía general estaría perdiendo en sus formulaciones más teóricas y puristas) que le permitiría captar toda la complejidad relacional de la empresa y posibilitar su percepción como una realidad inmersa en el cambio y la continuidad. De ese modo, la teoría general de sistemas, entendida como método transdisciplinario, parece constituirse como el marco más adecuado para el estudio de la empresa, siguiendo el denominado enfoque sistémico. This paper reviews the origin and history of the thinking of the enterprise or firm as a system, studying the different epistemological currents of the discipline of Business and Economics, with the main purpose being the consideration of the discipline of Business Administration from a Systems Science approach. This revisioning or redefinition engaging the systemic dimension enables one to capture all the relational complexity of the company and its conceptualization as a reality steeped in change and continuity. Therefore, general systems theory, understood as a transdisciplinary approach, seems to be the most appropriate framework for the study of the company, following the so-called systemic approach

La Propiedad Intelectual, ¿una amenaza para la neutralidad de la red?

Los derechos de propiedad intelectual son uno de los mayores retos que afronta la sociedad del siglo XXI. Los cambios impulsados por las nuevas tecnologías, y más concretamente Internet, en aspectos como la estructura del trabajo, la gestión de la información y los modelos de producción, han provocado una manifiesta obsolescencia de las legislaciones a la hora de regular los nuevos sistemas de la información. En este trabajo se analiza como, desde la perspectiva de la propiedad intelectual, el legislador debe contemplar los cambios relativos a la sociedad del conocimiento; si bien se sugiere que éste debería no olvidar su perspectiva ante las presiones a las que se le somete por las sociedades empresariales de gestión de derechos. Observaremos, desde una fundamentación histórica, como toda revolución suele conllevar una alteración de la normativa de la propiedad intelectual, si bien ha surgido un conflicto entre los derechos fundamentales de los ciudadanos ―al secreto de las comunicaciones― y los intereses de los autores y editores. Estos últimos simplemente pretenden el control de "la Red", siguiendo una antigua tradición.Intellectual property rights are one of the greatest challenges that society faces in the 21st century. The changes driven by new technologies, and more specifically the Internet, in aspects such as the structure of work, information management and production models, have caused obsolescence of legislation when regulating the new systems. This work analyzes how the legislator must contemplate the changes related to the knowledge society not forgeting the pressures to which he is subjected by the corporate rights management companies. We will observe, from a historical perspective, as every revolution usually entails an alteration of the intellectual property regulations. A conflict has arisen between the fundamental rights of citizens ―the secrecy of communications― and the interests of authors and publishers. Publishers simply pretend to control "the Network", following an ancient tradition