Serlianas durante el Renacimiento italiano y español: del triunfo de la religión católica al lenguaje imperial

This article presents a panoramic view of the development of the so-called serliana or Serlian motif throughout the Italian Renaissance, focusing on the most relevant examples in the architecture of that period. The use of this motif during the Early Renaissance was pioneered by Filippo Brunelleschi in religious buildings. As its employment become widespread in a range of different settings, architects frequently incorporated local building traditions. It was only during the last twenty years of the Quattrocento that Giuliano da Sangallo and Leonardo da Vinci adopted the Serlian arch in residential architecture designed for the ruling elites. Thanks to Bramante and other artists such as Raphael, Baldassare Peruzzi, Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and Giulio Romano, the motif was extraordinarily popular during the High Renaissance period. Ever-increasingly complex and monumental compositions eased the adaptation of the serliana to both exterior and interior spaces, and in works such as the design by Galeazzo Alessi in Genoa, the imperial connotation of the motif is clear. This process illustrates the progressive transfer from the religious to the courtly sphere, and, at the same time, the permeability between the sacred and the profane. During the sixteenth century, Spain too was at the European avant-garde, due to its contacts with Italy and the latest fashions, such as the employment of the serliana in residential architecture, were followed in the fortified palace at La Calahorra, the Vich palace in Valencia, or the palace of Charles V in Granada, as part of a complex iconography of power. Throughout the sixteenth century, the serliana featured in that specifically-Spanish typology, the monumental altarpiece or retablo, as well as in monumental tombs. Italy was certainly the leading force in the process and had an indisputable influence on Spanish art, but the latter would develop its own original solutions in the sixteenth century, which matched the innovative character of Italian creations.

Influencia de la percepción de apoyo y del funcionamiento social en la calidad de vida de pacientes con esquizofrenia y sus cuidadores

Perception of social support and functioning of patients with schizophrenia and their primary caregivers and its relationship to quality of life are described. Forty-five patients and their 45 relatives, treated at the Mental Health Services in Arica, Chile, participated. Both patients and caregivers in the study have a poor perception of social support with regard to extra-family people, as well as a low social integration. However, patients showed adequate capacity to function within their immediate family. Unlike what was found in developed countries, these patients showed moderate levels of quality of life, with a strong relationship with perceptions of the social support they receive from family and significant others and the ability to establish and maintain social contacts. Quality of life of primary caregivers is linked to patients´ ability to establish and maintain social contacts within the family group, as in other social instances, such as keeping a job. The results of the study suggest the need to consider the design and application of programs of support for these patients and their caregivers, with the central aim of the social functioning of the above-mentioned patients and their familiar and community integration.

Barrier-protective effects of activated protein C in human alveolar epithelial cells

Acute lung injury (ALI) is a clinical manifestation of respiratory failure, caused by lung inflammation and the disruption of the alveolar-capillary barrier. Preservation of the physical integrity of the alveolar epithelial monolayer is of critical importance to prevent alveolar edema. Barrier integrity depends largely on the balance between physical forces on cell-cell and cell-matrix contacts, and this balance might be affected by alterations in the coagulation cascade in patients with ALI. We aimed to study the effects of activated protein C (APC) on mechanical tension and barrier integrity in human alveolar epithelial cells (A549) exposed to thrombin. Cells were pretreated for 3 h with APC (50 mg/ml) or vehicle (control). Subsequently, thrombin (50 nM) or medium was added to the cell culture. APC significantly reduced thrombin-induced cell monolayer permeability, cell stiffening, and cell contraction, measured by electrical impedance, optical magnetic twisting cytometry, and traction microscopy, respectively, suggesting a barrier-protective response. The dynamics of the barrier integrity was also assessed by western blotting and immunofluorescence analysis of the tight junction ZO-1. Thrombin resulted in more elongated ZO-1 aggregates at cell-cell interface areas and induced an increase in ZO-1 membrane protein content. APC attenuated the length of these ZO-1 aggregates and reduced the ZO-1 membrane protein levels induced by thrombin. In conclusion, pretreatment with APC reduced the disruption of barrier integrity induced by thrombin, thus contributing to alveolar epithelial barrier protection.

Ús del Capital Social i la Intel.ligència Competitiva per part de les Universitats en el procés d"adaptació a l"EEES

En la present comunicació s'exposen els resultats del projecte ¿Análisis de los procedimientos de interacción entorno-universidad en el proceso de adaptación e implementación de titulaciones oficiales al EEES" finançat pel Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, en la convocatòria d'Estudios y Anàlisis, 2008. Un dels objectius d'aquest projecte era conèixer, de forma exploratòria, quines eines havien emprat lesUniversitats per tal d'adaptar les seves titulacions al nou EEES, considerant diversosfactors. Entre aquests, l'ús del Capital Social del qual disposen les Universitats, entès tant de d¿una òptica interna com externa. A la vegada, es pretenia analitzar si la Universitat disposa de veritables eines d'Intel·ligència Competitiva per tal d'interpretar adequadament el seu entorn. D'entre diverses conclusions, s'extreu que les Universitats no aprofiten suficientment els contactes que generen amb el seu entorn per tal de potenciar la seva competitivitat i les noves titulacions adaptades a l'EEES.

Tan cerca, tan lejos: Aldo Rossi y el Grupo 2C. Arquitectura, ideología y disidencias en la Barcelona de los 70 = So close, so far : Aldo Rossi and the 2C Group. Architecture, ideology and dissents in the Barcelona of the 70s

The Catalan reception of the 1966 manifestos by Robert Venturi and Aldo Rossi marks the scenario of a breakup: while North America debates about the architectural shape as a linguistic structure, Italy dips its roots in the Modern Movement tradition as an origin for a new temporal and ideological architectural dimension. The first contacts between Rossi and Spain verify this search and allow the Italian to construct common itineraries with some architects from Barcelona. From these exchanges the 2C group will be born, taking part on typical vanguardist mechanisms: they will publish the magazine, 2C. The construction of the city (1972-1985), they will attend the XV Triennale di Milano in 1973 with the Torres Clavé Plan (1971) and the Aldo Rossi + 21 Spanish architects exhibition (1975) while he will organize the three issues of the Seminarios Internacionales de Arquitectura Contemporánea (S.I.AC.) which took place in Santiago, Sevilla and Barcelona between 1976 and 1980. In front of the unfolding of the firsts, the American contacts of Federico Correa, Oriol Bohigas, Lluís Domènech and the PER studio or the teaching work of Rafael Moneo from Barcelona since 1971, allow to draw replica itineraries with the foundation of the magazine Arquitecturas Bis (1974-1985), the organization of the meetings between international publications such as Lotus and Oppositions in Cadaqués (1975) and New York (1977), while stablishing exchanges with members of the Five Architects. Replicas that in 1976 conduct the initial ideological affirmations between Rossi and the 2C group towards irreconcilable distancing. Verifying the itinerary of the journey that the Italian leads from the Italian resistance towards the American backing down is part of the aim of this article

Effects of the epitaxial layer thickness on the noise properties of Schottky barrier diodes

An analytical theory to describe the combined effects of the epitaxial layer thickness and the ohmic contact on the noise properties of Schottky barrier diodes is presented. The theory, which provides information on both the local and the global noise properties, takes into account the finite size of the epitaxial layer and the effects of the back ohmic contact, and applies to the whole range of applied bias. It is shown that by scaling down the epitaxial layer thickness, the current regime in which the noise temperature displays a shot-noise-like behavior increases at the cost of reducing the current range in which the thermal-noise-like behavior dominates. This improvement in noise temperature is limited by the effects of the ohmic contact, which appear for large currents. The theory is formulated on general trends, allowing its application to the noise analysis of other semiconductor devices operating under strongly inhomogeneous distributions of the electric field and charge concentrations.

Impedance field and noise of submicrometer n+ nn+ diodes: analytical approach

A theoretical model for the noise properties of n+nn+ diodes in the drift-diffusion framework is presented. In contrast with previous approaches, our model incorporates both the drift and diffusive parts of the current under inhomogeneous and hot-carrier conditions. Closed analytical expressions describing the transport and noise characteristics of submicrometer n+nn+ diodes, in which the diode base (n part) and the contacts (n+ parts) are coupled in a self-consistent way, are obtained

Effects of the epitaxial layer thickness on the noise properties of Schottky barrier diodes

An analytical theory to describe the combined effects of the epitaxial layer thickness and the ohmic contact on the noise properties of Schottky barrier diodes is presented. The theory, which provides information on both the local and the global noise properties, takes into account the finite size of the epitaxial layer and the effects of the back ohmic contact, and applies to the whole range of applied bias. It is shown that by scaling down the epitaxial layer thickness, the current regime in which the noise temperature displays a shot-noise-like behavior increases at the cost of reducing the current range in which the thermal-noise-like behavior dominates. This improvement in noise temperature is limited by the effects of the ohmic contact, which appear for large currents. The theory is formulated on general trends, allowing its application to the noise analysis of other semiconductor devices operating under strongly inhomogeneous distributions of the electric field and charge concentrations.

Pancreatic Cancer Cell Glycosylation Regulates Cell Adhesion and Invasion through the Modulation of a2b1 Integrin and E-Cadherin Function

In our previous studies we have described that ST3Gal III transfected pancreatic adenocarcinoma Capan-1 and MDAPanc-28 cells show increased membrane expression levels of sialyl-Lewis x (SLex) along with a concomitant decrease in α2,6-sialic acid compared to control cells. Here we have addressed the role of this glycosylation pattern in the functional properties of two glycoproteins involved in the processes of cancer cell invasion and migration, α2β1 integrin, the main receptor for type 1 collagen, and E-cadherin, responsible for cell-cell contacts and whose deregulation determines cell invasive capabilities. Our results demonstrate that ST3Gal III transfectants showed reduced cell-cell aggregation and increased invasive capacities. ST3Gal III transfected Capan-1 cells exhibited higher SLex and lower α2,6-sialic acid content on the glycans of their α2β1 integrin molecules. As a consequence, higher phosphorylation of focal adhesion kinase tyrosine 397, which is recognized as one of the first steps of integrin-derived signaling pathways, was observed in these cells upon adhesion to type 1 collagen. This molecular mechanism underlies the increased migration through collagen of these cells. In addition, the pancreatic adenocarcinoma cell lines as well as human pancreatic tumor tissues showed colocalization of SLex and E-cadherin, which was higher in the ST3Gal III transfectants. In conclusion, changes in the sialylation pattern of α2β1 integrin and E-cadherin appear to influence the functional role of these two glycoproteins supporting the role of these glycans as an underlying mechanism regulating pancreatic cancer cell adhesion and invasion