The feminine character and temporal freedom in three historical novels by Angelina Muñiz: Morada interior (1972), "El Mercader de Tudela" (1995) y "La Burladora de Toledo" (2008)

We focus on the representation of time in Muñiz’s historical novels. Concretely, we stress the attitude of the feminine characters towards time and history. Muñiz’s female personages continuously transgress temporal borders and move freely between different historical periods. We relate Muñiz’s particular vision on time and on the separation lines between historical periods to her situation as an exile. The author is continuously crossing borders between the past of her homeland and the present of her adoptive country. We argument Muñiz is recreating this “borderfree” attitude towards time in the female characters of her historical novels.

Crossing the threshold: exile and literature in "El Canto del peregrino" (1999) by Angelina Muñiz-Huberman

This paper analyses the relation between exile and literature in Angelina Muñiz-Huberman’s work El canto del peregrino. In this collection of essays, the Spanish-Mexican writer, member of the second generation of Spanish Republican exiles in Mexico, outlines a poetics of exile. From the outset, the relation between exile and literature is presented in terms of identity: while defining exile as “literary form”, the book tends to prefer a metaphorical concept of exile over ‘merely’ historical or referential approaches to it. More in particular, this paper will examine how the author constructs an identity of ‘exiled writer’ based on the close association between exile and literature on the one hand, and on the view of exile as ‘home’ or ‘dwelling’, on the other hand. A second point of interest concerns the discursive impact of this literary and metaphorical concept of exile and the author’s personal experience. A brief analysis of the essayist’s discursive voice and her writing practice shows how Muñiz-Huberman gives shape to an intrinsically complex and paradoxical view on exile.

Del Fichero supremo a la Biblioteca de Babel: Salaverría, precursor de Borges

A juzgar por alguna declaración más bien negativa de Borges sobre la literatura española, se podría creer que esta no influyó demasiado en él. Sin embargo, existen indicios de que pudo haberse inspirado también en determinados escritores españoles coetáneos hoy casi olvidados. Uno de ellos pudo ser José María Salaverría, entre cuyos relatos destaca “El fichero supremo” (1926), del que se ha dicho que “anticipa algunas de las preocupaciones características de un tipo de relato que Jorge Luis Borges elevará años después a la máxima categoría estética”. De hecho, recuerda a “La biblioteca de Babel” (1941) borgiana por su planteamiento hasta el punto de que podría pensarse que el maestro argentino pudo tener presente, a la hora de escribir esa obra maestra, ese cuento de Salaverría, el cual se publicó por primera vez en Caras y Caretas, una revista porteña que Borges reconoció “devorar” en su juventud. Sin embargo, el interés mayor de la comparación entre “El fichero supremo” y “La biblioteca de Babel” no radica tanto en el carácter de posible fuente del primero como en el contraste entre sus formas de presentación narrativa: desde fuera y en tercera persona en Salaverría, en un marco realista; y desde dentro y en primera persona, prácticamente sin marco, en Borges. Este parece desarrollar, en el registro propio de la “imaginación razonada” descrito por él mismo, una virtualidad presente en el relato de Salaverría, cuya comparación con “La biblioteca de Babel” puede suscitar también alguna reflexión sobre el enigma de la identidad y el carácter de la voz enunciadora de la biblioteca universal de Babel. Al menos, esta parece haber hecho realidad en cierto modo, de forma sublime, el patético sueño divino del archivero imaginado por Salaverría.

Semi-formal Models to Support Program Development: Autonomic Management within Component Based Parallel and Distributed Programming

Functional and non-functional concerns require different programming effort, different techniques and different methodologies when attempting to program efficient parallel/distributed applications. In this work we present a "programmer oriented" methodology based on formal tools that permits reasoning about parallel/distributed program development and refinement. The proposed methodology is semi-formal in that it does not require the exploitation of highly formal tools and techniques, while providing a palatable and effective support to programmers developing parallel/distributed applications, in particular when handling non-functional concerns.

Cognitive functioning in subjects with recent-onset psychosis from a low-middle-income environment: Multiple-domain deficits and longitudinal evaluation

Cognitive deficits are a key feature of recent-onset psychosis, but there is no consensus on whether such deficits are generalized or confined to specific domains. Besides, it is unclear whether cognitive deficits: a) are found in psychotic patients in samples from outside high-income countries; and b) whether they progress uniformly over time in schizophrenia and affective psychoses. We applied 12 tests organized into eight cognitive domains, comparing psychosis patients (n = 56, time from initial contact = 677.95+/-183.27 days) versus healthy controls (n = 70) recruited from the same area of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Longitudinal comparisons (digit span and verbal fluency) were conducted between a previous assessment of the subjects carried out at their psychosis onset, and the current follow-up evaluation. Psychosis patients differed significantly from controls on five domains, most prominently on verbal memory. Cognitive deficits remained detectable in separate comparisons of the schizophrenia subgroup and, to a lesser extent, the affective psychosis subjects against controls. Longitudinal comparisons indicated significant improvement in schizophrenia, affective psychoses, and control subjects, with no significant group-by-time interactions. Our results reinforce the view that there are generalized cognitive deficits in association with recent-onset psychoses, particularly of non-affective nature, which persist over time. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Direct reprogramming of adult cells: avoiding the pluripotent state

The procedure of using mature, fully differentiated cells and inducing them toward other cell types while bypassing an intermediate pluripotent state is termed direct reprogramming. Avoiding the pluripotent stage during cellular conversions can be achieved either through ectopic expression of lineage-specific factors (transdifferentiation) or a direct reprogramming process that involves partial reprogramming toward the pluripotent stage. Latest advances in the field seek to alleviate concerns that include teratoma formation or retroviral usage when it comes to delivering reprogramming factors to cells. They also seek to improve efficacy and efficiency of cellular conversion, both in vitro and in vivo. The final products of this reprogramming approach could be then directly implemented in regenerative and personalized medicine.

MicroRNA-199b modulates vascular cell fate during iPS cell differentiation by targeting the notch ligand jagged1 and enhancing VEGF signaling

Aims: Recent ability to derive endothelial cells (ECs) from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells holds a great therapeutic potential for personalised medicine and stem cell therapy. We aimed that better understanding of the complex molecular signals that are evoked during iPS cell differentiation towards ECs may allow specific targeting of their activities to enhance cell differentiation and promote tissue regeneration.

Methods and Results: In this study we have generated mouse iPS cells from fibroblasts using established protocol. When iPS cells were cultivated on type IV mouse collagen-coated dishes in differentiation medium, cell differentiation toward vascular lineages were observed. To study the molecular mechanisms of iPS cell differentiation, we found that miR-199b is involved in EC differentiation. A step-wise increase in expression of miR-199 was detected during EC differentiation. Notably, miR-199b targeted the Notch ligand JAG1, resulting in VEGF transcriptional activation and secretion through the transcription factor STAT3. Upon shRNA-mediated knockdown of the Notch ligand JAG1, the regulatory effect of miR-199b was ablated and there was robust induction of STAT3 and VEGF during EC differentiation. Knockdown of JAG1 also inhibited miR-199b-mediated inhibition of iPS cell differentiation towards SMCs. Using the in vitro tube formation assay and implanted Matrigel plugs, in vivo, miR-199b also regulated VEGF expression and angiogenesis.

Conclusions: This study indicates a novel role for miR-199b as a regulator of the phenotypic switch during vascular cell differentiation derived from iPS cells by regulating critical signaling angiogenic responses.

Vaccinations and childhood type 1 diabetes mellitus: a meta-analysis of observational studies

Aims/hypothesis The aim of this study was to investigate the association between routine vaccinations and the risk of childhood type 1 diabetes mellitus by systematically reviewing the published literature and performing meta-analyses where possible.

Methods A comprehensive literature search was performed of MEDLINE and EMBASE to identify all studies that compared vaccination rates in children who subsequently developed type 1 diabetes mellitus and in control children. ORs and 95% CIs were obtained from published reports or derived from individual patient data and then combined using a random effects meta-analysis.

Results In total, 23 studies investigating 16 vaccinations met the inclusion criteria. Eleven of these contributed to meta-analyses which included data from between 359 and 11,828 childhood diabetes cases. Overall, there was no evidence to suggest an association between any of the childhood vaccinations investigated and type 1 diabetes mellitus. The pooled ORs ranged from 0.58 (95% CI 0.24, 1.40) for the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination in five studies up to 1.04 (95% CI 0.94, 1.14) for the haemophilus influenza B (HiB) vaccination in 11 studies. Significant heterogeneity was present in most of the pooled analyses, but was markedly reduced when analyses were restricted to study reports with high methodology quality scores. Neither this restriction by quality nor the original authors’ adjustments for potential confounding made a substantial difference to the pooled ORs.

Conclusions/interpretation This study provides no evidence of an association between routine vaccinations and childhood type 1 diabetes.