Novel glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) analog (Val8)GLP-1 results in significant improvements of glucose tolerance and pancreatic β-cell function after 3-week daily administration in obese diabetic (ob/ob) mice

This study evaluates the antidiabetic potential of an enzyme-resistant analog, (Val8)GLP-1. The effects of daily administration of a novel dipeptidyl peptidase IV-resistant glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) analog, (Val8)GLP-1, on glucose tolerance and pancreatic β-cell function were examined in obese-diabetic (ob/ob) mice. Acute intraperitoneal administration of (Val8)GLP-1 (6.25-25 nmol/kg) with glucose increased the insulin response and reduced the glycemic excursion in a dose-dependent manner. The effects of (Val8)GLP-1 were greater and longer lasting than native GLP-1. Once-daily subcutaneous administration of (Val8)GLP-1 (25 nmol/kg) for 21 days reduced plasma glucose concentrations, increased plasma insulin, and reduced body weight more than native GLP-1 without a significant change in daily food intake. Furthermore, (Val8)GLP-1 improved glucose tolerance, reduced the glycemic excursion after feeding, increased the plasma insulin response to glucose and feeding, and improved insulin sensitivity. These effects were consistently greater with (Val8)GLP-1 than with native GLP-1, and both peptides retained or increased their acute efficacy compared with initial administration. (Val8)GLP-1 treatment increased average islet area 1.2-fold without changing the number of islets, resulting in an increased number of larger islets. These data demonstrate that (Val8)GLP-1 is more effective and longer acting than native GLP-1 in obese-diabetic ob/ob mice.

Some Probabilistic Results in a Bisexual Branching Process with Immigration

2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: 60J80.

Silencing Agrobacterium oncogenes in transgenic grapevine results in strain-specific crown gall resistance

Crown gall disease of grapevine induced by Agrobacterium vitis or Agrobacterium tumefaciens causes serious economic losses in viticulture. To establish crown gall-resistant lines, somatic proembryos of Vitis berlandieri × V. rupestris cv. 'Richter 110' rootstock were transformed with an oncogene-silencing transgene based on iaaM and ipt oncogene sequences from octopine-type, tumor-inducing (Ti) plasmid pTiA6. Twentyone transgenic lines were selected, and their transgenic nature was confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). These lines were inoculated with two A. tumefaciens and three A. vitis strains. Eight lines showed resistance to octopine-type A. tumefaciens A348. Resistance correlated with the expression of the silencing genes. However, oncogene silencing was mostly sequence specific because these lines did not abolish tumorigenesis by A. vitis strains or nopaline-type A. tumefaciens C58.

The direct investments in Latin America and the Caribbean in the 1990s of multinational enterprises headquartered in Spain

This thesis explains why multinational enterprises (MNEs) headquartered in Spain made significant investments in Latin America in the 1990s. Two independent variables are considered: structural reforms in Latin America, and liberalization in Spain. The first independent variable concerns the ways in which Latin American governments adopted a series of reforms that made their economies attractive to foreign investors. The second variable explains how the prospects of liberalization and foreign competition led Spanish firms to invest abroad in order to expand their businesses. The study will also show the competitive advantage of Spanish MNEs, vis-a-vis other foreign and local competitors in Latin America. This thesis takes an international political economy approach. The core of the thesis shows the development of Spanish direct investment in Latin America and the Caribbean in the 1990s. The theoretical perspectives on MNEs are provided by theory of the firm, industrial organizations theory and alliance theory. ^

On the discrepant results in synchrony judgment and temporal-order judgment tasks: a quantitative model.

Research on the perception of temporal order uses either temporal-order judgment (TOJ) tasks or synchrony judgment (SJ) tasks, in both of which two stimuli are presented with some temporal delay and observers must judge the order of presentation. Results generally differ across tasks, raising concerns about whether they measure the same processes. We present a model including sensory and decisional parameters that places these tasks in a common framework that allows studying their implications on observed performance. TOJ tasks imply specific decisional components that explain the discrepancy of results obtained with TOJ and SJ tasks. The model is also tested against published data on audiovisual temporal-order judgments, and the fit is satisfactory, although model parameters are more accurately estimated with SJ tasks. Measures of latent point of subjective simultaneity and latent sensitivity are defined that are invariant across tasks by isolating the sensory parameters governing observed performance, whereas decisional parameters vary across tasks and account for observed differences across them. Our analyses concur with other evidence advising against the use of TOJ tasks in research on perception of temporal order.

Crisis and Welfare Society in Spain

Some arguments are briefly presented about the negative consequences of the deep global economic and financial crisis of 2008 on the economic activity and the social situation in Spain. Reformulation, sustainability and financial viability of social welfare in Spain require a new management through resource efficiency, increasing market presence and initiative of stakeholders as a whole. In this sense, the main credible argument of the welfare social in Spain depends on a new perspective on socialization and generosity of social protection system. Specifically, the solution to the crisis must come through economic growth, increased productivity, employment and competitiveness and not by the way of increasing levels of social protection.

The Development of Forensic Social Work in Spain

The focus of this article is to explain the state of research work with regard to the specialty of forensic social work in Spain. The study was carried out as part of the activities developed by Research Team 940102 ‘Observatory for Social Intervention in Organizations’ from the University Complutense of Madrid and funded by this university.

Preliminary results in the development of a multi-colour pulsed laser for holography

Peer reviewed

A look into diversity in the radio and music industry in Spain

UNESCO’s approval of the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (UNESCO, 2005) has been an important element in catalyzing any attempt to measure the diversity of cultural industries (UIS, 2011). Within this framework, this article analyzes the relations between the music and radio industries in Spain from a critical perspective through the analysis of available data on recorded music offer and consumption (sales lists, radio-formula lists, the characteristics of the phonographic and radio markets) in different key moments due to the emergence of new formats and devices (CDS, Mp3, Internet).The main goal of this work is to study the evolution of the Spanish record market in terms of diversity from the end of the 1970s to the present, through the study of radio music hits lists and, the business structure of the phonographic and radio sectors, and phonograms top sales

Gendered Responses to Global Crisis: Circular Migration and Return among Ecuadorian Families in Spain and Ecuador

This paper analyzes the impact of Spain’s economic crisis on social reproduction strategies of Ecuadorian migrant families in Madrid and Quito. The paper analyzes circular migration experiences and more permanent returns to Ecuador. I argue that these strategies and migrants' greater or lesser capabilities to move between different migration destinations show significant gender differences. On the one hand, men and women make a differential use of their migratory status to deploy transnational strategies and expand their mobility. On the other hand, migrants’ degree of mobility and flexibility with regard to the labor market and transnational social reproduction are derivative of a specific gendered order and sexual division of labor.

Women’s football. Notes for a social history of women’s sport in Spain, 1900-1936

In the context of demands by the European feminist movement at the beginning of the 20th century, in Spain women’s sport flagged up aspirations to what were considered to be male practices. The first experiences of women in football stand out because of their use of the media to appear as a symbol of social transformation to modernity in the 20th century. It was not in vain that women’s football highlighted the demands of the feminist movements, although it did come up against male disapproval from an opposing group. The research sets out from a bibliographical and media review of specialist press and sports news of the time. Other current studies have also been considered in order to place it in a social and historical focus on sport. This has enabled us to highlight that football in Spain was established as an unequivocal space for (re) producing male hegemony where women were relegated to the representation of a symbolic ritual in a scenario of accessory and condescension.

Immigration in Spain: Integration with Feet of Clay?

The aim of the paper is to analyze the impact of the economic crisis on the integration of the immigrant population in Spain. The Spanish case is singular because during the years of intense immigration achieved a remarkable degree of socio-cultural integration. The paper argues that such integration it has been the result of the confluence of exceptional factors rather than the result of the policy making. From a mixed methodology approach, it shows that, during the period of expansion, two factors of the immigration contribute to their coexistence with native population: finding job and access to public services. But the economic crisis, with its impact in terms of job losses and austerity policies, expose the weaknesses of the Spanish model of integration.