Hermann Broch y Virgilio, el exilio como constante en la literatura europea : A propósito de La muerte de Virgilio de Hermann Broch

Fil: Wamba Gaviña, Graciela. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación; Argentina.

Pugna por la soberanía : el debate sobre el concepto de soberanía a partir de las críticas de Carl Schmitt y Hermann Heller a la Teoría pura del derecho de Hans Kelsen.

La presente disertación tiene como objetivo principal explicar las posturas de los juristas Hans Kelsen, Carl Schmitt y Hermann Heller frente a la erradicación o liquidación del dogma de la soberanía para la teoría del Estado y del Derecho. En este sentido, de manera ya más específica, se analizarán las críticas de Heller y Schmitt frente la liquidación de la soberanía realizada por Kelsen, defendiendo que sus críticas pueden ser aglutinadas en dos grandes dimensiones. La primera asociada al pensamiento de Heller y Schmitt quienes criticarán el método “puro” kelseniano, dado que desconoce, según su postura, la función decisoria del Estado y el contenido político de sus decisiones. La segunda, se asocia a las críticas al entroncamiento de la postura kelseniana y el liberalismo político expresado en su cosmopolitismo y su defensa del parlamentarismo. Para demostrar esta hipótesis el presente trabajo se enmarca dentro de un método hermenéutico y filosófico dada su interdisciplinariedad, acudiendo como fuentes primarias a los textos de los autores y como secundarias a los comentaristas especializados en el pensamiento jurídico y político de la república de Weimar como Leticia Vita, y Jerónimo Molina.

“Endogamia y exogamia en la sociedad colonial cartaginesa, 1738-1821”

ResumenEstudio sobre los patrones de matrimonio en la ciudad de Cartago, Costa Rica, en el período 1738-1821. El análisis de los matrimonios endogámicos y exogámicos permite explicar el proceso de mestizaje y el crecimiento diferencial de diferentes grupos étnicos que habitaban en la capital colonial.AbstractA study on marriage patterns in the city of Cartago, Costa Rica, from 1738 to 1821. The discussion of endodagamous and exogamus marriages helps explain the process of racial mixture and the differential growth of ethnic groups inhabiting of colonial capital.

Metabolic syndrome and serum carotenoids : findings of a cross-sectional study in Queensland, Australia

Several components of the metabolic syndrome, particularly diabetes and cardiovascular disease, are known to be oxidative stress-related conditions and there is research to suggest that antioxidant nutrients may play a protective role in these conditions. Carotenoids are compounds derived primarily from plants and several have been shown to be potent antioxidant nutrients. The aim of this study was to examine the associations between metabolic syndrome status and major serum carotenoids in adult Australians. Data on the presence of the metabolic syndrome, based on International Diabetes Federation 2005 criteria, were collected from 1523 adults aged 25 years and over in six randomly selected urban centers in Queensland, Australia, using a cross-sectional study design. Weight, height, BMI, waist circumference, blood pressure, fasting and 2-hour blood glucose and lipids were determined, as well as five serum carotenoids. Mean serum alpha-carotene, beta-carotene and the sum of the five carotenoid concentrations were significantly lower (p<0.05) in persons with the metabolic syndrome (after adjusting for age, sex, education, BMI status, alcohol intake, smoking, physical activity status and vitamin/mineral use) than persons without the syndrome. Alpha, beta and total carotenoids also decreased significantly (p<0.05) with increased number of components of the metabolic syndrome, after adjusting for these confounders. These differences were significant among former smokers and non-smokers, but not in current smokers. Low concentrations of serum alpha-carotene, beta-carotene and the sum of five carotenoids appear to be associated with metabolic syndrome status. Additional research, particularly longitudinal studies, may help to determine if these associations are causally related to the metabolic syndrome, or are a result of the pathologies of the syndrome.

Instability prolongs the chondral phase during bone healing in sheep

In this sheep study, we investigated the influence of fixation stability on the temporal and spatial distribution of tissues in the fracture callus. As the initial mechanical conditions have been cited as being especially important for the healing outcome, it was hypothesized that differences in the path of healing would be seen as early as the initial phase of healing. ----- ----- Sixty-four sheep underwent a mid-shaft tibial osteotomy that was treated with either a rigid or a semi-rigid external fixator. Animals were sacrificed at 2, 3, 6 and 9 weeks postoperatively and the fracture calluses were analyzed using radiological, biomechanical and histological techniques. Statistical comparison between the groups was performed using the Mann–Whitney U test for unpaired non-parametric data. ----- ----- In the callus of the tibia treated with semi-rigid fixation, remnants of the fracture haematoma remained present for longer, although new periosteal bone formation during early healing was similar in both groups. The mechanical competence of the healing callus at 6 weeks was inferior compared to tibiae treated with rigid fixation. Semi-rigid fixation resulted in a larger cartilage component of the callus, which persisted longer. Remodeling processes were initiated earlier in the rigid group, while new bone formation continued throughout the entire investigated period in the semi-rigid group. ----- ----- In this study, evidence is provided that less rigid fixation increased the time required for healing. The process of intramembranous ossification appeared during the initial stages of healing to be independent of mechanical stability. However, the delay in healing was related to a prolonged chondral phase.

Osteoclastic activity begins early and increases over the course of bone healing

Osteoclasts are specialised bone-resorbing cells. This particular ability makes osteoclasts irreplaceable for the continual physiological process of bone remodelling as well as for the repair process during bone healing. Whereas the effects of systemic diseases on osteoclasts have been described by many authors, the spatial and temporal distribution of osteoclasts during bone healing seems to be unclear so far. In the present study, healing of a tibial osteotomy under standardised external fixation was examined after 2, 3, 6 and 9 weeks (n = 8) in sheep. The osteoclastic number was counted, the area of mineralised bone tissue was measured histomorphometrically and density of osteoclasts per square millimetre mineralised tissue was calculated. The osteoclastic density in the endosteal region increased, whereas the density in the periosteal region remained relatively constant. The density of osteoclasts within the cortical bone increased slightly over the first 6 weeks, however, there was a more rapid increase between the sixth and ninth weeks. The findings of this study imply that remodelling and resorption take place already in the very early phase of bone healing. The most frequent remodelling process can be found in the periosteal callus, emphasising its role as the main stabiliser. The endosteal space undergoes resorption in order to recanalise the medullary cavity, a process also started in the very early phase of healing at a low level and increasing significantly during healing. The cortical bone adapts in its outward appearance to the surrounding callus structure. This paradoxic loosening is caused by the continually increasing number and density of osteoclasts in the cortical bone ends. This study clearly emphasises the osteoclastic role especially during early bone healing. These cells do not simply resorb bone but participate in a fine adjusted system with the bone-producing osteoblasts in order to maintain and improve the structural strength of bone tissue.

CYR61 (CCN1) protein expression during fracture healing in an ovine tibial model and its relation to the mechanical fixation stability

The formation of new blood vessels is a prerequisite for bone healing. CYR61 (CCN1), an extracellular matrix-associated signaling protein, is a potent stimulator of angiogenesis and mesenchymal stem cell expansion and differentiation. A recent study showed that CYR61 is expressed during fracture healing and suggested that CYR61 plays a significant role in cartilage and bone formation. The hypothesis of the present study was that decreased fixation stability, which leads to a delay in healing, would lead to reduced CYR61 protein expression in fracture callus. The aim of the study was to quantitatively analyze CYR61 protein expression, vascularization, and tissue differentiation in the osteotomy gap and relate to the mechanical fixation stability during the course of healing. A mid-shaft osteotomy of the tibia was performed in two groups of sheep and stabilized with either a rigid or semirigid external fixator, each allowing different amounts of interfragmentary movement. The sheep were sacrificed at 2, 3, 6, and 9 weeks postoperatively. The tibiae were tested biomechanically and histological sections from the callus were analyzed immunohistochemically with regard to CYR61 protein expression and vascularization. Expression of CYR61 protein was upregulated at the early phase of fracture healing (2 weeks), decreasing over the healing time. Decreased fixation stability was associated with a reduced upregulation of the CYR61 protein expression and a reduced vascularization at 2 weeks leading to a slower healing. The maximum cartilage callus fraction in both groups was reached at 3 weeks. However, the semirigid fixator group showed a significantly lower CYR61 immunoreactivity in cartilage than the rigid fixator group at this time point. The fraction of cartilage in the semirigid fixator group was not replaced by bone as quickly as in the rigid fixator group leading to an inferior histological and mechanical callus quality at 6 weeks and therefore to a slower healing. The results supply further evidence that CYR61 may serve as an important regulator of bone healing.

Common variation in the fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 gene is not associated with endometriosis risk

BACKGROUND Endometriosis is a polygenic disease with a complex and multifactorial aetiology that affects 8-10% of women of reproductive age. Epidemiological data support a link between endometriosis and cancers of the reproductive tract. Fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 (FGFR2) has recently been implicated in both endometrial and breast cancer. Our previous studies on endometriosis identified significant linkage to a novel susceptibility locus on chromosome 10q26 and the FGFR2 gene maps within this linkage region. We therefore hypothesized that variation in FGFR2 may contribute to the risk of endometriosis. METHODS We genotyped 13 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) densely covering a 27 kb region within intron 2 of FGFR2 including two SNPs (rs2981582 and rs1219648) significantly associated with breast cancer and a total 40 tagSNPs across 150 kb of the FGFR2 gene. SNPs were genotyped in 958 endometriosis cases and 959 unrelated controls. RESULTS We found no evidence for association between endometriosis and FGFR2 intron 2 SNPs or SNP haplotypes and no evidence for association between endometriosis and variation across the FGFR2 gene. CONCLUSIONS Common variation in the breast-cancer implicated intron 2 and other highly plausible causative candidate regions of FGFR2 do not appear to be a major contributor to endometriosis susceptibility in our large Australian sample.

Knowledge translation for effective consumers

With the emergence of patient-centered care, consumers are becoming more effective managers of their care—in other words, “effective consumers.” To support patients to become effective consumers, a number of strategies to translate knowledge to action (KTA) have been used with varying success. The use of a KTA framework can be helpful to researchers and implementers when framing, planning, and evaluating knowledge translation activities and can potentially lead to more successful activities. This article briefly describes the KTA framework and its use by a team based out of the University of Ottawa to translate evidence-based knowledge to consumers. Using the framework, tailored consumer summaries, decision aids, and a scale to measure consumer effectiveness were created in collaboration with consumers. Strategies to translate the products into action then were selected and implemented. Evaluation of the knowledge tools and products indicates that the products are useful to consumers. Current research is in place to monitor the use of these products, and future research is planned to evaluate the effect of using the knowledge on health outcomes. The KTA framework provides a useful and valuable approach to knowledge translation.

Improving service innovation through structured process-oriented knowledge infrastructure design

Formalised service innovation is a central tenet of enterprise systems lifecycle phases. Event driven process models extended with knowledge objects are found to be not useful in early lifecycle phases. When an upgrade is required, a map of the knowledge infrastructure is needed to better design further service innovation because functional maps no longer adequately describe the context adequately. By looking at formal changes to business processes as service innovations, and recognising the knowledge infrastructure inherent in services generally, changes driven through technology such as ES can be better understood with the application of frameworks such as B-KIDE.

Detecting anomalous user activity

Systems, methods and articles for determining anomalous user activity are disclosed. Data representing a transaction activity corresponding to a plurality of user transactions can be received and user transactions can be grouped according to types of user transactions. The transaction activity can be determined to be anomalous in relation to the grouped user transactions based on a predetermined parameter.

Learning hierarchical prototypes of motion time series for interactive systems

Abstract. For interactive systems, recognition, reproduction, and generalization of observed motion data are crucial for successful interaction. In this paper, we present a novel method for analysis of motion data that we refer to as K-OMM-trees. K-OMM-trees combine Ordered Means Models (OMMs) a model-based machine learning approach for time series with an hierarchical analysis technique for very large data sets, the K-tree algorithm. The proposed K-OMM-trees enable unsupervised prototype extraction of motion time series data with hierarchical data representation. After introducing the algorithmic details, we apply the proposed method to a gesture data set that includes substantial inter-class variations. Results from our studies show that K-OMM-trees are able to substantially increase the recognition performance and to learn an inherent data hierarchy with meaningful gesture abstractions.