CLA+ memory T cells in atopic dermatitis: CLA+ T cells and atopic dermatitis

Circulating skin-homing cutaneous lymphocyte-associated antigen (CLA)+ T cells constitute a small subset of human memory T cells involved in several aspects of atopic dermatitis: Staphylococcus aureus related mechanisms, the abnormal Th2 immune response, biomarkers, clinical aspects of the patients, pruritus, and the mechanism of action of targeted therapies. Superantigens, IL-13, IL-31, pruritus, CCL17 and early effects on dupilumab-treated patients have in common that they are associated with the CLA+ T cell mechanisms in atopic dermatitis patients. The function of CLA+ T cells corresponds with the role of T cells belonging to the skin-associated lymphoid tissue and could be a reason why they reflect different mechanisms of atopic dermatitis and many other T cell mediated skin diseases. The goal of this review is to gather all this translational information of atopic dermatitis pathology

Polity size matters? The effect of country size on politicians’ professionalization

This article examines the effect of country size on the professionalization of politicians in six European micro-states and a large-scale democracy – Germany – since 1980. The article revisits an ongoing debate about the extent to which either country size or government size are causal factors in the individual professionalization process. Using an original dataset consisting of 6,940 parliamentary mandates – 2,809 individuals – in national parliaments, the article shows that country size is a determinant of the degree of politicians’ professionalization. The article further demonstrates that political parties’ gatekeeper role is the key causal mechanism explaining the influence of population size on politicians’ professionalization

Justicia para inmigrantes: mercado y política de extranjería

Este artículo examina desde un punto de vista normativo la relación entre la justicia y la extranjería, en particular las cuestiones sobre los límites de la justicia en una política de extranjería. La pregunta que me he planteado es la siguiente: ¿es moralmente justo que los Estados legitimen sus políticas de extranjería en base a unos criterios económicos? El argumento que guiará mi razonamiento es que una política de extranjería tiene un carácter más justo cuando el mercado no funciona como criterio de orientación. En la primera parte presento, como preliminar, los nuevos escenarios del debate teórico político en torno a la relación entre el mercado y la justicia, con el fin de precisar el contexto de mi análisis. En la segunda parte introduzco brevemente las principales tensiones que ponen en duda la legitimidad del tratamiento estatal hacia los extranjeros desde el punto de vista de la justicia, con el propósito de presentar la lógica de mi razonamiento. En la tercera parte propongo una reflexión abierta, tomando la Ley de Extranjería española como estudio de caso. En la última parte resumo mi argumento: la necesidad de revisar los criterios que legitiman las políticas de inmigración desde el punto de vista de la justicia en general, los criterios basados en el mercado en particular

Mothers' school starting age and infant health

We study the effects of women's school starting age on the infant health of their offspring. In Spain, children born in December start school a year earlier than those born the following January, despite being essentially the same age. We follow a regression discontinuity design to compare the health at birth of the children of women born in January versus the previous December, using administrative, population-level data. We find small and insignificant effects on average weight at birth, but, compared to the children of December-born mothers, the children of January-born mothers are more likely to have very low birthweight. We then show that January-born women have the same educational attainment and the same partnership dynamics as December-born women. However, they finish school later and are (several months) older when they have their first child. Our results suggest that maternal age is a plausible mechanism behind our estimated impacts of school starting age on infant health.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion. Grant Numbers: RTI2018-098217-B-I00, PID2022-141375OB-I00. H2020 European Research Council. Grant Number: CoG MISSINGMIDDLE-770958. Secretaría de Estado de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación. Grant Number: CEX2019- 000915-

Securitizing migration in times of crisis: private actors and the provision of (in)security

This article studies the securitization of migration in times of crisis: the ‘crisification of migration’. In the past couple of decades, there have been three-time frames within the European Union in which insecurity has spread across the population due to a series of events such as terrorist threats, incoming massive refugee flows, or the spread of viruses threatening our health. These events have been marked by feelings of insecurity, reinforced by political and media discourses signaling a particular group of individuals as being the source of these threats to social and national security: migrants. The paper studies this process of ‘crisification’ of migration during the War on Terror, the refugee crisis, and the Coronavirus pandemic. It also studies the role of private actors in framing migration as a security threat and designing policies promoting instability, which later on justify the application of more restrictive measures and higher security controls. One of the most important consequences of these practices is the deterioration of the rights of migrants

Regulation of β-cell death by ADP-ribosylhydrolase ARH3 via lipid signaling in insulitis

Background: Lipids are regulators of insulitis and β-cell death in type 1 diabetes development, but the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. Here, we investigated how the islet lipid composition and downstream signaling regulate β-cell death. Methods: We performed lipidomics using three models of insulitis: human islets and EndoC-βH1 β cells treated with the pro-inflammatory cytokines interlukine-1β and interferon-γ, and islets from pre-diabetic non-obese mice. We also performed mass spectrometry and fluorescence imaging to determine the localization of lipids and enzyme in islets. RNAi, apoptotic assay, and qPCR were performed to determine the role of a specific factor in lipid-mediated cytokine signaling. Results: Across all three models, lipidomic analyses showed a consistent increase of lysophosphatidylcholine species and phosphatidylcholines with polyunsaturated fatty acids and a reduction of triacylglycerol species. Imaging assays showed that phosphatidylcholines with polyunsaturated fatty acids and their hydrolyzing enzyme phospholipase PLA2G6 are enriched in islets. In downstream signaling, omega-3 fatty acids reduce cytokine-induced β-cell death by improving the expression of ADP-ribosylhydrolase ARH3. The mechanism involves omega-3 fatty acid-mediated reduction of the histone methylation polycomb complex PRC2 component Suz12, upregulating the expression of Arh3, which in turn decreases cell apoptosis. Conclusions: Our data provide insights into the change of lipidomics landscape in β cells during insulitis and identify a protective mechanism by omega-3 fatty acids. Video Abstract

Researching the role of AI tools in the research practice

Congrés celebrat durant el mes de desembre de 2023 a Barcelona, Espanya.Artificial intelligence is in a constant state of evolution and transformation. In recent times, remarkable changes in AI applications have been observed, ranging from generating social media photos to customizing content with the assistance of tools like ChatGPT. These advancements have not only reshaped our media environment but also impacted education and research, raising important considerations. The utilization of AI comes with limitations and risks that demand our attention to ensure responsible use of AI tools, ultimately beneÞting both individuals and society. What are the effects of AI tools in the research Þeld? How can implementing AI architectures provide a strategic advantage and potential beneÞts in science? Will the use of AI tools improve or decrease the motivation to do research? These are among the inquiries addressed by presenters at the Meta-Research Conference, MERE 2023. The MERE Conference is an academic practice that showcases the work of students from the Master's programs in Sound and Music Computing, Intelligent and Interactive Systems, and Computational Biomedical Engineering at the Department of Information and Communication Technologies of Pompeu Fabra University. MERE, in its annual edition, presents the results of the Meta-Research Project, through which students develop critical thinking through research. With an empirical perspective, students formulate brief research projects from data collection to analysis and article writing, thus shaping and promoting scientific practice. This year, during the Meta-Research Conference, a total of 19 manuscripts were presented and defended. This proceedings book contains a selection of those works whose authors were agree to share their work and findings. We are glad to share with our readers the work of our students participating in the MERE Conference 2023. We acknowledge their contribution to this publication and encourage the readers of this volume edition to dialogue and reflect on the use of AI tools in research

Illusory authenticity: negotiating compassion in animal experimentation discourse

Society’s compassion towards nonhuman animals used in experimentation has grown exponentially. This paper adopts critical discourse analysis to examine how the animal experimentation industry negotiates this societal moral response. To this end, the discourse of the largest animal experimentation interest group in Spain has been studied. Our findings show that the industry, as represented by this interest group, does not negotiate compassion with authenticity but rather creates an illusion of it through opportunistic lexical choices and suppressions, including contradictions and incongruities. We conclude by defining such a discourse as illusory authenticity, a discourse with which the industry conveniently frames itself as altruistic and concerned about animal suffering while at the same time discouraging the public’s cultivation of compassion towards nonhuman animal suffering. This is done by means of perpetuating a logic that frames nonhuman animals as inferior beings whose existence is at the service of humanity.This research (within the project COMPASS, Lobbying and Compassion. Interest groups, discourse and nonhuman animals in Spain) was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and State Research Agency (Agencia Estatal de Investigación, AEI) under grant PID2020-118926RB-100/MICIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033

Real-world walking cadence in people with COPD

Introduction: The clinical validity of real-world walking cadence in people with COPD is unsettled. Our objective was to assess the levels, variability and association with clinically relevant COPD characteristics and outcomes of real-world walking cadence. Methods: We assessed walking cadence (steps per minute during walking bouts longer than 10 s) from 7 days' accelerometer data in 593 individuals with COPD from five European countries, and clinical and functional characteristics from validated questionnaires and standardised tests. Severe exacerbations during a 12-month follow-up were recorded from patient reports and medical registries. Results: Participants were mostly male (80%) and had mean±sd age of 68±8 years, post-bronchodilator forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) of 57±19% predicted and walked 6880±3926 steps·day-1. Mean walking cadence was 88±9 steps·min-1, followed a normal distribution and was highly stable within-person (intraclass correlation coefficient 0.92, 95% CI 0.90-0.93). After adjusting for age, sex, height and number of walking bouts in fractional polynomial or linear regressions, walking cadence was positively associated with FEV1, 6-min walk distance, physical activity (steps·day-1, time in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, vector magnitude units, walking time, intensity during locomotion), physical activity experience and health-related quality of life and negatively associated with breathlessness and depression (all p<0.05). These associations remained after further adjustment for daily steps. In negative binomial regression adjusted for multiple confounders, walking cadence related to lower number of severe exacerbations during follow-up (incidence rate ratio 0.94 per step·min-1, 95% CI 0.91-0.99, p=0.009). Conclusions: Higher real-world walking cadence is associated with better COPD status and lower severe exacerbations risk, which makes it attractive as a future prognostic marker and clinical outcome.ISGlobal acknowledges support from the grant CEX2018–000806-S funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, and support from the Generalitat de Catalunya through the CERCA Programme

Transition of human γ-tubulin ring complex into a closed conformation during microtubule nucleation

Microtubules are essential for intracellular organization and chromosome segregation. They are nucleated by the γ-tubulin ring complex (γTuRC). However, isolated vertebrate γTuRC adopts an open conformation that deviates from the microtubule structure, raising the question of the nucleation mechanism. Here we determine cryo-electron microscopy structures of human γTuRC bound to a nascent microtubule. Structural changes of the complex into a closed conformation ensure that γTuRC templates the 13-protofilament microtubules that exist in human cells. Closure is mediated by a latch that interacts with incorporating tubulin, making it part of the closing mechanism. Further rearrangements involve all γ-tubulin ring complex subunits and the removal of the actin-containing luminal bridge. Our proposed mechanism of microtubule nucleation by human γTuRC relies on large-scale structural changes that are likely the target of regulation in cells