Museums as agents of community building in the city of Almeria. Analysis of the «Culture served in ceramics» experience

©2023. The authors. This document is made available under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ This document is the published version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Diferents. To access the final edited and published work see https://dx.doi.org/10.6035/diferents.7655Este artículo presenta los principales resultados de la experiencia «Cultura servida en cerámica», desarrollada en la ciudad de Almería con la implicación de diferentes colectivos vulnerables en un entorno museístico. Con este propósito se plantea el objetivo de analizar el impacto que a nivel educativo ha tenido este proyecto de intervención comunitaria entre sus participantes. La metodología empleada fue de tipo cualitativa, por medio de entrevistas y grupos de discusión. Los informantes fueron seleccionados a través de muestreo no probabilístico, y por conveniencia. Los resultados indican que las actitudes de los destinatarios del programa tuvieron una gran influencia en su contexto cultural, posibilidades artísticas, educativas, así como en la formación de nuevas redes sociales. Se puede concluir que la iniciativa desarrollada es idónea para establecer un marco de referencia que promueva una reflexión crítica y participativa en el espacio museístico de colectivos en riesgo de exclusión.This paper presents the main results of the «Culture served in ceramics» experience, developed in the city of Almería, with the involvement of different vulnerable groups in the museum environment. With this purpose, the objective is to analyze the impact that this community intervention project has had among its participants at an educational level. The methodology used was qualitative, through interviews and discussion groups. The participants were selected through non-probabilistic sampling, and for convenience. The results show that the attitudes of the beneficiaries of the program had a great impact regarding their cultural context, artistic, educational possibilities, as well as the creation of new social networks. It should be concluded that the initiative developed becomes an ideal proposal to establish a reference framework that favors a critical and participatory reflection from the museum space from groups at risk of exclusion

New Insights into the Evolution of Metazoan Tyrosinase Gene Family

Tyrosinases, widely distributed among animals, plants and fungi, are involved in the biosynthesis of melanin, a pigment that has been exploited, in the course of evolution, to serve different functions. We conducted a deep evolutionary analysis of tyrosinase family amongst metazoa, thanks to the availability of new sequenced genomes, assessing that tyrosinases (tyr) represent a distinctive feature of all the organisms included in our study and, interestingly, they show an independent expansion in most of the analyzed phyla. Tyrosinase-related proteins (tyrp), which derive from tyr but show distinct key residues in the catalytic domain, constitute an invention of chordate lineage. In addition we here reported a detailed study of the expression territories of the ascidian Ciona intestinalis tyr and tyrps. Furthermore, we put efforts in the identification of the regulatory sequences responsible for their expression in pigment cell lineage. Collectively, the results reported here enlarge our knowledge about the tyrosinase gene family as valuable resource for understanding the genetic components involved in pigment cells evolution and development

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (4th edition)1.

In 2008, we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, this topic has received increasing attention, and many scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Thus, it is important to formulate on a regular basis updated guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Despite numerous reviews, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to evaluate autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. Here, we present a set of guidelines for investigators to select and interpret methods to examine autophagy and related processes, and for reviewers to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of reports that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a dogmatic set of rules, because the appropriateness of any assay largely depends on the question being asked and the system being used. Moreover, no individual assay is perfect for every situation, calling for the use of multiple techniques to properly monitor autophagy in each experimental setting. Finally, several core components of the autophagy machinery have been implicated in distinct autophagic processes (canonical and noncanonical autophagy), implying that genetic approaches to block autophagy should rely on targeting two or more autophagy-related genes that ideally participate in distinct steps of the pathway. Along similar lines, because multiple proteins involved in autophagy also regulate other cellular pathways including apoptosis, not all of them can be used as a specific marker for bona fide autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation in the field

Obesity and glomerular filtration rate

Obesity has received considerable attention in general medicine and nephrology over the last few years. This condition increases the risk of metabolic syndrome, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and dyslipidemia, which are the main risk factors for developing chronic kidney disease (CKD). Kidney damage caused by obesity can be explained by many mechanisms, such as sympathetic nervous and renin-angiotensin-aldosterone systems activation, mechanical stress, hormonal unbalance, as well as inflammatory cytokines production. Even though creatinine-based glomerular filtration rate (GFR) equations in obese individuals have been validated (Salazar-Corcoran and CKD-MCQ), changes in body weight after bariatric surgery (BS) leads to changes in creatininemia, affecting its reliability. Thus, an average between creatine and cystatin-based GFR equations would be more appropriate in this setting. Bariatric surgery can reverse diabetes mellitus and improve hypertension, which are the main causes of CKD. Conclusion: GFR can be affected by obesity and BS, and its value should be cautiously evaluated in this setting

Matching Diabetes and Alcoholism: Oxidative Stress, Inflammation, and Neurogenesis Are Commonly Involved

Diabetes and alcohol misuse are two of the major challenges in health systems worldwide. These two diseases finally affect several organs and systems including the central nervous system. Hippocampus is one of the most relevant structures due to neurogenesis and memory-related processing among other functions. The present review focuses on the common profile of diabetes and ethanol exposure in terms of oxidative stress and proinflammatory and prosurvival recruiting transcription factors affecting hippocampal neurogenesis. Some aspects around antioxidant strategies are also included. As a global conclusion, the present review points out some common hits on both diseases giving support to the relations between alcohol intake and diabetes

Erk5 pathway is a new indirect target of sorafenib

Resumen del trabajo presentado al 1st PhD Research Symposium in Health Sciences and Biomedicine, celebrado en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid el 18 de mayo de 2018.MINECO (SAF2015-64215-R). Fundación Leticia Castillejo.Peer reviewe

Oxidative stress in retinal pigment epithelium cells increases exosome secretion and promotes angiogenesis in endothelial cells.

10 páginas, 5 figurasThe retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), a monolayer located between the photoreceptors and the choroid, is constantly damaged by oxidative stress, particularly because of reactive oxygen species (ROS). As the RPE, because of its physiological functions, is essential for the survival of the retina, any sustained damage may consequently lead to loss of vision. Exosomes are small membranous vesicles released into the extracellular medium by numerous cell types, including RPE cells. Their cargo includes genetic material and proteins, making these vesicles essential for cell-to-cell communication. Exosomes may fuse with neighbouring cells influencing their fate. It has been observed that RPE cells release higher amounts of exosomes when they are under oxidative stress. Exosomes derived from cultured RPE cells were isolated by ultracentrifugation and quantified by flow cytometry. VEGF receptors (VEGFR) were analysed by both flow cytometry and Western blot. RT-PCR and qPCR were conducted to assess mRNA content of VEGFRs in exosomes. Neovascularization assays were performed after applying RPE exosomes into endothelial cell cultures. Our results showed that stressed RPE cells released a higher amount of exosomes than controls, with a higher expression of VEGFR in the membrane, and enclosed an extra cargo of VEGFR mRNA. Angiogenesis assays confirmed that endothelial cells increased their tube formation capacity when exposed to stressed RPE exosomes.This work was supported by internal funding of the university, by the local department of education, Conselleria de Educaciò, Cultura i Sport, Valencia, Spain (GVA/2014/106), and partially by other external institutions: Instituto Nacional Carlos III (PI13/00617), Red de Investigacón Cardiovascular (RD12/0042/0052).Peer reviewe