An ethnography of Bogotá's ecobarrios: the construction of place-based eco-political subjects, subjectivities and identities

In the current global ecological crisis, environmental principles have become increasingly mainstreamed in urban politics and governance and in claim-making processes across many cities in the global south. From an urban anthropology perspective, this involves interrogating how diverse actors use environmentalisms in order to generate (or not), what many define as alternative urban development trajectories that take nature into account. Inspired by this strand of work, this thesis examines how the search for such alternative trajectories impacts upon the construction of new ecological and political subjects, subjectivities and identities based on place in these times of change. As an anthropologist interested in cities, I offer here an ethnographic account of how the notion of Ecobarrios has opened different paths, in the construction of eco-political subjects in Bogotá. Ecobarrios emerged as an institutional programme, which was implemented by the Mayor’s Office between 2001 and 2003. It was later (2009) adopted as a local initiative by the dwellers of El Tríangulo in the eastern hills of the city; as a “resistance strategy” to avoid eviction and as a means to improve their living conditions. Following the different trajectories of these two attempts to articulate the notion of Ecobarrios to processes shaping urban life and territories in Bogotá. This thesis examines how the emergence of eco-political subjects either reproduced or challenged micro-political dynamics (of and from place) and how it gave rise to changes as well as transformations in urban planning. Conceptually and methodologically, the analysis fosters a debate about the scope, capacity as well as limitations of anthropology and ethnography in advancing our understanding of how different environmentalisms are pursued through urban planning processes and grassroots initiatives and with what consequences

La imagen y la narrativa como herramientas para el abordaje psicosocial en escenarios de violencia. Departamento de Cundinamarca y Bogotá, D.C.

La narrativa es una herramienta fundamental para la recuperación de la memoria y como estrategia de abordaje de las situaciones vividas por las personas involucradas dentro del conflicto armado; para el psicólogo social y comunitario este tipo de herramientas son fundamentales para poder identificar aspectos que permitan un abordaje psicosocial con las víctimas y las comunidades afectadas; por tanto, el diplomado se ha convertido en una oportunidad para que el psicólogo en formación de la universidad reconozca la narrativa como un instrumento fundamental dentro de su trabajo; es este un espacio que no solo ha permitido su conocimiento teórico sino la posibilidad de ponerlo en práctica a través de los casos propuestos. El caso del Señor Modesto ha permitido realizar un acercamiento a la narrativa; analizar y comprender; no solo la dimensión del conflicto, sino elementos entorno a la resiliencia y otros aspectos que muestran como las victimas intentan salir adelante; por tanto, la narrativa no solo esconde un relato de los hecho sino la oportunidad de conocer los puntos de avance de las personas; el caso del señor Modesto también permitió la formulación de preguntas circulares, reflexivas y estratégicas como parte de un ejercicio interesante de formación. A partir del caso Peñas Coloradas se identifica; no solo la afectación que existe sobre la comunidad, sino aquellos aspectos que deben ser fortalecidos para que esta comunidad pueda reestablecer sus derechos y encontrar elementos que permitan la construcción de propuestas de abordaje psicosocial; las tres estrategias planteadas abarcando a los distintos grupos etarios buscan apoyarlos en el fortalecimiento de sus recursos de afrontamiento, en la restauración de sus derechos, en la recuperación de la memoria y en la promoción de la salud mental. Para cerrar se muestra nuevamente el informe analítico y reflexivo de la experiencia de foto voz, con los ajustes solicitados en relación con los aportes que deja la sala de exposición al profesional del área de la psicología y a las comunidades afectadas por el tema de la violencia sociopolítica y/o el conflicto armado.The narrative is a fundamental tool for the recovery of memory and as a strategy for dealing with the situations experienced by the people involved in the armed conflict; For the social and community psychologist, these types of tools are fundamental to be able to identify aspects that allow a psychosocial approach with the victims and the affected communities; Therefore, the diploma course has become an opportunity for the psychologist in training at the university to recognize the narrative as a fundamental instrument in their work; This is a space that has not only allowed its theoretical knowledge but also the possibility of putting it into practice through the proposed cases. The case of “Señor Modesto” has allowed an approach to the narrative; analyze and understand; not only the dimension of the conflict, but elements around resilience and other aspects that show how the victims try to get ahead; Therefore, the narrative not only hides an account of the events but also the opportunity to know the points of advancement of the people; The case of Mr. Modesto also allowed the formulation of circular, reflective and strategic questions as part of an interesting training exercise. From the “Peñas Coloradas” se it is identified; not only the impact that exists on the community, but also those aspects that must be strengthened so that this community can reestablish its rights and find elements that allow the construction of proposals for a psychosocial approach; The three strategies proposed, covering the different age groups, seek to support them in strengthening their coping resources, in restoring their rights, in recovering memory and in promoting mental health. To close, the analytical and reflective report of the photovoice experience is again shown, with the adjustments requested in relation to the contributions left by the showroom to the professional in psychology and to the communities affected by the issue of socio-political violence. and / or the armed conflict

METODOLOGÌA PARA LA EVALUACIÒN DEL DISCURSO EN PACIENTE PSIQUIATRICO, UNA REVISIÓN SISTEMÁTICA

A través de este trabajo se ha copilado información correspondiente al procedimiento metodológico para la evaluación del discurso en paciente psiquiátrico y la importancia del quehacer fonoaudiológico en relación a los procesos de consolidación documental que den cuenta del fenómeno nutriendo no solo los procesos de evaluación, sino también los asistenciales en pro de calidad de vida óptima para pacientes con alteración en sus procesos cognitivos y relaciones sociales. METODOS: Revisión sistemática de información disponible en la web de tipo cochreine, inicia con la selección de términos indexados en los descriptores en ciencias de la salud (DECS) y continua con el apareamiento o cruce de estos términos para iniciar la búsqueda en las diferentes bases de datos, que a su vez obedecen una serie de criterios de inclusión y exclusión con el objetivo de reducir y precisar el contenido y la calidad de la información encontrada de acuerdo a la pregunta problema  RESULTADOS: Se encontraron 9.053 artículos que correspondían a los criterios de inclusión y exclusión con el objetivo de reducir y precisar el contenido y la calidad de la información encontrada en la web de acuerdo a la pregunta problema. ANÁLISIS Y DISCUSIÓN: El proceso se desarrolla de 2 maneras, a través de la entrevistas clásicas que corresponde a las practicas ortodoxas, y , la evaluación de las características discursivas a través de diversas aplicaciones computacionales (software) producto del desarrollo científico en relación a las ciencias informáticas aplicadas al área de salud, hasta la fecha no existen criterios consolidados acerca de cuan viables resultan hoy día la aplicación de las entrevistas clásicas ya que aparentemente son poco concluyentes, sin embargo , hasta el dia de hoy es objeto de debates . CONCLUSIONES: El desarrollo tecnológico de dispositivos (hardware y software) ha generado una nueva serie de posibilidades en relación al estudio de este tipo de trastornos ya que a través de la implementación de procesos de evaluación automatizados que procesen el discurso de manera “inmediata” dan cuenta en tiempo real de las relaciones e interconexiones léxico-semánticas,  morfológicas,  fonético fonológicas y en consecuencia pragmáticas de determinado individuo con total precisión además de caracterizar estados de ánimo de acuerdo a los rasgos suprasegmentales del habla

CARACTERISTICAS DEL DISCURSO EN ADULTO ESQUIZOFRENICO CATATONICO, PARANOIDE Y DESORGANIZADA, UNA REVISIÓN SISTEMÁTICA

Trabajo de sistematización de la información disponible en la web en relación a las características discursivas de pacientes psiquiátricos con esquizofrenia de tipo catatónica, paranoide y desorganizada con él objetivo de crear y condensar una base de datos sólida que dé cuenta del lenguaje y sus funciones en este tipo de pacientes nutriendo los procesos diagnósticos y de intervención. MÉTODOS: Revisión sistemática de información disponible en la web de tipo cochreine, inicia con la selección de términos indexados en los descriptores en ciencias de la salud (DECS) y continua con el apareamiento o cruce de estos términos para iniciar la búsqueda en las diferentes bases de datos, que a su vez obedecen una serie de criterios de inclusión y exclusión con el objetivo de reducir y precisar el contenido y la calidad de la información encontrada de acuerdo a la pregunta problema RESULTADOS: se encontraron 12.750 artículos que se correspondían a los criterios de inclusión y exclusión para la búsqueda, sin embargo solo 15 fueron aptos para ser incluidos en el estudio aunque se han agregado más fuentes bibliográficas ANÁLISIS Y DISCUSIÓN: Finalizado el proceso de síntesis y análisis de la información en importante mencionar que aunque las características discursivas en relación al tipo de esquizofrenia no distan mucho, las alteraciones en los procesos mentales básicos y superiores son una constante perfilando el discurso del paciente de acuerdo a su propio estado emocional y convicciones, en materia lingüística resultan evidentes alteraciones a nivel gramatical en relación al uso del lenguaje y las funciones pragmáticas del mismo además de alteraciones de contenido (semántica) y forma (morfosintaxis) de acuerdo al caso. CONCLUSIONES: Se ha concluido después de la revisión de literatura que los procesos mentales superiores y básicos guardan relación relevante con el discurso y la alteración en contenido y forma alteran las funciones de uso

Retinoic Acid and Rapamycin Differentially Affect and Synergistically Promote the Ex Vivo Expansion of Natural Human T Regulatory Cells

Natural T regulatory cells (Tregs) are challenging to expand ex vivo, and this has severely hindered in vivo evaluation of their therapeutic potential. All trans retinoic acid (ATRA) plays an important role in mediating immune homeostasis in vivo, and we investigated whether ATRA could be used to promote the ex vivo expansion of Tregs purified from adult human peripheral blood. We found that ATRA helped maintain FOXP3 expression during the expansion process, but this effect was transient and serum-dependent. Furthermore, natural Tregs treated with rapamycin, but not with ATRA, suppressed cytokine production in co-cultured effector T cells. This suppressive activity correlated with the ability of expanded Tregs to induce FOXP3 expression in non-Treg cell populations. Examination of CD45RA+ and CD45RA− Treg subsets revealed that ATRA failed to maintain suppressive activity in either population, but interestingly, Tregs expanded in the presence of both rapamycin and ATRA displayed more suppressive activity and had a more favorable epigenetic status of the FOXP3 gene than Tregs expanded in the presence of rapamycin only. We conclude that while the use of ATRA as a single agent to expand Tregs for human therapy is not warranted, its use in combination with rapamycin may have benefit

Helios Expression Is a Marker of T Cell Activation and Proliferation

Foxp3+ T-regulatory cells (Tregs) normally serve to attenuate immune responses and are key to maintenance of immune homeostasis. Over the past decade, Treg cells have become a major focus of research for many groups, and various functional subsets have been characterized. Recently, the Ikaros family member, Helios, was reported as a marker to discriminate naturally occurring, thymic-derived Tregs from those peripherally induced from naïve CD4+ T cells. We investigated Helios expression in murine and human T cells under resting or activating conditions, using well-characterized molecules of naïve/effector/memory phenotypes, as well as a set of Treg-associated markers. We found that Helios-negative T cells are enriched for naïve T cell phenotypes and vice versa. Moreover, Helios can be induced during T cell activation and proliferation, but regresses in the same cells under resting conditions. We demonstrated comparable findings using human and murine CD4+Foxp3+ Tregs, as well as in CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. Since Helios expression is associated with T cell activation and cellular division, regardless of the cell subset involved, it does not appear suitable as a marker to distinguish natural and induced Treg cells

Human OTULIN haploinsufficiency impairs cell-intrinsic immunity to staphylococcal alpha-toxin

The molecular basis of interindividual clinical variability upon infection with Staphylococcus aureus is unclear. We describe patients with haploinsufficiency for the linear deubiquitinase OTULIN, encoded by a gene on chromosome 5p. Patients suffer from episodes of life-threatening necrosis, typically triggered by S. aureus infection. The disorder is phenocopied in patients with the 5p- (Cri-du-Chat) chromosomal deletion syndrome. OTULIN haploinsufficiency causes an accumulation of linear ubiquitin in dermal fibroblasts, but tumor necrosis factor receptor-mediated nuclear factor kappa B signaling remains intact. Blood leukocyte subsets are unaffected. The OTULIN-dependent accumulation of caveolin-1 in dermal fibroblasts, but not leukocytes, facilitates the cytotoxic damage inflicted by the staphylococcal virulence factor alpha-toxin. Naturally elicited antibodies against alpha-toxin contribute to incomplete clinical penetrance. Human OTULIN haploinsufficiency underlies life-threatening staphylococcal disease by disrupting cell-intrinsic immunity to alpha-toxin in nonleukocytic cells.Peer reviewe

Gene Expression Profiles in Parkinson Disease Prefrontal Cortex Implicate FOXO1 and Genes under Its Transcriptional Regulation

Parkinson disease (PD) is a complex neurodegenerative disorder with largely unknown genetic mechanisms. While the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in PD mainly takes place in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SN) region, other brain areas, including the prefrontal cortex, develop Lewy bodies, the neuropathological hallmark of PD. We generated and analyzed expression data from the prefrontal cortex Brodmann Area 9 (BA9) of 27 PD and 26 control samples using the 44K One-Color Agilent 60-mer Whole Human Genome Microarray. All samples were male, without significant Alzheimer disease pathology and with extensive pathological annotation available. 507 of the 39,122 analyzed expression probes were different between PD and control samples at false discovery rate (FDR) of 5%. One of the genes with significantly increased expression in PD was the forkhead box O1 (FOXO1) transcription factor. Notably, genes carrying the FoxO1 binding site were significantly enriched in the FDR–significant group of genes (177 genes covered by 189 probes), suggesting a role for FoxO1 upstream of the observed expression changes. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) selected from a recent meta-analysis of PD genome-wide association studies (GWAS) were successfully genotyped in 50 out of the 53 microarray brains, allowing a targeted expression–SNP (eSNP) analysis for 52 SNPs associated with PD affection at genome-wide significance and the 189 probes from FoxO1 regulated genes. A significant association was observed between a SNP in the cyclin G associated kinase (GAK) gene and a probe in the spermine oxidase (SMOX) gene. Further examination of the FOXO1 region in a meta-analysis of six available GWAS showed two SNPs significantly associated with age at onset of PD. These results implicate FOXO1 as a PD–relevant gene and warrant further functional analyses of its transcriptional regulatory mechanisms

Validation of the Body Concealment Scale for Scleroderma (BCSS): Replication in the Scleroderma Patient-centered Intervention Network (SPIN) Cohort

© 2016 Elsevier Ltd Body concealment is an important component of appearance distress for individuals with disfiguring conditions, including scleroderma. The objective was to replicate the validation study of the Body Concealment Scale for Scleroderma (BCSS) among 897 scleroderma patients. The factor structure of the BCSS was evaluated using confirmatory factor analysis and the Multiple-Indicator Multiple-Cause model examined differential item functioning of SWAP items for sex and age. Internal consistency reliability was assessed via Cronbach's alpha. Construct validity was assessed by comparing the BCSS with a measure of body image distress and measures of mental health and pain intensity. Results replicated the original validation study, where a bifactor model provided the best fit. The BCSS demonstrated strong internal consistency reliability and construct validity. Findings further support the BCSS as a valid measure of body concealment in scleroderma and provide new evidence that scores can be compared and combined across sexes and ages