La participación autonómica y local en redes de cooperación europea

This article analyses the participation of Spanish regions and local governments in networks of cooperation with other European sub-national governments. The article asks if these networks are a new form of activism in the EU by Spanish regional and local governments. The first hypothesis is that the participation of Spanish sub-national governments in these networks can be explained as a way to develop ways of influence that can complement more institutionalised venues for the representation of sub-national interests in the EU. The second hypothesis is that the motivation of Spanish sub-national governments to participate in these networks is to promote their own interests by cooperating with other actors sharing the same objectives. The article uses network analysis methodology in order to analyse in which networks Spanish actors participate and uses these results in order to understand their motivation to do so. The article concludes that Spanish sub-national governments, in particular regional ones, participate intensely in networks of cooperation in matters of their own competence and that this constitutes a strategy of interests representation that can complement representation in more institutional venues.Este artículo analiza la participación de las comunidades autónomas y entidades locales españolas en redes de cooperación con otros gobiernos sub-estatales europeos. El artículo analiza si estas redes constituyen una nueva forma de intervención de las CC.AA. y entidades locales en los asuntos comunitarios. La primera hipótesis del trabajo es que la participación de los gobiernos sub-estatales españoles en estas redes se explica por la búsqueda de medios de acción complementarios a los mecanismos de intervención más institucionalizada. En segundo lugar se sugiere que la motivación de los gobiernos sub-estatales españoles para participar en dichas redes es la de promover sus intereses mediante la cooperación con actores que comparten sus objetivos. El artículo emplea la metodología del análisis de red para estudiar en qué redes participan los actores españoles y emplea estos resultados para entender su motivación. El artículo concluye que los gobiernos sub-estatales españoles, sobre todo las CC.AA., participan intensamente en redes de cooperación en ámbitos de su competencia, lo cual constituye una estrategia de representación de intereses complementaria de la representación institucionalizada ante las instituciones comunitarias

Compromiso cívico y democracia. Los efectos democráticos del asociacionismo sociopolítico en España

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Enmarcar, narrar y convencer: el papel de la información y las ideas en el proceso político de la UE

Desde mediados de los años 90 los análisis sobre políticas públicas están inmersas en el llamado «giro argumentativo». Estos enfoques desarrollados en EEUU llegaron sin embargo rápidamente al estudio del proceso político comunitario. Esto resulta llamativo debido a que este es el periodo de vigencia de la teoría de la decisión racional en los estudios sobre la UE y a que ésta carece de un espacio público. Sin embargo argumentamos que este giro argumentativo se puede entender debido a algunas similitudes en el proceso político puesto que la UE es también un sistema de pesos y contrapesos caracterizado por la intervención de múltiples actores en el cual la alineación de marcos interpretativos en procesos de medio y largo plazo contribuye a la creación de las coaliciones amplias que se necesitan para el establecimiento de la agenda y la transformación de políticas públicas en este tipo de sistemas. Este artículo repasa el uso enfoques epistémicos o centrados en las ideas para explicar el proceso político europeo. Desde el punto de vista teórico se señala la utilidad de analizarlos para estudiar la agenda desde una perspectiva de actores amplia y como mecanismo heurístico que permite estudiar la agencia de distintos intervinientes en los procesos de establecimiento de la agenda en la correspondencia entre estrategias de acción colectiva. Estos enfoques también permiten evaluar hipótesis relativas a la importancia del aprendizaje y la alineación de marcos cognitivos. Desde el punto de vista epistemológico y metodológico se señalan las ambigüedades pero también potencialidades para utilizar gran cantidad de datos y combinar procedimientos cuantitativos y cualitativos. Recibido: 19 mayo 2016 Aceptado: 21 junio 2016 Publicación en línea: 31 octubre 201

The personalization, circulation, impact and reception in Twitter of Macron's 17/04/18 speech to the European Parliament

El 17 de abril de 2018, el presidente francés Emmanuel Macron en el Pleno del Parlamento Europeo en Estrasburgo, apeló al “renacimiento de la soberanía europea”. Este artículo analiza las funciones atribuidas a la red social preferida para el debate y la discusión política: Twitter. Atiende a la distribución de la información, el impacto de la propia red social en la modificación de la agenda pública, la personalización de la transmisión del discurso político en redes sociales, así como los nuevos hábitos de consumo de discursos políticos, específicamente en el contexto de Twitter. Los resultados muestran que: 1) los corresponsales tienen impacto en una fase descriptiva hacia las audiencias nacionales pero menos en el incipiente espacio transnacional donde otros activistas pueden lanzar mensajes directamente a sus audiencias; 2) la falta de una estrategia comunicativa común de las instituciones de la UE, les hizo fracasar al intentar establecer la agenda setting a través de hashtags sin éxito; 3) Macron es un actor político transnacional en Europa, cuya personalización política le hace capaz de comunicar a través de espacios públicos fragmentados; 4) El contenido de los mensajes pasa muy rápidamente de una aproximación descriptiva a una de creación de marcos.On April, 17th 2018, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in the Plenary of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, appealed to the “renaissance of European sovereignty”. The article analyzes the functions attributed to the preferred social network for debate and political discussion, Twitter, focusing essentially on: the distribution of information, the impact of the social network on the modification of the public agenda, the personalization of the transmission of political discourses in social networks, as well as new habits of political consumption specifically, in the context of Twitter. The results show that: 1) journalists have a key role in the descriptive phase towards national publics but a less salient one in the emerging transnational sphere where political actors target their own publics directly; 2) EU institutions failed to try to set the agenda setting through hashtags without success; 3) Macron is a transnational political actor capable of communicating through fragmented public spaces; 4) The content of the messages passes very quickly from a descriptive to a framing approach

European Actors and Disinformation: the dispute between fact-checking, alternative agendas and geopolitics

El referéndum del Brexit es un buen ejemplo de la especial vulnerabilidad del proyecto europeo ante la desinformación. Por ello las instituciones han desarrollado una serie de iniciativas durante 2018 para definir una estrategia europea contra la desinformación que enfatiza la responsabilidad de las redes sociales en la denuncia de los contenidos falsos. Además, ante la debilidad de la esfera pública europea, las instituciones europeas apoyan la creación de redes europeas de fact checkers. Esta estrategia implica la denuncia de las mentiras en lugar de una de creación de marcos alternativos, lo que autores como Lakoff (2004) consideran un error desde la perspectiva del framing. Empíricamente demostramos mediante un análisis de las principales redes de actores en este asunto (académicos, fundaciones, think tanks, medios, plataformas de redes sociales y fact checkers) que existe una disputa para definir la mejor forma de combatir la desinformación a escala europea.The Brexit referendum is a good example of the particular vulnerability of the European project when fighting disinformation. Therefore, EU institutions have developed a series of initiatives throughout 2018 to define a European strategy to counter disinformation that emphasizes the responsibility of social networks in reporting false content. In addition, given the weakness of the European public sphere, the European institutions support the creation of European networks of fact checkers. This strategy implies the denunciation of lies, rather than the promotion of alternative interpretive frames, which authors like Lakoff (2004) consider an error from a framing point of view. Empirically, we demonstrate through an analysis of the main networks of actors on this matter (academics, foundations, think tanks, media, social network platforms and fact checkers) that there is a dispute to define the best way to combat disinformation at the European level

Identification and conservation of remnant genetic resources of brown trout in relict populations from Western Mediterranean streams

This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Hydrobiologia. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-012-1402-8Brown trout is a cold-adapted freshwater species with restricted distribution to headwater streams in rivers of the South European peninsulas, where populations are highly vulnerable because Mediterranean regions are highly sensitive to the global climatic warming. Moreover, these populations are endangered due to the introgressive hybridization with cultured stocks. Individuals from six remnant populations in Western Mediterranean rivers were sequenced for the complete mitochondrial DNA control region and genotyped for 11 nuclear markers. Three different brown trout lineages were present in the studied region. Significant genetic divergence was observed among locations and a strong effect of genetic drift was suggested. An important stocking impact (close to 25%) was detected in the zone. Significant correlations between mitochondrial-based rates of hatchery introgression and water flow variation suggested a higher impact of stocked females in unstable habitats. In spite of hatchery introgression, all populations remained highly differentiated, suggesting that native genetic resources are still abundant. However, climatic predictions indicated that suitable habitats for the species in these rivers will be reduced and hence trout populations are highly endangered and vulnerable. Thus, management policies should take into account these predictions to design upstream refuge areas to protect remnant native trout in the regionThis study has been supported by the Generalitat Valenciana Autonomous Government (Spain) project (2008/CI446)S

The Unfolded Protein Response and the Phosphorylations of Activating Transcription Factor 2 in the trans-Activation of il23a Promoter Produced by β-Glucans

Producción CientíficaCurrent views on the control of IL-23 production focus on theregulation ofil23a, the gene encoding IL-23 p19, by NF- Bincombination with other transcription factors. C/EBP homolo-gous protein (CHOP), X2-Box-binding protein 1 (XBP1), acti-vator protein 1 (AP1), SMAD, CCAAT/enhancer-binding pro-tein (C/EBP ), and cAMP-response element-binding protein(CREB) have been involved in response to LPS, but no data areavailable regarding the mechanism triggered by the fungalmimic and -glucan-containing stimulus zymosan, which pro-duces IL-23 and to a low extent the related cytokine IL-12 p70.Zymosan induced the mobilization of CHOP from the nuclearfractions to phagocytic vesicles. Hypha-formingCandidaalsoinduced the nuclear disappearance of CHOP. Assay of tran-scription factor binding to theil23apromoter showed anincrease of Thr(P)-71–Thr(P)-69-activating transcription fac-tor 2 (ATF2) binding in response to zymosan. PKC and PKA/mitogen- and stress-activated kinase inhibitors down-regulatedThr(P)-71–ATF2 binding to theil23apromoter andil23amRNA expression. Consistent with the current concept ofcomplementary phosphorylations on N-terminal Thr-71 andThr-69 of ATF2 by ERK and p38 MAPK, MEK, and p38 MAPKinhibitors blunted Thr(P)-69–ATF2 binding. Knockdown ofatf2mRNA with siRNA correlated with inhibition ofil23amRNA, but it did not affect the expression ofil12/23bandil10mRNA. These data indicate the following: (i) zymosan decreasesnuclear proapoptotic CHOP, most likely by promoting its accu-mulation in phagocytic vesicles; (ii) zymosan-inducedil23amRNA expression is best explained through coordinated B-and ATF2-dependent transcription; and (iii)il23aexpressionrelies on complementary phosphorylation of ATF2 on Thr-69and Thr-71 dependent on PKC and MAPK activities

Determination of plantar pressure in people who use orthoses of the foot

[Abstract] Objective: to know the transfer of static plantar pressures and body weight distribution through the lower limbs that occur in people with and without the use of orthoses of different densities and influence in other areas of the foot. Material and Methods: 32 people participated through non-probability convenience sampling in a quasi-experimental study in which self-reported data were recorded, the determination of plantar pressure, and body weight distribution. Results: 64 feet were studied, showing no difference between the medium pressure and the forefoot without orthoses of 5 mm and 10 mm. Decrease in average pressure and percentage of body weight, both statistically significant, with hindfoot orthoses 10 mm was observed. Conclusions: Given the current evidence for the prescribing and use of foot orthoses is limited, designed to improve the functionality and prevent the onset of disease and foot deformities, these results highlight the need to prescribe orthotics 10 mm when needed to relieve pressure on the backfoot, not seeing the average pressure increased nor diminished in other areas of the foo

Characterization of the gut microbiome of patients with Clostridioides difficile infection, patients with non–C. difficile diarrhea, and C. difficile–colonized patients

IntroductionClostridioides difficile infection (CDI) is the main cause of nosocomial diarrhea in developed countries. A key challenge in CDI is the lack of objective methods to ensure more accurate diagnosis, especially when differentiating between true infection and colonization/diarrhea of other causes. The main objective of this study was to explore the role of the microbiome as a predictive biomarker of CDI.MethodsBetween 2018 and 2021, we prospectively included patients with CDI, recurrent CDI (R-CDI), non-CDI diarrhea (NO-CDI), colonization by C. difficile, and healthy individuals. Clinical data and fecal samples were collected. The microbiome was analyzed by sequencing the hypervariable V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene on an Illumina Miseq platform. The mothur bioinformatic pipeline was followed for pre-processing of raw data, and mothur and R were used for data analysis.ResultsDuring the study period, 753 samples from 657 patients were analyzed. Of these, 247 were from patients with CDI, 43 were from patients colonized with C. difficile, 63 were from healthy individuals, 324 were from NOCDI, and 76 were from R-CDI. We found significant differences across the groups in alpha and beta diversity and in taxonomic abundance. We identified various genera as the most significant biomarkers for CDI (Bacteroides, Proteus, Paraprevotella, Robinsoniella), R-CDI (Veillonella, Fusobacterium, Lactobacillus, Clostridium sensu stricto I), and colonization by C. difficile (Parabacteroides, Faecalicoccus, Flavonifractor, Clostridium XVIII).DiscussionWe observed differences in microbiome patterns between healthy individuals, colonized patients, CDI, R-CDI, and NOCDI diarrhea. We identified possible microbiome biomarkers that could prove useful in the diagnosis of true CDI infections. Further studies are warranted

Overexpression of ZePrx in Nicotiana Tabacum Affects Lignin Biosynthesis Without Altering Redox Homeostasis

[Abstract] Class III plant peroxidases (Prxs) are involved in the oxidative polymerization of lignins. Zinnia elegans Jacq. Basic peroxidase (ZePrx) has been previously characterized as capable of catalyzing this reaction in vitro and the role in lignin biosynthesis of several of its Arabidopsis thaliana homologous has been previously confirmed. In the present work, ZePrx was overexpressed in Nicotiana tabacum to further characterize its function in planta with particular attention to its involvement in lignin biosynthesis. Since Prxs are known to alter ROS levels by using them as electron acceptor or producing them in their catalytic activity, the impact of this overexpression in redox homeostasis was studied by analyzing the metabolites and enzymes of the ascorbate-glutathione cycle. In relation to the modification induced by ZePrx overexpression in lignin composition and cellular metabolism, the carbohydrate composition of the cell wall as well as overall gene expression through RNA-Seq were analyzed. The obtained results indicate that the overexpression of ZePrx caused an increase in syringyl lignin in cell wall stems, suggesting that ZePrx is relevant for the oxidation of sinapyl alcohol during lignin biosynthesis, coherently with its S-peroxidase nature. The increase in the glucose content of the cell wall and the reduction of the expression of several genes involved in secondary cell wall biosynthesis suggests the occurrence of a possible compensatory response to maintain cell wall properties. The perturbation of cellular redox homeostasis occurring as a consequence of ZePrx overexpression was kept under control by an increase in APX activity and a reduction in ascorbate redox state. In conclusion, our results confirm the role of ZePrx in lignin biosynthesis and highlight that its activity alters cellular pathways putatively aimed at maintaining redox homeostasis.Xunta de Galicia; ED431C 2018/57AG-U held an FPU grant from MECD (Spain) (FPU13/04835). This research was possible thanks to the funding of Xunta de Galicia (Spain) (ED431C 2018/57