Donde no hay nadie no hay diablo

La ponencia parte de la sospecha de que el demonio no mora en el desierto, como suele afirmarse, sino en lugares habitados, de forma que se diría que donde hay un humano no anda lejos el diablo. No importa que no se exprese su presencia: doquiera que haya vicio, tergiversación, malicia, allí está. La literatura de ficción, la retórica son obra del maestro del engaño y del maquillaje; no digamos la risa, el escarnio, la parodia, que desacralizan lo santo y la virtud y trivializan la maldad y la hacen divertida. Por supuesto, se esconde tras cualquier manifestación de la soberbia, la desmesura, la rebeldía, en las creencias y prácticas idolátricas, y hasta en los alimentos, y en cualquier mínimo placer, que no hay placer inocente. En pos del diablo se expurgan muchas obras principales de la literatura francesa del periodo (Roland, Raoul de Cambrai, Tristan, Jeu d’Adam, Miracle de Théophile, Queste, Renart, Rose, etc.) y otras, para terminar con un análisis de dos relatos de la mujer serpiente, la Mélusine de Jean d’Arras y Le Paradis de la Reine Sibylle de Antoine de la Sale.This paper is based on the conjecture that the devil does not dwell in the desert, as is commonly thought, but in populated places. So it could be said that wherever there is a human being the devil is not very far away. It does not matter if his is not a physical presence: where there is vice, distortion, malevolence, there he is. Fiction and rhetoric are the work of this master of deception and disguise, as are laughter, derision and parody, that profane sacred things and virtue and trivialize evilness, making it look funny. Of course, the devil is hiding behind any sign of pride, lack of moderation, rebelliousness, idolatrous beliefs and practices, even in food and in the slightest pleasure, as there is no such thing as innocent pleasure. Many important works of French literature of the period have been analyzed in pursuit of the devil (Roland, Raoul de Cambrai, Tristan, Jeu d’Adam, Miracle de Théophile, Queste, Renart, Rose, etc.) and some others, finishing with an analysis of two stories about the snake-woman: Jean d’Arras’ Mélusine and Antoine de la Sale’s Le Paradis de la Reine Sibyll

The energy requirements of a developed world

Through history, special attention has been paid to the study of the relationship between the energy use of a country and its level of development. While the interest of this research area is unquestionable, the energy indicators commonly used (e.g. total primary energy) are problematic. In the current context of globalization, the energy used by a country is not anymore a suitable indicator for measuring the total energy requirements associated with its level of development; the significant variable is the energy consumed worldwide to produce the goods and services demanded by that country, i.e. its energy footprint. In this study, we compare the human development index of 40 countries with their total primary energy demand and total primary energy footprint for the period 1995-2008. The results show that the total primary energy demand underestimates the energy required to maintain a high level of development, since a significant part of the energy used by emerging countries is being increasingly devoted to sustain the welfare of developed countries by means of international trade. We also find that the minimum total primary energy footprint per capita to achieve a high level of development is 33% higher than current world's per capita energy use. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of International Energy Initiative.Inaki Arto thanks financial support by the Seventh Framework Program (FP7) projects COMPLEX (no. 308601) and FLAGSHIP (no. 320330). Inigo Capellan-Perez is grateful for financial support received from Fundacion Repsol under the Low Carbon Programme (www.lowcarbonprogramme.org). The authors express their gratitude to Marco Vinicio Sanchez-Cantillo from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs for providing data series of the human development index, and to Gautam Dutt for his useful comments to improve the last version of the manuscript

Interaction between maternal immune activation and peripubertal stress in rats: impact on cocaine addiction-like behaviour, morphofunctional brain parameters and striatal transcriptome.

Substance use disorders are more prevalent in schizophrenia, but the causal links between both conditions remain unclear. Maternal immune activation (MIA) is associated with schizophrenia which may be triggered by stressful experiences during adolescence. Therefore, we used a double-hit rat model, combining MIA and peripubertal stress (PUS), to study cocaine addiction and the underlying neurobehavioural alterations. We injected lipopolysaccharide or saline on gestational days 15 and 16 to Sprague-Dawley dams. Their male offspring underwent five episodes of unpredictable stress every other day from postnatal day 28 to 38. When animals reached adulthood, we studied cocaine addiction-like behaviour, impulsivity, Pavlovian and instrumental conditioning, and several aspects of brain structure and function by MRI, PET and RNAseq. MIA facilitated the acquisition of cocaine self-administration and increased the motivation for the drug; however, PUS reduced cocaine intake, an effect that was reversed in MIA + PUS rats. We found concomitant brain alterations: MIA + PUS altered the structure and function of the dorsal striatum, increasing its volume and interfering with glutamatergic dynamics (PUS decreased the levels of NAA + NAAG but only in LPS animals) and modulated specific genes that could account for the restoration of cocaine intake such as the pentraxin family. On its own, PUS reduced hippocampal volume and hyperactivated the dorsal subiculum, also having a profound effect on the dorsal striatal transcriptome. However, these effects were obliterated when PUS occurred in animals with MIA experience. Our results describe an unprecedented interplay between MIA and stress on neurodevelopment and the susceptibility to cocaine addiction.This work has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Project no.: PSI2016-80541-P to EA and AH-M); Ministry of Science (PID2019- 104523RB-I00 to A-HM and PID2019-111594RB-100 to EA), Spanish Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality (Network of Addictive Disorders - Project no.: RTA-RD16/ 020/0022 of the Institute of Health Carlos III and National Plan on Drugs, Project no.: 2016I073 to EA and 2017I042 to A H-M); The BBVA Foundation (Leonardo Grants) to AH-M; The European Union (Project no.: JUST- 2017- AG- DRUG-806996-JUSTSO) to EA; and the UNED (Plan for the Promotion of Research) to EA and AH-M. MLS-M was supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Instituto de Salud Carlos III (project PI17/01766), co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), ‘A way to make Europe’; project PID2021-128862OB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033/FEDER, UE, CIBER de Salud Mental - Instituto de Salud Carlos III (project number CB07/09/0031); Delegación del Gobierno para el Plan Nacional sobre Drogas (project number 2017/085, 2022/008917); and Fundación Alicia Koplowitz. Fundación Tatiana Pérez de Guzmán el Bueno supported MC-V. MD’s work was supported by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MCIN) and Instituto de Salud Carlos III (PT20/00044). The CNIC is supported by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MCIN) and the Pro CNIC Foundation and is a Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence (SEV-2015-0505).S

La Eneida en Thomas de Inglaterra

En el Tristán de Thomas se oyen a veces resonancias virgilianas y descubren esquemas e imágenes que evocan la Eneida, sin que sea fácil de establecer si se trata de imitación libre o de coincidencia fortuit

La Eneida en Thomas de Inglaterra

En el Tristán de Thomas se oyen a veces resonancias virgilianas y descubren esquemas e imágenes que evocan la Eneida, sin que sea fácil de establecer si se trata de imitación libre o de coincidencia fortuit

Substratos míticos en el "Cantar de Roldán"

Los resultados o conclusiones a los que se llega en el artículo Los sustratos míticas en el Cantar de Roldán pueden resumirse en cuatro puntos: 1. El poema rolandiano es una versión escrupulosamente articulada del mito universal del Eterno Retorno. 2. Plasma la organización social característica de los pueblos indoeuropeos, tal y como se manifiesta a través de sus literaturas. 3. El Cantar concibe el espacio según ciertas estructuras mentales e imaginarias, igualmente universales y profundamente enraizadas en el espíritu humano. 4. Desde un punto de vista psicoanalítico se puede encontrar en este primer cantar de gesto una serie de relaciones familiares que reflejan el trágico destino de Edipo

The long-term effects of adolescent Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol on brain structure and function assessed through neuroimaging techniques in male and female rats.

Several studies performed on human subjects have examined the effects of adolescent cannabis consumption on brain structure or function using brain imaging techniques. However, the evidence from these studies is usually heterogenous and affected by several confounding variables. Animal models of adolescent cannabinoid exposure may help to overcome these difficulties. In this exploratory study, we aim to increase our understanding of the protracted effects of adolescent Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in rats of both sexes using magnetic resonance (MR) to obtain volumetric data, assess grey and white matter microstructure with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and measure brain metabolites with 1H-MR spectroscopy (MRS); in addition, we studied brain function using positron emission tomography (PET) with 2-deoxy-2-[18F]fluoro-d-glucose as the tracer. THC-exposed rats exhibited volumetric and microstructural alterations in the striatum, globus pallidus, lateral ventricles, thalamus, and septal nuclei in a sex-specific manner. THC administration also reduced fractional anisotropy in several white matter tracts, prominently in rostral sections, while in vivo MRS identified lower levels of cortical choline compounds. THC-treated males had increased metabolism in the cerebellum and olfactory bulb and decreased metabolism in the cingulate cortex. By contrast, THC-treated females showed hypermetabolism in a cluster of voxels comprising the entorhinal piriform cortices and in the cingulate cortex. These results indicate that mild THC exposure during adolescence leaves a lingering mark on brain structure and function in a sex-dependant manner. Some of the changes found here resemble those observed in human studies and highlight the importance of studying sex-specific effects in cannabinoid research.This work has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Project n°: PSI2016–80,541-P to EA and A H-M); Ministry of Science (PID2019–104523RB-I00 to A-HM and PID2019–111594RB-100 to EA), Spanish Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality (Network of Addictive Disorders - Project n°: RTA-RD16/020/0022 of the Institute of Health Carlos III and National Plan on Drugs, Project n°: 2016I073 to EA and 2017I042, 2012I039 to A H-M); The BBVA Foundation (Leonardo Grants) to AH-M; The European Union (Project n°: JUST- 2017- AG- DRUG-806,996-JUSTSO) to EA; and the UNED (Plan for the Promotion of Research) to EA and AH-M. MLS was supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (PID2021-128862OB-100 funded/AEI /10.13039/501100011033/FEDER, UE), Instituto de Salud Carlos III (project PI17/01,766), co-financed by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), “A way of making Europe”, CIBERSAM, Delegación del Gobierno para el Plan Nacional sobre Drogas (2017/085 and 2022/008917) and Fundación Alicia Koplowitz. Fundación Tatiana Pérez de Guzmán el Bueno supported MCV. The CNIC was supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (MCIU) and the Pro-CNIC Foundation and is a Severo Ochoa center of Excellence. These funding agencies had no further role in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the paper for publication.S