Análisis de la incidencia de la Reforma al Sector de Seguridad en el proceso de Desarme, Desmovilización y Reintegración en la República Democrática del Congo (2003 - 2009)

El continente africano ha sido por excelencia analizado por los estudios de seguridad, con el fin de comprender la naturaleza de los conflictos que han tenido lugar en el territorio y poder ofrecer a través de diversas estrategias, posibles soluciones para el no retorno al conflicto por parte de los grupos armados. Por esta razón, a partir de la década de los noventa surge la puesta en marcha de programas y reformas como la Desmovilización, el Desarme y la Reintegración (DDR) dentro de una Reforma al Sector de la Seguridad (RSS). En el caso de la República Democrática del Congo, luego de numerosos conflictos e intervenciones por parte de diferentes actores, se plantea llevar a cabo un programa de DDR en el marco de una RSS especialmente dirigido a las Fuerzas Armadas. En este sentido, esta monografía analiza la incidencia de la RSS sobre el programa de DDR, con el fin de vislumbrar los retos que se presentan dentro de un contexto de conflicto complejo como el de la RDC.The African continent has been analyzed by security studies in order to understand the nature of the conflicts that have taken place in this territory and also to avoid to returning to a state of violent conflict by means of providing a variety of possible solutions. For these reasons, in the nineties, it started the implementation of programs and reforms such as the Demobilization, Disarmament and Reintegration (DDR) program within a Security Sector Reform (SSR). Particularly, for the Democratic Republic of Congo, after several violent conflicts and the interventions made by different actors, a DDR program was implemented as part of a SSR specifically addressed to the Armed Forces. Therefore, this investigation examines the impact of SSR on the DDR program in order to glimpse the challenges that it presented within a complex context of conflict such as DRC’s

Box 2. The EU economies’ natural gas inventories in 2022 and 2023 under two hypothetical scenarios

Artículo de revistaThis early-release box was published on 16 Septembe

Recuadro 2. Evolución de los inventarios de gas natural en 2022 y 2023 en las economías de la Unión Europea bajo dos escenarios hipotéticos

Artículo de revistaEste recuadro fue publicado anticipadamente el 16 de septiembr

Consejos de participación infantil y adolescente: posibilidades y opacidades en términos de subjetividad política y promoción de una cultura de paz

Maestría en Educación y Desarrollo Humano, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales y Humanas.Sin mayores esfuerzos es fácil percibir que el mundo contemporáneo se mueve entre dos corrientes que se enfrentan de manera permanente; de un lado están quienes apuestan por la dignidad humana y, en consecuencia, reconocen la necesidad de establecer y fortalecer relaciones orientadas a la equidad, la justicia, la responsabilidad, la solidaridad, la participacióny el respeto por la diversidad, y en contraste a ello están quienes crean y/o justificanestructuras relacionales “que provocan desigualdades tremendas, negociaciones mercantiles injustas, que imponen a través de los medios masivos de comunicación un solo modelo de sociedad de consumo y en las que los ideales del respeto y la equidad se ven coartadas” (Van Dijk, 2007: 44), siendo precisamente los niños, niñas y adolescentes quienes más afectados resultan de dicho enfrentamiento porque no sólo lo padecen sino que éste seconstituye en el contexto de interacción cotidiana donde aprenden a relacionarse y a habitar el mundo con otros y otras

Promoción de parentalidad positiva en Polígono Sur. Diseño de un programa para familias en situación de riesgo psicosocial

Las recomendaciones nacionales e internacionales en materia de promoción de parentalidad positiva reconocen la necesidad de apoyar a las familias para un ejercicio adecuado de sus funciones educativas, particularmente a aquellas que se encuentran situaciones de riesgo psicosocial. Estas recomendaciones sitúan a los servicios municipales como las instituciones idóneas para garantizar dicho apoyo. En este trabajo se presenta el Programa de Promoción de Parentalidad Positiva en Polígono Sur (5P’s), una iniciativa de carácter psicoeducativo y comunitario que surge, fundamentalmente, por la necesidad de disponer de materiales y recursos específicos para familias que, por su situación de particular vulnerabilidad, por sus propios valores culturales, así como por las particularidades del barrio en el que habitan (una zona de necesidad de transformación social), no se beneficiarían de otros programas ya existentes. A lo largo de este trabajo se describen los contenidos del programa, su estructura y el diseño de evaluación previsto y se discuten sus fortalezas y retos futuros.Both national and international recommendations on positive parenting recognize the need for supporting families in their childrearing tasks, particularly in psychosocial-risk situations. These recommendations highlight local services as the best source to support families. In this paper, the Program for Promoting Positive Parenting in Polígono Sur (5P’s) is described. 5P’s is a psycho-educational and community initiative starting from the need for specific materials for vulnerable families because of: (1) their psychosocial profile, (2) their cultural values; (3) living in a neighborhood with at-risk conditions. The contents, the format and the evaluation design of the program are introduced. Strengths and future challenges are discussed

A novel biocompatible polymer derived from D-mannitol used as a vector in the field of genetic engineering of eukaryotic cells

The design and preparation of new vectors to transport genetic material and increase the transfection efficiency continue being an important research line. Here, a novel biocompatible sugar-based polymer derived from D-mannitol has been synthesized to be used as a gene material nanocarrier in human (gene transfection) and microalga cells (transformation process). Its low toxicity allows its use in processes with both medical and industrial applications. A multidisciplinary study about the formation of polymer/p-DNA polyplexes has been carried out using techniques such as gel electrophoresis, zeta potential, dynamic light scattering, atomic force microscopy, and circular dichroism spectroscopy. The nucleic acids used were the eukaryotic expression plasmid pEGFP-C1 and the microalgal expression plasmid Phyco69, which showed different behaviors. The importance of DNA supercoiling in both transfection and transformation processes was demonstrated. Better results were obtained in microalga cells nuclear transformation than in human cells gene transfection. This was related to the plasmid's conformational changes, in particular to their superhelical structure. It is noteworthy that the same nanocarrier has been used with eukaryotic cells from both human and microalga.This work was supported by the Consejería de Conocimiento, Innovación y Universidades de la Junta de Andalucía (FQM-206, FQM-274, FQM-135 and P20–01234); VI Plan Propio Universidad de Sevilla (PP2019/00000748), and the European Union (Feder Funds).Peer reviewe

Combined Immune Defect in B-Cell Lymphoproliferative Disorders Is Associated with Severe Infection and Cancer Progression

This research received no external funding. K.G.-H is supported by The European Social Fund (ESF) through a Río Ortega Grant for Health Research Projects by the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII) (CM20/00098).B cell chronic lymphoproliferative diseases (B-CLPD) are associated with secondary antibody deficiency and other innate and adaptive immune defects, whose impact on infectious risk has not been systematically addressed. We performed an immunological analysis of a cohort of 83 B-CLPD patients with recurrent and/or severe infections to ascertain the clinical relevance of the immune deficiency expression. B-cell defects were present in all patients. Patients with combined immune defect had a 3.69-fold higher risk for severe infection (p = 0.001) than those with predominantly antibody defect. Interestingly, by Kaplan–Meier analysis, combined immune defect showed an earlier progression of cancer with a hazard ratio of 3.21, than predominantly antibody defect (p = 0.005). When B-CLPD were classified in low-degree, high-degree, and plasma cell dyscrasias, risk of severe disease and cancer progression significantly diverged in combined immune defect, compared with predominantly antibody defect (p = 0.001). Remarkably, an underlying primary immunodeficiency (PID) was suspected in 12 patients (14%), due to prior history of infections, autoimmune and granulomatous conditions, atypical or variegated course and compatible biological data. This first proposed SID classification might have relevant clinical implications, in terms of predicting severe infections and cancer progression, and might be applied to different B-CLPD entities.Depto. de Inmunología, Oftalmología y ORLFac. de MedicinaTRUEpu

Genetic landscape of 6089 inherited retinal dystrophies affected cases in Spain and their therapeutic and extended epidemiological implications

ESRETNET Study Group, The ERDC Study Group, The Associated Clinical Study Group.Inherited retinal diseases (IRDs), defined by dysfunction or progressive loss of photoreceptors, are disorders characterized by elevated heterogeneity, both at the clinical and genetic levels. Our main goal was to address the genetic landscape of IRD in the largest cohort of Spanish patients reported to date. A retrospective hospital-based cross-sectional study was carried out on 6089 IRD affected individuals (from 4403 unrelated families), referred for genetic testing from all the Spanish autonomous communities. Clinical, demographic and familiar data were collected from each patient, including family pedigree, age of appearance of visual symptoms, presence of any systemic findings and geographical origin. Genetic studies were performed to the 3951 families with available DNA using different molecular techniques. Overall, 53.2% (2100/3951) of the studied families were genetically characterized, and 1549 different likely causative variants in 142 genes were identified. The most common phenotype encountered is retinitis pigmentosa (RP) (55.6% of families, 2447/4403). The most recurrently mutated genes were PRPH2, ABCA4 and RS1 in autosomal dominant (AD), autosomal recessive (AR) and X-linked (XL) NON-RP cases, respectively; RHO, USH2A and RPGR in AD, AR and XL for non-syndromic RP; and USH2A and MYO7A in syndromic IRD. Pathogenic variants c.3386G > T (p.Arg1129Leu) in ABCA4 and c.2276G > T (p.Cys759Phe) in USH2A were the most frequent variants identified. Our study provides the general landscape for IRD in Spain, reporting the largest cohort ever presented. Our results have important implications for genetic diagnosis, counselling and new therapeutic strategies to both the Spanish population and other related populations.This work was supported by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) of the Spanish Ministry of Health (FIS; PI16/00425 and PI19/00321), Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Enfermedades Raras (CIBERER, 06/07/0036), IIS-FJD BioBank (PT13/0010/0012), Comunidad de Madrid (CAM, RAREGenomics Project, B2017/BMD-3721), European Regional Development Fund (FEDER), the Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles (ONCE), Fundación Ramón Areces, Fundación Conchita Rábago and the University Chair UAM-IIS-FJD of Genomic Medicine. Irene Perea-Romero is supported by a PhD fellowship from the predoctoral Program from ISCIII (FI17/00192). Ionut F. Iancu is supported by a grant from the Comunidad de Madrid (CAM, PEJ-2017-AI/BMD7256). Marta del Pozo-Valero is supported by a PhD grant from the Fundación Conchita Rábago. Berta Almoguera is supported by a Juan Rodes program from ISCIII (JR17/00020). Pablo Minguez is supported by a Miguel Servet program from ISCIII (CP16/00116). Marta Corton is supported by a Miguel Servet program from ISCIII (CPII17/00006)