Industria del miedo: estética y política de seguridad democrática en la sociedad de consumidores

This paper takes into account the commercialization of human fears in the current phase of Capitalism. By fear industry we understand not only the social production of risk and doubt, but also the commercial and political profit generated from the existential doubt of the individuals. To elaborate this postulate, a diRerentiation between the producer society and the consumer society is proposed as a hermeneutical frame, which allows grasping the singularity of the current individualizing dynamics. Along with this diRerentiation, the conversion –metamorphosis- of the Social State into the Personal Security State is shown, i.e., the dismantling of the collective safeties and the birth of the privatization of security. Given that the State assigns the responsibility of taking care of themselves to the individuals, the market finds an unexplored mine to work. There are a huge variety of products which promise to eradicate the fears and doubts of the individuals. The most popular and successful solutions to temporary ease the fear and doubts are divided into two groups: on one hand, the solutions oRered by the stores and the private insurances oRered by the commercial and financial entities; on the other hand, the discourses and practices of Democratic and Civic Security. Both groups of solutions aim to ease the symptoms of fear, but never aim to eradicate the sources. As a proof of the political and commercial profitability of fear, this paper oRers some views on the way the real estate industry designs and advertises urban spaces according to an aesthetic of security in the city. Our analysis is based on the researches done on contemporary cultural phenomena and dynamics by Zygmunt Bauman, Ulrich Beck, Anthony Giddens and Robert Castel, among othersEste escrito toma en consideración la comercialización de los miedos humanos en la actual fase del capitalismo. Por industria del miedo se entiende no sólo la producción social del riesgo y la incertidumbre, sino también el aprovechamiento y la rentabilidad comercial y política que el mercado hace de la inseguridad existencial de los individuos. Para situar este postulado se propone como marco hermenéutico la diferenciación entre sociedad de productores y sociedad de consumidores, la cual permite captar la singularidad de las actuales dinámicas individualizadoras. Apuntalado en esta diferenciación se muestra la conversión –la metamorfosis- del Estado social al Estado de la seguridad personal o, lo que es igual, el desmantelamiento de los seguros colectivos y el nacimiento de la privatización de la seguridad. Dado que el Estado endosa a los individuos la tarea de velar por su seguridad, el mercado de bienes de consumo encuentra aquí una tierra virgen para explorar y explotar. Existe una variedad de productos que prometen erradicar los miedos y la inseguridad de los individuos.  Los remedios más populares  y exitosos para calmar temporalmente el miedo y la inseguridad se dividen en dos clases: de un lado, las soluciones que ofrecen tanto las tiendas de consumo como los seguros privados de las entidades comerciales y financieras; de otro lado, los discursos y las prácticas de la seguridad democrática y la seguridad ciudadana. Ambos tipos de remedios apuntan a calmar los síntomas del miedo, pero poco interés manifiesta en    la erradicación de sus raíces. Como prueba de la rentabilidad política y comercial de miedo se sugieren algunas reflexiones sobre la manera como la industria inmobiliaria diseña y publicita los espacios urbanos en función de una estética de la seguridad en la ciudad. El apoyo conceptual para este análisis proviene de los estudios que sobre los fenómenos y las dinámicas culturales contemporáneas han realizado Zygmunt Bauman, Ulrich Beck, Anthony Giddens y Robert Castel, entre otros

El endeudamiento de las Comunidades Autónomas: Límites y problemas en el contexto de la crisis económica

La persistència de la crisi econòmica a Espanya ha col•locat el dèficit i l’endeutament de les administracions públiques en un lloc central del debat polític i econòmic. En un escenari tan descentralitzat com l’espanyol, tot i reconeixent el protagonisme del deute estatal, una part del creixement del dèficit i de l’endeutament s’explica per les dificultats de les Comunitats autònomes per finançar els serveis que en depenen. L’article descriu les característiques dels desequilibris dels comptes públics de les comunitats en el context de l’Estat espanyol, així com les limitacions normatives en el finançament de les despeses amb deute. Per altra banda, s’ofereixen algunes explicacions d’aquests desequilibris, en bona part, vinculades a la mateixa crisi, tot i que, en opinió dels autors, hi ha altres factors que cal tenir en compte per explicar els desajustos: el pes de les despeses en serveis de benestar bàsics i de forta demanda (sanitat o educació), les polítiques expansives destinades a combatre la crisi en l’etapa inicial, l’existència d’abundants ingressos, considerats com a extraordinaris pels gestors públics (tributs associats al boom immobiliari) i el seu enfonsament amb la crisi, l’endeutament creixent a través d’empreses públiques, i, entre altres causes, l’absència de mecanismes efectius d’exigència de responsabilitats destinats a evitar els excessos de despesa produïts en algunes comunitats.La persistencia de la crisis económica en España ha colocado al déficit y al endeudamiento de las administraciones públicas en un lugar central del debate político y económico. En un escenario tan descentralizado como el español, aún reconociendo el protagonismo de la deuda estatal, una parte del crecimiento del déficit y del endeudamiento se explica por las dificultades de las Comunidades autónomas para financiar los servicios que de ellas dependen. El artículo describe las características de los desequilibrios de las cuentas públicas de las Comunidades en el contexto del Estado español, así como las limitaciones normativas a la financiación de los gastos con deuda. Por otra parte, se ofrecen algunas explicaciones de tales desequilibrios, en buena parte vinculadas a la propia crisis, aunque en opinión de los autores, otros factores deben ser tenidos en cuenta para explicar los desajustes: el peso de los gastos en servicios de bienestar básicos y con fuerte demanda (sanidad o educación), las políticas expansivas destinadas a combatir la crisis en su etapa inicial, la existencia de abundantes ingresos, considerados como extraordinarios por los gestores públicos (tributos asociados al boom inmobiliario) y su hundimiento con la crisis, el creciente endeudamiento a través de empresas públicas, y, entre otras causas, la ausencia de mecanismos efectivos de exigencia de responsabilidades destinados a evitar los excesos de gasto producidos en algunas comunidades.In Spain, as a consequence of the persistence of the economic crisis, the deficit and debt of the public administrations have become a main issue on the current economic and political debates In the case of a highly decentralized scenario, such it is the Spanish one, even if we recognize the principal role of Central Government´s debt, a large part of the increased Autonomous Communities’ deficit and indebtedness is explained by the difficulties they have to face in financing services they have to cover. The paper describes the main characteristics of public accounts’ disequilibria in Spain and the regulatory limits established to make use of public debt. Also, the article offers different explanations of those disequilibria, putting the emphasis on those linked to the crisis: i.e. the increasing weight of basic welfare services covered by the Autonomous Communities (such as public health and as education); as the expansive policies implemented to fight the initial effects of the crisis; as the existence of previous and large “extraordinary” resources coming from the housing sector and its consequent collapse; as growth of the debt of the autonomous-community quangos and as the lack of effective accountability mechanisms addressed to control the expenditures of the autonomous communities

Transparent nanocellular PMMA: Characterization and modeling of the optical properties

In this work, the optical properties of transparent nanocellular polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) have been studied, experimental and theoretically. Transmittance measurements of samples presenting different cell sizes (14, 24, 39 and 225 nm) and a constant relative density of around 0.45 have been carried out obtaining values as high as 0.94 for the sample with the smaller cell size and a thickness of 0.05 mm. In addition, the light absorption coefficient has been measured as a function of cell size and wavelength. It has been found that the transmittance has a strong dependence with the wavelength, presenting these transparent materials Rayleigh scattering. On the other hand, the transmission of visible light through these nanocellular materials has been modelled for the first time. The developed model reproduces with good accuracy the trends observed in the experimental results and provides remarkable insights into the physics mechanisms controlling the optical behavior of these materials

The cyclycal trend of local public service governance: evidence from urban water management in Spain

The level of public and private involvement in economic activity in societies has changed over time. One may talk about the existence of a cyclical trend in which the most important periods of public governance are replaced by periods in which private management dominates the situation. This phenomenon may also be observed in local areas. Some authors have pointed out the existence of an alternation in the provision of municipal services, resulting in periods dominated by governance compared to other stages dominated by private management. In order to illustrate this cyclical trend at local level, this paper intends to analyze the evolution of the governance of the Spanish water supply since the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. Recent evidence from the industry suggests the possibility that we may currently be witnessing a further change in the trend

State of the Art, Trends and Future of Bluetooth Low Energy, Near Field Communication and Visible Light Communication in the Development of Smart Cities

The current social impact of new technologies has produced major changes in all areas of society, creating the concept of a smart city supported by an electronic infrastructure, telecommunications and information technology. This paper presents a review of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), Near Field Communication (NFC) and Visible Light Communication (VLC) and their use and influence within different areas of the development of the smart city. The document also presents a review of Big Data Solutions for the management of information and the extraction of knowledge in an environment where things are connected by an “Internet of Things” (IoT) network. Lastly, we present how these technologies can be combined together to benefit the development of the smart city

The role of DGK1 and DGK2 in Membrane Contact Sites and Stress Tolerance

All eukaryotic cells present regions where the membranes of two different organelles are very close (10-30 nm) without fusion, mediated by tether proteins. These regions are known as Membrane Contact Sites (MCS). Contact sites between the endoplasmic reticulum and plasma membrane (ER-PM CS) play important roles in communication, lipid and Ca2+ homeostasis. Upon stress perception, phospholipase C (PLC) is activated at the plasma membrane producing diacylglycerol (DAG) and inositol phosphates from the hydrolysis of PIP(4,5)P2 or PI4P. DAG has an amphipathic structure with a hydrophobic region and a small polar head. In normal conditions DAG has a low concentration, 1% of total polar lipids (Gaude et al., 2007). Accumulation of DAG produces a negative curvature stress due to its small polar head that destabilizes the PM (Campomanes et al., 2019; Putta et al., 2016). Thus, DAG concentration must be finely controlled. DAG is phosphorylated by diacylglycerol kinases (DGKs) producing phosphatidic acid (PA). Both, DAG and PA, are important molecules involved in signalling (Arisz et al., 2009). The Arabidopsis thaliana genome contains seven genes encoding DGKs. While most of them are cytosolic (DGK3-DGK7), DGK1 and DGK2 possess a transmembrane domain that anchor them to the ER. Using different approaches we show that DGK1 (AT5G07920) and DGK2 (AT5G63770) form a complex with Synaptotagmin1 (SYT1, At2g20990), a protein tether located at ER-PM CS (Pérez-Sancho et al., 2015). SYT1 is able to bind preferentially DAG (Ruiz-Lopez et al., 2021), which support the idea of being working together with DGK1 and DGK2. DGK1 and DGK2 transcripts increase after cold treatment and a dgk2 mutant shows reduced root growth under low temperature and a low freezing tolerance. Our studies suggest that DGK1 and DGK2 act in concert with SYT1 to regulate the production of PA at ER-PM CS and highlight the importance of these proteins in stress tolerance.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Effects of Molecular Representation in Predicting the Biological Activity using SVM and PLS Approaches

In this work we study and analyze the behavior of different representational spaces for molecular activity prediction. Representational spaces based on fingerprint similarity, structural similarity using maximum common subgraphs (MCS) and all maximum common subgraphs (AMCS) approaches are compared against representational spaces based on structural fragments and non-isomorphic fragments (NIF), built using different molecular descriptors. Support vector machine is used to study the influence of molecular representation in the dataset classification and PLS regression is proposed to construct a QSAR model for the molecular activity predictio

Modular droplet injector for sample conservation providing new structural insight for the conformational heterogeneity in the disease-associated NQO1 enzyme

Droplet injection strategies are a promising tool to reduce the large amount of sample consumed in serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) measurements at X-ray free electron lasers (XFELs) with continuous injection approaches. Here, we demonstrate a new modular microfluidic droplet injector (MDI) design that was successfully applied to deliver microcrystals of the human NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1) and phycocyanin. We investigated droplet generation conditions through electrical stimulation for both protein samples and implemented hardware and software components for optimized crystal injection at the Macromolecular Femtosecond Crystallography (MFX) instrument at the Stanford Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS). Under optimized droplet injection conditions, we demonstrate that up to 4-fold sample consumption savings can be achieved with the droplet injector. In addition, we collected a full data set with droplet injection for NQO1 protein crystals with a resolution up to 2.7 Å, leading to the first room- temperature structure of NQO1 at an XFEL. NQO1 is a flavoenzyme associated with cancer, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, making it an attractive target for drug discovery. Our results reveal for the first time that residues Tyr128 and Phe232, which play key roles in the function of the protein, show an unexpected conformational heterogeneity at room temperature within the crystals. These results suggest that different substates exist in the conformational ensemble of NQO1 with functional and mechanistic implications for the enzyme's negative cooperativity through a conformational selection mechanism. Our study thus demonstrates that microfluidic droplet injection constitutes a robust sample-conserving injection method for SFX studies on protein crystals that are difficult to obtain in amounts necessary for continuous injection, including the large sample quantities required for time-resolved mix-and-inject studies.STC Program of the National Science Foundation through BioXFEL (under agreement # 1231306)ABI Innovations award (NSF # 1565180), IIBR award (# 1943448)MCB award (1817862)National Institutes of Health award # R01GM095583US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under contract # DE-AC02- 76SF00515Center for Structural Dynamics in Biology, NIH grant P41GM13968“Ayuda de Atracción y Retención de Talento Investigador” from the Community of Madrid, Spain (REF: 2019-T1/BMD-15552)ERDF/Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities—State Research Agency (grant RTI2018-096246-B- I00), Consejería de Economía, Conocimiento, Empresas, y Universidad, Junta de Andalucía (grant P18-RT-2413),ERDF/Counseling of Economic transformation, Industry, Knowledge, and Universities (grant B-BIO-84-UGR20

Early Diagnosis of Oral Cancer: A Complex Polyhedral Problem with a Difficult Solution

Oral and oropharyngeal cancers are a growing problem, accounting for 377,713 and 98,412 new cases per year all over the world and 177,757 and 48,143 deaths annually, respectively. Despite the substantial improvement in diagnostic procedures and treatment techniques in recent years, the mortality rate has not decreased substantially in the last 40 years, which is still close to 50% of cases. The major cause responsible for this high mortality is associated with the high percentage of oral cancers diagnosed in advanced stages (stages III and IV) where the treatment harbors poor efficacy, resulting in challenges, mutilations, or disability. The main reason for cancer to be diagnosed at an advanced stage is a diagnostic delay, so it is critical to reduce this delay in order to improve the prognosis of patients suffering from oral cancer. The causes of oral cancer diagnostic delay are complex and concern patients, healthcare professionals, and healthcare services. In this manuscript, oral cancer diagnostic delay is critically reviewed based on current evidence, as well as their major causes, main problems, and potential improvement strategiesResearch group CTS-392 (Plan Andaluz de Investigación, Junta de Andalucía, Spain

Hijos de Occidente: El movimiento estudiantil español como producto de los internacionales cambios políticos, económicos y culturales (1963-1983).

La evolución del movimiento estudiantil en España ha sido vista, de manera tradicional, comoun proceso alternativo al del resto de Occidente, debido a las peculiaridades políticas del Estadoy a la tardía llegada de la democracia. El ciclo de protestas fue asociado a la génesis de unacultura contestataria que golpeó de forma contundente, a partir de mediados de los añoscincuenta, al rígido Estado de Franco. Estos hijos de una España que empezaba abrirse almundo fueron capaces de construir los cimientos de la futura política democrática. El horizontede libertades se recorrió mediante la forja de un poso organizativo y práctico.<br /