Contornos en negativo: reescrituras posdictatoriales del siglo xix (Argentina, Chile y Uruguay)

This dissertation focuses on how contemporary Southern Cone fiction responds to the post-dictatorial symbolic crisis by articulating a new political praxis based upon the intertwining of historical and aesthetic discourses. It thus addresses the link between narrative, historiography and politics in recent Argentinian, Chilean and Uruguayan texts that have not received major critical attention, probably because they do not fit into contemporary critical categories. The analysis seeks to go beyond the hegemonic debates on post-dictatorship —mostly represented by scholars such us Idelber Avelar, Francine Masiello, Nelly Richard and Alberto Moreiras, among others— which seem trapped in a number of recurrent topics and concepts —mourning, memory, post-memory, horror, allegory— that erase their critical potential and obliterate other possibilities. Breaking with this pattern, my work explores a dimension that has often been overlooked: the contemporary representation of the nineteenth century. I test the hypothesis that, in contemporary Southern Cone literature, the fictional re-writing of the nineteenth century (the foundational moment of nation, narration and intellectuals in Latin America) attempts to outline new ethical models for the intellectual, to solve the representational crisis through a reformulation of realism and to frame a specific political role for literary practice. My perspective owes considerably to a number of thinkers within the Marxist tradition —especially Walter Benjamin, Gyorgy Lukács and Fredric Jameson— and intends to contribute to some of their major discussion topics, above all the relation between history and aesthetics and the dichotomy allegory/realism

Signal regulatory protein alpha initiates cachexia through muscle to adipose tissue crosstalk

BACKGROUND: Muscle wasting from chronic kidney disease (CKD) or from defective insulin signalling results in morbidity and, ultimately, mortality. We have identified an endogenous mediator of insulin resistance, signal regulatory protein alpha (SIRPα), which leads to cachexia in mice and is associated with cachexia in patients with CKD. METHODS: We assessed insulin signalling and mechanisms causing muscle atrophy plus white adipose tissue (WAT) metabolism in mouse models of CKD or acute diabetes (streptozotocin treatment). We then examined these factors in mice with global knockout (KO) of SIRPα and sought mediators of metabolic responses in muscle and adipose tissues of mice with either muscle-specific or adipose tissue-specific KO of SIRPα. Metabolic responses were confirmed in primary cultures of adipose cells. RESULTS: In mice with CKD, SIRPα expression was increased in WAT (three-fold, P \u3c 0.05), and this was associated with precursors of cachexia: \u27pathologic browning\u27, thermogenesis, and a two-fold activation of protein kinase A (P \u3c 0.05 vs. control mice) plus loss of adipose tissue mass. In contrast, mice with SIRPα global KO and CKD or acute diabetes experienced improved insulin signalling and activation of pAkt plus \u27physiologic browning\u27 of WAT. These mice avoided losses of muscle and adipose tissues and experienced a 31% improvement in survival (P \u3c 0.05) than did wild-type mice with CKD. In muscle-specific SIRPα KO mice with CKD, we uncovered that serum SIRPα levels (P \u3c 0.05) were suppressed and were associated with improved insulin signalling both in skeletal muscles and in WAT. These changes were accompanied by physiologic WAT browning. However, in adipose-specific SIRPα KO mice with CKD, levels of serum SIRPα were increased over two-fold (P \u3c 0.05), while muscle losses were minimally inhibited. Clinical implications of SIRPα signalling are suggested by our findings that include increased SIRPα expression in muscle and adipose tissues (P \u3c 0.05 vs. healthy controls) plus higher SIRPα levels in the serum of patients with CKD (2.4-fold, P=0.000017 vs. healthy controls). CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that SIRPα plays an important role as an anti-insulin mediator regulating pathways to cachexia. In muscle-specific SIRPα KO, changes in SIRPα serum levels seem to improve insulin signalling in muscle and WAT, suggesting crosstalk between muscle and adipose tissue. Therefore, targeting SIRPα may prevent cachexia in patients with CKD or acute diabetes

Iconic Fictions: Narrating Recent Argentine History in Post-2000 Second-Generation Films

Please note that this is an author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication following peer review. The publisher version is available at:http://dx.doi.org/10.1386/shci.8.2.175_1.This article examines a recent trend in Argentine post-dictatorial cinema that has not received sufficient critical attention: post-2000 fictional films by second-generation film-makers that go back to a child’s or a teenager’s perspective, and to an ‘archaic’ pre-1990s format. By focusing on a political thriller that I find paradigmatic of this recent trend, Gastón Biraben’s Cautiva/Captive (2005), I argue that these films (which I call ‘iconic fictions’) should not be read as additional examples of contemporary second-generation narratives. Instead, I propose that their formal exception attests to an intra-generational tension regarding the representation of recent history (in particular, regarding the representation of 1970s political activism). In these films, the use of fiction (and of a child’s or a teenager’s perspective) allows for a predominance of iconicity over indexicality – a predominance that entails crucial ideological connotations for contemporary Argentina and that demands a re-examination of the efficacy of representing history through a child’s or a teenager’s lens

Pseudoprogression after proton beam irradiation for a choroid plexus carcinoma in pediatric patient: MRI and PET imaging patterns

Purpose: Pseudoprogression is a rare complication of radiation therapy, and discrimination between true progression and pseudoprogression is of paramount importance for further medical care. We present a case of intra-axial pseudoprogression following complementary proton radiation therapy for a choroid plexus carcinoma in a child. We aim to highlight radiological patterns of pseudoprogression after proton beam therapy. Case report: A 6-year-old girl presented with choroid plexus carcinoma, manifesting as change in behavior, tremor, and balance disorder. Partial resection and chemotherapy were performed. Complementary localized proton beam therapy (54Gy) was administered on the residual tumor. Eight month follow-up MRI showed an abnormal, irregular, rim-like enhancement in the pons and both temporal lobes within the field of irradiation. These lesions had a low cerebral blood volume (CBV) on perfusion MR imaging and no restricted diffusion. However, the lesions were hypermetabolic on O-(2-[18F]fluoroethyl)-l-tyrosine (FET)-PET MRI. Follow-up MRI showed disappearance of these lesions confirming the perfusion MR diagnosis of pseudoprogression. Conclusion: Based on this case, radiological patterns of pseudoprogression after proton beam therapy may be a low CBV and no restricted diffusion. Lesions can be hypermetabolic on FET-PET imagin

The contribution of muscle, kidney and splanchnic tissues to leucine transamination in humans

The first steps of leucine utilization are reversible deamination to \u3b1-ketoisocaproic acid (\u3b1-KIC) and irreversible oxidation. Recently the regulatory role of leucine deamination over oxidation was underlined in rodents. Our aim was to measure leucine deamination and reamination in the whole-body, in respect to previously determined rates across organs, in humans. By leucine and KIC isotope kinetics, we determined whole-body leucine deamination and reamination, and we compared these rates to those already reported across the sampled organs. As an in vivo counterpart of the "metabolon" concept, we analysed ratios between oxidation to either deamination or reamination. Leucine deamination to KIC was greater than KIC reamination to leucine in the whole-body (p=0.005), muscle (p=0.005) and the splanchnic area (p=0.025).These rates were not significantly different in the kidneys. Muscle accounted for 4860% and 4878%, the splanchnic bed for 4815% and 4815%, and the kidney for 4812% and 4818%, of whole-body leucine deamination and reamination rates, respectively. In the kidney, percent leucine oxidation over either deamination or reamination was >3-fold greater than muscle and the splanchnic bed. Skeletal muscle contributes by the largest fraction of leucine deamination, reamination and oxidation. However, in relative terms, the kidney plays a key role in leucine oxidation

Scan without evidence of dopaminergic deficit: A 10-year retrospective study

123I-ioflupane SPECT is a powerful method to assess nigrostriatal dopamine system integrity. Several independent studies have shown that 1–15% of patients with suspected degenerative parkinsonism, mainly PD, have scans without evidence of dopaminergic deficit (SWEDD). It has been proposed that most SWEDD patients either present with a non-degenerative condition mimicking PD, such as atypical tremor or dystonia, or demonstrate an abnormal scan when repeated later. We here hypothesized that scan interpretation methods may also play a crucial yet underestimated role in this issue.Methods We previously established age-dependent reference values of striatal uptake by analyzing scans from a cohort of patients with non-degenerative conditions. We then studied a large population with well-established degenerative parkinsonism (N = 410, 80% with PD), using identical imaging protocol, to evaluate the prevalence of patients with normal scans based on routine visual assessment. Each scan was eventually reassessed using the same automated method as for controls and a detailed 3D analysis.Results Ten potential SWEDD cases (2.4%) were identified. However, both reassessment methods independently showed that these scans were all outside reference limits and/or visually abnormal when reexamined carefully, except for one case (0.2%) with corticobasal syndrome.Conclusion SPECT misinterpretation emerges as an important contributor to the SWEDD population, suggesting that suspected SWEDD cases should prompt not only a serious diagnosis challenge but, equally important, a detailed scan reassessment. True SWEDD cases seem extremely rare in degenerative parkinsonism. We propose that the very concept of SWEDD is more confusing than helpful and should be definitely abandoned

Feeling of presence in dementia with Lewy bodies is related to reduced left frontoparietal metabolism.

Funder: University of CambridgeFeeling of presence (FOP) refers to the vivid sensation of a person's presence near oneself and is common in Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB). Based on previous observations on epileptic subjects, we hypothesized that DLB subjects with FOP would harbour 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose PET hypometabolism in left parietal areas. 25 subjects (mean age 71.9 ± 6.7, disease duration at scan 1.7 ± 1.5 years) were included in the study, of whom nine (36%) experienced FOP. No significant between-group difference was observed regarding dopamine transporters striatal uptake (p = 0.64), daily dopaminergic treatment dosage (p = 0.88) and visual hallucinations (p = 0.83). Statistical parametric mapping showed that subjects with FOP had a significantly reduced glucose metabolism in several left frontoparietal areas (p < 0.001), including superior parietal lobule and precuneus. Interregional correlation analysis of these areas showed specific connectivity with right insula and putamen in the FOP subgroup and right orbitofrontal and superior frontal in subjects without FOP. This provides further evidence about the role of a left frontoparietal network and suggest a possible contribution of impaired orbitofrontal reality filtering associated with FOP