Gitanas without a tambourine: Notes on the historical representation and personal self-representation of the Spanish Romani woman.

The performative representation of the Spanish Roma woman reveals a historical journey that brings her closer to many symbolic elaborations of the feminine, giving her a special affinity with the imaginary concerning the colonized woman, particularly with the Orientalist vision. Developed initially by the travelling intellectuals in Spain who sought a fusion of the topics of sexualized exoticism, the myth was reworked by local artists and thinkers without undermining their power to silence and make invisible the reality of the most vulnerable and most represented members of the ethnic group, their women. Today, a growing awareness of the importance of collective action directs Roma women to initiatives such as the revision of their historical memory, at the intersection between the external gaze and self-perception. These searches lead to the pioneering creation of community museum institutions, which have arisen around feminine Roma associations and are a symptom of an emerging desire to be heard. Based on the terminological tools shared by women and memory studies, this article seeks the personal dimension of this invitation to listen. The authors analyse a series of interviews with Roma women that investigate the social agents of representation, self-representation and their conceptual and experiential foundations

Las rosas de mañana : configuración del modelo femenino en la ilustración infantil e historieta españolas del siglo XX

El trabajo se propone dilucidar los mecanismos de codificación de la imagen femenina, dirigida a las niñas, durante una larga etapa del desarrollo de la ilustración y del cómic de mujeres. Se investigan primero los modos con los que el poder oficial predetermina el mensaje visual, a lo largo de un periodo que abarca desde las primeras décadas del siglo XX, hasta la plena consolidación de la modernidad en sus últimos decenios. También se analizan imágenes, creadas por tres ilustradoras representativas. Por fin, me centro en la manera en que las niñas de la época recibían, percibían e interpretaban estas imágenes.This work aims to elucidate the mechanisms of the female image coding, directed towards girls, during a long period of development of the illustration and female comic book. First, I investigate the ways in which official power predetermines the visual message, over a period stretching from the early twentieth century to the full consolidation of modernity in its last decades. I analyze too images, created by three emblematic women illustrators. Finally, I focus on how the coeval girls received, perceived and interpreted these images

Bajo la pluma de Damocles. El binomio conceptual ?formalismo y decadencia? en la estética y crítica soviéticas

The artists of the revolutionary avant-garde are among the first victims of Stalinist repressions. These persecutions are legitimized by an aesthetic theory, whose origins and development are as paradoxical as little investigated. Coming from a nineteenth-century vision of the role of art, for decades the Soviet criticism adapts to the changing situation of power, outlawing creators of all kinds of trends. The article reviews the key contributions of Marxist art theory and art criticism since the early twentieth century until the early eighties, inseparable from the paradigms of Soviet art history, focusing on the work of Anatoli Lunacharsky, Vladimir Kemenov, Grigory Sternin and Vladislav Zimenko. Their writings are analysed in relation to significant cultural events and contrasted with present ideas of Russian scholars, about the antagonism between the official aesthetic model and pursued alternatives. An element of particular interest is the role of the academic institution, as a producer of aesthetic and historiographical concepts, designed to justify or to mitigate the repressive discourse

Defining reference genes in Oryza sativa using organ, development, biotic and abiotic transcriptome datasets

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Reference genes are widely used to normalise transcript abundance data determined by quantitative RT-PCR and microarrays. However, the approaches taken to define reference genes can be variable. Although <it>Oryza sativa </it>(rice) is a widely used model plant and important crop specie, there has been no comprehensive analysis carried out to define superior reference genes.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Analysis of 136 Affymetrix transcriptome datasets comprising of 373 genome microarrays from studies in rice that encompass tissue, developmental, abiotic, biotic and hormonal transcriptome datasets identified 151 genes whose expression was considered relatively stable under all conditions. A sub-set of 12 of these genes were validated by quantitative RT-PCR and were seen to be stable under a number of conditions. All except one gene that has been previously proposed as a stably expressed gene for rice, were observed to change significantly under some treatment.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>A new set of reference genes that are stable across tissue, development, stress and hormonal treatments have been identified in rice. This provides a superior set of reference genes for future studies in rice. It confirms the approach of mining large scale datasets as a robust method to define reference genes, but cautions against using gene orthology or counterparts of reference genes in other plant species as a means of defining reference genes.</p

Mitochondrial and chloroplast stress responses are modulated in distinct touch and chemical inhibition phases

Previous studies have identified a range of transcription factors that modulate retrograde regulation of mitochondrial and chloroplast functions in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). However, the relative importance of these regulators and whether they act downstream of separate or overlapping signaling cascades is still unclear. Here, we demonstrate that multiple stress-related signaling pathways, with distinct kinetic signatures, converge on overlapping gene sets involved in energy organelle function. The transcription factor ANAC017 is almost solely responsible for transcript induction of marker genes around 3 to 6 h after chemical inhibition of organelle function and is a key regulator of mitochondrial and specific types of chloroplast retrograde signaling. However, an independent and highly transient gene expression phase, initiated within 10 to 30 min after treatment, also targets energy organelle functions, and is related to touch and wounding responses. Metabolite analysis demonstrates that this early response is concurrent with rapid changes in tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates and large changes in transcript abundance of genes encoding mitochondrial dicarboxylate carrier proteins. It was further demonstrated that transcription factors AtWRKY15 and AtWRKY40 have repressive regulatory roles in this touch-responsive gene expression. Together, our results show that several regulatory systems can independently affect energy organelle function in response to stress, providing different means to exert operational control

Du côté de chez la nomade. La femme gitane : mythe, photographie et auto(re)présentation

L'article reflet une longue recherche sur la représentation sociale des gi tanas (o romi espagnoles). L'un de nos outils d'analyse est la photographie dans le cadre de ses relations avec le régime de la politique visuelle préétablie. Dans ce cas, nous enquêtons sur la manière de construire l'image de l'Altérité faite par des artistes français qui ont visité l'Espagne plus ou moins impliqués dans le paradigme exotique. Plus tard, quelques tendances plastiques plus expérimentales ont essayé d'autres types de regard, non sans des difficultés. Le deuxième paramètre que nous avons utilisé était la réponse auto-représentative des femmes gitanes contemporaines. Nous avons développé et mené une série d'entretiens avec des représentantes de diverses organisations romani en Espagne (Valence)

Conflictos y desarrollos del imaginario colectivo: el paisaje de la Albufera y el Saler

La Dehesa del Saler forma parte de la Albufera, el espacio más problemático y al mismo tiempo, el más emblemático del patrimonio paisajístico valenciano. Su análisis no podría estar separado de una construcción histórica polifónica, tejida por un lado por los múltiples discursos que forman la historia del espacio real, humano y paisajístico y, a la vez, por aquellas voces que configuran un imaginario cultural con fuertes valores identitarios.The Dehesa of the Saler forms a part of the Albufera lagoon, the most problematic, and in the same time, the most emblematic space of the Valencian landscape heritage. Its analysis might not be separated from a historical polyphonic construction, woven by the multiple speeches that form the history of the real, human and landscape space and, simultaneously, by those voices that configure the cultural imaginary with strong identity values

EVALUATION OF HBV DNA LEVELS IN SALIVA IN SUBJECTS WITH DIFFERENT VIREMIA AS WELL AS DURING PEGINTERFERON α-2a THERAPY.

Hepatitis B virus is the most important infectious hazard in dental profession. Vectors of HBV infection are not only blood, but also saliva, nasopharyngeal secretions, crevicular fluid.The aim of the study was to evaluate serum and salivary HBV DNA levels in subjects with chronic infection and dynamics of HBV levels during the first 3 months of peginterferon α-2a therapy to be determined. Nineteen parallel samples were tested for HBV DNA by real-time PCR assay. All nineteen sera were positive for HBV DNA with levels ranging from 494 to 6 300 000 000 cp/ml. HBV DNA was detected in all saliva samples even in patients with very low viremia. HBV DNA levels in serum and saliva were quite similar in cases with serum HBV DNA < 10 000 cp/ml. Patients with viremia higher than 10 000 cp/ml had significantly lower HBV DNA levels in saliva.The presence of HBV DNA in saliva might not be only due to transudation or exudation of fluid containing virus from the general circulation into various body fluids. These facts clearly demonstrate the role of saliva in routes of HBV transmission. Our results confirm the possibility of dentist’s particiation in infection transmission and suggests that salivary analysis holds promise as a non-invasive approach to identify biomarkers for diseases

EXPLORE B : A prospective, long-term natural history study of patients with acute hepatic porphyria with chronic symptoms

One-year data from EXPLORE Part A showed high disease burden and impaired quality of life (QOL) in patients with acute hepatic porphyria (AHP) with recurrent attacks. We report baseline data of patients who enrolled in EXPLORE Part B for up to an additional 3 years of follow-up. EXPLORE B is a long-term, prospective study evaluating disease activity, pain intensity, and QOL in patients with AHP with >= 1 attack in the 12 months before enrollment or receiving hemin or gonadotropin-releasing hormone prophylaxis. Data were evaluated in patients with more (>= 3 attacks or on prophylaxis treatment) or fewer (= 80% of patients; most received hemin during attacks. Almost three-quarters of patients reported chronic symptoms between attacks, including 85% of patients with fewer attacks. Pain intensity was comparable among both attack subgroups; most patients required pain medication. All groups had diminished QOL on the EuroQol visual analog scale and the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality-of-life Questionnaire Core 30 versus population norms. Patients with AHP with recurrent attacks, even those having fewer attacks, experience a high disease burden, as evidenced by chronic symptoms between attacks and impaired QOL.Peer reviewe