Entre lo griego y lo judío : Una relectura de la obra levinasiana

La Biblia y el Talmud por un lado, 25 siglos de filosofía occidental por el otro: vida y obra de Emmanuel Levinas se despliegan -con las dificultades del caso- entre estas dos concepciones del mundo, del hombre y del sentido. Todo su esfuerzo parece haber estado destinado a habitar esa brecha, a intentar captar la especificidad de cada una de las ramas de su doble ascendencia para luego poder abordar, en toda su radicalidad, el problema de su articulación. Retomando esta idea como hilo conductor, dedicaremos este estudio a intentar mostrar que la separación, dentro de la obra levinasiana, entre lo griego y lo judío, no es tan tajante como puede llegar a sugerirlo la división entre escritos "confesionales" y textos estrictamente filosóficos reivindicada por el propio Levinas.D'une part, la Bible et le Talmud; de l'autre, 25 siècles de philosophie: vie et oeuvre d'Emmanuel Levinas se déploient -non sans difficultés- entre ces deux conceptions du monde, de l'homme et du sens. Tout son effort semble avoir été destiné à habiter cet écart, à essayer de saisir la spécificité de chacune des deux branches de sa double ascendance, pour pouvoir ensuite envisager, dans toute sa radicalité, le problème de leur articulation. En reprenant cette idée comme fil conducteur, nous consacrerons cet étude à essayer de montrer que la séparation, au sein du corpus lévinassien, entre le grec et le juif, n'est pas aussi marquée que le suggère la séparation entre écrits "confessionnels" et écrits strictement philosophiques revendiquée par Levinas lui-mêmeDepartamento de Educación Físic

Identification of antiparasitic drug targets using a multi-omics workflow in the acanthocephalan model

Background: With the expansion of animal production, parasitic helminths are gaining increasing economic importance. However, application of several established deworming agents can harm treated hosts and environment due to their low specificity. Furthermore, the number of parasite strains showing resistance is growing, while hardly any new anthelminthics are being developed. Here, we present a bioinformatics workflow designed to reduce the time and cost in the development of new strategies against parasites. The workflow includes quantitative transcriptomics and proteomics, 3D structure modeling, binding site prediction, and virtual ligand screening. Its use is demonstrated for Acanthocephala (thorny-headed worms) which are an emerging pest in fish aquaculture. We included three acanthocephalans (Pomphorhynchus laevis, Neoechinorhynchus agilis, Neoechinorhynchus buttnerae) from four fish species (common barbel, European eel, thinlip mullet, tambaqui).Results: The workflow led to eleven highly specific candidate targets in acanthocephalans. The candidate targets showed constant and elevated transcript abundances across definitive and accidental hosts, suggestive of constitutive expression and functional importance. Hence, the impairment of the corresponding proteins should enable specific and effective killing of acanthocephalans. Candidate targets were also highly abundant in the acanthocephalan body wall, through which these gutless parasites take up nutrients. Thus, the candidate targets are likely to be accessible to compounds that are orally administered to fish. Virtual ligand screening led to ten compounds, of which five appeared to be especially promising according to ADMET, GHS, and RO5 criteria: tadalafil, pranazepide, piketoprofen, heliomycin, and the nematicide derquantel.Conclusions: The combination of genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics led to a broadly applicable procedure for the cost- and time-saving identification of candidate target proteins in parasites. The ligands predicted to bind can now be further evaluated for their suitability in the control of acanthocephalans. The workflow has been deposited at the Galaxy workflow server under the URL tinyurl.com/yx72rda7

Accumulation of α-synuclein mediates podocyte injury in Fabry nephropathy

Current therapies for Fabry disease are based on reversing intracellular accumulation of globotriaosylceramide (Gb3) by enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) or chaperone-mediated stabilization of the defective enzyme, thereby alleviating lysosomal dysfunction. However, their effect in the reversal of end-organ damage, like kidney injury and chronic kidney disease, remains unclear. In this study, ultrastructural analysis of serial human kidney biopsies showed that long-term use of ERT reduced Gb3 accumulation in podocytes but did not reverse podocyte injury. Then, a CRISPR/Cas9–mediated α-galactosidase knockout podocyte cell line confirmed ERT-mediated reversal of Gb3 accumulation without resolution of lysosomal dysfunction. Transcriptome-based connectivity mapping and SILAC-based quantitative proteomics identified α-synuclein (SNCA) accumulation as a key event mediating podocyte injury. Genetic and pharmacological inhibition of SNCA improved lysosomal structure and function in Fabry podocytes, exceeding the benefits of ERT. Together, this work reconceptualizes Fabry-associated cell injury beyond Gb3 accumulation, and introduces SNCA modulation as a potential intervention, especially for patients with Fabry nephropathy.publishedVersio

Global variation in diabetes diagnosis and prevalence based on fasting glucose and hemoglobin A1c

Fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) are both used to diagnose diabetes, but these measurements can identify different people as having diabetes. We used data from 117 population-based studies and quantified, in different world regions, the prevalence of diagnosed diabetes, and whether those who were previously undiagnosed and detected as having diabetes in survey screening, had elevated FPG, HbA1c or both. We developed prediction equations for estimating the probability that a person without previously diagnosed diabetes, and at a specific level of FPG, had elevated HbA1c, and vice versa. The age-standardized proportion of diabetes that was previously undiagnosed and detected in survey screening ranged from 30% in the high-income western region to 66% in south Asia. Among those with screen-detected diabetes with either test, the age-standardized proportion who had elevated levels of both FPG and HbA1c was 29-39% across regions; the remainder had discordant elevation of FPG or HbA1c. In most low- and middle-income regions, isolated elevated HbA1c was more common than isolated elevated FPG. In these regions, the use of FPG alone may delay diabetes diagnosis and underestimate diabetes prevalence. Our prediction equations help allocate finite resources for measuring HbA1c to reduce the global shortfall in diabetes diagnosis and surveillance

Worldwide trends in underweight and obesity from 1990 to 2022: a pooled analysis of 3663 population-representative studies with 222 million children, adolescents, and adults

Background Underweight and obesity are associated with adverse health outcomes throughout the life course. We estimated the individual and combined prevalence of underweight or thinness and obesity, and their changes, from 1990 to 2022 for adults and school-aged children and adolescents in 200 countries and territories. Methods We used data from 3663 population-based studies with 222 million participants that measured height and weight in representative samples of the general population. We used a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate trends in the prevalence of different BMI categories, separately for adults (age ≥20 years) and school-aged children and adolescents (age 5–19 years), from 1990 to 2022 for 200 countries and territories. For adults, we report the individual and combined prevalence of underweight (BMI <18·5 kg/m2) and obesity (BMI ≥30 kg/m2). For schoolaged children and adolescents, we report thinness (BMI <2 SD below the median of the WHO growth reference) and obesity (BMI >2 SD above the median). Findings From 1990 to 2022, the combined prevalence of underweight and obesity in adults decreased in 11 countries (6%) for women and 17 (9%) for men with a posterior probability of at least 0·80 that the observed changes were true decreases. The combined prevalence increased in 162 countries (81%) for women and 140 countries (70%) for men with a posterior probability of at least 0·80. In 2022, the combined prevalence of underweight and obesity was highest in island nations in the Caribbean and Polynesia and Micronesia, and countries in the Middle East and north Africa. Obesity prevalence was higher than underweight with posterior probability of at least 0·80 in 177 countries (89%) for women and 145 (73%) for men in 2022, whereas the converse was true in 16 countries (8%) for women, and 39 (20%) for men. From 1990 to 2022, the combined prevalence of thinness and obesity decreased among girls in five countries (3%) and among boys in 15 countries (8%) with a posterior probability of at least 0·80, and increased among girls in 140 countries (70%) and boys in 137 countries (69%) with a posterior probability of at least 0·80. The countries with highest combined prevalence of thinness and obesity in school-aged children and adolescents in 2022 were in Polynesia and Micronesia and the Caribbean for both sexes, and Chile and Qatar for boys. Combined prevalence was also high in some countries in south Asia, such as India and Pakistan, where thinness remained prevalent despite having declined. In 2022, obesity in school-aged children and adolescents was more prevalent than thinness with a posterior probability of at least 0·80 among girls in 133 countries (67%) and boys in 125 countries (63%), whereas the converse was true in 35 countries (18%) and 42 countries (21%), respectively. In almost all countries for both adults and school-aged children and adolescents, the increases in double burden were driven by increases in obesity, and decreases in double burden by declining underweight or thinness. Interpretation The combined burden of underweight and obesity has increased in most countries, driven by an increase in obesity, while underweight and thinness remain prevalent in south Asia and parts of Africa. A healthy nutrition transition that enhances access to nutritious foods is needed to address the remaining burden of underweight while curbing and reversing the increase in obesit

Fios que Tecem o Tempo Escolar: do ritmo padrão à simultaneidade

Este texto tem por objetivo tecer os fios que, de modo complexo, atam e desatam, de forma silenciosa, a constituição do tempo em duas escolas com classes multisseriadas da Ilha de Maré, problematizando a ideia de ritmo padrão e apontando a simultaneidade como possibilidade para o tempo escolar. Do ponto de vista metodológico foi adotada a narrativa (auto)biográfica, e a técnica de pesquisa selecionada foi a entrevista narrativa. O estudo realizado aponta que o tempo escolar, das duas escolas pesquisadas, é convidado a reconhecer a existência e a legitimidade de outros tempos, para além do seu: o tempo da maré, o tempo do trabalho, o tempo das práticas simbólicas, o tempo livre e as temporalidades dos sujeitos

Global variations in diabetes mellitus based on fasting glucose and haemogloblin A1c

Fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) are both used to diagnose diabetes, but may identify different people as having diabetes. We used data from 117 population-based studies and quantified, in different world regions, the prevalence of diagnosed diabetes, and whether those who were previously undiagnosed and detected as having diabetes in survey screening had elevated FPG, HbA1c, or both. We developed prediction equations for estimating the probability that a person without previously diagnosed diabetes, and at a specific level of FPG, had elevated HbA1c, and vice versa. The age-standardised proportion of diabetes that was previously undiagnosed, and detected in survey screening, ranged from 30% in the high-income western region to 66% in south Asia. Among those with screen-detected diabetes with either test, the agestandardised proportion who had elevated levels of both FPG and HbA1c was 29-39% across regions; the remainder had discordant elevation of FPG or HbA1c. In most low- and middle-income regions, isolated elevated HbA1c more common than isolated elevated FPG. In these regions, the use of FPG alone may delay diabetes diagnosis and underestimate diabetes prevalence. Our prediction equations help allocate finite resources for measuring HbA1c to reduce the global gap in diabetes diagnosis and surveillance.peer-reviewe

Michel Foucault's concept of life

Des analyses consacrées au vitalisme de Bichat, en 1963, à l’étude du bios cynique dans les toutes dernières leçons de son dernier cours au Collège de France, les références à la vie sont constantes dans l’œuvre de Michel Foucault. C’est dans le cadre du projet philosophico-politique d’un dépassement de l’humanisme moderne que la question de la vie fera irruption dans son œuvre. Notre thèse est désormais que le défi auquel sera confrontée la pensée foucaldienne, consistera à déplacer le centre de l’analyse de l’homme (en tant que fondement supposé des savoirs et des pouvoirs modernes) vers la vie (i.e., vers les savoirs et les pouvoirs qui l’investissent et la produisent), sans pour autant faire de celle-ci un nouveau fondement (que ce soit à la manière d’une philosophie naturaliste, d’une ontologie vitaliste ou d’une phénoménologie du vécu).C’est dans les travaux biopolitiques que la stratégie foucaldienne (contourner l’homme en passant par la vie) se déploie le plus clairement : l’homme y apparaît, en effet, non point en tant que fondement (comme dans les théories contractualistes, qui partent d’une certaine anthropologie afin d’en déduire une certaine politique), mais comme effet et enjeu d’un pouvoir ayant la vie pour but, objet et modèle.Or un tel déplacement n’implique-t-il pas une promotion de la vie au rang du fondement déserté par l’homme ? C’est, comme nous essayons de le montrer dans la deuxième partie de la thèse, le pas que franchissent, parfois, ces deux lectures en apparence antagoniques de l’œuvre foucaldienne que sont les interprétations d’orientation « naturaliste » d’une part (qui insistent surtout sur la « biologisation » de la politique moderne mise en lumière par Foucault) et, de l’autre, les lectures d’inspiration « vitaliste » (qui, à l’instar du commentaire deleuzien, invoquent plutôt l’idée d’une résistance possible aux biopouvoirs qui prendrait appui sur la puissance propre à cette même vie que le pouvoir cherche à investir).C’est dans les travaux archéologiques de Foucault que ces deux lectures de la biopolitique foucaldienne nous semblent trouver leur réfutation la plus flagrante, d’où le fait que la troisième section de notre travail leur soit entièrement consacrée. Foucault y établit en effet l’historicité foncière de cette vie biologique à laquelle seront ordonnés les dispositifs modernes de pouvoir. Par ailleurs, il prend bien soin de mettre en lumière ce qui compromet la prétendue positivité de ces savoirs sur la vie que sont la biologie et la médecine clinique. Il montre enfin à quel point la notion moderne – aussi bien biologique que métaphysique – de vie constitue le revers de la figure moderne de l’homme, de ses détermination empiriques mais aussi de ses prérogatives transcendantales. D’où, sans doute, le fait que son premier effort pour penser une issue possible au « cercle anthropologique » – centré autour de l’expérience littéraire – repose, non sur une revendication des puissances de la vie, mais sur une conceptualisation ontologique de la mort et de sa paradoxale fécondité.Il n’en reste pas moins qu’entre la fin des années 1970 et le début des années 1980, Foucault articulera bien une pensée de la résistance aux biopouvoirs avec une certaine problématisation de la vie. Or – décalage essentiel – il reconceptualisera aussitôt celle-ci à partir de la notion grecque de bios. L’hypothèse qui structure la quatrième partie de notre travail est alors que l’introduction du concept de bios répond au défi de redonner une certaine initiative à la vie (i.e., d’introduire une certaine distance entre celle-ci et la figure moderne, entièrement objectivée, naturalisée, médicalisée de l’homme normal), sans pour autant restaurer le sujet métaphysique ou phénoménologique, dont Foucault aura mené la critique dès le début des années 1960, ni basculer dans une métaphysique vitaliste – dont il aura montré qu’elle ne constitue que le revers de la figure moderne de l’homme.From the analysis focused on Bichat’s vitalism, in 1963, to the study of the cynical bios in every last lesson of his last course at the Collège de France, the references to life are a constant in the work of Michel Foucault. The issue of life will appear in his work in the context of his philosophical and political project of going beyond modern humanism. From now on, our thesis will be that the challenge confronting Foucault’s thinking will consist in moving the center of the analysis from man (as the alleged foundation of modern knowledge and power) to life (that is, to the knowledge and power that produces and invests it, so as to what, in life, opposes some resistance to them), without turning life into a new foundation (whether the way of a naturalistic philosophy, a vitalist ontology or phenomenology of the vécu).It’s in the biopolitical works (on which the first part of our thesis is focused) where the Foucauldian strategy (getting around man through life) displays itself most clearly: man appears, indeed, not at all as foundation (as in the contract theories, which start with a certain anthropology in order to deduce a certain politics), but as an effect and a stake of a power that has life as goal, object and model. But wouldn’t such a move promote life to the status of a new foundation? It would, as we try to show in the second part of the thesis, the way that crosses sometimes these two seemingly conflicting readings of his work: “naturalistic” interpretations on one hand (which insist mainly on « biologisation » of modern politics, highlighted by Foucault) and, on the other hand, “vitalist” views (which following Deleuzian comments, invoke instead the idea of a possible resistance to biopowers which would rest on life’s own puissance).We think that these two readings of Foucault’s biopolitics find their highest refutation on Foucault’s archeological works. That’s why the third section of our work is completely devoted to them. Foucault, in fact, establishes here the historicity of biological life to which modern power devices will be closely related. Otherwise, he is careful to highlight what compromises the alleged positivity of knowledge. He also shows how the modern notion of life - both biological and metaphysical - is the reverse of man’s modern figure, of his empirical determinations but also of his transcendental prerogatives (that’s what we call “anthropological downturn” of life, which would find one of his endpoints on the phenomenological figure of the vécu). That is why, no doubt, his first effort to think of a possible outcome for the “anthropological circle” - centered on the literary experience- lays not on a argument in favor of the powers of life, but on an ontological conceptualization of death and his paradoxical fertility.It nevertheless remains true that, between the late ‘70s and the early ‘80s, Foucault will articulate a thought of resistance to biopowers with a certain problematization of life. Or – a critical shift – he will soon re-conceptualize it based on the Greek notion of bios. The hypothesis that structures the fourth part of our work is, then, that the introduction of the concept of bios addresses the challenge of restoring some initiative to life (i.e., to insert a certain distance between it and the common man’s modern figure, completely objectified, naturalized, medicalized), without therefore restoring a metaphysical or phenomenological subject (man as empirical-transcendental doublet, center and foundation of any experience, epistemological and practical), of which Foucault himself has been the led critic since the early ‘60s, or falling into a vitalist metaphysics – which he had revealed as only the reverse of men’s modern figure

The Subject in Levinas’s Early Work

Este artículo busca situar la obra del joven Levinas en ruptura con una cierta tradición que, de Kant en adelante y en discusión con el cartesianismo, vacía al sujeto de todo contenido para concebirlo a partir de sus tareas, como la ipseidad de aquel que es asignado a una determinada misión —sea ésta de índole gnoseológica, ontológica, ética o política. En efecto, sus primeros textos tienen el mérito de reintroducir aquellos aspectos de la subjetividad por los cuales ésta es (también) algo anterior y exterior al llamado (del otro, del ser), algo ajeno en algún punto tanto a la ética como a la metafísica, algo que se retira, se repliega sobre sí y gana así una consistencia propia y una existencia separada.This article tries to situate young Levinas’s work as breaking with a tradition that —from Kant onwards and discussing with cartesianism— empties the subject from all its content so as to conceive it from its tasks, as the ipseity of that which is assigned to a mission —either gnoseological, ontological, ethical or political. His early works reintroduce those aspects of subjectivity which describe it as something previous and exterior to the calling (of the other, the Being), something strange both to ethics as to metaphysics, something that withdraws into itself, having its own consistence and separate existence.Fil: Mauer, Manuel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

The Subject in Levinas’s Early Work

Este artículo busca situar la obra del joven Levinas en ruptura con una cierta tradición que, de Kant en adelante y en discusión con el cartesianismo, vacía al sujeto de todo contenido para concebirlo a partir de sus tareas, como la ipseidad de aquel que es asignado a una determinada misión —sea ésta de índole gnoseológica, ontológica, ética o política. En efecto, sus primeros textos tienen el mérito de reintroducir aquellos aspectos de la subjetividad por los cuales ésta es (también) algo anterior y exterior al llamado (del otro, del ser), algo ajeno en algún punto tanto a la ética como a la metafísica, algo que se retira, se repliega sobre sí y gana así una consistencia propia y una existencia separada.This article tries to situate young Levinas’s work as breaking with a tradition that —from Kant onwards and discussing with cartesianism— empties the subject from all its content so as to conceive it from its tasks, as the ipseity of that which is assigned to a mission —either gnoseological, ontological, ethical or political. His early works reintroduce those aspects of subjectivity which describe it as something previous and exterior to the calling (of the other, the Being), something strange both to ethics as to metaphysics, something that withdraws into itself, having its own consistence and separate existence.Fil: Mauer, Manuel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin