Challenging Filipino Colonial Mentality with Philippine Art

For 350 years, the Philippines was colonized by Spain and the United States. The Philippines became a sovereign nation in 1946 yet, fifty years later, colonial teachings continue to oppress Filipinos due to their colonial mentality (CM.) CM is an internalized oppression among Filipinos in which they experience an automatic preference for anything Western—European or U.S. American—and rejection of anything Filipino. Although Filipinos show signs of a CM, there are Filipinos who are challenging CM by engaging in Philippine art. Philippine art is defined as Filipino-made visual art, literature, music, and dance intended to promote Philippine culture. This research project analyzes the Philippine art community and discovers that those involved in the Philippine art community are conscious of how colonialism dictates standards today. They also actively challenge colonial affects by creating and/or supporting artists whom promote Filipino cultures. However, Philippine art’s ability to decrease CM among Filipinos is not evenly accessible among classes

Diffuse emission from black hole remnants

We point out that conservation of information implies that remnants produced at the end of black hole evaporation should radiate in the low-frequency spectrum. We model this emission and derive properties of the diffuse radiation emitted by an otherwise dark population of such objects. We show that for early universe black holes the frequency and energy density of this radiation, which are in principle measurable, suffice to estimate the remnant density.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure

Rehabilitación del edentulismo parcial: prótesis fija vs. prótesis removible. A propósito de dos casos.

El presente trabajo consiste en el desarrollo de dos planes de tratamiento en pacientes que presentan edentulismo parcial con el objetivo de restablecer de manera satisfactoria y exitosa la función y estética de ambos. El primer caso es una paciente adulta de 42 años que presenta varias zonas edéntulas en la arcada superior, además de dientes con caries extensas que también deberán ser rehabilitados protésicamente. En el segundo caso, abordaremos a una paciente geriátrica de 68 años que presenta grandes zonas edéntulas en ambas arcadas y un desgaste acusado de los dientes del sector anterior. Asimismo deberemos proceder a la exodoncia de algunos restos radiculares para la confección de su nueva prótesis. En ambos casos se valorarán las distintas alternativas de tratamiento protésico existentes para lograr la solución ideal o más conveniente para cada situación clínica. Palabras clave: Edentulismo parcial, Prótesis Parcial Fija, Prótesis Parcial Removible

Afectaciones socioambientales en las zonas aguas abajo de grandes represas hidroeléctricas, casos de estudio Hidroituango y La Miel

RESUMEN: El recurso hídrico en Antioquia ha sido comprometido por la construcción de grandes centrales hidroeléctricas (Betania, Urrá, Porce II, Porce III, La Miel I, Hidroituango, entre otros en el departamento); estas han generado una serie de afectaciones socio ambientales aguas abajo por la fragmentación del Río, tales como el cambio de la economía local o regional aguas abajo, cambios en el régimen de inundación natural del río aguas abajo, prevalencia de enfermedades transmitidas por el agua, degradación del hábitat y amenazas a la biodiversidad de agua dulce, retención de sedimentos y nutrientes en el embalse. Estos determinan ulteriores cambios en las formaciones insulares de las planicies y de las poblaciones de peces que se alimentan aguas abajo de la presa, cambios en la composición general de las especies de peces y en la estructura del ecosistema acuático y drástica reducción en la abundancia de poblaciones de grandes peces migratorios, debido a la obstaculización de sus migraciones reproductivas por el efecto barrera. La construcción de la obra provoca entonces desplazamientos y destrucción de la economía local tradicional, altera radicalmente el paisaje y la relación con el territorio de los habitantes de las zonas intervenidas. Estos cambios son analizados en la Evaluación de Impacto Ambientales de los proyectos donde se deben ilustrar las medidas para reducir o mitigar estos impactos, pero muchas veces el área de afectación real es más amplia de la que viene presentada en los estudios. La presente investigación quiere analizar los efectos producidos por los embalses en las zonas aguas abajo y si los instrumentos normativos garantizan la justa identificación y categorización de las afectaciones que implica la implementación de la obra, para que pueda estructurar planes de mitigación y prevención efectivos y realistas en relación con los impactos de los proyectos hidroeléctricos

Requalification of the river park: eco-houses in Elche

The city of Elche, the second most important town of Alicante’s province, thanks to its 230,000 inhabitants, has a lot of heritage values such as the Misteri and the Palmeral. In its urban structure, the relation between the original urban plot and the modern one is made from the location of the river Vinalopò. Its canal is dry most of the year and its slopes are residual spaces that are not integrated with the modern and the ancient existing urban plot. The city of Elche relationship with the Palmeral does not give added value to the numerous urban parks that are in many parts of the city. This research could organize a new building typology of flats. It has tried to build a relationship with the environment that would bring benefits for the relationship between the urban plot and the river. In this way it would encourage a revitalization of the existing river park in support of architectural proposals such as an equipped park. In addition, these houses have bioclimatic technology of cooling evaporating using the natural airstream produced in the park which is induced through the building’s structural system. Introduced by the chimney effect, the air is cooled by vegetal masses. The orientation to the West of glazing, that looks at the river park, causes a lot of energy problems. This research analyses a wrapped and protective solar system based on a vertical rotating panel formed by low thickness and large format ceramic tiles in various sceneries. With modelling and the simulation through the software Design Builder, energetic demands for different sceneries are obtained which allow us to draw conclusions about the most efficient system in terms of energy consumption

The transcriptional co-activator PCAF regulates cdk2 activity

Cyclin dependent kinases (cdks) regulate cell cycle progression and transcription. We report here that the transcriptional co-activator PCAF directly interacts with cdk2. This interaction is mainly produced during S and G2/M phases of the cell cycle. As a consequence of this association, PCAF inhibits the activity of cyclin/cdk2 complexes. This effect is specific for cdk2 because PCAF does not inhibit either cyclin D3/cdk6 or cyclin B/cdk1 activities. The inhibition is neither competitive with ATP, nor with the substrate histone H1 suggesting that somehow PCAF disturbs cyclin/cdk2 complexes. We also demonstrate that overexpression of PCAF in the cells inhibits cdk2 activity and arrests cell cycle progression at S and G2/M. This blockade is dependent on cdk2 because it is rescued by the simultaneous overexpression of this kinase. Moreover, we also observed that PCAF acetylates cdk2 at lysine 33. As this lysine is essential for the interaction with ATP, acetylation of this residue inhibits cdk2 activity. Thus, we report here that PCAF inhibits cyclin/cdk2 activity by two different mechanisms: (i) by somehow affecting cyclin/cdk2 interaction and (ii) by acetylating K33 at the catalytic pocket of cdk2. These findings identify a previously unknown mechanism that regulates cdk2 activity

TRAIL receptors promote constitutive and inducible IL-8 secretion in non-small cell lung carcinoma

Interleukin-8 (IL-8/CXCL8) is a pro-angiogenic and pro-inflammatory chemokine that plays a role in cancer development. Non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) produces high amounts of IL-8, which is associated with poor prognosis and resistance to chemo-radio and immunotherapy. However, the signaling pathways that lead to IL-8 production in NSCLC are unresolved. Here, we show that expression and release of IL-8 are regulated autonomously by TRAIL death receptors in several squamous and adenocarcinoma NSCLC cell lines. NSCLC constitutively secrete IL-8, which could be further enhanced by glucose withdrawal or by treatment with TRAIL or TNF alpha. In A549 cells, constitutive and inducible IL-8 production was dependent on NF-kappa B and MEK/ERK MAP Kinases. DR4 and DR5, known regulators of these signaling pathways, participated in constitutive and glucose deprivation-induced IL-8 secretion. These receptors were mainly located intracellularly. While DR4 signaled through the NF-kappa B pathway, DR4 and DR5 both regulated the ERK-MAPK and Akt pathways. FADD, caspase-8, RIPK1, and TRADD also regulated IL-8. Analysis of mRNA expression data from patients indicated that IL-8 transcripts correlated with TRAIL, DR4, and DR5 expression levels. Furthermore, TRAIL receptor expression levels also correlated with markers of angiogenesis and neutrophil infiltration in lung squamous carcinoma and adenocarcinoma. Collectively, these data suggest that TRAIL receptor signaling contributes to a pro-tumorigenic inflammatory signature associated with NSCLC

Attenuation of RNA polymerase II pausing mitigates BRCA1-associated R-loop accumulation and tumorigenesis.

Most BRCA1-associated breast tumours are basal-like yet originate from luminal progenitors. BRCA1 is best known for its functions in double-strand break repair and resolution of DNA replication stress. However, it is unclear whether loss of these ubiquitously important functions fully explains the cell lineage-specific tumorigenesis. In vitro studies implicate BRCA1 in elimination of R-loops, DNA-RNA hybrid structures involved in transcription and genetic instability. Here we show that R-loops accumulate preferentially in breast luminal epithelial cells, not in basal epithelial or stromal cells, of BRCA1 mutation carriers. Furthermore, R-loops are enriched at the 5' end of those genes with promoter-proximal RNA polymerase II (Pol II) pausing. Genetic ablation of Cobra1, which encodes a Pol II-pausing and BRCA1-binding protein, ameliorates R-loop accumulation and reduces tumorigenesis in Brca1-knockout mouse mammary epithelium. Our studies show that Pol II pausing is an important contributor to BRCA1-associated R-loop accumulation and breast cancer development