Feminicidio, Transnational Legal Activism, and State Responsibility in Mexico

This dissertation uses the concept of transnational legal activism to analyze the mobilization of international human rights law as a multi-scalar process that produces and is shaped by gendered political and discursive opportunities. I apply this framework to examine how feminist grassroots activists engaged with supranational human rights institutions, especially the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, to hold the Mexican state responsible for the murders of three young women in Ciudad Juárez, an industrial city that borders the United States, in the case of González and Others “Cotton Field.” The Court declared that Mexico had failed to act with due diligence to prevent, investigate, and punish these crimes. These murders epitomize what activists identified as feminicidio, the systematic killing of women in a context of institutionalized gender discrimination sanctioned by the state; this phenomenon has prevailed in the northern state of Chihuahua where Ciudad Juárez is located since the 1990s. The dissertation also investigates how federal and local state actors responded to grassroots activists’ claims and the judgment of the IACtHR, including the criminalization of feminicidio. Through interviews with Mexican activists and frame analysis of the IACtHR judgment and of federal and local parliamentary debates, I argue that grassroots activists’ involvement in transnational legal activism contributed to expanding and rearticulating the meaning of women’s human rights and state responsibility at the domestic and supranational levels. Throughout, I highlight activists’ agency in this process and in their interactions with transnational organizations specialized in human rights advocacy and supranational litigation. Thus, I challenge assumptions in the literature on human rights and social movements that imply that grassroots actors have a limited access to international law and avenues to participate in transnational advocacy. Last, I suggest that the actions of Mexican grassroots activists extend a Latin American approach to international human rights law.Ph.D.2018-07-06 00:00:0

MULHERES E MENINAS INDÍGENAS DESAPARECIDAS E ASSASSINADAS: Femicídio, Feminicídio e Genocídio no Contexto Canadense

Despite highlighting the parallels between feminicides in Ciudad Juarez and missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG) in Canada, Indigenous activists and scholars do not use the concept of feminicide to frame this violence. Indigenous feminist scholars use the term genocide, while, in their transnational advocacy, Indigenous activists frame this violence as intersectional discrimination and a human rights violation. These approaches make colonialism central to MMIWG.A pesar de enfatizar las semejanzas entre los feminicidios de Ciudad Juárez y las desapariciones y asesinatos de mujeres y niñas indígenas en Canadá (MMIWG por sus siglas en inglés), las activistas y académicas indígenas no utilizan el concepto de feminicidio para enmarcar este tipo de violencia. Las académicas usan el término de genocidio y las activistas transnacionales la enmarcan como discriminación interseccional y una violación a los derechos humanos. Ambas perspectivas se enfocan en la colonización como eje central.Apesar de enfatizar as semelhanças entre os feminicídios de Ciudad Juárez e os desaparecimentos e assassinatos de mulheres e meninas indígenas no Canadá (MMIWG, por suas siglas em inglês), as ativistas e acadêmicas indígenas não usam o conceito de feminicídio para enquadrar este tipo de violência. As acadêmicas usam o termo genocídio e as ativistas transnacionais o enquadram como discriminação interseccional e uma violação dos direitos humanos. Ambas perspectivas enfocam o colonialismo como eixo central

β-Lactoglobulin's Conformational Requirements for Ligand Binding at the Calyx and the Dimer Interphase: a Flexible Docking Study

<div><p>β-lactoglobulin (BLG) is an abundant milk protein relevant for industry and biotechnology, due significantly to its ability to bind a wide range of polar and apolar ligands. While hydrophobic ligand sites are known, sites for hydrophilic ligands such as the prevalent milk sugar, lactose, remain undetermined. Through the use of molecular docking we first, analyzed the known fatty acid binding sites in order to dissect their atomistic determinants and second, predicted the interaction sites for lactose with monomeric and dimeric BLG. We validated our approach against BLG structures co-crystallized with ligands and report a computational setup with a reduced number of flexible residues that is able to reproduce experimental results with high precision. Blind dockings with and without flexible side chains on BLG showed that: i) 13 experimentally-determined ligands fit the calyx requiring minimal movement of up to 7 residues out of the 23 that constitute this binding site. ii) Lactose does not bind the calyx despite conformational flexibility, but binds the dimer interface and an alternate Site C. iii) Results point to a probable lactolation site in the BLG dimer interface, at K141, consistent with previous biochemical findings. In contrast, no accessible lysines are found near Site C. iv) lactose forms hydrogen bonds with residues from both monomers stabilizing the dimer through a claw-like structure. Overall, these results improve our understanding of BLG's binding sites, importantly narrowing down the calyx residues that control ligand binding. Moreover, our results emphasize the importance of the dimer interface as an insufficiently explored, biologically relevant binding site of particular importance for hydrophilic ligands. Furthermore our analyses suggest that BLG is a robust scaffold for multiple ligand-binding, suitable for protein design, and advance our molecular understanding of its ligand sites to a point that allows manipulation to control binding.</p> </div

Effect of residue flexibility on fatty acid binding.

<p>(<b>A</b>) Docking to a rigid 2BLG allows only the three smallest lipids into the calyx (shown superposed in white, light blue and light purple), while excluding longer fatty acids to Site C (black square, fatty acids in different colors). The seven binding residues in the calyx are shown in light yellow. When five of these residues were allowed flexibility all fatty acids bind the calyx. Stearic acid (purple) is shown bound in (<b>B</b>) and (<b>C</b>) in a full BLG top down view and a side view magnification of the calyx, respectively. In (<b>C</b>) the five flexible residues (blue) are shown aligned to their XRD counterpart (light yellow) to highlight movements that enable docking. (<b>D</b>) Plot of binding energy from docking vs. ligand using the monomeric empty, 2BLG, either rigid (black circles) or with 5 (black squares) or 7 (black triangles) flexible residues. Experimentally determined energies are shown for comparison (open circles). Fatty acids are sorted as in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0079530#pone-0079530-g001" target="_blank">Figure 1C</a>.</p

Lactose docking to the 2BLG dimer.

<p>(<b>A</b>) Lactose docking to a rigid BLG dimer. Notice both K138 and K141 pointing away from lactose. In (<b>B</b>), a side view of the rigid interface docking (lactose, K138 and K141 in yellow) is compared to the “fully flexible” results (green) where K141 shifts towards lactose. In (<b>C</b>) a top view of the best “fully flexible” result. Residues involved in lactose binding are highlighted by chain: chain B in purple and chain A in cyan. (<b>D</b>) close-up of the interfacial binding site showing chains from both BLG monomers and their respective hydrogen bonds to lactose.</p

β-lactoglobulin and its calyx binding site.

<p>The main BLG binding site (calyx or Site A) is shown empty from two perspectives: (<b>A</b>) top-down view and (<b>B</b>) bottom-up view. The seven flexible residues required for ligand binding are labeled. The secondary structure is colored from N-terminus in blue, to C-terminus in red. (<b>C</b>) Plot of binding energy calculated from docking vs ligand using rigid, monomeric, empty BLG structures with open (2BLG, black circles), or semi closed (2Q39, black squares) EF loops, and compared to experimentally determined data (open circles). Fatty acids are sorted by increasing size, or in the case of stearic, oleic and linoleic, by decreasing saturation. No experimental affinity has been reported for stearic or retinoic acids. (<b>D</b>) Weblogo of the sequence alignment of BLG from 7 mammals. Asterisks indicate the 5 residues made flexible for docking.</p

Sociedad del conocimiento, ocio y cultura : un enfoque interdisciplinar

Resumen basado en la publicaciónSe plantean las aportaciones realizadas en el programa de doctorado Sociedad del Conocimiento, Ocio y Cultura: un enfoque interdisciplinar, desarrollado en la Universidad de Oviedo durante el bienio 2002-2004. Desde este programa se trata de responder a unas necesidades formativas de los licenciados en Pedagogía y de otras titulaciones afines que, de alguna manera, podían recoger las demandas de la sociedad, altamente impregnada por la tecnología, y que posee una mayor cantidad de tiempo libre para emplear en actividades de ocio y cultura. Las diferentes aportaciones que se realizan se agrupan entorno a tres grandes apartados: 1) El primero hace referencia a los aspectos metodológicos de las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación, en dónde se adjuntan seis trabajos incluido el del Catedrático de Tecnología Educativa de la Universidad de Sevilla, Juan de Pablo Pons. 2) El segundo agrupa aquellos trabajos que hacen referencia a planteamientos generales sobre cultura y ocio, temas fundamentales que sirven de marco para contextualizar otros planteamientos más prácticos y aplicados. 3) Finalmente, el apartado más amplio, que bajo el epígrafe de Ocio y Cultura en las Didácticas Especiales, recoge aplicaciones concretas llevadas a cabo desde puntos de vista distintos orientados, casi siempre, a las actividades de ocio.Universidad de Oviedo. Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación; Calle Aniceto Sela s. n.; 33005 Oviedo; +34985103215; 985103214;ES

The surgical safety checklist and patient outcomes after surgery: a prospective observational cohort study, systematic review and meta-analysis

© 2017 British Journal of Anaesthesia Background: The surgical safety checklist is widely used to improve the quality of perioperative care. However, clinicians continue to debate the clinical effectiveness of this tool. Methods: Prospective analysis of data from the International Surgical Outcomes Study (ISOS), an international observational study of elective in-patient surgery, accompanied by a systematic review and meta-analysis of published literature. The exposure was surgical safety checklist use. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality and the secondary outcome was postoperative complications. In the ISOS cohort, a multivariable multi-level generalized linear model was used to test associations. To further contextualise these findings, we included the results from the ISOS cohort in a meta-analysis. Results are reported as odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals. Results: We included 44 814 patients from 497 hospitals in 27 countries in the ISOS analysis. There were 40 245 (89.8%) patients exposed to the checklist, whilst 7508 (16.8%) sustained ≥1 postoperative complications and 207 (0.5%) died before hospital discharge. Checklist exposure was associated with reduced mortality [odds ratio (OR) 0.49 (0.32–0.77); P\u3c0.01], but no difference in complication rates [OR 1.02 (0.88–1.19); P=0.75]. In a systematic review, we screened 3732 records and identified 11 eligible studies of 453 292 patients including the ISOS cohort. Checklist exposure was associated with both reduced postoperative mortality [OR 0.75 (0.62–0.92); P\u3c0.01; I2=87%] and reduced complication rates [OR 0.73 (0.61–0.88); P\u3c0.01; I2=89%). Conclusions: Patients exposed to a surgical safety checklist experience better postoperative outcomes, but this could simply reflect wider quality of care in hospitals where checklist use is routine