El culto a san Blas en la Castilla de los siglos XVI y XVII : leyendas, creencias y ritos

En este trabajo, después de haber evocado la hagiografía de san Blas, con su leyenda milagrosa y sus virtudes terapéuticas (fundamentalmente contra el mal de garganta), se examinan las características de su implantación en Castilla a través de las Relaciones topográficas y de otras fuentes. Se insiste luego sobre el incremento del culto del santo, en el contexto de la Contrarreforma, a causa de las epidemias de difteria (garrotillo) a finales del siglo XVI y principios del siglo XVII. Por fin, se examinan las particularidades festivas vinculadas a su culto en relación con ritos agrarios y carnavalescos.After adressing the hagiography of Saint Blaise, his miraculous legend and his therapeutic qualities (basically against sore throat), in this work we study the features of his presence in Castile through the Relaciones topográficas and other sources. Then we stress the growth of the worship of this saint, in the context of the Counter Reformation, due to diphteria epidemics (garrotillo) at the end of the 16th century and beginning of the 17th century. Finally we study the festive features of his worship, relating to agrarian and carnival rites

Entre Francia y España : el asesinato del rey galo Enrique IV (1610) y sus repercusiones a través de las relaciones de sucesos

Tras el asesinato de Enrique IV en mayo de 1610, las relaciones sobre el suceso, tanto en Francia como en España, reflejan la reorientación de la política exterior en los dos países, cuyas élites se inclinan en ese momento más por el pacto que por el enfrentamiento, de forma que Enrique IV pasa de ser acusado de hereje a ser tratado como rey amigo y católico convencido. El inventario de relaciones refleja la manipulación de la opinión pública.After the assassination of Henri IV in May 1610, news pamphlets on the event, both in France and in Spain, reflect the redirection of foreign policy in both countries, whose ruling elites moved away from confrontation, with Henri IV ceasing to be accused of heresy and beginning to be treated as an ally and a sincere Catholic. An examination of the relevant news pamphlets reflects this manipulation of public opinion

Determinants of blood acylcarnitine concentrations in healthy individuals of the European Prospective Investigation into cancer and nutrition

Background & aims: Circulating levels of acylcarnitines (ACs) have been associated with the risk of various diseases such as cancer and type 2 diabetes. Diet and lifestyle factors have been shown to influence AC concentrations but a better understanding of their biological, lifestyle and metabolic determinants is needed. Methods: Circulating ACs were measured in blood by targeted (15 ACs) and untargeted metabolomics (50 ACs) in 7770 and 395 healthy participants of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC), respectively. Associations with biological and lifestyle characteristics, dietary patterns, self-reported intake of individual foods, estimated intake of carnitine and fatty acids, and fatty acids in plasma phospholipid fraction and amino acids in blood were assessed. Results: Age, sex and fasting status were associated with the largest proportion of AC variability (partial-r up to 0.19, 0.18 and 0.16, respectively). Some AC species of medium or long-chain fatty acid moiety were associated with the corresponding fatty acids in plasma (partial-r = 0.24) or with intake of specific foods such as dairy foods containing the same fatty acid. ACs of short-chain fatty acid moiety (propionylcarnitine and valerylcarnitine) were moderately associated with concentrations of branched-chain amino acids (partial-r = 0.5). Intake of most other foods and of carnitine showed little association with AC levels. Conclusions: Our results show that determinants of ACs in blood vary according to their fatty acid moiety, and that their concentrations are related to age, sex, diet, and fasting status. Knowledge on their potential determinants may help interpret associations of ACs with disease risk and inform on potential dietary and lifestyle factors that might be modified for disease prevention

Dietary intakes of individual flavanols and flavonols are inversely associated with incident type 2 diabetes in European populations.

Dietary flavanols and flavonols, flavonoid subclasses, have been recently associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D) in Europe. Even within the same subclass, flavonoids may differ considerably in bioavailability and bioactivity. We aimed to examine the association between individual flavanol and flavonol intakes and risk of developing T2D across European countries. The European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-InterAct case-cohort study was conducted in 8 European countries across 26 study centers with 340,234 participants contributing 3.99 million person-years of follow-up, among whom 12,403 incident T2D cases were ascertained and a center-stratified subcohort of 16,154 individuals was defined. We estimated flavonoid intake at baseline from validated dietary questionnaires using a database developed from Phenol-Explorer and USDA databases. We used country-specific Prentice-weighted Cox regression models and random-effects meta-analysis methods to estimate HRs. Among the flavanol subclass, we observed significant inverse trends between intakes of all individual flavan-3-ol monomers and risk of T2D in multivariable models (all P-trend < 0.05). We also observed significant trends for the intakes of proanthocyanidin dimers (HR for the highest vs. the lowest quintile: 0.81; 95% CI: 0.71, 0.92; P-trend = 0.003) and trimers (HR: 0.91; 95% CI: 0.80, 1.04; P-trend = 0.07) but not for proanthocyanidins with a greater polymerization degree. Among the flavonol subclass, myricetin (HR: 0.77; 95% CI: 0.64, 0.93; P-trend = 0.001) was associated with a lower incidence of T2D. This large and heterogeneous European study showed inverse associations between all individual flavan-3-ol monomers, proanthocyanidins with a low polymerization degree, and the flavonol myricetin and incident T2D. These results suggest that individual flavonoids have different roles in the etiology of T2D.The EPIC-InterAct Study was supported by the European Union (Integrated Project LSHM-CT-2006-037197 in the Framework Programme 6 of the European Community). In addition, InterAct investigators acknowledge funding from the following agencies: R.Z.-R. was supported by a postdoctoral program Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria (FIS; no. CD09/00133) from the Spanish Ministry of Science; R.Z.-R. and C.A.G. were supported by the Health Research Fund (FIS) of the Spanish Ministry of Health (RTICC DR06/0020/0091); core support from the Medical Research Council (MRC) Epidemiology Unit is acknowledged for program MC_UU_12015/1 and MC_UU_12015/5; Y.T.v.d.S. was supported by NL Agency grant IGE05012 and an Incentive Grant from the Board of the UMC Utrecht (Netherlands); A.M.W.S. and D.L.v.d.A. were supported by the Dutch Ministry of Public Health, Welfare, and Sports, Netherlands Cancer Registry, LK Research Funds, Dutch Prevention Funds, Dutch ZON, World Cancer Research Fund, and Statistics Netherlands; T.J.K. and K.-T.K. were supported by Cancer Research UK; G.F., M.T., and F.P. were supported by Ligue contre le Cancer, Institut Gustave Roussy, Mutuelle Générale de l’Education Nationale, INSERM; G.M. was supported by Ministero della Salute Regione Toscana Progetto Integrato Oncologia–PIO; P.W.F. was supported by the Swedish Research Council, Novo Nordisk, the Swedish Heart Lung Foundation, and the Swedish Diabetes Association; L.B., K.O., N.R., and A.T. were supported by the Danish Cancer Society; V.K. and T.K. were supported by Deutsche Krebshilfe; A.M. was supported by Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro; M.L.R. was supported by the Asturias Regional Government; M.G., P.A., E.M.-M., and M.J.T. were supported by the Health Research Fund of the Spanish Ministry of Health, CIBER Epidemiology and Public Health (Spain); M.J.T. was supported by the Murcia Regional Government; and R.T. was supported by AIRE-ONLUS Ragusa, AVIS-Ragusa, the Sicilian Regional Government.This is the final published version distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which can also be found on the publisher's website at: http://jn.nutrition.org/content/144/3/335.ful

Viscum album Exerts Anti-Inflammatory Effect by Selectively Inhibiting Cytokine-Induced Expression of Cyclooxygenase-2

Viscum album (VA) preparations are extensively used as complementary therapy in cancer and are shown to exert anti-tumor activities which involve the cytotoxic properties, induction of apoptosis, inhibition of angiogenesis and several other immunomodulatory mechanisms. In addition to their application in cancer therapy, VA preparations have also been successfully utilized in the treatment of several inflammatory pathologies. Owing to the intricate association of inflammation and cancer and in view of the fact that several anti-tumor phytotherapeutics also exert a potent anti-inflammatory effect, we hypothesized that VA exerts an anti-inflammatory effect that is responsible for its therapeutic benefit. Since, inflammatory cytokine-induced cyclo-oxygenase-2 (COX-2) and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) play a critical role in the pathogenesis of inflammatory diseases, we investigated the anti-inflammatory effect of VA on regulation of cyclo-oxygenase expression and PGE2 biosynthesis by using human lung adenocarcinoma cells (A549 cells) as a model. A549 cells were stimulated with IL-1β and treated with VA preparation (VA Qu Spez) for 18 hours. PGE2 was analysed in the culture supernatants by enzyme immunoassay. Expression of COX-2 and COX-1 proteins was analyzed by immunoblotting and the expression of COX-2 mRNA was assessed by semi-quantitative RT-PCR. We found that VA Qu Spez inhibit the secretion of IL-1β-induced PGE2 in a dose-dependent manner. Further, we also show that this inhibitory action was associated with a reduced expression of COX-2 without modulating the COX-1 expression. Together these results demonstrate a novel anti-inflammatory mechanism of action of VA preparations wherein VA exerts an anti-inflammatory effect by inhibiting cytokine-induced PGE2 via selective inhibition of COX-2

Pre-diagnostic metabolite concentrations and prostate cancer risk in 1077 cases and 1077 matched controls in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about how pre-diagnostic metabolites in blood relate to risk of prostate cancer. We aimed to investigate the prospective association between plasma metabolite concentrations and risk of prostate cancer overall, and by time to diagnosis and tumour characteristics, and risk of death from prostate cancer. METHODS: In a case-control study nested in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition, pre-diagnostic plasma concentrations of 122 metabolites (including acylcarnitines, amino acids, biogenic amines, glycerophospholipids, hexose and sphingolipids) were measured using targeted mass spectrometry (AbsoluteIDQ p180 Kit) and compared between 1077 prostate cancer cases and 1077 matched controls. Risk of prostate cancer associated with metabolite concentrations was estimated by multi-variable conditional logistic regression, and multiple testing was accounted for by using a false discovery rate controlling procedure. RESULTS: Seven metabolite concentrations, i.e. acylcarnitine C18:1, amino acids citrulline and trans-4-hydroxyproline, glycerophospholipids PC aa C28:1, PC ae C30:0 and PC ae C30:2, and sphingolipid SM (OH) C14:1, were associated with prostate cancer (p < 0.05), but none of the associations were statistically significant after controlling for multiple testing. Citrulline was associated with a decreased risk of prostate cancer (odds ratio (OR1SD) = 0.73; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.62-0.86; p trend = 0.0002) in the first 5 years of follow-up after taking multiple testing into account, but not after longer follow-up; results for other metabolites did not vary by time to diagnosis. After controlling for multiple testing, 12 glycerophospholipids were inversely associated with advanced stage disease, with risk reduction up to 46% per standard deviation increase in concentration (OR1SD = 0.54; 95% CI 0.40-0.72; p trend = 0.00004 for PC aa C40:3). Death from prostate cancer was associated with higher concentrations of acylcarnitine C3, amino acids methionine and trans-4-hydroxyproline, biogenic amine ADMA, hexose and sphingolipid SM (OH) C14:1 and lower concentration of glycerophospholipid PC aa C42:4. CONCLUSIONS: Several metabolites, i.e. C18:1, citrulline, trans-4-hydroxyproline, three glycerophospholipids and SM (OH) C14:1, might be related to prostate cancer. Analyses by time to diagnosis indicated that citrulline may be a marker of subclinical prostate cancer, while other metabolites might be related to aetiology. Several glycerophospholipids were inversely related to advanced stage disease. More prospective data are needed to confirm these associations

El conflicto entre cristianos y musulmanes en las relaciones de sucesos : la liberación de Buda

Este trabajo propone el análisis de una selección de textos escritos en romance sobre la derrota turca y la toma de la ciudad de Buda en 1686, que denuncian la exultante acogida popular de la noticia de las gestas cristianas en Centroeuropa, la percepción del eterno conflicto entre Oriente y Occidente y la proyección del imaginario colectivo del siglo xvii acerca de la lucha contra los infieles.This paper offers the analysis of a selection of texts, written in Romance languages, about the Turkish defeat and the conquest of the city of Buda in 1686, which provide evidence of the popular exultation at the news of the Christian achievements in Central Europe, the perception of the eternal conflict between East and West, and the projection of the seventeenth-century collective imagination regarding the struggle against the infidel

Pasados y presente. Estudios para el profesor Ricardo García Cárcel

Ricardo García Cárcel (Requena, 1948) estudió Historia en Valencia bajo el magisterio de Joan Reglà, con quien formó parte del primer profesorado de historia moderna en la Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona. En esta universidad, desde hace prácticamente cincuenta años, ha desarrollado una extraordinaria labor docente y de investigación marcada por un sagaz instinto histórico, que le ha convertido en pionero de casi todo lo que ha estudiado: las Germanías, la historia de la Cataluña moderna, la Inquisición, las culturas del Siglo de Oro, la Leyenda Negra, Felipe II, Felipe V, Austrias y Borbones, la guerra de la Independencia, la historia cultural, los mitos de la historia de España... Muy pocos tienen su capacidad para reflexionar, ordenar, analizar, conceptualizar y proponer una visión amplia y llena de matices sobre el pasado y las interpretaciones historiográficas. A su laboriosidad inimitable se añade una dedicación sin límites en el asesoramiento de alumnos e investigadores e impulsando revistas, dosieres, seminarios o publicaciones colectivas. Una mínima correspondencia a su generosidad lo constituye este volumen a manera de ineludible agradecimiento