Culture-led urban regeneration policies in the Ibero-American space

This article examines cultural policy strategies supporting urban regeneration, focusing on its particular characteristics in the Ibero-American context. We start by developing a systematic contrast between the different circumstances that have led to the emergence of these strategies in the Ibero-American sphere and in other parts of the world. Our examination of the Ibero-American regenerative experience also includes a consideration of the paradigmatic cases that arose initially in the Iberian Peninsula and the typological analysis of subsequent Latin American experiences. The consideration of all these different elements ends up providing a global vision of the specificity of the phenomenon in its Ibero-American context

Cultural clusters and social interaction dynamics: The case of Barcelona

Analysing the territorial dynamics of culture, particularly its tendency to form clusters, has become a study area that draws the attention of various social science disciplines. It has grown steadily in importance over the last twenty years alongside the increasing interest in creative industries and cultural institutions as factors in socio-economic development and urban regeneration. Most of today's literature on the subject takes cultural clusters as a single type and focuses on aspects linked to their urban planning or economic impact. However, there is a growing awareness of the importance of the social dimension of cultural clusters. This paper aims to differentiate between various cultural clusters in the city of Barcelona by constructing models or types of cluster taking into account the predominant interaction dynamics and the type of social ties generated between the cultural agents participating in these groupings. Following these criteria we distinguish three types of cultural cluster according to whether a bureaucratic, associative or community dynamic predominates. These social dynamics enable us to understand the success or failure of a cluster policy

The cultural paradiplomacy of Barcelona since the 1980s: understanding transformations in local cultural paradiplomacy

This article seeks to explain the conditions for the emergence and institutionalization of the cultural paradiplomacy of the city of Barcelona and its local effects. The recognition of the city as an active participant on the international stage is based on its evolution from an industrial to a service economy. Against this backdrop, Barcelona's city council, in common with many other city authorities operating in the world's metropolises during the 1980s, initiated its own cultural paradiplomacy as a strategy for attracting capital and promoting local development. This policy became established as part of a new multilevel system of governance. This article analyzes the causes of the institutionalization of this activity from an intergovernmental perspective. It concludes that in the context of economic globalization, the emergence of cities' cultural paradiplomacy is strongly related to the restructuring of the State and its external administration and to the intensification of the 'cultural branding' of cities as a tool for global competition

Aquaporins 7 and 11 in boar spermatozoa : detection, localisation and relationship with sperm quality

Aquaporins (AQPs) are integral membrane water channels that allow transport of water and/or small solutes across cell membranes. Although water permeability is known to play a critical role in mammalian cells, including spermatozoa, little is known about their localisation in boar spermatozoa. Against this background, two different aquaporins, AQP7 and AQP11, were identified in boar spermatozoa by Wwestern blotting and localised through immunocytochemistry analyses. WOur western blot results showed that boar spermatozoa present AQP7 (25KDa) and AQP11 (50KDa). Immunocytochemistry analyses demonstrated that AQP7 is localised at the connecting piece of boar spermatozoa, while AQP11 was found in the head and in the midpiece, and a diffuse labelling was also seen along the tail. Despite differences in AQP7- and AQP11-content being seen between boar ejaculates, these differences were not found to be correlated with sperm quality in the case of AQP7. Conversely, AQP11-content showed a significant correlation (P<0.05) with sperm quality parameters, including sperm membrane integrity and fluidity, and sperm motility. In conclusion, boar spermatozoa present AQP7 and AQP11,. Additionally, and the amounts of the latterAQP11 but not of AQP7 the former are correlated with sperm motility and membrane integrity

Biofunctionalization of cork with Moringa oleifera seeds and use of PMA staining and qPCR to detect viability of Escherichia coli

Cork matrices biofunctionalized with Moringa oleifera seed extracts (MoSe) have potential for use as a biofilter with antibacterial properties to reduce waterborne pathogens. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of cork biofunctionalized with active antimicrobial compounds of MoSe (f-cork) on the inhibition of Escherichia coli (InhEc). The LacZ gene from a strain of E. coli was used as the target sequence using viability quantification Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) and differentiation of viable and dead bacteria through selective cell viability PMA staining. To perform this, a 27−4 fractional factorial design and a biofiltration system were used to evaluate the effect of the active protein in MoSe immobilized in granulated cork on InhEc. We found that the potential for antimicrobial activity increased with f-cork for an effective maximal bacterial reduction (99.99%; p < 0.05). The effect of f-cork functionalized with MoSe on E. coli viability was of 0.024% and 0.005% for the cells exposed to PMA, respectively, being the relevant conditions in treatment 2: (0 L/min) without aeration, (5%) MoSe and (5 mm) cork particle. In conclusion, the f-cork functionalized with MoSe presented biosorbent and antibacterial properties that effectively reduced the E. coli growth

KHK, PNPLA3 and PPAR as Novel Targets for the Anti-Steatotic Action of Bempedoic Acid

Bempedoic acid (BemA) is an ATP-citrate lyase (ACLY) inhibitor used to treat hypercholesterolemia. We studied the anti-steatotic effect of BemA, and the mechanisms involved, in a model of fatty liver in female rats obtained through the administration of a high-fat diet supplemented with liquid fructose (HFHFr) for three months. In the third month, a group of rats was treated with BemA (30 mg/kg/day) by gavage. Plasma analytes, liver histology, adiposity, and the expression of key genes controlling fatty acid metabolism were determined, and PPAR agonism was explored by using luciferase reporter assays. Our results showed that, compared to HFHFr, BemA-treated rats exhibited lower body weight, higher liver/body weight, and reduced hepatic steatosis. In addition to ACLY inhibition, we found three novel mechanisms that could account for the anti-steatotic effect: (1) reduction of liver ketohexokinase, leading to lower fructose intake and reduced de novo lipogenesis; (2) increased expression of patatin-like phospholipase domain-containing protein 3, a protein related to the export of liver triglycerides to blood; and (3) PPARα agonist activity, leading to increased hepatic fatty acid β-oxidation. In conclusion, BemA may represent a novel approach to treat hepatic steatosis, and therefore to avoid progression to advanced stages of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

Adipose Tissue Protects against Hepatic Steatosis in Male Rats Fed a High-Fat Diet plus Liquid Fructose: Sex-Related Differences

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is a sexual dimorphic disease, with adipose tissue playing an essential role. Our previous work showed that female rats fed a high-fat high-fructose diet devoid of cholesterol (HFHFr) developed simple hepatic steatosis dissociated from obesity. This study assessed the impact of the HFHFr diet on the male rat metabolism compared with data obtained for female rats. A total of 16 Sprague Dawley (SD) male rats were fed either a control (standard rodent chow and water) or HFHFr (high-fat diet devoid of cholesterol, plus 10% fructose in drinking water) diet for 3 months. Unlike female rats, and despite similar increases in energy consumption, HFHFr males showed increased adiposity and hyperleptinemia. The expression of hormone-sensitive lipase in the subcutaneous white adipose tissue was enhanced, leading to high free fatty acid and glycerol serum levels. HFHFr males presented hypertriglyceridemia, but not hepatic steatosis, partially due to enhanced liver PPARα-related fatty acid β-oxidation and the VLDL-promoting effect of leptin. In conclusion, the SD rats showed a sex-related dimorphic response to the HFHFr diet. Contrary to previous results for HFHFr female rats, the male rats were able to expand the adipose tissue, increase fatty acid catabolism, or export it as VLDL, avoiding liver lipid deposition. Keywords: adipose tissue; fructose; high-fat diet; leptin; non-esterified fatty acids

Deep learning for MRI-based CT synthesis: a comparison of MRI sequences and neural network architectures

[Otros] Synthetic computed tomography (CT) images derived from magnetic resonance images (MRI) are of interest for radiotherapy planning and positron emission tomography (PET) attenuation correction. In recent years, deep learning implementations have demonstrated improvement over atlasbased and segmentation-based methods. Nevertheless, several open questions remain to be addressed, such as which is the best of MRI sequences and neural network architectures. In this work, we compared the performance of different combinations of two common MRI sequences (T1- and T2-weighted), and three state-of-the-art neural networks designed for medical image processing (Vnet, HighRes3dNet and ScaleNet). The experiments were conducted on brain datasets from a public database. Our results suggest that T1 images perform better than T2, but the results further improve when combining both sequences. The lowest mean average error over the entire head (MAE = 101.76 ± 10.4 HU) was achieved combining T1 and T2 scans with HighRes3dNet. All tested deep learning models achieved significantly lower MAE (p < 0.01) than a well-known atlas-based method.This work was supported by the Spanish Government grants TEC2016-79884-C2 and RTC-2016-5186-1, and by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)Larroza, A.; Moliner, L.; Álvarez-Gómez, JM.; Oliver-Gil, S.; Espinós-Morató, H.; Vergara-Díaz, M.; Rodríguez-Álvarez, MJ. (2019). Deep learning for MRI-based CT synthesis: a comparison of MRI sequences and neural network architectures. IEEE. 1-4. https://doi.org/10.1109/NSS/MIC42101.2019.9060051S1

Continuous fungal treatment of non-sterile veterinary hospital effluent: pharmaceuticals removal and microbial community assessment

Source point treatment of effluents with a high load of pharmaceutical active compounds (PhACs), such as hospital wastewater, is a matter of discussion among the scientific community. Fungal treatments have been reported to be successful in degrading this type of pollutants and, therefore, the white-rot fungus Trametes versicolor was applied for the removal of PhACs from veterinary hospital wastewater. Sixty-six percent removal was achieved in a non-sterile batch bioreactor inoculated with T. versicolor pellets. On the other hand, the study of microbial communities by means of DGGE and phylogenetic analyses led us to identify some microbial interactions and helped us moving to a continuous process. PhAC removal efficiency achieved in the fungal treatment operated in non-sterile continuous mode was 44 % after adjusting the C/N ratio with respect to the previously calculated one for sterile treatments. Fungal and bacterial communities in the continuous bioreactors were monitored as well.Authors want to acknowledge the UAB veterinary hospital staff for their kind permission and help for the samplings. This work has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER (projects CTM2013-48545-C2 and AIB2010PT-00169) and supported by the Generalitat de Catalunya (Consolidated Research Groups 2014-SGR-476 and 2014-SGR-291). The Department of Chemical Engineering of the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB) is a member of the Xarxa de Referencia en Biotecnologia de la Generalitat de Catalunya. M. Badia-Fabregat and D. Lucas acknowledge the predoctoral grants from UAB and from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports (AP-2010-4926), respectively. The authors also thank the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) Strategic Project PEst-OE/EQB/LA0023/2013, Project FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-027462 co-funded by Operational Competitiveness Programme, FEDER, and Project "BioEnv-Biotechnology and Bioengineering for a sustainable world," REF. NORTE-07-0124-FEDER-000048, co-funded by Programa Operacional Regional do Norte (ON.2 - O Novo Norte), QREN, FEDER