Describing China in the missionary experience during the second half of the sixteenth century: the Iberian laboratory

El objetivo de este artículo es el de proponer una reflexión acerca de la especificidad de la escritura misionera como proceso de producción de saber. Sin dar como adquirido el “carácter proto-etnográfico de la escritura misionera”, en contra de la lectura tradicional que se nos ofrece desde Claude Levi- Strauss, trata de poner en perspectiva las condiciones geopolíticas y aquellos elementos susceptibles de conformar una episteme propia, por medio de los cuales, en la segunda mitad del siglo XVI, la China se convirtió en objeto de saber para el mundo letrado europeo, inscrito en un nuevo marco global. Para ello, se sirve de la lectura conjunta de tres textos que –es la hipótesis del artículo– constituyen la base de una operación historiográfica de esta naturaleza: el Tratado das Cousas da China de Gaspar da Cruz, la Historia de las cosas las mas notables, ritos y costumbres del gran reyno de la China de González de Mendoza, el De Christiana Expeditione apud China de Nicolas Trigault.The main goal of this article is to develop a reflection about the specificity of missionary writing as a means for the production of knowledge. Rather than endorsing the ‘proto-ethnological character of missionary writing’ (in the footsteps of Claude Lévi-Strauss), it aims at confronting the geopolitical context with the potential elements of a particular episteme allowing, during the second half of the sixteenth century, for China to be turned into a new topic for the European learned milieu, encompassing thus knowledge production into a new global framework. The article’s main suggestion is that the historiographical operation that encapsulates this process can be located in the cross-reading of three books: Gaspar da Cruz’s Tratado das Cousas da China, González de Mendoza’s Historia de las cosas las mas notables, ritos y costumbres del gran reyno de la China, and Nicolas Trigault’s De Christiana Expeditione apud China

Conclusion and future directions

The purpose of this volume was to bring together a unique collection of studies in Italian as a heritage language. The research presented herein showcases a range of studies concerning knowledge, understanding, and use of Italian by bilingual/multilingual speakers raised in a local dominant language. Montrul (this volume) opens the discussion by providing a background overview of heritage languages and linguistics research

Leptomeningitis in a person with radiologically isolated syndrome and latent tuberculosis. A case report with implications for clinical research

A 39-year-old man, followed with serial MRI of CNS for a radiologically isolate syndrome (RIS, a recently described condition considered a subclinical form of MS), was hospitalized for the occurrence of a leptomeningitis. Routine blood tests and contrast enhanced total body CT scan were unremarkable. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) examination showed increase of cells (22 mononuclear cells/mm3), albumin (294 mg/L), immunoglobilins G (161 mg/L) and Link Index (1.9), with 17 oligoclonal bands. Microbiological examinations of CSF (including those for Koch’s Bacillus) were negative. The Mantoux reaction and the QuantiFERON test were positive, featuring a latent tuberculosis (TB). The patient started prophylaxis with rifampicin and isoniazid for four months, until a new MRI showed the disappearance of the leptomeningeal enhancement, and the stability of white matter brain and spinal cord lesions. Two other MRI scans showed a new brain Gd-enhancing lesion nine month after anti-tubercular therapy and, after additional six months, new cerebral and spinal cord areas. This case provides the following suggestions about the effects of TB infection and related therapies on the underlying autoimmune status: the infection, while actively present, did not exacerbate the RIS condition; the worsening nine months after the prophylaxis discontinuation might have been the ‘natural’ evolution of RIS condition. Alternative speculative hypotheses include a remote effect of the infection, of isoniazid (that was reported in some cases to trigger MS), or the result of the clearance of the infection itself. Irrespective of the existence of any interaction between RIS and TB infection, It seems important to collect cases with MS-related diseases and concomitant infections, that may provide clues about disease pathogenesis and treatment

MÁS ALLÁ DEL FORMALISMO: el compromiso social de Giancarlo De Carlo

Giancarlo De Carlo, arquitecto, urbanista y ensayista, fue uno de los protagonistas más complejos y comprometidos de la cultura arquitectónica italiana e internacional de la segunda mitad del siglo XX. El interés por su figura se expresa en las numerosas iniciativas, exposiciones y publicaciones en torno al centenario de su nacimiento. En todas ellas, está el corazón del pensamiento y de la obra de De Carlo; la valiosa relación entre ser humano, medio ambiente y la comunidad. En este escrito, proponemos una revisión crítica de su obra que vaya más allá de la así llamada “arquitectura de la participación”, ya que puede abrir caminos de investigación sobre temas de actualidad: el vínculo inseparable entre arquitectura y urbanismo; la relación entre experiencia existencial y espacio construido en el diseño del paisaje, la ciudad, los centros históricos; el proyecto de reutilización de obras existentes; la construcción continua de una visión de la arquitectura para “diseñar pensando en el futuro” y “abrir procesos en lugar de cerrar soluciones”

El libro como instrumento de la construcción de un mundo global: los misioneros y la cultura del escrito

En los últimos sesenta años, la investigación sobre los procesos de circulación de lo escrito en el Renacimiento, se ha desplegado en numerosas direcciones a partir de los trabajos consagrados a la Historia del Libro y a la Imprenta. Cuestionar la figura de los actores de la circulación de textos permite, sin embargo, reflexionar mejor sobre las lógicas de la circulación de lo escrito y de sus espacios, invitándonos a ampliar la investigación, incluyendo nuevas dimensiones, vinculadas con lo que fueron los mundos del Renacimiento más allá de la cuenca mediterránea, de sus culturas de la escritura y del libro. Entonces, el enfoque de los misioneros, en particular de la Compañía de Jesús, se revela como un punto de observación privilegiado para liberar la reflexión de una perspectiva difusionista, examinando el concepto de “textualidad” en el ámbito de los mundos letrados que se construyeron entre el Nuevo Mundo y la Vieja Europa.In the past sixty years, research on the circulation of writing during the Renaissance has gone in many directions, thanks to work devoted to the history of the book and to printing. Nonetheless, study of the agents who took part in the circulation of writing allows a deeper understanding of its logic, and of the spaces in which it took place. This study leads to research on the real dimensions of Renaissance worlds beyond the Mediterranean area, and on cultures of writing and the book. The focus here on missionaries, and more specifically on the Society of Jesus, is a productive one, since it lets us discard a diffusionist perspective and question the concept of «textuality» within the framework of the learned worlds which developed between the New World and the Old Europe

DNA looping, histones and DNA methylation are coupled by DNA oxidation to modulate transcription

Changes of histone methylation code, DNA hydroxymethylation and formation of chromatin loops are associated with transcription induction by nuclear hormones, but it is not known if these events are the consequence or the cause of transcription initiation. We studied the effect of activation of the retinoic acid receptor, at the RARE–promoter chromatin of CASP9 and CYP26A1 genes, and estrogen receptor !, at ERE and Poly_A of PS2, CAV1 and BCL2 genes. We found that histone H3 lysines 4 and 9 are demethylated by the lysine-speci"c demethylase, LSD1 and by the JMJ-domain containing demethylase, D2A. The action of the oxidase (LSD1) and a dioxygenase (JMJD2A) in the presence of Fe++ elicits an oxidation wave that locally oxidate the DNA, recruits the enzymes involved in base and nucleotide excision repair (BER and NER) and bring to formation of chromatin loops that juxtapose the 5' and 3' ends of induced genes. In addition we evaluated the crucial role of DNA methyltransferase 3a that work closely to OGG1 and APE1, favoring strand specific repair of oxo-dG and methylation of the complementary C preventing the accumulation of G to T mutations at regulative regions of studied genes. We suggest that coupling transcription with methylation and repair enzymes is an evolutionary strategy to reduce the mutational burden induced by DNA oxidation necessary for chromatin looping. We characterized the changes in chromatin structure, DNA methylation, the recruitment of Base Excision Repair during and after homologous DNA repair (HR) in HeLa DR-GFP cells. Repaired genes display stable but different methylation profiles. These profiles manage the levels of expression in generated recombinant populations. Our data argue that DNA methylation and chromatin remodelling induced by HR may be a source of permanent variation of gene expression in somatic cells. Finally we studied the relationship between chromatin remodeling of FOXP3 gene and immunophenotypic differentiation of human primary CD4+ T lymphocytes moreover the alterated immunosuppressive activity in autoimmune desease. We found that the induction and suppressive function of iTreg cells (induced Treg cells) tightly depended on glycolysis, which controlled FOXP3 splicing variants containing exon 2 ( FOXP3-E2) through the glycolytic enzyme enolase-1. The FOXP3-E2–related suppressive activity of iTreg cells was altered in human autoimmune diseases, including multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes, and was associated with impaired glycolysis and signaling via interleukin 2. This link between glycolysis and FOXP3-E2 variants via enolase-1 shows a previously unknown mechanism for controlling the induction and function of Treg cells in health and in autoimmunity

Ciencia y saberes en la edad moderna: un espejo para reflexionar sobre el panorama historiográfico en la era de la mundialización

Segunda parte. Historiografía.Se presenta un minucioso recorrido de la recepción de las obras, escritas en el mundo anglófono, sobre la historia de las ciencias, puestas en relación con la propia producción de tradición francesa. Su artículo, que en un momento nos pone al día de la producción francesa sobre el tema, en su segunda parte es un diálogo con Simon Schaffer, quien, en sus últimos artículos, ha venido investigando sobre las conexiones, recepción y aportaciones de las culturas "colonizadas" (el subcontinente asiático, India, principalmente) a la ciencia europea. En suma, podríamos decir, que desde Europa hace una dura crítica al eurocentrismo que postula haber construido la ciencia de la modernidad (siglos XVII y XVIII) aisladamente. Al lado de la obra de Schaffer, la autora (especialista en historia de las ciencias en la modernidad temprana y las relaciones con el mundo chino) devela el intercambio con estos mundos y las abre a la perspectiva mundial

(D)escribir la China en la experiencia misionera de la segunda mitad del siglo XVI: el laboratorio ibérico

El objetivo de este artículo es el de proponer una reflexión acerca de la especificidad de la escritura misionera como proceso de producción de saber. Sin dar como adquirido el “carácter proto-etnográfico de la escritura misionera”, en contra de la lectura tradicional que se nos ofrece desde Claude Levi- Strauss, trata de poner en perspectiva las condiciones geopolíticas y aquellos elementos susceptibles de conformar una episteme propia, por medio de los cuales, en la segunda mitad del siglo XVI, la China se convirtió en objeto de saber para el mundo letrado europeo, inscrito en un nuevo marco global. Para ello, se sirve de la lectura conjunta de tres textos que –es la hipótesis del artículo– constituyen la base de una operación historiográfica de esta naturaleza: el Tratado das Cousas da China de Gaspar da Cruz, la Historia de las cosas las mas notables, ritos y costumbres del gran reyno de la China de González de Mendoza, el De Christiana Expeditione apud China de Nicolas Trigault

An eighteen-month follow-up study on the effects of intravitreal dexamethasone implant in diabetic macular edema refractory to anti-VEGF therapy

Abstract AIM: To evaluate the long-term efficacy and safety of dexamethasone implants in subjects affected by diabetic macular edema (DME) resistant to anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) therapy. METHODS: Thirty-two DME patients were enrolled. A 700 microgram slow release Intravitreal Dexamethasone Implant (Ozurdex®) was placed in the vitreous cavity. All patients were followed for 18mo. Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) measured with Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) and central macular thickness (CMT) exams were carried out at baseline (T0) and after 1 (T1), 3 (T3), 4 (T4), 6 (T6), 9 (T9), 12 (T12), 15 (T15), and 18mo (T18) post injection. RESULTS: Repeated measures ANOVA showed an effect of treatment on ETDRS (P<0.0001). Post hoc analyses revealed that ETDRS values were significantly increased at T1, T3, T4, T9, and T15 (P<0.001) as compared to baseline value (T0). At T6, T12, and T18, ETDRS values were still statistically higher than baseline (P<0.001 vs T0). However, at these time points, we observed a trend to return to baseline conditions. ANOVA also showed an effect of treatment (P<0.0001). CMT decreased significantly at T1, T3, T4, T9, and T15 (P<0.001). At T6 (P<0.01), T12 and T18 (P<0.001) CMT was also significantly lower than T0 although a trend to return to the baseline conditions was also observed. CONCLUSION: Our findings demonstrate that Intravitreal Dexamethasone Implant is a good option to improve BCVA and CMT in DME patients resistant to anti-VEGF therapy. Our data also show that the use of drugs administered directly into the vitreous allows achieving appropriate and long-lasting concentration at the site of disease without systemic side effects