Foucault and the question of the resistance between “governamentality” and “care”: The “affaire Croissant” and the neoliberalism

A partir del modo en que el “affaire Klaus Croissant” interrogaba radicalmente la constitución material de su actualidad, este estudio quiere mostrar la manera cómo haya podido desempeñar un papel esencial en la comprensión política de ese presente del que Foucault planteaba delinear la “ontología” y, por consiguiente, cómo pudo convertirse en uno de los motivos que le llevaron a desplazar el foco de su análisis de los dispositivos de “poder-saber” hacia la cuestión de la “gubernamentalidad”, a partir de los cursos dictados en el Collège de France entre 1978 y 1979. Para ello, nuestra atención se centrará principalmente en esos dos cursos, en las entrevistas y en los artículos de Foucault y de otros autores durante esa época, a fin de bosquejar la coyuntura histórico-política en la que se produce el “caso Croissant” y las repercusiones que ese suceso tuvo tanto en la vida personal del filósofo francés como en su giro hacia la cuestión del “gobierno”; y, de ahí, hacia la problemática del “cuidado”, en cuanto manifestación de un cuestionamiento más general sobre el papel ético-político de la filosofía en el mundo contemporáneoBased upon the way in which the “Klaus Croissant case” radically interrogated the material constitution of the present, the essay attempts to show how it has been able to play a vital role in the political understanding of that present of which Foucault wanted to delineate an “ontology” and, therefore, how it has been one of the reasons that led him to move the focus of his analysis from the “power-knowledge” apparatuses (dispositifs) toward the question of “governmentality”, during the lectures at the Collège de France from 1978 to 1979. To do this, our attention will focus mainly on both of those courses, on interviews and on Foucault’s and other authors' articles written during that time. The aim is to sketch the historical and political context in which Croissant case occurs and to attest the impact that that event had both in foucauldian turn towards the issue of “government” and in the personal life of the French philosopher; and, hence, in the setting-up of the problem of “care” as a manifestation of a more general questioning about the ethical role of philosophy in contemporary worl

Constantine the Great and Aquileia: a new hoard evidence

This contribution is dedicated to a small hoard of Constantinian nummi found in Aquileia in the early ‘60s, but only recently “rediscovered” in the coin cabinet of the National Museum. 20 of the 21 coins belong to the same issue type VIRT EXERCIT, struck in AD 319 in Thessalonica, specifically conceived for the distribution to the troops and rarely attested among treasure and single finds of the entire Mediterranean area. Within the assemblage, three die-linked specimens have been detected as well as an obverse brockage coin, peculiar features proper to a uniform stock of coins concealed soon after its production. During the struggle for power against Licinius, Constantine the Great visited many times Aquileia between 318 and 319 AD as attested by ancient sources. Given the peculiar traits of the hoard, the owner should be sought among the members of the Constantinian army, following the emperor or involved in supply duties, frequently moving between Northern Italy and the Balkans during the war against the Licinian dynasty

Testing Gravity with Quasi Periodic Oscillations from accreting Black Holes: the Case of Einstein-Dilaton-Gauss-Bonnet Theory

Quasi-Periodic Oscillations (QPOs) observed in the X-ray flux emitted by accreting black holes, are associated to phenomena occurring near the horizon. Future very large area X-ray instruments will be able to measure QPO frequencies with very high precision, thus probing this strong-field region. By using the relativistic precession model, we show the way in which QPO frequencies could be used to test general relativity against those alternative theories of gravity which predict deviations from the classical theory in the strong-field regime. We consider one of the best motivated strong-curvature corrections to general relativity, namely the Einstein-Dilaton-Gauss-Bonnet theory, and show that a detection of QPOs with the expected sensitivity of the proposed ESA M-class mission LOFT would set the most stringent constraints on the parameter space of this theory.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, 1 table; minor changes to match the version appearing on Ap

Social Capital and Political Accountability

In this paper, we empirically investigate a channel through which social capital may improve economic wellbeing and the functioning of institutions: political accountability. The main idea is that voters who share norms of generalized morality demand higher standards of behavior on their elected representavtives, are more willing to bear the cost of acquiring information, and are more likely to base their vote on criteria of social welfare rather than (narrow) personal interest. We take this conjecture to the data using information on the Italian members of Parliament in the postwar period (1948–2001). The empirical evidence shows that the electoral punishment of political misbehavior is considerably larger in electoral districts with high social capital, where social capital is measured by blood donation, and political misbehavior refers to receiving a request of criminal prosecution or shirking in parliamentary activity. Accordingly, episodes of political misbehavior are less frequent in electoral districts with high social capital.Social Capital, Culture, Political Agency

Synthesis, characterization and antifungal assessment of optically active bis-organotin compounds derived from (S)-BINOL diesters

Background: Organotin(IV) derivatives have appeared recently as potential biologically active metallopharmaceuticals exhibiting a variety of therapeutic activities. Hence, it is important to study the synthesis of new organotin compounds with low toxicity that may be of pharmacological interest.Objectives:This study focuses on the synthesis of new bis-stannylated derivatives with C2 symmetry that could be tested as antifungal agents against two clinical important fungal species, Cryptococcus neoformans and Candida albicans.Methods:The radical addition of triorganotin hydrides (R3SnH) and diorganotin chlorohydrides (R2ClSnH) to bis-α,β-unsaturated diesters derived from (S)-BINOL led to the corresponding new bis-stannylated derivatives with C2 symmetry. Nine pure organotin compounds were synthesized with defined stereochemistry. Four of them were enantiomerically pure and four were diastereoisomeric mixtures.Results:All new organotin compounds were fully characterized, those with phenyl ligands bonded to tin were the most active compounds against both the strains (Cryptococcus neoformans and Candida albicans), with activity parameters of IC50 close to those of the reference drug (amphotericin B).Conclusion:Nine pure organotin compounds with C2 symmetry were synthesized with defined stereochemistry and their antifungal properties were tested against two clinical important fungi with IC values close to those of the reference drug. The structure-containing preferably two or three phenyl groups joined to the tin atom were highly active against both the strains compared with those possessing tri-n-butyl groups.Fil: Costantino, Andrea Rosana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Química del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Química. Instituto de Química del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Neudörfl, Jörg M.. Universitat zu Köln; Alemania. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas; ArgentinaFil: Ocampo, Romina Andrea. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Química del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Química. Instituto de Química del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Svetaz, Laura Andrea. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas; ArgentinaFil: Zacchino, Susana Alicia Stella. Universitat zu Köln; AlemaniaFil: Koll, Liliana Cristina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Química del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Química. Instituto de Química del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Mandolesi, Sandra Delia. Universidad Nacional del Sur; Argentin

Anion gap as a prognostic tool for risk stratification in critically ill patients – a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background Lactate concentration is a robust predictor of mortality but in many low resource settings facilities for its analysis are not available. Anion gap (AG), calculated from clinical chemistry results, is a marker of metabolic acidosis and may be more easily obtained in such settings. In this systematic review and meta-analysis we investigated whether the AG predicts mortality in adult patients admitted to critical care settings. Methods We searched Medline, Embase, Web of Science, Scopus, The Cochrane Library and regional electronic databases from inception until May 2016. Studies conducted in any clinical setting that related AG to in-hospital mortality, in-intensive care unit mortality, 31-day mortality or comparable outcome measures were eligible for inclusion. Methodological quality of included studies was assessed using the Quality in Prognostic Studies tool. Descriptive meta-analysis was performed and the I2 test was used to quantify heterogeneity. Subgroup analysis was undertaken to identify potential sources of heterogeneity between studies. Results Nineteen studies reporting findings in 12,497 patients were included. Overall, quality of studies was poor and most studies were rated as being at moderate or high risk of attrition bias and confounding. There was substantial diversity between studies with regards to clinical setting, age and mortality rates of patient cohorts. High statistical heterogeneity was found in the meta-analyses of area under the ROC curve (I2=99%) and mean difference (I2=97%) for the observed AG. Three studies reported good discriminatory power of the AG to predict mortality and were responsible for a large proportion of statistical heterogeneity. The remaining 16 studies reported poor to moderate ability of the AG to predict mortality. Subgroup analysis suggested that intravenous fluids affect the ability of the AG to predict mortality. Conclusion Based on the limited quality of available evidence, a single AG measurement cannot be recommended for risk stratification in critically ill patients. The probable influence of intravenous fluids on AG levels renders the AG an impractical tool in clinical practice. Future research should focus on increasing the availability of lactate monitoring in low resource settings.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

A systematic review and diagnostic test accuracy meta-analysis of the validity of anion gap as a screening tool for hyperlactatemia

Objective This systematic review and meta-analysis seeks to determine the validity of the anion gap to screen for hyperlactatemia in critically ill patients. We have previously shown that the anion gap does not predict 31-day and in-hospital mortality in critically ill patients. The present review aims to add confirmatory evidence to identify whether the anion gap is a suitable tool for risk stratification in low-resource countries. Results Nine studies reporting on 4504 samples from 2111 patients were included. The anion gap failed to detect hyperlactatemia defined as lactate above 2.5 mmol/l but showed good discriminatory ability for the detection of severe hyperlactatemia defined as lactate over 4 mmol/l. At the 2.5 mmol/l threshold, the anion gap had high specificity but low sensitivity for the detection of hyperlactatemia. A meta-analysis of correlation coefficients yielded high statistical heterogeneity. Therefore, in keeping with our previous findings, the use of the anion gap for risk stratification as an alternative to lactate cannot be recommended. However, the strength of the evidence we have synthesised is adversely affected by the small number of studies included, inconsistency of effect measures and positivity thresholds reported, and selection bias within individual studies. PROSPERO Registration Number: CRD42015016470 (registered on the 4th February 2015)