Filosofía para no filósofos

-¿Quiénes son los no filósofos y qué es la filosofía? Contestar a la pregunta sobre quiénes no son filósofos es relativamente fácil, y la respuesta es simple: son los que no estudiaron filosofía, quienes no poseen el título académico de filósofo. En este sentido, resulta casi un hecho que pocos hombres o mujeres sean filósofos o filósofas, pero esto no es necesariamente así. En el presente trabajo se da cuenta de la labor de la filosofía fuera de la academis, es decir, en el transcurrir diario

Identification of Differentially Expressed Genes in HPV AssociatedCancers Using Gene Expression, Tissue,and MicroRNA Microarrays

Infections with high-risk human papillomaviruses (HPVs) have been implicated in the pathogenesis of cervical carcinoma and a subset of squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN). In this study, we compared the cellular gene expression profiles of HPV16-positive and HPV-negative oropharyngeal carcinomas with those of the normal oral epithelium. Using a high-density oligonucleotide microarray containing 22,215 human transcripts, we showed that 397 and 162 genes were differentially expressed in HPV16-positive and HPV-negative SCCHN, respectively, compared to the normal oral epithelium. Our studies also identified 59 differentially expressed genes in HPV16-positive SCCHN as compared to both HPV-negative SCCHN and normal oropharyngeal tissues. Such up-regulated genes included those involved in nuclear structure and meiosis (SYCP2), DNA repair (RFC5), and transcription regulation (ZNF238). Genes involved in proteolysis (KLK8) and signal transduction (CRABP2) were found to be down-regulated in HPV-positive SCCHN. Our results reveal specific gene expression patterns in HPV16-positive oropharyngeal squamous carcinomas and suggest that HPV infection could play an important etiologic role in these tumors. In another study using the same high-density microarray platform, we have analyzed the cellular gene expression profiles of five HPV-16 and two HPV-18 positive cervical cell lines, one HPV-negative cervical carcinoma cell line, and normal cervical tissue. Our results showed that 877 and 536 genes were differentially expressed in the HPV-positive cell lines compared to the normal cervix tissue and the HPV-negative cervical carcinoma cell line C-33A, respectively. We also found that a total of 57 genes were differentially expressed in the HPV-positive cell lines as compared to both the normal cervix and C-33A. Differentially expressed genes including those involved in cell proliferation such as the L-type amino acid transporter 1 (LAT1, also known as SLC7A5) and gene expression regulation like nucleosome assembly protein 1-like 3 (NAP1L3) were found to be affected for the first time in cervical cell lines. In situ hybridization of LAT1 and NAP1L3 mRNA performed using tissue-arrays (containing ~50 different cervical tumor samples per slide) showed that these genes are also affected in their expression in tumor tissues. These results could lead to the identification of new cellular pathways affected by the presence of HPV in cervical cells. We have also carried out studies to determine whether the expression of human microRNAs (miRNAs; small non-coding RNAs that have the ability to regulate gene expression) are affected by the presence of HPV DNA. For this purpose, we analyzed the expression of miRNAs in HPV-16 positive cervical cell lines and tissues. Twenty-seven miRNAs were differentially expressed in cervical cell lines containing integrated HPV-16 DNA compared to the normal cervix, while, only 6 miRNAs were differentially expressed in a cell line containing episomal HPV-16 DNA compared to the normal cervix. Furthermore, 10 miRNAs were affected in their expression in cell lines containing integrated HPV-16 DNA compared to C-33A. Interestingly, microRNA-218 (miR-218) was specifically underexpressed in cell lines, cervical lesions and cancer tissues containing integrated HPV-16 DNA as compared to both the HPV-negative cell line C-33A and the normal cervix. Expression of the HPV-16 E6 oncogene in transfected cells reduced miR-218 expression, and conversely, RNA interference of E6/E7 oncogenes in an HPV-16 positive cell line increased miR-218 expression. We also showed that miR-218 expression parallels that of the tumor suppressor gene SLIT2 whose intron encodes miR-218. Furthermore, exogenous expression of miR-218 in HPV-16 positive cell lines decreased expression of the epithelial-specific gene LAMB3 which is involved in cell migration and tumorigenicity. These findings demonstrate specific regulation of cellular miRNAs in the presence of an HPV oncogene and may contribute to a better understanding of molecular mechanisms involved in cervical carcinogenesis

Decoherence in neutrino propagation through matter, and bounds from IceCube/DeepCore

We revisit neutrino oscillations in matter considering the open quantum system framework which allows to introduce possible decoherence effects generated by New Physics in a phenomenological manner. We assume that the decoherence parameters $\gamma_{ij}$ may depend on the neutrino energy, as $\gamma_{ij}=\gamma_{ij}^{0}(E/\text{GeV})^n$ $(n = 0,\pm1,\pm2)$. The case of non-uniform matter is studied in detail, both within the adiabatic approximation and in the more general non-adiabatic case. In particular, we develop a consistent formalism to study the non-adiabatic case dividing the matter profile into an arbitrary number of layers of constant densities. This formalism is then applied to explore the sensitivity of IceCube and DeepCore to this type of effects. Our study is the first atmospheric neutrino analysis where a consistent treatment of the matter effects in the three-neutrino case is performed in presence of decoherence. We show that matter effects are indeed extremely relevant in this context. We find that IceCube is able to considerably improve over current bounds in the solar sector ($\gamma_{21}$) and in the atmospheric sector ($\gamma_{31}$ and $\gamma_{32}$) for $n=0,1,2$ and, in particular, by several orders of magnitude (between 3 and 9) for the $n=1,2$ cases. For $n=0$ we find $\gamma_{32},\gamma_{31}< 4.0\cdot10^{-24} (1.3\cdot10^{-24})$ GeV and $\gamma_{21}<1.3\cdot10^{-24} (4.1\cdot10^{-24})$ GeV, for normal (inverted) mass ordering.Comment: 31 pages, 8 figure

Using semantics for automating the authentication of Web APIs

Recent technology developments in the area of services on the Web are marked by the proliferation of Web applications and APIs. The implementation and evolution of applications based on Web APIs is, however, hampered by the lack of automation that can be achieved with current technologies. Research on semantic Web services is there fore trying to adapt the principles and technologies that were devised for traditional Web services, to deal with this new kind of services. In this paper we show that currently more than 80% of the Web APIs require some form of authentication. Therefore authentication plays a major role for Web API invocation and should not be neglected in the context of mashups and composite data applications. We present a thorough analysis carried out over a body of publicly available APIs that determines the most commonly used authentication approaches. In the light of these results, we propose an ontology for the semantic annotation of Web API authentication information and demonstrate how it can be used to create semantic Web API descriptions. We evaluate the applicability of our approach by providing a prototypical implementation, which uses authentication annotations as the basis for automated service invocation

Operações do Banco Mundial em Estados afetados por conflitos e os Princípios Ruggie: uma oportunidade para a prestação de contas

In spite of the efforts that both States and International Institutions have carried out to prevent Human Rights abuses related to development activities, the results obtained have not completely fulfilled the expectations. In fact, in some cases, they have contributed to weaken the delicate balance in conflict-affected areas, increasing poverty and marginalization. Indeed, the WBG activities in Fragile and Conflict States face several challenges regarding the implementation of the UNGPs and their analysis is crucial in the improvement of social risks linked with Banks operations in conflict-affected areas. To this regard, the present paper analyses the system created by the WB to avoid Human Rights violations and how it can be influenced by the UNGPs. The author has divided the WBG system in two structural elements: Operational Policies and the Bank Risk Assessment analyzing. At the same time the paper face the issue of the immunity regarding human rights violations.Apesar dos esforços que tanto os Estados como as Instituições Internacionais têm realizado para prevenir os abusos dos Direitos Humanos relacionados com as atividades de desenvolvimento, os resultados obtidos não têm correspondido completamente às expectativas. De fato, em alguns casos, eles contribuíram para enfraquecer o delicado equilíbrio nas áreas afetadas pelo conflito, aumentando a pobreza e a marginalização. De fato, as atividades do Banco Mundial em Estados frágeis e em situação de conflito enfrentam diversos desafios em relação à implementação das UNGP e sua análise é crucial para a melhoria dos riscos sociais ligados às operações dos Bancos em áreas afetadas por conflitos. Neste sentido, o presente documento analisa o sistema criado pelo BM para evitar violações dos Direitos Humanos e como pode ser influenciado pelos UNGPs. O autor dividiu o sistema do BMG em dois elementos estruturais: Políticas operacionais e a análise da Avaliação de Risco do Banco. Ao mesmo tempo, o documento enfrenta a questão da imunidade em relação às violações dos direitos humanos

Establishment of seafarers training centre in Honduras

Public and political interest in quality, safety and the environment is growing steadily throughout the world. This increases the pressure on all organizations with responsibilities in the maritime field, at the same time underlines the need for organizations like Maritime Training Centers. This dissertation describes the real situation of the seafarers\u27 education in Honduras and the need for establishment of an institution that meets the global requirements. The description of minimum physical set up of the Training Center can be found in chapter two; the general course outlines are introduced for the General Purpose Rating and for the Catering Rating based on syllabuses already in progress in reputable Training Centers in Europe and the USA. I believe the success of the future years in our Maritime Administration will be due to the fact that the commitment to quality of education has been reached. This will give to all those who work for the development of our country great satisfaction and confidence in the future