Algunas reflexiones sobre la diáspora

Ponencia presentada en el Coloquio Internacional “Políticas de la frontera. Cartografías geopolíticas y culturales”. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, UNAM, octubre 2008.Esta ponencia discute brevemente el concepto de la diáspora. En un primer momento se establecen algunas coordenadas teóricas que nos permiten diferenciar a una diáspora y el proceso de diasporización de otros fenómenos como la inmigración. En un segundo momento, se propone que la literatura, además de ser un medio de representación que contribuye a la formación de una diáspora, también articula la experiencia diaspórica. Esto se ejemplifica con la novela Brick Lane de Monica Ali

Salem, 1692

Ponencia presentada en el Coloquio interdisciplinario sobre brujas. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, UNAM, octubre 2004.La cacería de brujas que tuvo lugar en la población de Salem en 1692 marcó el imaginario estadounidense tan profundamente que se ha convertido en la metáfora por excelencia de la paranoia y la persecución, sobre todo desde la publicación de The Crucible de Arthur Miller, en 1953. En comparación con las persecuciones europeas, en Salem murieron pocas brujas (hubo 19 ejecuciones y 150 encarcelamientos), pero los acontecimientos de Salem son memorables porque ocurrieron cuando las persecuciones masivas en Europa estaban terminando. Esta ponencia ofrece un recuento de los acontecimientos ocurridos en Salem y una posible explicación de ellos

Speaking in tongues and prophecy as understood by Paul and at Corinth, with reference to early Christian usage

Not availabl

British women writers and the public sphere between the Wars: Winifred Holtby, Storm Jameson, Naomi Mitchison, and Rebecca West.

PhDThis thesis examines how Winifred Holtby, Storm Jameson, Naomi Mitchison and Rebecca West appropriated the political ideas of the interwar period into their fiction and sought to transform abstract ideals into values with which to judge and improve social life. For all four writers, this pursuit takes the form of showing the complex relations between theory and practice as experienced by particular individuals. My premise here is the idea that political ideals are based upon the moral principles used by persons to guide their conduct in the pursuit of individual and collective happiness. Chapter One discusses the socialist concepts of loyalty, equality and fraternity as the values upon which the good society should be constructed and the self-appointed role of writers as public intellectuals whose task was to counteract political apathy and encourage the practice of active citizenship. Chapter Two examines Holtby's Eutychus or the Future of the Pulpit, Jameson's No Time Like the Present and Rebecca West's "The Strange Necessity" to demonstrate how literature was intended as a tool in the defence against the atomisation effected by the impact of modern life on culture, and a bulwark against the concomitant subjectivism which resulted from the extensive retreat into private life. Chapters Three and Four examine the practice of politics itself, with particular emphasis on the social bonds proposed to replace the instrumentality of interpersonal relationships in capitalist societies. The texts examined are Mitchison's We Have Been Warned, Holtby's South Riding, Jameson's In the Second Year and Mirror in Darkness, as well as West's Harriet Hume. Chapter Five focuses on Jameson's That Was Yesterday and West's The Thinking Reed and discusses the difficulties faced by women unable to negotiate the boundaries between the domestic and the public sphere of sociability as a result of the irreconciliability of self-determination and social demands

Orexin, Cardio-Respiratory Function, and Hypertension

In this review we focus on the role of orexin in cardio-respiratory functions and its potential link to hypertension. (1) Orexin, cardiovascular function, and hypertension. In normal rats, central administration of orexin can induce significant increases in arterial blood pressure (ABP) and sympathetic nerve activity (SNA), which can be blocked by orexin receptor antagonists. In spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs), antagonizing orexin receptors can significantly lower blood pressure under anesthetized or conscious conditions. (2) Orexin, respiratory function, and central chemoreception. The prepro-orexin knockout mouse has a significantly attenuated ventilatory CO2 chemoreflex, and in normal rats, central application of orexin stimulates breathing while blocking orexin receptors decreases the ventilatory CO2 chemoreflex. Interestingly, SHRs have a significantly increased ventilatory CO2 chemoreflex relative to normotensive WKY rats and blocking both orexin receptors can normalize this exaggerated response. (3) Orexin, central chemoreception, and hypertension. SHRs have higher ABP and SNA along with an enhanced ventilatory CO2 chemoreflex. Treating SHRs by blocking both orexin receptors with oral administration of an antagonist, almorexant (Almxt), can normalize the CO2 chemoreflex and significantly lower ABP and SNA. We interpret these results to suggest that the orexin system participates in the pathogenesis and maintenance of high blood pressure in SHRs, and the central chemoreflex may be a causal link to the increased SNA and ABP in SHRs. Modulation of the orexin system could be a potential target in treating some forms of hypertension

The Role of Melanin Concentrating Hormone (MCH) in the Central Chemoreflex: A Knockdown Study by siRNA in the Lateral Hypothalamus in Rats

Melanin concentrating hormone (MCH), a neuropeptide produced mainly in neurons localized to the lateral hypothalamic area (LHA), has been implicated in the regulation of food intake, energy balance, sleep state, and the cardiovascular system. Hypothalamic MCH neurons also have multisynaptic connections with diaphragmatic motoneurons and project to many central chemoreceptor sites. However, there are few studies of MCH involvement in central respiratory control. To test the hypothesis that MCH plays a role in the central chemoreflex, we induced a down regulation of MCH in the central nervous system by knocking down the MCH precursor (pMCH) mRNA in the LHA using a pool of small interfering RNA (siRNA), and measured the resultant changes in breathing, metabolic rate, body weight, and blood glucose levels in conscious rats. The injections of pMCH-siRNA into the LHA successfully produced a ∼62% reduction of pMCH mRNA expression in the LHA and a ∼43% decrease of MCH levels in the cerebrospinal fluid relative to scrambled-siRNA treatment (P = 0.006 and P = 0.02 respectively). Compared to the pretreatment baseline and the scrambled-siRNA treated control rats, knockdown of MCH resulted in: 1) an enhanced hypercapnic chemoreflex (∼42 & 47% respectively; P \u3c 0.05) only in wakefulness; 2) a decrease in body weight and basal glucose levels; and 3) an unchanged metabolic rate. Our results indicate that MCH participates not only in the regulation of glucose and sleep-wake homeostasis but also the vigilance-state dependent regulation of the central hypercapnic chemoreflex and respiratory control

Portico

A partir del inicio del siglo XIX, los viajes de los estadunidenses, por una parte, y de mexicanos, por otra, por el septentrión mexicano se multiplicaron. Con propósitos distintos, los actores de estos periplos escribieron informes, diarios, crónicas de viajes, etc. que nos permiten conocer cómo percibían este inmenso espacio que en gran medida era una terra incognita El propósito de este artículo consiste en dar cuenta del bagaje cultural que unos y otros portaban desde sus respectivos lugares de origen para después comparar los documentos que unos y otros redactaron acerca del mismo territorio pero con "miradas" diferentes

La educación superior en Estados Unidos: claves para una lectura

Presentación; Introducción: cambios y continuidades; Los colleges coloniales: 1636-1789; La nación emergente: 1789-1869; La reconstrucción y la industrialización: 1870-1900; El siglo XX: el movimiento por la educación general y el Plan Chicago; La época de oro: 1950-197