La teoría del homo risv capax (la risa como capacidad exclusiva humana) en Isidoro de Sevilla: Antecedentes, delimitación y aportes isidorianos

In the twenty-fifth chapter of the second book of Etymologies, epitome of the Isagoge of Profirius, the Sevillian philosopher Isidore of Seville, taking the example of the Syrian thinker, takes up the anthropo-philosophical theory of homo risv capax, that is, the human being defined as the only living being, mortal or immortal, irrational or rational, capable of laughing. Or, in others words, laughter understood as what is (most) proper -in the sense of exclusive- to the human being. A theory that has a long trajectory in the history of ancient Western philosophy up to the approach of the philosopher from Seville (and also after him). This article presents the Isidorean proposal by showing the background, both general and specific, to the question of laughter as a singular and distinctive human property, as well as a delimitation of the sense exposed in the thought and work of Isidore of Seville, together with the existing differences between those of the Sevillian thinker and his philosophical precedents, that is, his specific contributions.En el vigesimoquinto capítulo del libro segundo de Etimologías, epítome de la Isagoge de Profirio, el filósofo hispalense Isidoro de Sevilla, tomando el ejemplo del pensador sirio, recoge la teoría antropofilosófica del homo risv capax, esto es, el humano definido como único ser vivo, mortal o inmortal, irracional o racional, capaz de reír. O lo que es lo mismo: la risa entendida como lo (más) propio –en el sentido de lo exclusivo– del ser humano. Una teoría que tiene una larga trayectoria en la historia de la filosofía antigua occidental hasta llegar al planteamiento del filósofo hispalense (y también tras él). El presente artículo presenta la propuesta isidoriana mostrando los antecedentes, tanto generales como específicos, en torno a la cuestión de la risa y de esta como propiedad singular y distintiva humana, así como una delimitación del sentido expuesto en el pensamiento y obra de Isidoro de Sevilla, junto con las diferencias existentes entre las del pensador sevillano y sus precedentes filosóficos, esto es, sus aportaciones específicas

Lo bello, lo sublime y lo profundo.

In studying in depth Nietzsche’s description of Greek tragedy and Dionysian art, as well as flamenco art –both phenomenologically and hermeneutically–, enormous similarities appear. Especially between the characteristics of the fundamental aesthetic category of flamenco, lo jondo –the deep–, and the features of Dionysian art. What shows that, just as those of the beautiful and the sublime are the aesthetic categories of the Apollonian, the aesthetic category of Dionysian art is the deep.Al estudiar en profundidad la descripción que hace Nietzsche de la tragedia griega y del arte dionisíaco, así como el arte flamenco –tanto fenomenológicamente, como hermenéuticamente–, aparecen enormes similitudes. Especialmente entre las características de la categoría estética fundamental del flamenco, la de lo jondo –lo profundo– y los rasgos del arte dionisíaco. Lo que demuestra que, igual que las de lo bello y lo sublime son las categorías estéticas de lo apolíneo, es la de lo profundo la categoría estética del arte dionisíaco

Shar-pei Mediates Cell Proliferation Arrest During Imaginal Disc Growth in Drosophila

During animal development, organ size is determined primarily by the amount of cell proliferation, which must be tightly regulated to ensure the generation of properly proportioned organs. However, little is known about the molecular pathways that direct cells to stop proliferating when an organ has attained its proper size. We have identified mutations in a novel gene, shar-pei, that is required for proper termination of cell proliferation during Drosophila imaginal disc development. Clones of shar-pei mutant cells in imaginal discs produce enlarged tissues containing more cells of normal size. We show that this phenotype is the result of both increased cell proliferation and reduced apoptosis. Hence,shar-pei restricts cell proliferation and promotes apoptosis. By contrast, shar-pei is not required for cell differentiation and pattern formation of adult tissue. Shar-pei is also not required for cell cycle exit during terminal differentiation, indicating that the mechanisms directing cell proliferation arrest during organ growth are distinct from those directing cell cycle exit during terminal differentiation. shar-pei encodes a WW-domain-containing protein that has homologs in worms, mice and humans, suggesting that mechanisms of organ growth control are evolutionarily conserved

Specificity of Atonal and Scute bHLH factors: analysis of cognate E box binding sites and the influence of Senseless

The question of how proneural bHLH transcription factors recognise and regulate their target genes is still relatively poorly understood. We previously showed that Scute and Atonal target genes have different E box motifs, suggesting that specific DNA interactions contribute to differences in their target gene specificity. Here we show that Scute and Atonal proteins (in combination with Daughterless) can activate reporter gene expression via their cognate E boxes in a non-neuronal cell culture system, suggesting that the proteins have strong intrinsic abilities to recognise different E box motifs in the absence of specialised cofactors. Functional comparison of E boxes from several target genes and site-directed mutagenesis of E box motifs suggests that specificity and activity require further sequence elements flanking both sides of the previously identified E box motifs. Moreover, the proneural cofactor, Senseless, can augment the function of Scute and Atonal on their cognate E boxes and therefore may contribute to proneural specificity

Ordered patterning of the sensory system is susceptible to stochastic features of gene expression

Sensory neuron numbers and positions are precisely organized to accurately map environmental signals in the brain. This precision emerges from biochemical processes within and between cells that are inherently stochastic. We investigated impact of stochastic gene expression on pattern formation, focusing on senseless (sens), a key determinant of sensory fate in Drosophila. Perturbing microRNA regulation or genomic location of sens produced distinct noise signatures. Noise was greatly enhanced when both sens alleles were present in homologous loci such that each allele was regulated in trans by the other allele. This led to disordered patterning. In contrast, loss of microRNA repression of sens increased protein abundance but not sensory pattern disorder. This suggests that gene expression stochasticity is a critical feature that must be constrained during development to allow rapid yet accurate cell fate resolution

A novel role for syndecan-3 in angiogenesis.

Syndecan-3 is one of the four members of the syndecan family of heparan sulphate proteoglycans and has been shown to interact with numerous growth factors via its heparan sulphate chains. The extracellular core proteins of syndecan-1,-2 and -4 all possess adhesion regulatory motifs and we hypothesized that syndecan-3 may also possess such characteristics. Here we show that a bacterially expressed GST fusion protein consisting of the entire mature syndecan-3 ectodomain has anti-angiogenic properties and acts via modulating endothelial cell migration. This work identifies syndecan-3 as a possible therapeutic target for anti-angiogenic therapy.This work was funded by Arthritis Research-UK (Grant No. 19207) and funds from the William Harvey Research Foundation both to JRW

Modulation of Drosophila Retinal Epithelial Integrity by the Adhesion Proteins Capricious and Tartan

Background The development of the Drosophila eye imaginal disc requires complex epithelial rearrangements. Cells of the morphogenetic furrow are apically constricted and this leads to a physical indentation in the epithelium. Posterior to the furrow, cells start to rearrange into distinct clusters and eventually form a precisely patterned array of ommatidia. These morphogenetic processes include regulated changes of adhesion between cells. Methodology/Principal Findings Here, we show that two transmembrane adhesion proteins, Capricious and Tartan, have dynamic and complementary expression patterns in the eye imaginal disc. We also describe novel null mutations in capricious and double null mutations in capricious and tartan. We report that they have redundant functions in regulating the architecture of the morphogenetic furrow and ommatidial spacing. Conclusions/Significance We conclude that Capricious and Tartan contribute to the adhesive properties of the cells in the morphogenetic furrow and that this regulated adhesion participates in the control of spacing ommatidial clusters

Heparan sulfate proteoglycan syndecan-3 is a novel receptor for GDNF, neurturin, and artemin

Syndecan-3 may act alone or as a coreceptor with RET to promote cell spreading, neurite outgrowth, and migration of cortical neurons by GNDF, NRTN, and ARTN