Historical, legal and political considerations regarding Europe’s secessionist movements

El año 2014 está marcado por el avance de movimientos separatistas en el seno de dos grandes países de la Unión Europea: Escocia y Cataluña. Se trata de movimientos que tiene profundas raíces en el pasado y que en el presente plantea a Gran Bretaña, a España, y al resto de la Unión el desafío jurídico y político de considerar una eventual separación. Concretamente, la cuestión de la adhesión de un nuevo Estado, pero escindido de un miembro de la UE, centra la atención e introduce en la agenda independentista catalana y escocesa el dilema de su continuidad dentro del bloque común.2014 is marked by the advance of separatist movements within two big countries of the European Union: Scotland and Catalonia. These movements root in the past, and presently poses to the UK, Spain and the rest of EU membership the legal and political challenge of considering an eventual separation. The issue of the accession of a new member, split from an EU member, focuses the attention and sets within Scottish and Catalan’s agenda the dilemma of their continuity in the EU.Instituto de Relaciones Internacionales (IRI

De casa quinta a Museo. Plan de conservación preventiva para una colección de arte moderno y contemporáneo en el Museo Blanes

El Museo Juan Manuel Blanes (o Museo Blanes) está situado en la ciudad de Montevideo, albergando una colección de arte moderno y contemporáneo de carácter tridimensional que requería medidas de conservación preventiva para el almacenaje y la conservación de sus obras, obras que se alojaban en espacios comunes, pasillos, etc. La sede del museo es una antigua casa historicista del siglo XIX, ampliada en 1930 con dos grandes salas de exposiciones. Como todo museo instalado en un edificio histórico patrimonial carece de espacios que respondan a las necesidades contemporáneas de conservación. Estas condiciones edilicias y el crecimiento de la colección de obra volumétrica determinaron la necesidad de redactar y ejecutar un proyecto que involucrase el análisis de las necesidades del museo y sus carencias para la conservación de esta tipología de obra. Con el proyecto, se observa la necesidad de construir una reserva técnica en los espacios existentes dentro del museo. Esto abría la posibilidad de reorganizar la obra y concomitantemente realizar el diagnóstico de conservación previo para su alojamiento planificado en la nueva reserva. De este modo, fue posible intervenir el espacio y construir una nueva reserva, cuya estructuración fue gestionada mediante un sistema de organización basado en el método RE-ORG desarrollado por el ICCROM.The Juan Manuel Blanes Museum (or Blanes Museum) is located in the city of Montevideo, houses a collection of modern and contemporary art of a three-dimensional nature that required preventive conservation measures for the storage and conservation of their works of art, pieces that were housed in common spaces, corridors, etc. The headquarters of the museum is an old historicist house of the nineteenth century, expanded in 1930 with two large exhibition galleries. As every museum located in a historical heritage building, it lacks of spaces that respond to contemporary conservation needs. These building conditions and the three-dimensional collection increase, determined the need to draft and execute a project that involves the analysis of the museum’s needs and its shortcomings for the conservation of this type of work. This project arises from the obligation to build an art storage in the existing space located in the museum. This opened the possibility of reorganizing the work and carrying out the previous conservation diagnosis. In this way, it has been possible to intervene in the space and build a new art storage, whose structuring was managed by an organization system based on the RE-ORG method, developed by ICCROM

Historical, legal and political considerations regarding Europe’s secessionist movements

El año 2014 está marcado por el avance de movimientos separatistas en el seno de dos grandes países de la Unión Europea: Escocia y Cataluña. Se trata de movimientos que tiene profundas raíces en el pasado y que en el presente plantea a Gran Bretaña, a España, y al resto de la Unión el desafío jurídico y político de considerar una eventual separación. Concretamente, la cuestión de la adhesión de un nuevo Estado, pero escindido de un miembro de la UE, centra la atención e introduce en la agenda independentista catalana y escocesa el dilema de su continuidad dentro del bloque común.2014 is marked by the advance of separatist movements within two big countries of the European Union: Scotland and Catalonia. These movements root in the past, and presently poses to the UK, Spain and the rest of EU membership the legal and political challenge of considering an eventual separation. The issue of the accession of a new member, split from an EU member, focuses the attention and sets within Scottish and Catalan’s agenda the dilemma of their continuity in the EU.Instituto de Relaciones Internacionales (IRI

Historical, legal and political considerations regarding Europe’s secessionist movements

El año 2014 está marcado por el avance de movimientos separatistas en el seno de dos grandes países de la Unión Europea: Escocia y Cataluña. Se trata de movimientos que tiene profundas raíces en el pasado y que en el presente plantea a Gran Bretaña, a España, y al resto de la Unión el desafío jurídico y político de considerar una eventual separación. Concretamente, la cuestión de la adhesión de un nuevo Estado, pero escindido de un miembro de la UE, centra la atención e introduce en la agenda independentista catalana y escocesa el dilema de su continuidad dentro del bloque común.2014 is marked by the advance of separatist movements within two big countries of the European Union: Scotland and Catalonia. These movements root in the past, and presently poses to the UK, Spain and the rest of EU membership the legal and political challenge of considering an eventual separation. The issue of the accession of a new member, split from an EU member, focuses the attention and sets within Scottish and Catalan’s agenda the dilemma of their continuity in the EU.Instituto de Relaciones Internacionales (IRI

El espacio interior como escenario histórico. Los casos de Milou en mai y The dreamers en mayo del 68

Actas del V Congreso Internacional de Historia y Cine celebrado en la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid del 5 al 7 de Septiembre de 2016.Se trata de dos filmes que presentan una peculiar visión del Mayo francés y de la serie de acontecimientos que se suceden a nivel sociopolítico (con sus enfrentamientos callejeros como máxima expresión). Es posible explorar la reconstrucción histórica que estas películas proponen desde la óptica escenográfica de un espacio interior mutante. En ese sentido podemos concebir a Milou en mai como una película centrífuga: los personajes son catapultados desde el interior de una casa de campo (de arquitectura tradicional y atiborrada de objetos) hacia el exterior en un doble movimiento que los termina enclaustrando en una caverna prehistórica. Los sucesivos cortes de luz que se producen en la casa (con su correspondiente estética «en sombras») funcionan como dispositivo disparador de ese lanzamiento, el cuál, a su vez, es modulado por la huida-regreso del representante máximo del orden establecido: Charles de Gaulle. Por el contrario, The Dreamers es un filme centrípeto: los tres jóvenes encerrados en ese apartamento parisino (cuyo sentido vital se reduce al "puro sexo" y a la mera representación de sus íconos cinematográficos) son una muestra condensada de la multitud anónima que se manifiesta en las calles. En este caso, el deterioro escenográfico del interior -representado por el caos y la acumulación de basura- funciona como metáfora del propio conflicto interior de esos jóvenes atrapados en un espacio laberíntico de impronta haussmanniana.Two films that present a peculiar vision of the French May and the series of events that occurred ata sociopolitical level (with the street confrontations as their maximum expression). It is possible to explore the historie reconstruction that these films propose from the scenographic perspectiva of a mutating interior space. In that sense we can conceive Milou en mai as a centrifuga! film: the characters are propelled from the interior of a countryside house (of traditional architectural style and filled with objects) towards the exterior in a double movement that ends up confining them in a prehistoric cavern. The successive black-outs that happen in the house (with their corresponding aesthetic "in the shadows") work as a launching device for this movement, which, in turn, is modulated by the flee-return of the maximum exponent of the established order: Charles de Gaulle. On the contrary, The Dreamers is a centripetal film: the three young characters confined to a Parisian apartment (whose vital sense is reduced to "pure sex" and the mere representation of their cinematographic icons) are a condensed example of the anonymous multitude that protests in the streets. In this case, the scenographic decay of the interior - represented by the chaos and the accumulation of garbage - works as a metaphor for the interior conflict of these young characters trapped in a labyrinthian space of haussmannian characteristics

A mouse model for triple-negative breast cancer tumor-initiating cells (TNBC-TICs) exhibits similar aggressive phenotype to the human disease

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) exhibit characteristics quite distinct from other kinds of breast cancer, presenting as an aggressive disease--recurring and metastasizing more often than other kinds of breast cancer, without tumor-specific treatment options and accounts for 15% of all types of breast cancer with higher percentages in premenopausal African-American and Hispanic women. The reason for this aggressive phenotype is currently the focus of intensive research. However, progress is hampered by the lack of suitable TNBC cell model systems.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>To understand the mechanistic basis for the aggressiveness of TNBC, we produced a stable TNBC cell line by sorting for 4T1 cells that do not express the estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PgR) or the gene for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). As a control, we produced a stable triple-positive breast cancer (TPBC) cell line by transfecting 4T1 cells with rat HER2, ER and PgR genes and sorted for cells with high expression of ER and PgR by flow cytometry and high expression of the HER2 gene by Western blot analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We isolated tumor-initiating cells (TICs) by sorting for CD24⁺/CD44^high/ALDH1⁺cells from TNBC (TNBC-TICs) and TPBC (TPBC-TICs) stable cell lines. Limiting dilution transplantation experiments revealed that CD24⁺/CD44^high/ALDH1⁺cells derived from TNBC (TNBC-TICs) and TPBC (TPBC-TICs) were significantly more effective at repopulating the mammary glands of naïve female BALB/c mice than CD24^-/CD44^-/ALDH1^-cells. Implantation of the TNBC-TICs resulted in significantly larger tumors, which metastasized to the lungs to a significantly greater extent than TNBC, TPBC-TICs, TPBC or parental 4T1 cells. We further demonstrated that the increased aggressiveness of TNBC-TICs correlates with the presence of high levels of mouse twenty-five kDa heat shock protein (Hsp25/mouse HspB1) and seventy-two kDa heat shock protein (Hsp72/HspA1A).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Taken together, we have developed a TNBC-TICs model system based on the 4T1 cells which is a very useful metastasis model with the advantage of being able to be transplanted into immune competent recipients. Our data demonstrates that the TNBC-TICs model system could be a useful tool for studies on the pathogenesis and therapeutic treatment for TNBC.</p

MicroRNA-200b Regulates Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor–Mediated Alterations in Diabetic Retinopathy

OBJECTIVE—Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a leading cause of blindness. Increased vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), promoting angiogenesis and increased permeability, is a key mechanistic abnormality in DR. We investigated microRNA (miR) alterations in DR with specific focus on miR-200b, and its downstream target, VEGF. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—MiR expression pro-filing microarray was used to examine the retinas of streptozo-tocin-induced diabetic rats. Expressions of specific miRNAs were verified with PCR in the rat retina and in glucose-exposed en-dothelial cells. A target search, based on sequence complemen-tarities, identified specific targets. We analyzed mRNA levels and protein expression in endothelial cells from large vessels and retinal capillaries and in the rat retina, with or without injection of miR-200b mimic or antigomirs. Localization of miR-200