Justice as a Virtue – Justice as a Principle in Adam Smith's Thought

The paper deals with the character of justice in Adam Smith's thought. Justice is considered both as a virtue, different from all other virtues for its enforceability; and as a principle on which all the systems of law should be grounded. Smith could not achieve his project of writing a theory of jurisprudence, but some parts of his thought have been analyzed under different points of view: the political "paradigms" of civic humanism and natural law; the dilemma about property, whether it existed by nature of by human convention; the equality/inequality of distribution; the way in which the labouring poor could improve their lot without infringing the rich's rights. Classical influences and modern considerations are interwoven in Smith's writings.-----El artículo se plantea el carácter de la justicia en el pensamiento de Adam Smith. La justicia se considera tanto como una virtud, diferente de las demás virtudes por su obligatoriedad; y como un principio sobre el que deberían estar basados todos los sistemas de leyes. Smith no pudo culminar su proyecto de escribir una teoría de la jurisprudencia, pero algunas partes de su pensamiento se han analizado bajo diferentes puntos de vista: los paradigmas políticos del humanismo cívico y la ley natural; el dilema sobre la propiedad, si existe por naturaleza o por convención humana; la igualdad/desigualdad de la distribución; la forma en que los pobres trabajadores podrían mejorar su suerte sin infringir los derechos de los ricos. En los escritos de Smith se entretejen las influencias clásicas y las consideraciones modernas

Expression and subcellular localization of the bromodomain-containing protein 7 is a prognostic biomarker in breast cancer

Bromodomain-containing protein 7 (BRD7) is a member of the bromodomain-containing protein family. Previous studies suggest that BRD7 is predominantly localized in the nucleus, wherein it functions as a transcriptional regulator. Several lines of evidence imply a tumour suppressor function for BRD7. However, the importance of BRD7 in the pathogenesis of breast cancer is not well understood. We have investigated the expression, CpG island methylation and subcellular localization of BRD7 in breast cancer cell lines and clinical cases and thereby assessed its prognostic significance by correlating with clinical-pathological features and time-dependent clinical outcomes. We show that nuclear exclusion of BRD7 occurs commonly in breast cancer and is strongly associated with cases expressing wild-type p53. Moreover, clinical outcomes are significantly less favourable in cases with nuclear exclusion or loss of expression than those in which there is nuclear expression of BRD7. Methylation of the CpG island of BRD7 increases in breast cancer relative to normal breast tissue, but there is not an obvious correlation between methylation and reduced expression or between methylation and clinical outcomes. Overall, our results suggest that nuclear exclusion, rather than transcriptional silencing, is a common mechanism by which the tumour suppressor function of wild-type p53 is inhibited in breast cancer, and show that BRD7 is a promising candidate biomarker in breast cancer