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Intersecciones entre ficción y realidad en la iconografía de la catástrofe urbana: el motivo visual del individuo en soledad ante la ciudad devastada
No full textTreball de fi de màster en Estudis de Cinema i Audiovisual ContemporanisTutor: Alan Salvadó Romer
The EU’s response to the fragmented emergence of artificial intelligence
No full textThe accelerating development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its growing strategic relevance in the context of international fragmentation and emerging geopolitical rivalry has thrust digital politics to the forefront of the European Union’s (EU) sovereign turn. Lacking the computational resources to shape AI development directly, the EU is attempting to wield influence through its normative power by passing the AI Act. EU actors are prevalently hedging between Atlanticist, Europeanist and nationalist approaches, reflecting the fluidity of contemporary digital politics and the growing instability and multipolarity of the international system
The hispanic world at war and the global transformation of commerce: global merchants in Spanish America: business, networks and independence (1800-1830)
No full textThis special issue investigates how in the times of war, political turmoil, and disruption of commercial practices during the Age of Revolutions two centuries ago, merchants appear as demiurges of a new order. This is part of a polycentric reading of epochal transformations that does not deny the primacy of politics and military power in establishing relations of force, but which underlines the complex negotiations at their base. The collection of essays looks at the profound global consequences of the fall of the Spanish American empire, particularly as they related to the decline of mercantilism and the reconfiguration of both Atlantic and inter-Pacific commerce. A crucial element in this transformation was the war economy, which had implications not only in Spanish America, but in the whole of the Hispanic world and beyond. Global merchants or businessmen ¿foreigners and Hispanic¿ strategically located in the Hispanic World, whose networks and affairs linked Europe, Asia and the Americas, worked within the vacuum created by the crisis of the Spanish monarchy in what was a fluid and foundational moment. The essays investigate how the Napoleonic Wars and the Wars of Independence against Spain accelerated the emergence of new actors, practices, rules and commercial circuits, by analyzing the personal and business networks that built, redefined and renegotiated the role of Hispanic America in the global economy. This prosopography of merchants thus shows trajectories through which, despite infinite difficulties, global and transregional merchants appear as one of the maieutic forces in the birth of the modern world
Two photon-responsive gold nanocapsules enable targeted photothermal hyperthermia of chemoresistant melanoma: injection-route-dependent efficacy and renal evidence of fragment clearance
No full textMelanoma is a highly aggressive skin cancer that often develops resistance to chemotherapy, underscoring the need for new treatment strategies. Here we evaluate plasmonic gold nanocapsules (AuNCs) as photoresponsive agents for two-photon luminescence-assisted photothermal therapy in chemoresistant melanoma models. The performance of the AuNCs was assessed in two-dimensional cell cultures, three-dimensional paclitaxel-resistant B16-F10 melanoma spheroids, and a subcutaneous melanoma mouse model under near-infrared excitation. In vitro, AuNCs alone exhibited no cytotoxicity, but under 830 nm two-photon excitation, they produced strong two-photon luminescence and thermal effects that increased with nanocapsule concentration and laser power. This led to transient oxidative stress, apoptosis induction, and effective melanoma cell ablation under optimal conditions (80 μg mL-1 AuNCs, 12 mW laser power). In vivo, the route of nanoparticle administration proved decisive. A single 4-min 806 nm irradiation after intratumoral injection uniformly heated the lesion (≈45-50 °C), yielded durable tumour eradication, and sequestered >99% of detected gold in the necrotic scab, with only trace renal clearance. In contrast, the same laser fluence after peritumoral injection generated a superficial hot rim, spared the tumour core, allowing eventual regrowth, and left ∼65% of the injected gold systemically redistributed, mainly in the spleen and liver. These findings highlight the potential of AuNCs as potent, image-guided photothermal agents for chemoresistant melanoma, offering targeted tumor destruction with limited systemic exposure. They reveal the injection route is a critical determinant of both therapeutic success and nanoparticle biodistribution.The study of the nanophotothermal therapy (nPTT) effects of gold nanocapsules (AuNCs) on melanoma cells using cryo soft X-ray tomography (CSXT) was conducted at the MISTRAL beamline of the ALBA Synchrotron (Project number: 2016091853). PRG acknowledges the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (AEI-PID2022-140423NB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and CNS2023 – 143700) and the AGAUR (2021 SGR 00175) for financial support. D. Jaque acknowledges the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities of Spain (PID2023-146775OB-I00). The authors thank Dr Vladimir Mulens Arias for fruitful discussions and Alba Riba for her contribution (Fig. S2A, ESI†)
Bayesian variance change point detection with credible sets
No full textIncludes supplementary materials for the online appendix.This paper introduces a novel Bayesian approach to detect changes in the variance of a Gaussian sequence model, focusing on quantifying the uncertainty in the change point locations and providing a scalable algorithm for inference. We do that by framing the problem as a product of multiple single changes in the scale parameter. We fit the model through an iterative procedure similar to what is done for additive models. The novelty is that each iteration returns a probability distribution on time instances, which captures the uncertainty in the change point location. Leveraging a recent result in the literature, we can show that our proposal is a variational approximation of the exact model posterior distribution. We study the convergence of the algorithm and the change point localization rate. Extensive experiments in simulation studies and applications to biological data illustrate the performance of our method
hu.MAP3.0: atlas of human protein complexes by integration of >25,000 proteomic experiments
No full textMacromolecular protein complexes carry out most cellular functions. Unfortunately, we lack the subunit composition for many human protein complexes. To address this gap we integrated >25,000 mass spectrometry experiments using a machine learning approach to identify >15,000 human protein complexes. We show our map of protein complexes is highly accurate and more comprehensive than previous maps, placing nearly 70% of human proteins into their physical contexts. We globally characterize our complexes using mass spectrometry based protein covariation data (ProteomeHD.2) and identify covarying complexes suggesting common functional associations. hu.MAP3.0 generates testable functional hypotheses for 472 uncharacterized proteins which we support using AlphaFold modeling. Additionally, we use AlphaFold modeling to identify 5871 mutually exclusive proteins in hu.MAP3.0 complexes suggesting complexes serve different functional roles depending on their subunit composition. We identify expression as the primary way cells and organisms relieve the conflict of mutually exclusive subunits. Finally, we import our complexes to EMBL-EBI's Complex Portal ( https://www.ebi.ac.uk/complexportal/home ) and provide complexes through our hu.MAP3.0 web interface ( https://humap3.proteincomplexes.org/ ). We expect our resource to be highly impactful to the broader research community
Transposable elements may enhance antiviral resistance in HIV-1 elite controllers
No full textBackground: Less than 0.5% of people living with HIV-1 are elite controllers (ECs)-individuals who maintain undetectable plasma viremia without antiretroviral therapy, despite having replication-competent viral reservoirs. While EC CD4+ T cells have been investigated for gene expression signatures associated with HIV-1 resistance, the expression and regulatory activity of transposable elements (TEs) remain unexplored. TEs can directly impact host immune responses to pathogens, including HIV-1, suggesting their activities could contribute to HIV-1 elite control. To begin testing this hypothesis, we conduct a TE-centric analysis of public multi-omics data from ECs and other populations. Results: We find the CD4+ T cell transcriptome and retrotranscriptome of ECs are distinct from healthy controls, from people living with HIV-1 on antiretroviral therapy, and from viremic progressors. However, there is substantial transcriptomic heterogeneity among ECs. We categorize ECs into four clusters with distinct expression and chromatin accessibility profiles of TEs and antiviral factors. Several TE families with known immuno-regulatory activity are differentially expressed among ECs. Their expression positively correlates with their chromatin accessibility in ECs and negatively correlates with the expression of their KRAB zinc-finger (KZNF) repressors. This coordinated, locus-level variation forms a network of putative cis-regulatory elements for genes involved in HIV-1 restriction. Conclusions: We propose that the EC phenotype is driven in part by reduced KZNF-mediated repression of specific TE-derived cis-regulatory elements for antiviral genes, heightening their resistance against HIV-1. Our study reveals heterogeneity in the EC CD4+ T cell transcriptome, including variable expression of TEs and their KZNF controllers, that must be considered when deciphering HIV-1 control mechanisms
Use of statistical and acoustic cues for speech segmentation in French-learning 7-month-old infants and french-speaking adults
No full textYoung infants can segment continuous speech with acoustic as well as statistical cues. Understanding how these cues interact can be informative about how infants solve the segmentation problem. This study investigates the use of acoustic and statistical cues by both adult French speakers and 6-to-7-month-old French-learning infants. Both groups were familiarized with a naturally recorded string, alternating either in duration (long-short) or in intensity (soft-loud). In addition, statistical cues were present in both strings, signaling different word boundaries than the acoustic cues. The adults were tested in a recognition task and the infants with the Head-turn Preference Procedure. Results show that the French-speaking adults segmented the strings by responding to the acoustic cues in both familiarization conditions, following the predictions of the Iambic-Trochaic Law. In contrast, the French-learning infants displayed segmentation based on TPs in the Intensity condition only. These findings collectively contribute to our understanding of how the use of acoustic and statistical cues to decode linguistic input changes between infancy and adulthood and differs across languages.This work was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 641858 and LABEX EFL grant (ANR-10-LABX-0083)
EU foreign policy in a fragmenting international order
No full textThis open access book delves into the responses of EU actors, such as member states, institutions, and political groups in the European Parliament, to the fragmentation of the liberal international order (LIO). The analytical framework adopted in this volume explores the diverse interpretations of this phenomenon and the various political initiatives associated with them. Among these interpretations is the concept of strategic autonomy, which has emerged as a key feature of debates surrounding the EU's adaptation to a fragmented LIO. The contributors examine these dynamics across different issue areas and dimensions of EU foreign policy, encompassing the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), external relations, and the externalization of internal policies. They use the term fragmentation to refer to a bundle of processes affecting the LIO that range from challenges to the universality of human rights to the crisis of global governance instruments, from the bifurcation of tech to protectionist tendencies in trade policies
The intersectional right to the city: non-binary and trans people navigating gender, race, and class in Barcelona
No full textData de publicació electrònica: 03-11-2025The concept of the right to the city has been central in urban studies and social justice movements, yet it frequently neglects the intersectional inequalities experienced by marginalized groups. This article examines the right to the city through the lens of intersectionality, focusing on how overlapping oppressions related to gender, race, class, and migration status shape urban experiences. Using a qualitative methodology of in-depth interviews and Relief Maps with 30 non-cisgender individuals living in Barcelona, we explore how multiple social positions intersect to produce specific forms of exclusion and negotiation within urban space, considering both public and private spaces as interconnected sites where these exclusions and negotiations unfold, challenging spatial hierarchies in urban studies. By foregrounding how these categories intersect, our research moves beyond essentialist understandings of marginalization and challenges rigid binaries of inclusion and exclusion. Instead, it highlights the complex, shifting, and sometimes contradictory ways individuals navigate urban life. In doing so, we position the right to the city within broader debates in urban theory, particularly the tensions between more economic perspectives and those rooted in feminist, postcolonial, and queer critiques. This perspective is particularly relevant in Southern Europe, where colonial histories, migration, and racialization follow different logics than those dominant in Anglo-American urban theory. We argue for a reimagined right to the city that dismantles exclusionary hierarchies by embracing the relational nature of urban experiences, recognizing that belonging and access to the city are shaped by a complex interplay of social categories.The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by the European Research Council (Grant No. 101039447) and the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Grant No. PID2020-118661RA-I00)