La Historia Moderna de las Emociones: un Centro de Investigación en Berlín

In January 2008 a new research center was inaugurated at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. Under the guiding assumption that emotions matter to and in human development, the Center for the History of Emotions set out to explore a rather new, but fast burgeoning field. The Berlin Center is in a privileged position for exploring this continent supported by the generous funding of the Max Planck Society that allows pre-and postdoctoral fellows to conduct basic research in ideal working conditions. This article analyzes the objectives, frame of research and research areas or the Center as well as its impact and its new horizons. The Berlin Center for the History of Emotions has established itself as a leading research center that closely cooperates with other scholars in history and beyond. It focuses on the modern history of emotions, mainly in Europe and South Asia. By concentrating on the history of the body, of education/cultivation and of power (both political and economic), it scrutinizes the key elements of the processes through which emotions have been historically conceptualized, framed, negotiated, and experienced.En enero de 2008 un nuevo centro de investigación se inauguró en el Instituto Max Planck para el Desarrollo Humano en Berlín. Bajo el presupuesto de que las emociones son importantes para y en el desarrollo humano, el Centro para la Historia de las emociones, se lanzó a explorar un lugar nuevo pero floreciente campo de trabajo. El Centro se encuentra en una posición privilegiada para explorar este continente con el apoyo de la generosa financiación de la Sociedad Max Planck que permite a becarios (pre y postdoctorales) realizar investigación básica en condiciones de trabajo ideales. En este artículo se analizan los objetivos, áreas y líneas de investigación del Centro, así como el impacto y los nuevos horizontes de la investigación. El Centro para la Historia de las emociones se ha consolidado como un centro de investigación que trabaja en estrecha colaboración con otros estudiosos de la historia. Se centra en la historia moderna de las emociones, principalmente en Europa y Asia del Sur, y en especial en la historia del cuerpo, de la educación y en la conexión entre emociones y poder (político y económico)

Plasmodium cellular effector mechanisms and the hepatic microenvironment

Plasmodium falciparum malaria remains one of the most serious health problems globally. Immunization with attenuated parasites elicits multiple cellular effector mechanisms capable of eliminating Plasmodium liver stages. However, malaria liver stage immunity is complex and the mechanisms effector T cells use to locate the few infected hepatocytes in the large liver in order to kill the intracellular liver stage parasites remain a mystery to date. Here, we review our current knowledge on the behavior of CD8+ effector T cells in the hepatic microvasculature, in malaria and other hepatic infections. Taking into account the unique immunological and lymphogenic properties of the liver, we discuss whether classical granule-mediated cytotoxicity might eliminate infected hepatocytes via direct cell contact or whether cytokines might operate without cell-cell contact and kill Plasmodium liver stages at a distance. A thorough understanding of the cellular effector mechanisms that lead to parasite death hence sterile protection is a prerequisite for the development of a successful malaria vaccine to protect the 40% of the world’s population currently at risk of Plasmodium infection

Alveolar Macrophage Interaction With Air Pollution Particulates

We applied flow cytometric analysis to characterize the in vitro response of alveolar macrophages (AM) to air pollution particulates. Normal hamster AM were incubated with varying concentrations of residual oil fly ash (ROFA) or concentrated ambient air particulates (CAP). We found a dose-dependent increase in AM-associated right angle light scatter (RAS) after uptake of ROFA (e.g., mean channel number 149.4 ± 6.5, 102.5 ± 4.1, 75.8 ± 3.5, and 61.0 ± 4.6 at 200, 100, 50, and 25 mg/ml, respectively) or CAP. A role for scavenger-type receptors (SR) in AM uptake of components of ROFA and CAP was identified by marked inhibition of RAS increases in AM pretreated with the specific SR inhibitor polyinosinic acid. We combined measurement of particle uptake (RAS) with flow cytometric analysis of intracellular oxidation of dichlorofluorescin. Both ROFA and CAP caused a dose-related intracellular oxidant stress within AM, comparable to that seen with phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) (e.g., fold increase over control, 6.6 ± 0.4, 3.6 ± 0.4, 4.6 ± 0.5, 200 mg/ml ROFA, 100 mg/ml ROFA, and $10^{-7}$ M PMA, respectively). We conclude that flow cytometry of RAS increases provides a useful relative measurement of AM uptake of complex particulates within ROFA and CAP. Both ROFA and CAP cause substantial intracellular oxidant stress within AM, which may contribute to subsequent cell activation and production of proinflammatory mediators

Comparison of traditional and genomic breeding programs for organic and low input dairy cattle accounting for traits relevant in different macro-climatic zones

In the past decade, successful selection on production traits for dairy cattle has greatly increased milk production. Recently, selection indices for female fertility were gradually and increasingly introduced into the overall breeding goals for dairy cattle (Miglior et al., 2005). As a by-product of fermention in ruminants, enteric methane emissions (ME) should also be controlled and mitigated due to their contribution to global warming (Forster et al., 2007) and as a cause for inefficient use of dietary energy. Moderate heritabilities ranging between 0.30 and 0.35 for predicted and real measurements of ME were reported for dairy cows and ewe lambs (de Haas et al., 2011; Pinares-Patiño et al., 2011), indicating that a heritable component for ME is available for implementing sustainable breeding strategies to reduce ME in dairy farms. In dairy cattle production systems, the traditional progeny testing substantially increases accuracy of selection especially for bulls. However, availability of high-density SNP arrays enable dairy cattle breeders to apply genomic selection in their breeding strategies. Consequently, the objective of this study was to compare selection response for a complex breeding goal comprising ME, milk yield (MY), days open (DO), clinical mastitis (CM), body condition score (BCS) and milking temperament (MT) and total discounted return for organic and low input dairy cattle (with organic Brown Swiss as an example) from progeny testing and genomic breeding program by applying ZPLAN+ (Täubert et al., 2010)