Hacia una nueva teoría de la constitución de los sujetos políticos (a propósito de una lectura de Antonio Gramsci y Michel Foucault)

Flavio Darío Espinal (biografía). Abogado, diplomático y profesor dominicano que nació en Santiago de los Caballeros. Obtuvo una licenciatura en derecho en la Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (hoy PUCMM). Luego realizó una maestría en gobierno en la Universidad de Essex (Inglaterra) y un doctorado en gobierno y derecho público en la Universidad de Virginia (Estados Unidos). Para esos y otros estudios fue premiado con la beca LASPAU-Fullbright y las de la Fundación Bradley, Fundación Dupont e Instituto de Estudios de Política Mundial de Estados Unidos. En el ámbito académico, ha sido profesor de los cursos de Introducción al Estudio del Derecho, Derecho Internacional Público y Derecho Constitucional I y II. Además, ha dirigido el Departamento de Ciencias Jurídicas de la PUCMM, así como el Centro para el Estudio, Prevención y Resolución de Conflictos (CEPREC) y el Centro Universitario de Estudios Políticos y Sociales (CUEPS) de dicha casa de estudios. De su rector, fue también asesor en materia de diálogo y concertación. En cuanto a su labor diplomática, ha sido embajador de República Dominicana ante la OEA y ante los Estados Unidos. Desde el 16 de agosto de 2016 es asesor legal del presidente del país, Sr. Danilo Medina. En el 2001-2002, su libro Constitucionalismo y procesos políticos en la República Dominicana obtuvo el Premio Anual de Ensayo Pedro Henríquez Ureña.El jurista Flavio Darío Espinal hace aquí un análisis y una crítica de las teorías desarrolladas por el político y pensador italiano Antonio Gramsci y por el filósofo francés Michel Foucault en el ámbito de la constitución de los sujetos políticos. Para el italiano, puede haber lugar para la emergencia de un sujeto político colectivo capaz de transformar positivamente la sociedad mediante el logro de una unidad moral e intelectual que vaya más allá de los intereses económicos y políticos de clase. El francés, en cambio, pone en cuestionamiento la noción misma de sujeto, pues cada individuo no sería más que el devenir histórico no continuo de un espacio o nodo de múltiples relaciones de poder que se inscriben en su cuerpo y en su mente. De acuerdo a Espinal, el problema de la primera teoría radicaría en que todavía parte de los intereses de clase como fundamento primigenio de la posible futura unidad, mientra que la segunda adolece de una carencia: el modo en que el individuo puede volverse sujeto político capaz de acción transformadora. Vistas las dos teorías en perspectivas, Espinal cree que la emergencia momentánea y circunstancial de una voluntad colectiva (sujeto político) solamente es posible si los individuos no son figuras fijas y monolíticas determinadas por la clase a la que pertenecen (de la que no podrían salir para formar una unidad mayor)

Clinical and molecular correlates in fragile X premutation females.

The prevalence of the fragile X premutation (55-200 CGG repeats) among the general population is relatively high, but there remains a lack of clear understanding of the links between molecular biomarkers and clinical outcomes. In this study we investigated the correlations between molecular measures (CGG repeat size, FMR1 mRNA, FMRP expression levels, and methylation status at the promoter region and in FREE2 site) and clinical phenotypes (anxiety, obsessive compulsive symptoms, depression and executive function deficits) in 36 adult premutation female carriers and compared to 24 normal control subjects. Premutation carriers reported higher levels of obsessive compulsive symptoms, depression, and anxiety, but demonstrated no significant deficits in global cognitive functions or executive function compared to the control group. Increased age in carriers was significantly associated with increased anxiety levels. As expected, FMR1 mRNA expression was significantly correlated with CGG repeat number. However, no significant correlations were observed between molecular (including epigenetic) measures and clinical phenotypes in this sample. Our study, albeit limited by the sample size, establishes the complexity of the mechanisms that link the FMR1 locus to the clinical phenotypes commonly observed in female carriers suggesting that other factors, including environment or additional genetic changes, may have an impact on the clinical phenotypes. However, it continues to emphasize the need for assessment and treatment of psychiatric problems in female premutation carriers

First Report of an OXA-23 Carbapenemase-Producing Acinetobacter baumannii Clinical Isolate Related to Tn2006 in Spain

A carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii clinical isolate belonging to European clone II and sequence type 2 was recov-ered from a patient in the Son Espases hospital in Mallorca, Spain. Genetic analysis showed the presence of the bla OXA-23 gene in association with the widely disseminated transposon Tn2006. This is the first reported identification of A. baumannii carrying bla OXA-23 in Spain

A non-uniform semantic analysis of the Italian temporal connectives Prima and Dopo

In this paper, I argue that the temporal connective prima ('before') is a comparative adverb. The argument is based on a number of grammatical facts from Italian, showing that there is an asymmetry between prima and dopo ('after'). On the ground of their divergent behaviour, I suggest that dopo has a different grammatical status from prima. I propose a semantic treatment for prima that is based on an independently motivated analysis of comparatives which can be traced back to Seuren (1973). Dopo is analyzed instead as an atomic two-place predicate which contributes a binary relation over events to the sentence meaning. The different semantic treatments of the two connectives provide an explanation for the grammatical asymmetries considered at the outset; interestingly, it also sheds some light on other asymmetries between prima and dopo which are known to hold for the English temporal connectives before and after as well: these asymmetries are related to the veridicality properties, the distribution of NPIs, and the logical properties of these connectives first described in Anscombe (1964)

Predicting the long-term impact of antiretroviral therapy scale-up on population incidence of tuberculosis.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the impact of antiretroviral therapy (ART) on long-term population-level tuberculosis disease (TB) incidence in sub-Saharan Africa. METHODS: We used a mathematical model to consider the effect of different assumptions about life expectancy and TB risk during long-term ART under alternative scenarios for trends in population HIV incidence and ART coverage. RESULTS: All the scenarios we explored predicted that the widespread introduction of ART would initially reduce population-level TB incidence. However, many modelled scenarios projected a rebound in population-level TB incidence after around 20 years. This rebound was predicted to exceed the TB incidence present before ART scale-up if decreases in HIV incidence during the same period were not sufficiently rapid or if the protective effect of ART on TB was not sustained. Nevertheless, most scenarios predicted a reduction in the cumulative TB incidence when accompanied by a relative decline in HIV incidence of more than 10% each year. CONCLUSIONS: Despite short-term benefits of ART scale-up on population TB incidence in sub-Saharan Africa, longer-term projections raise the possibility of a rebound in TB incidence. This highlights the importance of sustaining good adherence and immunologic response to ART and, crucially, the need for effective HIV preventive interventions, including early widespread implementation of ART

The infectiousness of tuberculosis patients coinfected with HIV

The current understanding of airborne tuberculosis (TB) transmission is based on classic 1950s studies in which guinea pigs were exposed to air from a tuberculosis ward. Recently we recreated this model in Lima, Peru, and in this paper we report the use of molecular fingerprinting to investigate patient infectiousness in the current era of HIV infection and multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB

Rationing tests for drug-resistant tuberculosis - who are we prepared to miss?

BACKGROUND: Early identification of patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) increases the likelihood of treatment success and interrupts transmission. Resource-constrained settings use risk profiling to ration the use of drug susceptibility testing (DST). Nevertheless, no studies have yet quantified how many patients with DR-TB this strategy will miss. METHODS: A total of 1,545 subjects, who presented to Lima health centres with possible TB symptoms, completed a clinic-epidemiological questionnaire and provided sputum samples for TB culture and DST. The proportion of drug resistance in this population was calculated and the data was analysed to demonstrate the effect of rationing tests to patients with multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) risk factors on the number of tests needed and corresponding proportion of missed patients with DR-TB. RESULTS: Overall, 147/1,545 (9.5%) subjects had culture-positive TB, of which 32 (21.8%) had DR-TB (MDR, 13.6%; isoniazid mono-resistant, 7.5%; rifampicin mono-resistant, 0.7%). A total of 553 subjects (35.8%) reported one or more MDR-TB risk factors; of these, 506 (91.5%; 95% CI, 88.9-93.7%) did not have TB, 32/553 (5.8%; 95% CI, 3.4-8.1%) had drug-susceptible TB, and only 15/553 (2.7%; 95% CI, 1.5-4.4%) had DR-TB. Rationing DST to those with an MDR-TB risk factor would have missed more than half of the DR-TB population (17/32, 53.2%; 95% CI, 34.7-70.9). CONCLUSIONS: Rationing DST based on known MDR-TB risk factors misses an unacceptable proportion of patients with drug-resistance in settings with ongoing DR-TB transmission. Investment in diagnostic services to allow universal DST for people with presumptive TB should be a high priority