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Microgravity and space radiation (SR) are two highly influential factors affecting humans in space flight (SF). Many health problems reported by astronauts derive from endothelial dysfunction and impaired homeostasis. Here, we describe the adaptive response of human, capillary endothelial cells to SF. Reference samples on the ground and at 1g onboard permitted discrimination between the contribution of microgravity and SR within the combined responses to SF. Cell softening and reduced motility occurred in SF cells, with a loss of actin stress fibers and a broader distribution of microtubules and intermediate filaments within the cytoplasm than in control cells. Furthermore, in space the number of primary cilia per cell increased and DNA repair mechanisms were found to be activated. Transcriptomics revealed the opposing effects of microgravity from SR for specific molecular pathways: SR, unlike microgravity, stimulated pathways for endothelial activation, such as hypoxia and inflammation, DNA repair and apoptosis, inhibiting autophagic flux and promoting an aged-like phenotype. Conversely, microgravity, unlike SR, activated pathways for metabolism and a pro-proliferative phenotype. Therefore, we suggest microgravity and SR should be considered separately to tailor effective countermeasures to protect astronauts' health.

Inherited retinal degenerations (IRD) affecting either photoreceptors or pigment epithelial cells cause progressive visual loss and severe disability, up to complete blindness. Retinal organoids (ROs) technologies opened up the development of human inducible pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) for disease modeling and replacement therapies. However, hiPSC-derived ROs applications to IRD presently display limited maturation and functionality, with most photoreceptors lacking well-developed outer segments (OS) and light responsiveness comparable to their adult retinal counterparts. In this review, we address for the first time the microenvironment where OS mature, i.e., the subretinal space (SRS), and discuss SRS role in photoreceptors metabolic reprogramming required for OS generation. We also address bioengineering issues to improve culture systems proficiency to promote OS maturation in hiPSC-derived ROs. This issue is crucial, as satisfying the demanding metabolic needs of photoreceptors may unleash hiPSC-derived ROs full potential for disease modeling, drug development, and replacement therapies.

Capillary endothelial cells are responsible for homeostatic responses to organismic and environmental stimulations. When malfunctioning, they may cause disease. Exposure to microgravity is known to have negative effects on astronauts&rsquo, physiology, the endothelium being a particularly sensitive organ. Microgravity-related dysfunctions are striking similar to the consequences of sedentary life, bed rest, and ageing on Earth. Among different countermeasures implemented to minimize the effects of microgravity, a promising one is artificial gravity. We examined the effects of hypergravity on human microvascular endothelial cells of dermal capillary origin (HMEC-1) treated at 4 g for 15 min, and at 20 g for 15 min, 3 and 6 h. We evaluated cell morphology, gene expression and 2D motility and function. We found a profound rearrangement of the cytoskeleton network, dose-dependent increase of Focal Adhesion kinase (FAK) phosphorylation and Yes-associated protein 1 (YAP1) expression, suggesting cell stiffening and increased proneness to motility. Transcriptome analysis showed expression changes of genes associated with cardiovascular homeostasis, nitric oxide production, angiogenesis, and inflammation. Hypergravity-treated cells also showed significantly improved motility and function (2D migration and tube formation). These results, expanding our knowledge about the homeostatic response of capillary endothelial cells, show that adaptation to hypergravity has opposite effect compared to microgravity on the same cell type.

This special issue explores the relationship between heritagization, shifting economies, and urban struggles in different cities around the globe. Our aim is to examine the conditions that have brought history, culture, an old/new urban aesthetics, real estate values, and housing struggles in a relational nexus by looking at the ways in which differently-situated actors mobilize the language of cultural heritage to act upon urban spaces. Ideas of what constitutes a beautiful and livable city are changing along with capital accumulation strategies and urban social geographies. The growing heritagization of historic neighborhoods enables local governments and real-estate developers to engender massive spatial and social changes in the urban landscape. City authorities renovate last swaths of urban fabrics in the name of historic preservation and of the ‘common good’, but this often means that local residents are evicted while private developers allied with these authorities realize huge profits by ‘regenerating’ depressed areas. Yet, local residents also resort to the language of cultural heritage to combat the destruction of their urban worlds. What are the consequences for those who cannot afford to live in the newly restored quarters? What kinds of heritage rhetoric are being mobilized by involved actors? How do rooted political cultures shape the local instantiation of this globalizing phenomenon? Recent urban struggles in the Middle East and Europe reveal an inextricable link between heritagization, gentrification, and urban politics. We invite contributors to submit papers dealing with such links between heritagization and housing struggles, evictions, cultural capitalism, and changing urban aesthetics. ​

Heritage is a key site of politics in the Middle East. Recent episodes of the relentless destruction and construction of heritage in the region convey just how deeply intertwined it is with the making (and unmaking) of the postcolonial state. In Palestine/Israel, heritage has developed over a long history into an important site where both state power and resistance against it are produced, reshaped, and disseminated. A current proliferation of urban regeneration projects there is linked to the struggle against the ongoing occupation and colonization of Palestinian lands, as well as the incomplete, truncated emergence of a Palestinian state. Most of these heritage projects are carried out by semi- or nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). In this essay, I argue for the value of thinking about heritage in terms of government and state-making, or more precisely in terms of a Foucauldian understanding of governmentality, to reveal the kind of work it performs in Palestine and beyond. States govern also by heritage, and both states and the local communities they attempt to control mobilize the language of heritage for a variety of different purposes in a variety of different settings. What is distinctive about Palestine is the central role NGOs play in the institutionalization of a heritage field. In their work, they collapse the divide between mobilizing heritage to defend vulnerable communities and resist the encroachment of the (Israeli) state, and using heritage to develop institutions and help build the (Palestinian) state.

Chapter 1 of book on memory and populism in Europe

ESA (ESA ILSRA-2009-1026); ASI (contract no. 5681); Regione Toscana (POR FSE 2007-2013-FORTEC); Kayser Italia; Lions Club International, District 108LA, Toscana, Italy.

In this article we analyse the Van Eesteren Museum as a technique of local governmentality. This small but growing institution aims to preserve and showcase the modernist urban planning and architecture of the disadvantaged Amsterdam neighbourhood of Slotermeer. Built on volunteers, residents¿ participation played a crucial role in its creation and still does in its day-to-day operation. While many see the museum as a bottom-up project, upon closer inspection, this participatory heritage project appears more ambivalent, effectively functioning as a platform for mediating conflicting interests and agendas in an urban context that is heavily shaped by local and national policies of urban renewal. This neighbourhood museum responds to a specific Dutch policy of state-led gentrification aimed at promoting social control while actually (unintentionally) producing social cleavages. Only a very specific and rather homogenous group of residents volunteer for the museum, other residents with more diverse backgrounds do not really participate. While the Van Eesteren Museum is rooted in this specific Dutch context, we argue that it points to the relevance of heritage to a new rationality of decentralised local governance based on producing `caring¿ and `feeling¿ citizens.

The capacity of inducing angiogenesis is a recognized hallmark of cancer cells. The cancer microenvironment, characterized by hypoxia and inflammatory signals, promotes proliferation, migration and activation of quiescent endothelial cells (EC) from surrounding vascular network. Current anti-angiogenic drugs present side effects, temporary efficacy, and issues of primary resistance, thereby calling for the identification of new therapeutic targets. MICALs are a unique family of redox enzymes that destabilize F-actin in cytoskeletal dynamics. MICAL2 mediates Semaphorin3A-NRP2 response to VEGFR1 in rat ECs. MICAL2 also enters the p130Cas interactome in response to VEGF in HUVEC. Previously, we showed that MICAL2 is overexpressed in metastatic cancer. A small-molecule inhibitor of MICAL2 exists (CCG-1423). Here we report that 1) MICAL2 is expressed in neo-angiogenic ECs in human solid tumors (kidney and breast carcinoma, glioblastoma and cardiac myxoma, n = 67, were analyzed with immunohistochemistry) and in animal models of ischemia/inflammation neo-angiogenesis, but not in normal capillary bed; 2) MICAL2 protein pharmacological inhibition (CCG-1423) or gene KD reduce EC viability and functional performance; 3) MICAL2 KD disables ECs response to VEGF in vitro. Whole-genome gene expression profiling reveals MICAL2 involvement in angiogenesis and vascular development pathways. Based on these results, we propose that MICAL2 expression in ECs participates to inflammation-induced neo-angiogenesis and that MICAL2 inhibition should be tested in cancer- and noncancer-associated neo-angiogenesis, where chronic inflammation represents a relevant pathophysiological mechanism.

Performing cell biology experiments in space imposes the use of hardware that essentially allows fluid exchange in a contained environment. Given the technical and logistical peculiarities, the limited opportunities and the high cost of access to space, a great effort during mission preparation of scientific studies is devoted to preventing loss of the experiment. The European Space Agency (ESA) requires, at the end of the preparation phase, the execution of an Experiment Sequence Test (EST), a dry-run version of the space experiment to check all procedures. At conclusion of the EST of our experiment 'ENDO' (ESA ILSRA-2009-1026), we found pitting corrosion of metal parts and biofilm formation within the cell-culture devices. The subsequent chemical (spectral assays), instrumental (OGP SmartScope) and microbiological (MALDI-TOF, 16S rRNA gene sequencing) investigations allowed the identification in contaminated material of Paenibacillus glucanolyticus, a ubiquitous, aerobic, facultative anaerobic, endospore forming, acid-producing, Gram-positive microorganism. A concurrence of P. glucanolyticus contamination and galvanic corrosion determined massive fouling, rust precipitation and damage to cells and cell-culture devices being, to our knowledge, the association between this microbe and corrosion never reported before in literature. As a consequence of the episode a critical procedure of experiment set up, i.e. hardware sterilization, was modified. The ENDO experiment was successfully launched to the International Space Station on September 2nd 2015 and returned to the PI laboratory on September 13th, with all cell culture samples in optimal condition.

Exposure to microgravity during space flight (SF) of variable length induces suffering of the endothelium (the cells lining all blood vessels), mostly responsible for health problems found in astronauts and animals returning from space. Of interest to pre-nosological medicine, the effects of microgravity on astronauts are strikingly similar to the consequences of sedentary life, senescence and degenerative diseases on Earth, although SF effects are accelerated and reversible. Thus, microgravity is a significant novel model for better understanding of common pathologies. A comprehensive cell and molecular biology study is needed in order to explain pathophysiological findings after SFs. This project will study the effects of microgravity and cosmic radiation on endothelial cells (ECs) cultured on the International Space Station through analysis of 1) cell transcriptome, 2) DNA methylome, 3) DNA damage and cell senescence, 4) variations in cell cycle and cell morphology. This project has been selected by the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency and is presently in preparation. The ground study presented here was performed to determine the biological and engineering requirements that will allow us to retrieve suitable samples after culturing, fixing and storing ECs in space. We expect to identify molecular pathways activated by space microgravity in microvascular ECs, which may shed light on pathogenic molecular mechanisms responsible for endothelial suffering shared by astronauts and individuals affected with aging, degenerative and sedentary life-associated pathologies on Earth.

This article aims to illuminate the ways in which artists and cultural producers can participate in forging the nation(-state) by performing its institutions, and by mocking its operations. It explores two experiments in setting up a Palestinian national museum, which are also art projects in themselves. It also discusses the recent Palestinian art biennials, organised by a Palestinian non-governmental organisation in 2007 and 2009 in various locations across the Mediterranean. It is my argument that the experiments with the Palestinian national museum and the biennials constitute a kind of artistic practice that does not just represent or imitate the social world: they are artistic practices that purport to produce new social arrangements - in particular, a set of new ‘state’ (art and cultural) institutions under conditions of statelessness. I also discuss how such a tactic of anticipatory representation, which calls into being, by representing them beforehand, institutions that do not yet (fully) exist, bears resemblance with recent policies adopted by the Palestinian political establishment.

This article explores a paradox relating to the highly contested project of compensating for mass crimes perpetrated during the colonial period. It analyses the only postcolonial reparation treaty to be signed to date: the Italy–Libya Friendship Treaty of 2008. While all other former colonial powers have consistently refused to apologize and pay compensations for their colonial crimes, this has not been the case with Italy, which agreed to pay over US$5 billion as reparation for the harm done to Libyans by the ruthless Italian colonial rule between 1911 and 1943. By analysing the text of the Italy–Libya Treaty as well as its immediate consequences and the transnational dynamics of remembrance it engendered, I argue that the agreement short-circuits the production of social memory and actually leads to systematic violations of human rights against migrants and refugees. Moreover, I contend that looking at ‘cynical’ apologies and reparations can yield interesting insights into the politics of regret. Most importantly, the Treaty shows how the problem with such a politics is that it ‘forgets’ colonialism, or rather, building on Ann Stoler’s notion of ‘colonial aphasia’, fails to speak it.

Beyond the commonsense dichotomy between art as radical practice and heritage as conservation, this article analyzes Palestinian heritage as the ambiguous terrain where these two practices meet, creating a language that is both locally rooted and cosmopolitan. By examining the recent Palestinian art biennales (biennials), I show how heritage-informed art functions as a platform for performing the future Palestinian nation-state. Organized by a heritage organization, the biennales highlight the creativity of a new generation of Palestinian heritage NGOs, which continue a local social-organizing tradition marked by the alliance between heritage, the arts, and liberation politics. This cultural production undermines a traditional dichotomy between heritage and counter-memory because it represents both part of a state-building project and an act of anticolonial resistance, suspended between what scholars term “transnational governmentality” and “counter-governmentality.” I argue that Palestinian heritage practices constitute a form of nonstate governmentality. In this context, problems of representation acquire strong relevance.

In this article I investigate the making of two new museums of Europe—Marseille's Museum of the Civilizations of Europe and the Mediterranean and Berlin's Museum of European Cultures—by focusing on the kinds of “Europe” envisioned in their exhibitions. I argue that museums represent an important site where the geopolitical imaginary of a bounded, culturalized Europe is produced, even if by default. I explore how these older national folklore collections were strategically rebranded as museums of Europe to give a second life to their nearly obsolete displays. National projects and geopolitics play a key role in such memorial Europeanization. These insights challenge taken‐for‐granted understandings of scale in memory studies and offer a more nuanced understanding of how Europeanization is playing out within cultural institutions. Amid multiple European crises, “Europe” is increasingly imagined as a diverse but essentially united cultural space—however fuzzy and contested its cultural content may be—while this spatial imaginary is racialized in subtle ways.

Introduction This volume responds to the scholarly neglect and under-conceptualisation of the role of memory and cultural heritage in far right-wing populist discourse, in both memory/heritage (Bull and Hansen 2016; Levi and Rothberg 2018) and populism studies. Our conviction is that such a critical nexus must be investigated from a transnational/comparative, non-(Western)Eurocentric perspective and by developing a new dialogue between humanities and social science approaches. The rise of the far right arguably represents the most conspicuous, transnational phenomenon to rock European (and non-European) politics in the last decade, with a stunning eight countries of the European Union (EU) being newly controlled, as we write, by nationalist, racist populist parties that have challenged key principles of liberal democracy and the postwar social consensus upon which the Union is built. In other key European countries, such as France, right-wing populists have notched remarkable electoral successes and have managed to shape the terms and language of public debate well beyond their own electorate, despite not conquering power. These populist parties and their followers use the past in manifold and powerful ways. Cultural heritage as the ostensible essential foundation of a political community is key to the way they understand the world and political dynamics. Also, contemporary right-wing populism is haunted by the memory of fascism: Is it fascism or is it not? We see it as a matter of urgency for scholars in the field of memory, heritage, and populism studies to reflect on populist mobilisations of memory and heritage, and on the very entanglement of concepts and narratives we have contributed to (public memory, European cultural heritage) with this momentous rise. Building on emerging research, the present volume makes a start in this direction.