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The main objective of this paper is to propose an interdisciplinary reflection on how postcolonial fiction in English can help readers and scholars construct an idea of the post- colonial nation and the cultural identity of its people. This theory is part of a larger research project developed in my thesis The Search for Identity and the Construction of an Idea of India in the novels of Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai (2016). As discussed in this paper, national history, identity and cultural representation are the three aspects which through an analysis of different artistic production, including narratives are crucial to the building of knowledge on a nation, its culture and people Historical processes are the key to the unfolding of present circumstances and fundamental to the construction of a national identity with a collective feel. However, the perceptions of the past change according to philosophical and ideological trends, placing historical objectivity in the hands of its subjective counterpart. It is cultural theory and how it evolves in simultaneity with the world and its social, political, economic and technological development that in effect dictates the forms and expressions that give shape to societies, nations and identities. The function of the narrative, whether as text, visual arts, film, architecture, dance and other creative expressions of the self, is to tell a story. And every moment of every living being can be told in a story. History too is a story. Though it originally focused on the grand deeds of the European nations, with postcolonialism new stories began to emerge, revealing a world of diversity and deconstructing traditional views of history and power relations. However, this new approach to the historical, cultural and political dialectic was achieved through the effect of the postcolonial narrative which used Western forms and structures, such as the novel and the English language to achieve its aim. This appropriation of language and form resulted in an inversion of power ...

The main objective of this research project is to analyse how the novels The God of Small Things (1997) by Arundhati Roy and The Inheritance of Loss (2006) by Kiran Desai can help readers and scholars construct an idea of India and of the Indian cultural identity. In order to develop this theory it is necessary to look into three aspects which are crucial to the building of knowledge on a nation, its culture and people and these are, national history, identity and cultural representation through different artistic production, including fictional narratives. Historical processes are the key to the unfolding of present circumstances and fundamental to the construction of a national identity that makes sense collectively. However, the perceptions of the past change according to philosophical and ideological trends, placing historical objectivity in the hands of its subjective counterpart. It is cultural theory and how it evolves in simultaneity with the world and its social, political, economic and technological development that in effect dictates the forms and expressions that give shape to societies, nations and identities. The function of narrative whether as text, visual arts, film, architecture, dance and other creative expressions of the self, is to tell a story. And every moment of every living being can be told in a story. History too is a story and though in the past it focused mostly on the grand deeds of the European nations, with postcolonialism new stories began to emerge, revealing a world of diversity and deconstructing traditional views of the shaping of the past and the power relations involved. However, this new approach to the historical, cultural and political dialectic was achieved through the effect of the postcolonial narrative which used Western forms and structures, such as the novel and the English language, to achieve its aim. This appropriation of language and form resulted in an inversion of power relations as a cultural metaphor. For the purpose of such a debate, the present ...

The effective osteogenic commitment of human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (hBMSCs) is critical for bone regenerative therapies. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) derived from hBMSCs have a regenerative potential that has been increasingly recognized. Herein, the osteoinductive potential of osteogenically induced hBMSC-EVs was examined. hBMSCs secreted negatively charged nanosized vesicles (â ¼35 nm) with EV-related surface markers. The yield of EVs over 7 days was dependent on an osteogenic stimulus (standard chemical cocktail or RUNX2 cationic-lipid transfection). These EVs were used to sequentially stimulate homotypic uncommitted cells during 7 days, matching the seeding density of EV parent cells, culture time, and stimuli. Osteogenically committed hBMSC-EVs induced an osteogenic phenotype characterized by marked early induction of BMP2, SP7, SPP1, BGLAP/IBSP, and alkaline phosphatase. Both EV groups outperformed the currently used osteoinductive strategies. These data show that naturally secreted EVs can guide the osteogenic commitment of hBMSCs in the absence of other chemical or genetic osteoinductors. ; The authors thank the financial support of QREN (RL1-ABMRNORTE-01-0124-FEDER-000016 and RL3–TECT–NORTE-01-0124- FEDER-000020) co-financed by North Portugal Regional Operational Program (ON.2–O Novo Norte), under the NSRF, through the ERDF; the European Union's Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007–2013), Grant No. REGPOT-CT2012-316331- POLARIS; and the laboratory assistance of Elsa Ribeiro, Magda Graça, and Sónia ...

Herein, for the first time, we combined poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA) with a strontium borosilicate bioactive glass (BBG-Sr) using electrospinning to fabricate a composite bioactive PLLA membrane loaded with 10% (w/w) of BBG-Sr glass par- ticles (PLLA-BBG-Sr). The composites were characterised by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and microcomputer tomography (μ-CT), and the results showed that we successfully fabricated smooth and uniform fibres (1â 3 μm in width) with a homogeneous distribution of BBG-Sr microparticles (<45 μm). Degradation studies (in phosphate buffered saline) demonstrated that the incorporation of BBG-Sr glass particles into the PLLA membranes increased their degradability and water uptake with a continuous release of cations. The addition of BBG-Sr glass particles enhanced the membraneâ s mechanical properties (69% higher Young modulus and 36% higher tensile strength). Furthermore, cellular in vitro evaluation using bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) demonstrated that PLLA-BBG-Sr mem- branes promoted the osteogenic differentiation of the cells as demonstrated by increased alkaline phosphatase activity and up-regulated osteogenic gene expression (Alpl, Sp7 and Bglap) in relation to PLLA alone. These results strongly suggest that the composite PLLA membranes reinforced with the BBG-Sr glass particles have potential as an effective biomater- ial capable of promoting bone regeneration. ; The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (Ph.D. grant BD/73162/2010), the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under Grant No. REGPOT-CT2012- 31633-POLARIS. This work was also supported by the European Research Council grant agreement ERC-2012-ADG-20120216- 321266 for the project ComplexiTE and UK EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing of Medical Devices-MeDe Innovation (EPSRC grant ...