Universal Minimal Flows of Groups of Automorphisms of Uncountable Structures

It is a well-known fact, that the greatest ambit for a topological group $G$ is the Samuel compactification of $G$ with respect to the right uniformity on $G.$ We apply the original destription by Samuel from 1948 to give a simple computation of the universal minimal flow for groups of automorphisms of uncountable structures using Fra\"iss\'e theory and Ramsey theory. This work generalizes some of the known results about countable structures.Comment: 12 page

Compactifications of topological groups

Every topological group $G$ has some natural compactifications which can be a useful tool of studying $G$. We discuss the following constructions: (1) the greatest ambit $S(G)$ is the compactification corresponding to the algebra of all right uniformly continuous bounded functions on $G$; (2) the Roelcke compactification $R(G)$ corresponds to the algebra of functions which are both left and right uniformly continuous; (3) the weakly almost periodic compactification $W(G)$ is the envelopping compact semitopological semigroup of $G$ (`semitopological' means that the multiplication is separately continuous). The universal minimal compact $G$-space $X=M_G$ is characterized by the following properties: (1) $X$ has no proper closed $G$-invariant subsets; (2) for every compact $G$-space $Y$ there exists a $G$-map $X\to Y$. A group $G$ is extremely amenable, or has the fixed point on compacta property, if $M_G$ is a singleton. We discuss some results and questions by V. Pestov and E. Glasner on extremely amenable groups. The Roelcke compactifications were used by M. Megrelishvili to prove that $W(G)$ can be a singleton. They can be used to prove that certain groups are minimal. A topological group is minimal if it does not admit a strictly coarser Hausdorff group topology.Comment: 17 page

Regional limits in Portugal - an application of cluster analysis

In 1989, Portugal has adopted the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) of the European Union (EU) to promote statistical normalisation in the EU. This classification grouped the portuguese municipalities in three levels: NUTS III (28 units in the Mainland), NUTS II (5 units in the Mainland) and NUTS I (3 units: Mainland, Madeira Islands and Azores Islands). In 2002, the Portuguese government approved a law introducing some modifications to the former nomenclature, namely in the regions of Centro, Lisboa e Vale do Tejo and Alentejo. Further to these modifications, some NUTS III units were moved from Lisboa e Vale do Tejo (new designation is Lisboa) to Centro and Alentejo. In this paper we group territorial units, following the methodology of cluster analysis, making use of official statistics like the population census of 2001. Our goal is to obtain homogenous NUTS II in economic and social terms, therefore challenging the 2002 nomenclature modifications. We select our variables to characterise the territorial units, according to the competitiveness territorial pyramid (Mateus et al., 2000), which classifies the territorial analysis by themes like demography, labour market, workers qualifications, innovation, entrepreneurship, productive specialization and infrastructures to support production.

Fraisse Limits, Ramsey Theory, and Topological Dynamics of Automorphism Groups

We study in this paper some connections between the Fraisse theory of amalgamation classes and ultrahomogeneous structures, Ramsey theory, and topological dynamics of automorphism groups of countable structures.Comment: 73 pages, LaTeX 2e, to appear in Geom. Funct. Ana

Confession and political normativity: control of subjectivity and production of the subject

The theme of confession, present in the reflection of Michel Foucault since the early 1960s, pursued the same direction of his researches from the late 1970s concerning the problem of government and the studies of governmentality. Under this perspective, confession is taken as recognition through which the subject authenticates in himself or herself his or her own actions and thoughts. Therefore, it is not only a verbal act by means of which the subject states the truth of his or her being; confession also binds the subject to truth, throwing him or her in a relation of dependency regards the other, and, at the same time, modifying the relationship that he or she establishes with himself or herself. According to Foucault, this is what explains the massive growth of practices of confession in Western societies up until their actual inscription at the heart of procedures of individualization typical of modern political power. This paper explores Foucault’s analysis of confessional practices and its recent developments in the work of Giorgio Agamben (Opus Dei. Archeologia dell’Ufficio, 2012) and Roberto Esposito (Due. La macchina della teologia politica e il posto del pensiero, 2013).El tema de la confesión, presente en la reflexión de Michel Foucault desde principios del decenio de 1960, persiguió la misma dirección de sus investigaciones a partir de finales de 1970 en relación con el problema del gobierno y de los estudios de la gubernamentalidad. Bajo esta perspectiva, la confesión se toma como reconocimiento a través de la cual el sujeto autentica en sí mismo sus propias acciones y pensamientos. Por lo tanto, no es solo un acto verbal por medio del cual el sujeto establece la verdad de su ser; la confesión también une el sujeto a la verdad, colocándolo en una relación de dependencia con el otro y, al mismo tiempo, cambiando la relación que él establece consigo mismo. Según Foucault, esto es lo que explica el crecimiento masivo de las prácticas de la confesión en las sociedades occidentales hasta su inscripción efectiva en el corazón de los procedimientos de individualización del poder político moderno. Este artículo explora el análisis de Foucault de las prácticas confesionales y sus recientes avances en el trabajo de Giorgio Agamben (Opus Dei. Archeologia dell’Ufficio, 2012) y Roberto Esposito (Due. La macchina della teologia politica e il posto del pensiero, 2013)

Identification of compounds with anti-human cytomegalovirus activity that inhibit production of IE2 proteins

Using a high throughput screening methodology we surveyed a collection of largely uncharacterized validated or suspected kinase inhibitors for anti-human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) activity. From this screen we identified three structurally related 5-aminopyrazine compounds (XMD7-1, -2 and -27) that inhibited HCMV replication in virus yield reduction assays at low micromolar concentrations. Kinase selectivity assays indicated that each compound was a kinase inhibitor capable of inhibiting a range of cellular protein kinases. Western blotting and RNA sequencing demonstrated that treatment of infected cells with XMD7 compounds resulted in a defect in the production of the major HCMV transcriptional transactivator IE2 proteins (IE2-86, IE2-60 and IE2-40) and an overall reduction in transcription from the viral genome. However, production of certain viral proteins was not compromised by treatment with XMD7 compounds. Thus, these novel anti-HCMV compounds likely inhibited transcription from the viral genome and suppressed production of a subset of viral proteins by inhibiting IE2 protein production