Ins and outs of the cultural polis: informality, culture and governance in the global South

This paper provides an epistemological critique of informality by focusing on cultural governance in two cities of the global South, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Dakar, Senegal. Aiming to enrich debates about urban creativity and urban cultural policy, which are still mainly focused on and articulated from the global North, we consider the broad field of ‘informality’ research as an entry point for such a discussion. Using case studies from African and Latin American contexts, we focus on the interstices of cultural policy and the borderlands of (in)formality, examining how governmental institutions are entangled in informal processes, and how grassroots cultural interventions become part of mainstream cultural circuits. The analysis sheds light on how these creative spaces of cultural production, located in Southern contexts of urban extremes, contribute to the vitality of informal urbanisms and unsettle predominant views that see them merely as sites ofinfrastructural poverty and social exclusion. The paper suggests that a creative remapping of informality, through an inquiry of the ‘ins’ and ‘outs’ of the cultural polis, could improve our translating capacity of academic discourse into institutional/policy-related operations

A inclusão da equipe de saúde bucal na Estratégia Saúde da Família: entraves, avanços e desafios

O objetivo deste artigo é discutir a inclusão da saúde bucal na Estratégia Saúde da Família, em cidades de uma microrregião do sudeste do Brasil, sob a perspectiva dos recursos humanos. Foram aplicados questionários aos integrantes do serviço de saúde bucal: dentistas, auxiliares e gestores. O instrumento considerou três dimensões: como e porque se adotou o novo modelo, como o serviço está se reorganizando e que avanços foram percebidos pelos profissionais. O motivo mais mencionado pelos gestores, para inclusão da Saúde Bucal foi a possibilidade de mudança do modelo tecno-assistencial. Dentistas e auxiliares quando questionados sobre sua motivação, também consideraram prioritariamente a possibilidade de mudança na prática. Observou-se ainda que existem nós críticos na contratação e capacitação de recursos humanos para atuar na equipe de saúde bucal e na integração entre os profissionais de saúde. Mas o acesso está melhor, seja pela organização efetuada, seja pela expansão de equipes. Os municípios da microrregião ainda enfrentam percalços para que o funcionamento do serviço de saúde bucal, após a Saúde da Família, apresente avanços reais nas práticas de atenção. Porém, os avanços existem e estes devem ser reforçados, para consolidação do sistema de saúde e melhoria na qualidade de vida da população

Genome of the Avirulent Human-Infective Trypanosome—Trypanosoma rangeli

Background: Trypanosoma rangeli is a hemoflagellate protozoan parasite infecting humans and other wild and domestic mammals across Central and South America. It does not cause human disease, but it can be mistaken for the etiologic agent of Chagas disease, Trypanosoma cruzi. We have sequenced the T. rangeli genome to provide new tools for elucidating the distinct and intriguing biology of this species and the key pathways related to interaction with its arthropod and mammalian hosts.  Methodology/Principal Findings: The T. rangeli haploid genome is ,24 Mb in length, and is the smallest and least repetitive trypanosomatid genome sequenced thus far. This parasite genome has shorter subtelomeric sequences compared to those of T. cruzi and T. brucei; displays intraspecific karyotype variability and lacks minichromosomes. Of the predicted 7,613 protein coding sequences, functional annotations could be determined for 2,415, while 5,043 are hypothetical proteins, some with evidence of protein expression. 7,101 genes (93%) are shared with other trypanosomatids that infect humans. An ortholog of the dcl2 gene involved in the T. brucei RNAi pathway was found in T. rangeli, but the RNAi machinery is non-functional since the other genes in this pathway are pseudogenized. T. rangeli is highly susceptible to oxidative stress, a phenotype that may be explained by a smaller number of anti-oxidant defense enzymes and heatshock proteins.  Conclusions/Significance: Phylogenetic comparison of nuclear and mitochondrial genes indicates that T. rangeli and T. cruzi are equidistant from T. brucei. In addition to revealing new aspects of trypanosome co-evolution within the vertebrate and invertebrate hosts, comparative genomic analysis with pathogenic trypanosomatids provides valuable new information that can be further explored with the aim of developing better diagnostic tools and/or therapeutic targets