Two Decades of Rising Inequality and Declining Poverty in the Lao People's Democratic Republic

Over the last 2 decades the distribution of private household expenditures has become more unequal in the Lao People's Democratic Republic, with the Gini coefficient rising from 0.311 to 0.364, even though absolute poverty incidence has halved. The increase in inequality was statistically significant and reduced the average rate of poverty reduction per year by about 28%, meaning the actual rate compared with the counterfactual rate that would have occurred if the mean real expenditures had increased at their observed levels but inequality had not changed. When the data are decomposed into rural and urban areas of residence or by province, or by the ethnicity of the household head, the increase in inequality within groups dominates any changes between groups; inequality has increased throughout the country. In contrast, access to publicly provided services has become more equal; disparities in participation rates between richer and poorer groups have diminished

Psychoneuroimmunology and stress responses in HIV 1 seropositive and at risk gay men

https://nsuworks.nova.edu/hpd_com_facbooks/1017/thumbnail.jp

CFTR channel insertion to the apical surface in rat duodenal villus epithelial cells is upregulated by VIP in vivo

cAMP activated insertion of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) channels from endosomes to the apical plasma membrane has been hypothesized to regulate surface expression and CFTR function although the physiologic relevance of this remains unclear. We previously identified a subpopulation of small intestinal villus epithelial cells or CFTR high expressor (CHE) cells possessing very high levels of apical membrane CFTR in association with a prominent subapical vesicular pool of CFTR. We have examined the subcellular redistribution of CFTR in duodenal CHE cells in vivo in response to the cAMP activated secretagogue vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP). Using anti-CFTR antibodies against the C terminus of rodent CFTR and indirect immunofluorescence, we show by quantitative confocal microscopy that CFTR rapidly redistributes from the cytoplasm to the apical surface upon cAMP stimulation by VIP and returns to the cytoplasm upon removal of VIP stimulation of intracellular cAMP levels. Using ultrastructural and confocal immunofluorescence examination in the presence or absence of cycloheximide, we also show that redistribution was not dependent on new protein synthesis, changes in endocytosis, or rearrangement of the apical cytoskeleton. These observations suggest that physiologic cAMP activated apical membrane insertion and recycling of CFTR channels in normal CFTR expressing epithelia contributes to the in vivo regulation of CFTR mediated anion transport

Possibilidades éticos-estéticas da perversão: a sexualidade perverso-polimorfa como prática de liberdade em Marcuse

Este artigo visa explorar a compreensão ético-estética do fenômeno perverso realizada por Marcuse em Eros e Civilização. No registro ético, destacamos o caráter necessariamente moral da categoria de perversão e seu vínculo com a normatização da experiência sexual, com a disciplinarização e controle dos corpos, no quadro da leitura foucaultiana do biopoder, situando Marcuse como crítico de tais processos em sua ligação com o modo de produção capitalista. No segundo registro, da estética, expomos como Marcuse, através da reconfiguração da relação entre Eros e Logos e da afirmação de um ethos estético, propõe que a perversão sexual implica a contestação da ordem vigente e a produção de novos modos de relações consigo e com os outros, em contraste com a regulação instrumental do erotismo. Por fim, indicamos como o campo de possibilidades aberto por Marcuse no domínio da transgressão aponta para a necessidade de retomar criticamente a categoria de perversão

International Markets and Open Economy Macroeconomics: A Keynesian View.

This paper attempts to sketch a Keynesian response to the gap between the reality of international capital markets and the 'standard paradigm' of economic theory that underpins the policy model offered to poor countries in relation to their participation in the world economy and their national macroeconomic management. Recent work on imperfect markets, much of it from self-styled 'New Keynesian' point of view, implies a substantial modification of this standard paradigm to allow for non-price clearing but this does not appear to have been integrated with new trade theories, while the implications of systemic volatility and credit rationing behavior have not been theorized. The paper suggests that a return to Keynes's original approach to investor uncertainty and global demand might not only help to integrate international macroeconomic theory in a plausible manner but also contribute to the formulation of more desirable policy positions