From Passive to Radical Revolution in Venezuela’s Populist Project

In December 2001, Hugo Chávez and others changed Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolutionary project, which consisted of replacing a corrupt and elitist constitution with a fair and popular one, into a radical one. In its early stages the project corresponded to what Gramsci called a “passive revolution.” Attempts by opposition forces to crush the construction of a new populist hegemony (a coup in April 2002 and an indefinite strike in December 2002) were met with popular mobilization that reaffirmed Chávez’s hegemonic project. The radical revolution consisted of social programs designed to alleviate the suffering of the poor and consolidated a new hegemonic structure among Venezuela’s lower classes. The concept of “radical revolution” provides a theoretical alternative for assessing the extent to which a political project can be described as populist

Symmetries and the identity of physical states

The paper proposes a combined account of identity for physical states and direct empirical significance for symmetries according to which symmetry-related state variables designate distinct physical states if and only if the symmetry that relates them has direct empirical significance. Strengthening an earlier result, I show that, given this combined account, the local gauge symmetries in our leading contemporary theories of particle physics do not have any direct empirical significance

Transient contractions of urinary bladder smooth muscle are drivers of afferent nerve activity during filling

Activation of afferent nerves during urinary bladder (UB) filling conveys the sensation of UB fullness to the central nervous system (CNS). Although this sensory outflow is presumed to reflect graded increases in pressure associated with filling, UBs also exhibit nonvoiding, transient contractions (TCs) that cause small, rapid increases in intravesical pressure. Here, using an ex vivo mouse bladder preparation, we explored the relative contributions of filling pressure and TC-induced pressure transients to sensory nerve stimulation. Continuous UB filling caused an increase in afferent nerve activity composed of a graded increase in baseline activity and activity associated with increases in intravesical pressure produced by TCs. For each ∼4-mmHg pressure increase, filling pressure increased baseline afferent activity by ∼60 action potentials per second. In contrast, a similar pressure elevation induced by a TC evoked an ∼10-fold greater increase in afferent activity. Filling pressure did not affect TC frequency but did increase the TC rate of rise, reflecting a change in the length-tension relationship of detrusor smooth muscle. The frequency of afferent bursts depended on the TC rate of rise and peaked before maximum pressure. Inhibition of small- and large-conductance Ca(2+)-activated K(+) (SK and BK) channels increased TC amplitude and afferent nerve activity. After inhibiting detrusor muscle contractility, simulating the waveform of a TC by gently compressing the bladder evoked similar increases in afferent activity. Notably, afferent activity elicited by simulated TCs was augmented by SK channel inhibition. Our results show that afferent nerve activity evoked by TCs represents the majority of afferent outflow conveyed to the CNS during UB filling and suggest that the maximum TC rate of rise corresponds to an optimal length-tension relationship for efficient UB contraction. Furthermore, our findings implicate SK channels in controlling the gain of sensory outflow independent of UB contractility

Orbe Indiano. Capítulo I

En la divina comedia, Dante presentó a Ulises lanzándose a su último viaje, movido por un deseo de "experiencia de todas las tierras que sean y de la naturaleza del hombre, sea buena o mala". Acompañado por un pequeño grupo de fieles seguidores, el héroe griego pasa navegando ante Sevilla y Ceuta, por las Columnas de Hércules hasta las aguas del océano de Occidente, para encontrar allí, después de varios días de navegación, una gran montaña en una isla, después identificada por Dante como el Monte Purgatorio, ante el cual un terrible remolino lanza a su navío y su tripulación..

La rebelión de Túpac Amaru

Note portant sur l’auteur El agente ejecutivo de la búsqueda del “provecho y el poder” de la Corona de los Borbones fue José de Gálvez, jurista de Málaga, quien primero como visitador generai de la Nueva España en 1765-1771 y luego como ministro de Indias, 1776-1787, llevó adelante un programa de reforma destinado a revitalizar tanto al gobierno como la economía del Imperio americano. La medida más notable fue el establecimiento, en 1776, de un nuevo virreinato, con su capital en Buenos Aires..