The Corregidores of the Colca Valley, Peru: Imperial Administration in an Andean Region

The corregidor de los indios was introduced into the Viceroyalty of Peru by Governor García de Castro in 1565. The institution was designed to limit the power of the encomendero elite and to improve administration and justice in the Andean countryside. Here we examine the impact of the reforms at the local level, the corregimiento of Los Collaguas in the Colca Valley, located between Cuzco and Arequipa. Althought the Crown was largely successful in weakening the encomienda, possibility of graft corrupted all but a handful of corregidores. The residencia did check some of those abuses.El gobernador García de Castro fue quien introdujo (1565) el corregidor de los indios en el virreinato del Perú. El corregimiento fue establecido para limitar el poder de los encomenderos y mejorar la administración y la justicia en los sitios rurales, y al mismo tiempo incrementar la colección del tributo. En este trabajo examinamos el impacto de las reformas en el corregimiento de los Collaguas situado en el hermoso valle del río Colca entre Arequipa y Cuzco. Aunque la corona fue más exitosa en debilitar la encomienda, la posibilidad de soborno corrompió a la mayoría de los corregidores

¿Una primera epidemia americana de viruela en 1493?

We analyze the current debates about the origins of humans in the Western Hemisphere. The work of physical anthropologists and geneticists have forced archeologists to re-examine traditional hypotheses. The dating of the mankind’s migration across the Bering Straits has been pushed back another 10,000 to 15,000 years before the present. At the same time the ties between Paleoindians and East Asians has been further supported and the model of big game hunting as the original pattern of mankind’s socio-economic organization in the Americas has been challenged by new research from South American sites.Documentación dada a conocer últimamente descubre que varios indios tainos llevados por Colón a España para ser enseñados a los Reyes Católicos murieron de viruela en Cádiz al salir la segunda expedición en 1493. Por las condiciones sanitarias reinantes y la aglomeración a bordo, la infección pudo perfectamente afectar a más viajeros y a dar pie a una epidemia. El artículo aporta un elemento nuevo al debate sobre las causas de la rápida desaparición de la población indígena de la Española

Avances en el estudio de la población andina colonial

El artículo no presenta resumen

Predicting gene expression in the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum using histone modification, nucleosome positioning, and 3D localization features.

Empirical evidence suggests that the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum employs a broad range of mechanisms to regulate gene transcription throughout the organism's complex life cycle. To better understand this regulatory machinery, we assembled a rich collection of genomic and epigenomic data sets, including information about transcription factor (TF) binding motifs, patterns of covalent histone modifications, nucleosome occupancy, GC content, and global 3D genome architecture. We used these data to train machine learning models to discriminate between high-expression and low-expression genes, focusing on three distinct stages of the red blood cell phase of the Plasmodium life cycle. Our results highlight the importance of histone modifications and 3D chromatin architecture in Plasmodium transcriptional regulation and suggest that AP2 transcription factors may play a limited regulatory role, perhaps operating in conjunction with epigenetic factors

Randomised trial of glutamine, selenium, or both, to supplement parenteral nutrition for critically ill patients

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Direct simulation of particle-laden fluids

Processes that involve particle-laden fluids are common in geomechanics and especially in the petroleum industry. Understanding the physics of these processes and the ability to predict their behavior requires the development of coupled fluid-flow and particle-motion computational methods. This paper outlines an accurate and robust coupled computational scheme using the lattice-Boltzmann method for fluid flow and the discrete-element method for solid particle motion. Results from several two-dimensional validation simulations are presented. Simulations reported include the sedimentation of an ellipse, a disc and two interacting discs in a closed column of fluid. The recently discovered phenomenon of drafting, kissing, and tumbling is fully reproduced in the two-disc simulation

Paradoxical activation of the protein kinase-transcription factor ERK5 by ERK5 kinase inhibitors.

The dual protein kinase-transcription factor, ERK5, is an emerging drug target in cancer and inflammation, and small-molecule ERK5 kinase inhibitors have been developed. However, selective ERK5 kinase inhibitors fail to recapitulate ERK5 genetic ablation phenotypes, suggesting kinase-independent functions for ERK5. Here we show that ERK5 kinase inhibitors cause paradoxical activation of ERK5 transcriptional activity mediated through its unique C-terminal transcriptional activation domain (TAD). Using the ERK5 kinase inhibitor, Compound 26 (ERK5-IN-1), as a paradigm, we have developed kinase-active, drug-resistant mutants of ERK5. With these mutants, we show that induction of ERK5 transcriptional activity requires direct binding of the inhibitor to the kinase domain. This in turn promotes conformational changes in the kinase domain that result in nuclear translocation of ERK5 and stimulation of gene transcription. This shows that both the ERK5 kinase and TAD must be considered when assessing the role of ERK5 and the effectiveness of anti-ERK5 therapeutics

The genetic basis of natural variation in C. elegans telomere length [preprint]

Telomeres are involved in the maintenance of chromosomes and the prevention of genome instability. Despite this central importance, significant variation in telomere length has been observed in a variety of organisms. The genetic determinants of telomere-length variation and their effects on organismal fitness are largely unexplored. Here, we describe natural variation in telomere length across the Caenorhabditis elegans species. We identify a large-effect variant that contributes to differences in telomere length. The variant alters the conserved oligosaccharide/oligonucleotide-binding fold of POT-2, a homolog of a human telomere-capping shelterin complex subunit. Mutations within this domain likely reduce the ability of POT-2 to bind telomeric DNA, thereby increasing telomere length. We find that telomere-length variation does not correlate with offspring production or longevity in C. elegans wild isolates, suggesting that naturally long telomeres play a limited role in modifying fitness phenotypes in C. elegans

The Genetic Basis of Natural Variation in Caenorhabditis elegans Telomere Length

Telomeres are involved in the maintenance of chromosomes and the prevention of genome instability. Despite this central importance, significant variation in telomere length has been observed in a variety of organisms. The genetic determinants of telomere-length variation and their effects on organismal fitness are largely unexplored. Here, we describe natural variation in telomere length across the Caenorhabditis elegans species. We identify a large-effect variant that contributes to differences in telomere length. The variant alters the conserved oligonucleotide/oligosaccharide-binding fold of protection of telomeres 2 (POT-2), a homolog of a human telomere-capping shelterin complex subunit. Mutations within this domain likely reduce the ability of POT-2 to bind telomeric DNA, thereby increasing telomere length. We find that telomere-length variation does not correlate with offspring production or longevity in C. elegans wild isolates, suggesting that naturally long telomeres play a limited role in modifying fitness phenotypes in C. elegans