A Note of Education, Pluralism and Ideology

Programs on ethnicity and pluralism may not only be self-serving, but like a great deal that passes for educational reform or change, designed to preserve institutional homeostasis and integrity

Los fundamentos de la Educación Imperial Estadounidense

The evolution of American educational imperialism is presented, beginning with colonialism in territories obtained from Spain in the early 20th century through the US occupation of Germany and Japan after the Second World War and then through the Cold War and post Cold War periods. A selection of examples will discuss basic foundations of American educational imperialism, including values and ideals, international exchanges, philanthropy, education in select Muslim countries, business education, and collaboration between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ power aspects of imperialism. It is noted where this collaboration has either failed or led to catastrophic outcomes. Major shifts are noted to correspond to changes in US public, political and popular attitudes. Conclusions regarding the shape of and shifts in educational imperialism are provided. It will be seen that much of what is observed is a ‘mix’ of politics and practicalities which produced a mix of outcomes.Se presenta la evolución de la educación en el imperio estadounidense, comenzando con las colonias en los territorios obtenidos de España a principios del siglo XX, pasando por la ocupación estadounidense de Alemania y Japón después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial y luego durante la Guerra Fría y los períodos posteriores a la Guerra Fría. Mediante una selección de ejemplos se discutirán los fundamentos básicos del imperialismo educativo estadounidense, incluyendo los valores e ideales, los intercambios internacionales, la filantropía, la educación en determinados países musulmanes, la educación empresarial y la colaboración entre los aspectos del hard power y el soft power del imperialismo. Se señala dónde esta colaboración ha fallado o ha llevado a resultados catastróficos. Se observa que los cambios principales corresponden a cambios en las actitudes públicas, políticas y populares de los Estados Unidos. Se brindan conclusiones sobre la forma y los cambios en el imperialismo educativo. Se verá que gran parte de lo que se observa es una «mezcla» de política y aspectos prácticos que producen una combinación de resultados

Diversity of Envelope Genes from an Uncloned Stock of SIVmac251

AIDS vaccine and pathogenesis research will benefit from a more diverse array of cloned SIV challenge stocks from which to choose. Toward this end, 20 envelope genes were cloned from an extensively used, primary stock of uncloned SIVmac251. Each of the 20 clones had a unique sequence. Their translated sequences differed by as many as 26 amino acids from one another and by as many as 45 amino acids from the commonly used clone SIVmac239. Envelope sequences up to and including the membrane-spanning domain were exchanged into the infectious pathogenic SIVmac239 clone and virus stocks were produced by HEK293T cell transfection. Seventeen of the 20 recombinants were replication competent. The infectivities per ng p27 of the 17 new replication-competent recombinants in C8166-SEAP cells and in TZM-bl cells ranged from minus 32-fold to plus 7.6-fold relative to SIVmac239. A range of sensitivities to neutralization by sCD4 and by sera from SIV-infected macaques was observed but none was as sensitive to these neutralizing agents as SIVmac316, the highly macrophage-competent derivative of SIVmac239. Four strains that were most sensitive to sCD4 inhibition were also among the most sensitive to antibody-mediated neutralization. None of the new recombinant viruses replicated as well as SIVmac316 in primary alveolar macrophage cultures from rhesus monkeys but three of the strains did exhibit significant levels of delayed replication in these primary macrophages, reaching peak levels of virus production of ≥50 ng/ml p27 compared to 600–800 ng/ml p27 with SIVmac316. These new SIV clones are being contributed to the NIH AIDS Reagent Repository and are available to the scientific community