Divide and Conquer: Political Decentralization and Secessionist Suppression in Indonesia and the Philippines

This paper examines the roles of identity-based conflict and secessionist sentiment in motivating and affecting political decentralization in middle-income democracies. The literature on decentralization largely assumes a link between the process and increased political accountability and service delivery effectiveness; however, these theories do not take into account cases in which national crisis and regional instability are the primary motives to decentralize. This paper hypothesizes that when decentralization occurs in direct response to threats of secession, the quality of its political accountability and service delivery mechanisms will be lower than would otherwise be predicted. Two cases are considered: the Philippines, whose decentralization occurred under a stable and well-institutionalized democratic regime, and Indonesia, which radically and rapidly decentralized in the face of high-intensity conflicts in Aceh, Maluku, and Papua. Ultimately, the careful construction and implementation of a moderate devolution program in the Philippines led to success in the areas of political accountability and service delivery, while the more extreme Indonesian program faced long-term challenges and shortcomings in those same areas. Neither country, however, can be said to have successfully eliminated regional separatism or otherwise incorporated discontented groups into their devolved systems, suggesting that this process represents a particular challenge to newly decentralized regimes

CAPS and syntaxin dock dense core vesicles to the plasma membrane in neurons

Journal ArticleDocking to the plasma membrane prepares vesicles for rapid release. Here, we describe a mechanism for dense core vesicle docking in neurons. In Caenorhabditis elegons motor neurons, dense core vesicles dock at the plasma membrane but are excluded from active zones at synapses

Open syntaxin docks synaptic vesicles

Journal ArticleSynaptic vesicles dock to the plasma membrane at synapses to facilitate rapid exocytosis. Docking was originally proposed to require the soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive fusion attachment protein receptor (SNARE) proteins; however, perturbation studies suggested that docking was independent of the SNARE proteins

Mutations in β-spectrin disrupt axon outgrowth and sarcomere structure

Journal ArticleB-Spectrin is a major component of the membrane skeleton, a structure found at the plasma membrane of most animal cells. B-Spectrin and the membrane skeleton have been proposed to stabilize cell membranes, generate cell polarity, or localize specific membrane proteins. We demonstrate that the Caenorhabditis elegans homologue of B-spectrin is encoded by the unc-70 gene. unc-70 null mutants develop slowly, and the adults are paralyzed and dumpy

Axons break in animals lacking β-spectrin

Axons and dendrites can withstand acute mechanical strain despite their small diameter. In this study, we demonstrate that β-spectrin is required for the physical integrity of neuronal processes in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Axons in β-spectrin mutants spontaneously break. Breakage is caused by acute strain generated by movement because breakage can be prevented by paralyzing the mutant animals. After breaking, the neuron attempts to regenerate by initiating a new growth cone; this second round of axon extension is error prone compared with initial outgrowth. Because spectrin is a major target of calpain proteolysis, it is possible that some neurodegenerative disorders may involve the cleavage of spectrin followed by the breakage of neural processes

CAPS and syntaxin dock dense core vesicles to the plasma membrane in neurons

Docking to the plasma membrane prepares vesicles for rapid release. Here, we describe a mechanism for dense core vesicle docking in neurons. In Caenorhabditis elegans motor neurons, dense core vesicles dock at the plasma membrane but are excluded from active zones at synapses. We have found that the calcium-activated protein for secretion (CAPS) protein is required for dense core vesicle docking but not synaptic vesicle docking. In contrast, we see that UNC-13, a docking factor for synaptic vesicles, is not essential for dense core vesicle docking. Both the CAPS and UNC-13 docking pathways converge on syntaxin, a component of the SNARE (soluble N-ethyl-maleimide–sensitive fusion protein attachment receptor) complex. Overexpression of open syntaxin can bypass the requirement for CAPS in dense core vesicle docking. Thus, CAPS likely promotes the open state of syntaxin, which then docks dense core vesicles. CAPS function in dense core vesicle docking parallels UNC-13 in synaptic vesicle docking, which suggests that these related proteins act similarly to promote docking of independent vesicle populations

Open Syntaxin Docks Synaptic Vesicles

Synaptic vesicles dock to the plasma membrane at synapses to facilitate rapid exocytosis. Docking was originally proposed to require the soluble N-ethylmaleimide–sensitive fusion attachment protein receptor (SNARE) proteins; however, perturbation studies suggested that docking was independent of the SNARE proteins. We now find that the SNARE protein syntaxin is required for docking of all vesicles at synapses in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. The active zone protein UNC-13, which interacts with syntaxin, is also required for docking in the active zone. The docking defects in unc-13 mutants can be fully rescued by overexpressing a constitutively open form of syntaxin, but not by wild-type syntaxin. These experiments support a model for docking in which UNC-13 converts syntaxin from the closed to the open state, and open syntaxin acts directly in docking vesicles to the plasma membrane. These data provide a molecular basis for synaptic vesicle docking

Rapid single nucleotide polymorphism mapping in C. elegans

BACKGROUND: In C. elegans, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) can function as silent genetic markers, with applications ranging from classical two- and three-factor mapping to measuring recombination across whole chromosomes. RESULTS: Here, we describe a set of 48 primer pairs that flank SNPs evenly spaced across the C. elegans genome and that work under identical PCR conditions. Each SNP in this set alters a DraI site, enabling rapid and parallel scoring. We describe a procedure using these reagents to quickly and reliably map mutations. We show that these techniques correctly map a known gene, dpy-5. We then use these techniques to map mutations in an uncharacterized strain, and show that its behavioral phenotype can be simultaneously mapped to three loci. CONCLUSION: Together, the reagents and methods described represent a significant advance in the accurate, rapid and inexpensive mapping of genes in C. elegans

Sustained increases in atmospheric oxygen and marine productivity in the Neoproterozoic and Palaeozoic eras

A geologically rapid Neoproterozoic oxygenation event is commonly linked to the appearance of marine animal groups in the fossil record. However, there is still debate about what evidence from the sedimentary geochemical record—if any—provides strong support for a persistent shift in surface oxygen immediately preceding the rise of animals. We present statistical learning analyses of a large dataset of geochemical data and associated geological context from the Neoproterozoic and Palaeozoic sedimentary record and then use Earth system modelling to link trends in redox-sensitive trace metal and organic carbon concentrations to the oxygenation of Earth’s oceans and atmosphere. We do not find evidence for the wholesale oxygenation of Earth’s oceans in the late Neoproterozoic era. We do, however, reconstruct a moderate long-term increase in atmospheric oxygen and marine productivity. These changes to the Earth system would have increased dissolved oxygen and food supply in shallow-water habitats during the broad interval of geologic time in which the major animal groups first radiated. This approach provides some of the most direct evidence for potential physiological drivers of the Cambrian radiation, while highlighting the importance of later Palaeozoic oxygenation in the evolution of the modern Earth system