Bolivian mas-ipsp, halfway between a social movement and a political party

The article reports a research about the organizational and political nature of “Movimiento al Socialismo – Instrumento Político por la Soberanía de los Pueblos (MAS-IPSP)” in Bolivia. It begins the study with a description of the creational conditions of the MA-IPSP, in the hope of distinguishing in it the operation of a political party in the long term. Then the article examines the party’s orientation as a political instrument and finally analyzes the successes and turns of Evo Morales’ victory inside the organization.El artículo realiza una investigación acerca de la naturaleza organizacional y política del Movimiento al Socialismo – Instrumento Político por la Soberanía de los Pueblos (MAS-IPSP) en Bolivia. Inicia el estudio con una descripción de las condiciones de creación del MAS-IPSP, con el objetivo de distinguir en ello el funcionamiento de un partido político a largo plazo. Luego examina su orientación como instrumento político y finalmente analiza los éxitos y giros del triunfo de Evo Morales dentro de la organización

Interface-mediated interactions: Entropic forces of curved membranes

Particles embedded in a fluctuating interface experience forces and torques mediated by the deformations and by the thermal fluctuations of the medium. Considering a system of two cylinders bound to a fluid membrane we show that the entropic contribution enhances the curvature-mediated repulsion between the two cylinders. This is contrary to the usual attractive Casimir force in the absence of curvature-mediated interactions. For a large distance between the cylinders, we retrieve the renormalization of the surface tension of a flat membrane due to thermal fluctuations.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures; final version, as appeared in Phys. Rev.

L’indianisme est-il de gauche ?

Au début de l’année 2007, Jean-Loup Amselle est venu enquêter en Bolivie sur les modalités de la critique postcoloniale et sur les lieux de production intellectuelle alternative. Sa recherche a permis d’expliciter un certain malaise ressenti alors face au monde académique bolivien : l’utilisation systématique de notions faisant office de mot d’ordre, comme « décolonisation de l’Etat et de la société », la réinvention d’une communauté pré-hispanique harmonieuse et proche de la nature, autant d..

Short term effects of latex tapping on micro-changes of trunk girth in [i]Hevea Brasiliensis[/i]

Latex tapping has a well-known negative effect on the long term radial growth of rubber trees (Hevea Brasiliensis). The additional carbon sink induced by latex yield is considered as the main cause. However the potential contribution of a tapping induced water stress has received little attention. In Northeast Thailand, we applied an exploring approach comparing the diel cycle of girth change between days of rest and days with tapping in conditions of relatively stable evaporative demand and soil water availability. Trees were tapped at dark in the early morning for two consecutive days and rested for one day. Five standard trees were equipped with high accuracy girth bands above the tapping panel. The sampling included one tree with additional measurements, one below the tapping cut and the other at the trunk bottom. Data were recorded at 30 min interval over 14 days at the onset of the dry season in November. Results demonstrated a significant short-term shrinkage within two hours after tapping. However, the nighttime expansion maximum diurnal shrinkage and midnight recovery were not significantly influenced by the tapping cycle. As a result the daily growth was not negatively impacted on tapping days. Finally, in conditions of low average growth, our results refute the hypothesis of a negative impact of tapping on radial growth at a daily scale through a simple dehydration. A substantial loss of turgor was confirmed but trees seem to quickly react and smooth the consequences on nighttime recovery and diurnal shrinkage

Computation of haplotypes on SNPs subsets: advantage of the "global method"

BACKGROUND: Genetic association studies aim at finding correlations between a disease state and genetic variations such as SNPs or combinations of SNPs, termed haplotypes. Some haplotypes have a particular biological meaning such as the ones derived from SNPs located in the promoters, or the ones derived from non synonymous SNPs. All these haplotypes are "subhaplotypes" because they refer only to a part of the SNPs found in the gene. Until now, subhaplotypes were directly computed from the very SNPs chosen to constitute them, without taking into account the rest of the information corresponding to the other SNPs located in the gene. In the present work, we describe an alternative approach, called the "global method", which takes into account all the SNPs known in the region and compare the efficacy of the two "direct" and "global" methods. RESULTS: We used empirical haplotypes data sets from the GH1 promoter and the APOE gene, and 10 simulated datasets, and randomly introduced in them missing information (from 0% up to 20%) to compare the 2 methods. For each method, we used the PHASE haplotyping software since it was described to be the best. We showed that the use of the "global method" for subhaplotyping leads always to a better error rate than the classical direct haplotyping. The advantage provided by this alternative method increases with the percentage of missing genotyping data (diminution of the average error rate from 25% to less than 10%). We applied the global method software on the GRIV cohort for AIDS genetic associations and some associations previously identified through direct subhaplotyping were found to be erroneous. CONCLUSION: The global method for subhaplotyping can reduce, sometimes dramatically, the error rate on patient resolutions and haplotypes frequencies. One should thus use this method in order to minimise the risk of a false interpretation in genetic studies involving subhaplotypes. In practice the global method is always more efficient than the direct method, but a combination method taking into account the level of missing information in each subject appears to be even more interesting when the level of missing information becomes larger (>10%)

Coloquio internacional: Reformas del Estado. Poderes, territorios, sociedades

El coloquio «Reformas del Estado. Poderes, territorios, sociedades» se llevó a cabo en la ciudad de La Paz del 16 al 19 de junio de 2009. Fue organizado por el IFEA, la Cooperación Regional Francesa, la Embajada de Francia en Bolivia, el Observatorio político de América Latina y del Caribe/Ciencias políticas de París, en colaboración con instituciones bolivianas como el PIEB (Programa de Investigación Estratégica en Bolivia), el Ildis, el Musef (Museo de Etnografía y de Folklore), y la Embaja..

Patterns of healthcare seeking among people reporting chronic conditions in rural sub-Saharan Africa: findings from a population-based study in Burkina Faso.

OBJECTIVE: Non-communicable diseases are rapidly becoming one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet, little is known about patterns of healthcare seeking among people with chronic conditions in these settings. We aimed to explore determinants of healthcare seeking among people who reported at least one chronic condition in rural Burkina Faso. METHODS: Data were drawn from a cross-sectional population-based survey conducted across 24 districts on 52 562 individuals from March to June 2017. We used multinomial logistic regression to assess factors associated with seeking care at a formal provider (facility-based care) or at an informal provider (home and traditional treatment) compared to no care. RESULTS: 1124 individuals (2% of all respondents) reported at least one chronic condition. Among those, 22.8% reported formal care use, 10.6% informal care use, and 66.6% no care. The presence of other household members reporting a chronic condition (RRR = 0.57, 95%-CI [0.39, 0.82]) was negatively associated with seeking formal care. Wealthier households (RRR = 2.14, 95%-CI [1.26, 3.64]), perceived illness severity (RRR = 3.23, 95%-CI [2.22, 4.70]) and suffering from major chronic conditions (RRR = 1.54, 95%-CI [1.13, 2.11]) were positively associated with seeking formal care. CONCLUSION: Only a minority of individuals with chronic conditions sought formal care, with important differences due to socio-economic status. Policies and interventions aimed at increasing the availability and affordability of services for early detection and management in peripheral settings should be prioritised

Caractérisation expérimentale et modélisation du comportement mécanique de matériaux architecturés en Nickel-Titane

L'objectif de cette étude s’inscrit dans la perspective de développer une nouvelle classe innovante de matériaux combinant les propriétés remarquables et intrinsèques des alliages à mémoire de forme en Nickel-Titane avec des topologies particulières offertes par les matériaux « architecturés ». Ces structures sont constituées de tubes superélastiques à parois minces soudés par résistance électrique [1], de manière à créer des structures cellulaires régulières. Ces architectures permettent ainsi d’imaginer de nombreuses solutions innovantes pour optimiser les produits, par une démarche de conception de mésostructures. Le comportement superélastique de deux matériaux architecturés simples (démonstrateurs), sur la base de tubes identiques mais avec deux topologies différentes, est modélisé par la méthode des éléments finis. Les grandes transformations sont prises en compte et les comportements prédits sont comparés par simulation numérique des cas de chargements complexes, en explorant l'influence du comportement du matériau constitutif de base sur l'efficacité de certaines propriétés mécaniques des matériaux cellulaires conçus. Les paramètres du modèle de comportement [2] sont identifiés sur la base d’essais de traction effectués sur des échantillons découpés dans les tubes. Les résultats de la modélisation sont comparés avec des essais de compression radiale réalisés sur les deux démonstrateurs fabriqués. Lors du déchargement, pratiquement tous les échantillons ont pu récupérer leur forme initiale dans la plage de charge utilisée. Les courbes force-déplacement présentent un comportement superélastique avec des boucles d’hystérésis, liées à la transformation de phase réversible austénite-martensite. Cette étude révèle que le soudage par résistance est une technique possible de liaison pour obtenir des matériaux architecturés en NiTi avec une faible densité et une grande superélasticité. References [1] Delobelle V., Delobelle P., Liu Y., Favier D., and Louche H., 2013, “Resistance welding of NiTi shape memory alloy tubes,” Journal of Materials Processing Technology, (in press). [2] Auricchio F., and Taylor R. L., 1997, “Shape-memory alloys : modelling and numerical simulations the finite-strain superelastic behavior,” Comp. Meth. Appl. Mech. Eng, 7825(96), pp. 175–194

Drought-induced embolism in current-year shoots of two Mediterranean evergreen oaks

threatened by the increasing water deficits related to climate change. To contribute to the understanding of the capacity of these oaks to withstand severe drought we assessed the vulnerability to xylem embolism and the anatomical traits in current-year shoots. Data were collected in mature trees at two sites, in central/ coastal and southern/inland Portugal. In situ safety margins to hydraulic failure were evaluated from long-term predawn and midday leaf water potential records. Results showed that xylem vulnerability to embolism was similar in Q. ilex and Q. suber. The 50% loss in hydraulic conductivity (Wxyl,50PLC) was observed at xylem water potentials of 2.9 and 3.2 MPa in shoots of Q. suber and Q. ilex, respectively. Values of mean vessel diameter of Q. suber shoots at both sites suggest an intra-species adaptation to the local water availability, with larger vessels at the more mesic site. In situ hydraulic safety margins observed in shoots showed that, even during the driest periods, both oaks lived comfortably above the most critical embolism thresholds. However, the hydraulic safety margins were narrower in the driest site. Results are relevant to the understanding of survival, growth, and functional behaviour of evergreen oaks in Mediterranean climates, under recurrent/seasonal drought condition