The past as a lived space: heritage places, re-emergent aesthetics, and hopeful practices in NW Argentina

PublishedArticleThis article explores the past as a lived, inhabited reality through a series of examples of indigenous heritage practices in NW Argentina (NWA), a region that in recent decades has seen increasing indigenous demands for autonomy as well as for land and cultural rights. This article seeks to understand the locations where heritage struggles emerge, as well as the artefacts around which they emerge, as social, semantic, and physical spaces of ontological multiplicity. Understanding how such places and artefacts are constituted as lived-in-the-flesh realities today requires examination of the multiple present connections that make them possible, as well as inquiry into how the sedimentation of previous lived experiences contributes to present understandings. This article examines ancient places that become gravity points, fuelling both indigenous politics and an academic practice with its own aesthetic code. To varying degrees, the cases explored reflect our involvement – as archaeological researchers, professional advisors,and museum visitors – with re-emergent indigenous heritage practices in the region.This research was funded by an Arts and Humanities Research Council grant entitled ‘Identities as socio-material networks: perspectives from South America and beyond’ (2010–12, http://identities.exeter.ac.uk/)

Social Interaction and Communities of Practice in Formative Period NW Argentina: A Multi-analytical Study of Ceramics

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from University of New Mexico Press via the link in this recordThe study of long-distance exchange of goods and resources has long been central to the understanding of socio-political and cultural complexity in the south-central Andes. Traditional studies have emphasized typological similarities to reconstruct regional networks, proposing the dominance of different centres through time. While these approaches were informative on the general direction of contacts, the nature and scale of interaction has remained speculative. This chapter summarises the latest results of our ongoing research project on long-distance circulation of archaeological materials in northwestern Argentina during part of the Formative Period (ca. 1500 BC-AD 1000). The study applied a multianalytical methodological strategy integrating archaeological analysis with archaeometric techniques, including thin section petrography, instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) and laser ablation inductively coupled massspectometry (LA-ICP-MS) in order to contribute an evidence-based holistic view of preHispanic exchange networks. The study examined materials traditionally studied separately, including 542 ceramic samples and 113 obsidian and volcanic rock artifacts, from seven sectors in the semi-arid valleys area. We summarize here the results of the ceramic analysis, showing the 19-2 following trends: (1) inter-valley heterogeneity of clay and fabrics for ordinary wares; (2) intervalley homogeneity of clay and fabrics for a wide range of decorated wares; (3) selective circulation of two distinct polychrome wares. These trends reflect the complex inter-community relationships experienced in small-scale societies. The study offers a new platform to model ancient exchange, and circulation and interaction more broadly, based on actual material transfers. The results call for the re-examination of the centralized models of exchange and interaction that are often drawn upon to account for emergent cultural complexity in the past, both in the Andes and beyond.British AcademyArts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)Argentinean National Agency for Science and Technology (ANPCyT)Raíces ProgramArgentinian National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET

Evaluation of a new, rapid, simple test for the detection of influenza virus

Background: Influenza virus infections are responsible for significant morbidity and mortality in both pediatric and adult populations worldwide. Rapid and accurate diagnosis of influenza is necessary for appropriate patient management during the influenza season and for optimal utilization of anti-influenza therapy. We prospectively tested the accuracy of a simple and rapid diagnostic method. Methods: Ninety-eight samples (nasal and pharyngeal swabs) from patients with upper respiratory tract infection symptoms who presented to primary healthcare centres in Barcelona (Spain) were prospectively analyzed. The samples were collected as part of influenza surveillance program. Samples that had enough volume to make the new test after aliquoting the amount needed to perform routine tests were included. None of the samples were pre-selected as a result of their status in relation to influenza virus. Samples were analyzed by in-house real-time PCR and AlereTM i Influenza A & B (AlereTM i), which uses isothermal amplification of nucleic acids for the qualitative detection of influenza A and B in nasal swabs transported in viral transport media. The two techniques were compared by positive percent agreement (PPA) and negative percent agreement (NPA). Statistical analysis was performed with Stata. Results: Of the 98 samples analysed 90 were concordant; 46 (46.9%) were positive and 44 (44.9%) were negative. Five samples showed invalid results with the AlereTM i test and could be not re-tested due to insufficient sample volume and were not included in the final statistical analysis. In the 93 remaining samples, the AlereTM i test showed 97% of accuracy having correctly classified 90 samples. We obtained discordant results in 3 samples (3%). The PPA was 93.8% for influenza A and 94.1% for influenza B, and NPA was 100% for influenza A and influenza B virus. In addition, the AlereTM i was very rapid (15 minutes or less) and extremely easy to use. Conclusions: The AlereTM i test provided a good correlation compared to the real-time PCR test for the diagnosis of influenza. Since this method can be performed in minutes, it allows immediate, accurate clinical decisions to prescribe appropriate antiviral treatment or isolation of patients. Keywords: Influenza Virus A and B, Isothermal amplification, Real time PCR, Rapid tes

Potential advantages of cell administration on the inflammatory response compared to standard ACE inhibitor treatment in experimental myocardial infarction

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Bone Marrow (BM) progenitor cells can target the site of myocardial injury, contributing to tissue repair by neovascolarization and/or by a possible direct paracrine effect on the inflammatory cascade. Angiotensin Converting Enzyme inhibitors (ACE-I) are effective in reducing mortality and preventing left ventricular (LV) function deterioration after myocardial infarction.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We investigated the short term effects of BM mononuclear cells (BMMNCs) therapy on the pro-inflammatory cytokines (pro-CKs) and on LV remodelling and compared these effects over a standard ACE-I therapy in a rat model of myocardial cryodamage.</p> <p>Forty two adult inbread Fisher-F344 rats were randomized into three groups: untreated (UT; n = 12), pharmacological therapy (ACE-I; n = 14, receiving quinapril), and cellular therapy (BMMNCs; n = 16, receiving BMMNCs infusion). Rats underwent to a standard echocardiogram in the acute setting and 14 days after the damage, before the sacrifice. Pro-CKs analysis (interleukin (IL)1β, IL-6, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)α was performed (multiplex proteome arrays) on blood samples obtained by direct aorta puncture before the sacrifice; a control group of 6 rats was considered as reference.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Concerning the extension of the infarcted area as well as the LV dimensions, no differences were observed among the animal groups; treated rats had lower left atrial diameters and higher indexes of LV function. Pro-Cks were increased in infarcted-UT rats if compared with controls, and significantly reduced by BMMNCs and ACE-I ; TNFα inversely correlated with LV fractional shortening.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>After myocardial infarction, both BMMNCs and ACE-I reduce the pattern of pro-Ck response, probably contributing to prevent the deterioration of LV function observed in UT rats.</p

Strong Host-Feeding Preferences of the Vector Triatoma infestans Modified by Vector Density: Implications for the Epidemiology of Chagas Disease

Chagas disease is a complex zoonosis with more than 150 mammalian host species, nearly a dozen blood-sucking triatomine species as main vectors, and 9–11 million people infected with Trypanosoma cruzi (its causal agent) in the Americas. Triatoma infestans, a highly domesticated species and one of the main vectors, feeds more often on domestic animals than on humans in northern Argentina. The question of whether there are host-feeding preferences among dogs, cats, and chickens is crucial to estimating transmission risks and predicting the effects of control tactics targeting them. This article reports the first host choice experiments of triatomine bugs conducted in small huts under natural conditions. The results demonstrate that T. infestans consistently preferred dogs to chickens or cats, with host shifts occurring more frequently at higher vector densities. Combined with earlier findings showing that dogs have high infection rates, are highly infectious, and have high contact rates with humans and domestic bugs, our results reinforce the role of dogs as the key reservoirs of T. cruzi. The strong bug preference for dogs can be exploited to target dogs with topical lotions or insecticide-impregnated collars to turn them into baited lethal traps or use them as transmission or infestation sentinels

Effect of terminal accuracy requirements on temporal gaze-hand coordination during fast discrete and reciprocal pointings

Background\ud \ud Rapid discrete goal-directed movements are characterized by a well known coordination pattern between the gaze and the hand displacements. The gaze always starts prior to the hand movement and reaches the target before hand velocity peak. Surprisingly, the effect of the target size on the temporal gaze-hand coordination has not been directly investigated. Moreover, goal-directed movements are often produced in a reciprocal rather than in a discrete manner. The objectives of this work were to assess the effect of the target size on temporal gaze-hand coordination during fast 1) discrete and 2) reciprocal pointings.\ud \ud Methods\ud \ud Subjects performed fast discrete (experiment 1) and reciprocal (experiment 2) pointings with an amplitude of 50 cm and four target diameters (7.6, 3.8, 1.9 and 0.95 cm) leading to indexes of difficulty (ID = log2[2A/D]) of 3.7, 4.7, 5.7 and 6.7 bits. Gaze and hand displacements were synchronously recorded. Temporal gaze-hand coordination parameters were compared between experiments (discrete and reciprocal pointings) and IDs using analyses of variance (ANOVAs).\ud \ud Results\ud \ud Data showed that the magnitude of the gaze-hand lead pattern was much higher for discrete than for reciprocal pointings. Moreover, while it was constant for discrete pointings, it decreased systematically with an increasing ID for reciprocal pointings because of the longer duration of gaze anchoring on target.\ud \ud Conclusion \ud \ud Overall, the temporal gaze-hand coordination analysis revealed that even for high IDs, fast reciprocal pointings could not be considered as a concatenation of discrete units. Moreover, our data clearly illustrate the smooth adaptation of temporal gaze-hand coordination to terminal accuracy requirements during fast reciprocal pointings. It will be interesting for further researches to investigate if the methodology used in the experiment 2 allows assessing the effect of sensori-motor deficits on gaze-hand coordination

Transcranial direct current stimulation combined with upper limb functional training in children with spastic, hemiparetic cerebral palsy: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

The aim of the proposed study is to perform a comparative analysis of functional training effects for the paretic upper limb with and without transcranial direct current stimulation over the primary motor cortex in children with spastic hemiparetic cerebral palsy

Analysis and design methods for energy geostructures

Based on discussions at the international workshop on “Thermoactive geotechnical systems for near-surface geothermal energy”, hosted at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland (http://www.olgun.cee.vt.edu/workshop/), this article attempts to provide a broad overview of the analysis methods used for evaluation of systems that use either boreholes or geo-structures for heat exchange. It identifies commonalities where knowledge transfer from the former to the latter can be made, and highlights where there are significant differences that may limit this cross-fertilisation. The article then focusses on recent developments and current understanding pertaining to the analysis of the thermo-mechanical interaction between a geostructure and the ground, and how this may be incorporated into the geotechnical design of energy geostructures

Characterization of the Dispersal of Non-Domiciliated Triatoma dimidiata through the Selection of Spatially Explicit Models

Chagas disease is one of the most important neglected diseases in Latin America. Although insecticides have been successfully sprayed to control domiciliated vector populations, this strategy has proven to be ineffective in areas where non-domiciliated vectors immigrating from peridomestic or sylvatic ecotopes can (re-)infest houses. The development of strategies for the control of non-domiciliated vectors has thus been identified by the World Health Organization as a major challenge. Such development primarily requires a description of the spatio-temporal dynamics of infestation by these vectors, and a good understanding of their dispersal. We combined for the first time extensive spatio-temporal data sets describing house infestation dynamics by Triatoma dimidiata inside one village, and spatially explicit population dynamics models. The models fitted and predicted remarkably the observed infestation dynamics. They thus provided both key insights into the dispersal of T. dimidiata in this area, and a suitable mathematical background to evaluate the efficacy of various control strategies. Interestingly, the observed and modelled patterns of infestation suggest that interventions could focus on the periphery of the village, where there is the highest risk of transmission. Such spatial optimization may allow for reducing the cost of control, compensating for repeated interventions necessary for non-domiciliated vectors

Hystricognathy vs Sciurognathy in the Rodent Jaw: A New Morphometric Assessment of Hystricognathy Applied to the Living Fossil Laonastes (Diatomyidae)

While exceptional for an intense diversification of lineages, the evolutionary history of the order Rodentia comprises only a limited number of morphological morphotypes for the mandible. This situation could partly explain the intense debates about the taxonomic position of the latest described member of this clade, the Laotian rock rat Laonastes aenigmamus (Diatomyidae). This discovery has re-launched the debate on the definition of the Hystricognathi suborder identified using the angle of the jaw relative to the plane of the incisors. Our study aims to end this ambiguity. For clarity, it became necessary to revisit the entire morphological diversity of the mandible in extant and extinct rodents. However, current and past rodent diversity brings out the limitations of the qualitative descriptive approach and highlights the need for a quantitative approach. Here, we present the first descriptive comparison of the masticatory apparatus within the Ctenohystrica clade, in combining classic comparative anatomy with morphometrical methods. First, we quantified the shape of the mandible in rodents using 3D landmarks. Then, the analysis of osteological features was compared to myological features in order to understand the biomechanical origin of this morphological diversity. Among the morphological variation observed, the mandible of Laonastes aenigmamus displays an intermediate association of features that could be considered neither as sciurognathous nor as hystricognathous