Resurgence of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases in Venezuela as a Regional Public Health Threat in the Americas.

Venezuela's tumbling economy and authoritarian rule have precipitated an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. Hyperinflation rates now exceed 45,000%, and Venezuela's health system is in free fall. The country is experiencing a massive exodus of biomedical scientists and qualified healthcare professionals. Reemergence of arthropod-borne and vaccine-preventable diseases has sparked serious epidemics that also affect neighboring countries. In this article, we discuss the ongoing epidemics of measles and diphtheria in Venezuela and their disproportionate impact on indigenous populations. We also discuss the potential for reemergence of poliomyelitis and conclude that action to halt the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases within Venezuela is a matter of urgency for the country and the region. We further provide specific recommendations for addressing this crisis

Estudios Bolivianos (no. 7 1999)

En este primer número del área de Literatura, hay textos de destacado nivel, especialmente en lo concerniente a reflexiones teóricas sobre la escritura, también el lector encontrará artículos que son parte de notables trabajos de largo aliento, percibirá los resultados de la fértil comunicación interdisciplinaria e interpersonal y encontrará una crítica literaria en la que las fuentes son diversas, los enfoques distintos y sin embargo conexos, y en la que se realiza el propósito de aproximarse hermenéuticamente a los autores y a las ideas. En este sentido, es evidente la importancia del descentreamiento del yo y la necesidad de moverse en escenarios variados. Esto y mucho más el lector valorará en Estudios Bolivianos 7, que espero que resulte ser el primer volumen de una larga serie literaria.Índice La filosofía hermenéutica de Hans Georg Gadamer Walter Navia Romero La nomadización de la migración: una lectura de los tejedores de la noche de Jesús Urzagasti Ana Rebeca Prada La Madrid Aproximaciones y fugas de la noción de narración Rosario Rodriguez Márquez Hacia las poéticas del tinku: del intertexto andino en la poesía de Blanca Wietthüchter Marcelo Villena Alvarado Blanca Aranda Góme

Macroevolution and climate changes: a global multi-family test supports the resource-use hypothesis in terrestrial mammals

Elisabeth S. Vrba’s resource-use hypothesis suggests that speciation in biomes subjected to successive expansion-contraction-fragmentation during periods of climatic change generates high frequency of species restricted to a single biome (stenobiomic species). We compiled biome occupation for all terrestrial mammals and, using Monte Carlo simulations, demonstrated that patterns of biome occupation are congruent with those predicted by the resource-use hypothesis. Biome specialists are much more speciose than expected by chance, while there are fewer moderate biome generalists than expected. Despite their scarcity, extreme eurybiomic lineages show significant overrepresentation, which suggests they are seldom affected by climate-related extinction processes. Additionally, stenobiomic species are concentrated in biomes placed at the extremes of the climatic gradient, such as equatorial rainforest, subtropical desert, steppe, and tundra. Although this pattern is fairly maintained across different mammalian families, highlighting its universality, our analysis also found great variability. Exceptions to the predictions of the resource-use hypothesis seem to be associated to biome climatic or geographical heterogeneity, which favours vicariance in some biomes not placed in extremes of the climatic gradient (tropical deciduous woodland, sclerophyllous woodland-shrubland), as well as life-history differences across taxa, which generates a stronger trend to specialisation in small body size lineages than in larger mammals