The Privilege of Normality: Latin American Fiscal Space, Countercyclical Policy and the 2008 Financial Crisis

"This paper focuses on a key question: has Latin America earned, in the words of José Juan Ruiz, “the privilege of normality?” Did Latin American countries develop the macroeconomic capacity necessary to escape the large-scale currency depreciations, major financial disruptions, and pro-cyclical “sudden stops” in financing during downturns that mar the region’s history? And if so, what circumstances contribute to or detract from states’ abilities to implement these countercyclical programs in the face of a crisis? Through a controlled comparison of several Latin American countries, I demonstrate the pathway Latin American countries have taken to accumulate or deplete the fiscal space needed for countercyclical policy. By examining the macroeconomic behavior of these countries prior to and following the 2008 financial crisis, I determine that effective management of international reserves and fiscal sustainability are crucial conditions for any country looking to mediate the severity of an economic downturn. Some, but not all, Latin American countries developed these crucial macroeconomic capacities. Many enacted these policies on tenuous political grounds. Perhaps the most important question is whether those who have earned normality will continue the policies they need to keep it."--from pages 127-12

Rethinking megafauna

Concern for megafauna is increasing among scientists and non-scientists. Many studies have emphasized that megafauna play prominent ecological roles and provide important ecosystem services to humanity. But, what precisely are “megafauna”? Here we critically assess the concept of megafauna and propose a goal-oriented framework for megafaunal research. First, we review definitions of megafauna and analyze associated terminology in the scientific literature. Second, we conduct a survey among ecologists and paleontologists to assess the species traits used to identify and define megafauna. Our review indicates that definitions are highly dependent on the study ecosystem and research question, and primarily rely on ad hoc size-related criteria. Our survey suggests that body size is crucial, but not necessarily sufficient, for addressing the different applications of the term megafauna. Thus, after discussing the pros and cons of existing definitions, we propose an additional approach by defining two function-oriented megafaunal concepts: “keystone megafauna” and “functional megafauna”, with its variant “apex megafauna”. Assessing megafauna from a functional perspective could challenge the perception that there may not be a unifying definition of megafauna that can be applied to all eco-evolutionary narratives. In addition, using functional definitions of megafauna could be especially conducive to cross-disciplinary understanding and cooperation, improvement of conservation policy and practice, and strengthening of public perception. As megafaunal research advances, we encourage scientists to unambiguously define how they use the term “megafauna” and to present the logic underpinning their definition

Creating a model of diseased artery damage and failure from healthy porcine aorta

Large quantities of diseased tissue are required in the research and development of new generations of medical devices, for example for use in physical testing. However, these are difficult to obtain. In contrast, porcine arteries are readily available as they are regarded as waste. Therefore, reliable means of creating from porcine tissue physical models of diseased human tissue that emulate well the associated mechanical changes would be valuable. To this end, we studied the effect on mechanical response of treating porcine thoracic aorta with collagenase, elastase and glutaraldehyde. The alterations in mechanical and failure properties were assessed via uniaxial tension testing. A constitutive model composed of the Gasser-Ogden-Holzapfel model, for elastic response, and a continuum damage model, for the failure, was also employed to provide a further basis for comparison (Calvo and Pena, 2006 and Gasser et al., 2006). For the concentrations used here it was found that: collagenase treated samples showed decreased fracture stress in the axial direction only; elastase treated samples showed increased fracture stress in the circumferential direction only; and glutaraldehyde samples showed no change in either direction. With respect to the proposed constitutive model, both collagenase and elastase had a strong effect on the fibre-related terms. The model more closely captured the tissue response in the circumferential direction, due to the smoother and sharper transition from damage initiation to complete failure in this direction. Finally, comparison of the results with those of tensile tests on diseased tissues suggests that these treatments indeed provide a basis for creation of physical models of diseased arteries

Do Lions Panthera leo Actively Select Prey or Do Prey Preferences Simply Reflect Chance Responses via Evolutionary Adaptations to Optimal Foraging?

Research on coursing predators has revealed that actions throughout the predatory behavioral sequence (using encounter rate, hunting rate, and kill rate as proxy measures of decisions) drive observed prey preferences. We tested whether similar actions drive the observed prey preferences of a stalking predator, the African lion Panthera leo. We conducted two 96 hour, continuous follows of lions in Addo Elephant National Park seasonally from December 2003 until November 2005 (16 follows), and compared prey encounter rate with prey abundance, hunt rate with prey encounter rate, and kill rate with prey hunt rate for the major prey species in Addo using Jacobs' electivity index. We found that lions encountered preferred prey species far more frequently than expected based on their abundance, and they hunted these species more frequently than expected based on this higher encounter rate. Lions responded variably to non-preferred and avoided prey species throughout the predatory sequence, although they hunted avoided prey far less frequently than expected based on the number of encounters of them. We conclude that actions of lions throughout the predatory behavioural sequence, but particularly early on, drive the prey preferences that have been documented for this species. Once a hunt is initiated, evolutionary adaptations to the predator-prey interactions drive hunting success

Comprehensive and Integrated Genomic Characterization of Adult Soft Tissue Sarcomas

Sarcomas are a broad family of mesenchymal malignancies exhibiting remarkable histologic diversity. We describe the multi-platform molecular landscape of 206 adult soft tissue sarcomas representing 6 major types. Along with novel insights into the biology of individual sarcoma types, we report three overarching findings: (1) unlike most epithelial malignancies, these sarcomas (excepting synovial sarcoma) are characterized predominantly by copy-number changes, with low mutational loads and only a few genes (, , ) highly recurrently mutated across sarcoma types; (2) within sarcoma types, genomic and regulomic diversity of driver pathways defines molecular subtypes associated with patient outcome; and (3) the immune microenvironment, inferred from DNA methylation and mRNA profiles, associates with outcome and may inform clinical trials of immune checkpoint inhibitors. Overall, this large-scale analysis reveals previously unappreciated sarcoma-type-specific changes in copy number, methylation, RNA, and protein, providing insights into refining sarcoma therapy and relationships to other cancer types

The Influence of Manga on the Graphic Novel

This material has been published in The Cambridge History of the Graphic Novel edited by Jan Baetens, Hugo Frey, Stephen E. Tabachnick. This version is free to view and download for personal use only. Not for re-distribution, re-sale or use in derivative works. © Cambridge University PressProviding a range of cogent examples, this chapter describes the influences of the Manga genre of comics strip on the Graphic Novel genre, over the last 35 years, considering the functions of domestication, foreignisation and transmedia on readers, markets and forms

The Privilege of Normality: Latin American Fiscal Space, Countercyclical Policy and the 2008 Financial Crisis

"This paper focuses on a key question: has Latin America earned, in the words of José Juan Ruiz, “the privilege of normality?” Did Latin American countries develop the macroeconomic capacity necessary to escape the large-scale currency depreciations, major financial disruptions, and pro-cyclical “sudden stops” in financing during downturns that mar the region’s history? And if so, what circumstances contribute to or detract from states’ abilities to implement these countercyclical programs in the face of a crisis? Through a controlled comparison of several Latin American countries, I demonstrate the pathway Latin American countries have taken to accumulate or deplete the fiscal space needed for countercyclical policy. By examining the macroeconomic behavior of these countries prior to and following the 2008 financial crisis, I determine that effective management of international reserves and fiscal sustainability are crucial conditions for any country looking to mediate the severity of an economic downturn. Some, but not all, Latin American countries developed these crucial macroeconomic capacities. Many enacted these policies on tenuous political grounds. Perhaps the most important question is whether those who have earned normality will continue the policies they need to keep it."--from pages 127-12

Disparities in pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML) clinical trial enrollment

Equal access to clinical trial enrollment is important to ensure that findings are generalizable to the broader population. This study aimed to evaluate disparities in enrollment on pediatric oncology clinical trials. We assessed the relationship between patient characteristics and enrollment on COG trial AAML1031 in a cohort of pediatric patients with AML in the Pediatric Health Information System. The associations of enrollment with outcomes were evaluated. Non-Hispanic Black patients, infants, and patients from zip codes with a lower proportion of poverty were less likely to enroll (30% vs. 61%, p = .004; 34% vs. 58%, p = .003; 46% vs. 58%, p = .02). On-therapy mortality was similar among enrolled and nonenrolled patients (7.3% vs. 8.9%, p = .47). Differences in early mortality were more pronounced among nonenrolled patients compared to enrolled patients (3.0% vs. 0.5%, p = .03). Understanding the etiology of these disparities will inform strategies to ensure balanced access to clinical trials across patient populations