The Challenge to Democratic Reformism in Ecuador

Ecuador is a small and misdeveloped country that has recently embarked on an important experiment in national development. The nature and outcome of this experiment have implications not only for the social science researcher, but more importantly for the Ecuadorean people themselves and for developing countries in the region and throughout the hemisphere. The administration elected in 1979 has pledged to carry out a program of far-reaching reform within a democratic framework that will harmonize economic development and social justice in a way designed to effect a major transformation of the basic structures and values of the nation. It is clear that the reforms proposed will clash with the country\u27s entrenched heritage of three centuries of unequal social and economic growth and with a political tradition characterized by autocracy and authoritarianism. Many observers wonder whether sufficient resources of any kind can be mobilized during the four years of the current regime even to begin to overcome the inertia of imbalanced development, attributed by some to the forces of dependency and by others to structural rigidities inherent in the social relations of production. l On the other hand, it is true that the conditions in Ecuador today could not be more propitious to initiate a process of significant transformation: unprecedented revenues from petroleum provide the state with a promising resource base for reform, the government is led by a new generation of men who have a profound awareness of the country\u27s past and of its present problems, the administration is staffed by a corps of able men and women freed from the sterile conflicts that once dominated the rhetoric (if not the reality) of national politics, and the economy has a potential for diversification that could provide a base for independent development. How the current regime capitalizes on these favorable circumstances, its success or failure in achieving the goals of development and justice, might provide clues to a clearer analysis of the causes of misdevelopment and to a clearer understanding of the solutions needed to resolve the development crises that plague countries throughout the Third World

A class of non-binary matroids with many binary minors

It is a well-known result of Tutte, A homotopy theorem for matroids, I, II, Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 88 (1958) 144-174. that U2,4 is the only non-binary matroid M such that, for every element e, both M\e and M/e are binary. Oxley generalized this result by characterizing the non-binary matroids M such that, for every element e of M, the deletion M\e or the contraction M/e is binary. We characterize those non-binary matroids M such that, for all elements e and f, at least two of M\e, f; M\e/f; M/e\f; and M/e, f are binary. © 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

Oliveros Virus: A Novel Arenavirus from Argentina

AbstractDuring the past few decades several newly recognized rodent-borne arenaviruses have been shown to be associated with severe hemorrhagic fever cases in South America. Changes in ecology and farming practices throughout the region have increased the concern over the potential public health threat posed by such emerging virus diseases. Oliveros (OLV) virus is a recently discovered arenavirus of the rodentBolomys obscurusin Argentina. Genetic analysis of the small genomic RNA segment, which encodes the nucleocapsid protein and the envelope glycoproteins, shows that Oliveros is a novel, phylogenetically distinct member of theArenaviridaefamily which differs in nucleotide sequence from the previously characterized members by approximately 35% or more. Despite this level of diversity, OLV virus possesses the same ambisense genome structure and many overall RNA and protein features in common with other arenaviruses. These data represent an important first step in the development of specific immunological and PCR diagnostic reagents to allow assessment of the prevalence and disease potential of this virus

Long-term hantavirus persistence in rodent populations in central Arizona.

For 35 months, we monitored hantavirus activity in rodent populations in central Arizona. The most frequently captured hantavirus antibody-positive rodents were Peromyscus boylii and P. truei. Antibody-positive P. boylii were more frequently male (84%), older, and heavier, and they survived longer on trapping web sites than antibody-negative mice. The number of antibody-positive P. boylii was greater during high population densities than during low densities, while antibody prevalence was greater during low population densities. Virus transmission and incidence rates, also related to population densities, varied by trapping site. The spatial distribution of antibody-positive P. boylii varied by population density and reflected the species preference for dense chaparral habitats. The focal ranges of antibody-positive P. boylii also demonstrated a patchy distribution of hantavirus

SCN1A: bioinformatically-informed revised boundaries for promoter and enhancer regions

Pathogenic variations in the sodium voltage-gated channel alpha subunit 1 (SCN1A) gene are responsible for multiple epilepsy phenotypes, including Dravet syndrome (DS), febrile seizures (FS), and genetic epilepsy with febrile seizures plus (GEFS+). Phenotypic heterogeneity is a hallmark of SCN1A-related epilepsies, the causes of which are yet to be clarified. Genetic variation in the non-coding regulatory regions of SCN1A could be one potential causal factor. However, a comprehensive understanding of the SCN1A regulatory landscape is currently lacking. Here, we summarised the current state of knowledge of SCN1A regulation, providing details of its promoter and enhancer regions. We then integrated currently available data on SCN1A promoters by extracting information related to the SCN1A locus from genome-wide repositories, and clearly defined the promoter and enhancer regions of SCN1A. Further, we explored the cellular specificity of differential SCN1A promoter usage. We also reviewed and integrated the available human brain-derived enhancer databases and mouse-derived data to provide a comprehensive computationally-developed summary of SCN1A brain-active enhancers. By querying genome-wide data repositories, extracting SCN1A-specific data and integrating the different types of independent evidence, we created a comprehensive catalogue that better defines the regulatory landscape of SCN1A, which could be used to explore the role of SCN1A regulatory regions in disease

Network analysis of host-virus communities in bats and rodents reveals determinants of cross-species transmission.

Bats are natural reservoirs of several important emerging viruses. Cross-species transmission appears to be quite common among bats, which may contribute to their unique reservoir potential. Therefore, understanding the importance of bats as reservoirs requires examining them in a community context rather than concentrating on individual species. Here, we use a network approach to identify ecological and biological correlates of cross-species virus transmission in bats and rodents, another important host group. We show that given our current knowledge the bat viral sharing network is more connected than the rodent network, suggesting viruses may pass more easily between bat species. We identify host traits associated with important reservoir species: gregarious bats are more likely to share more viruses and bats which migrate regionally are important for spreading viruses through the network. We identify multiple communities of viral sharing within bats and rodents and highlight potential species traits that can help guide studies of novel pathogen emergence.This work was supported by the Research and Policy for Infectious Disease Dynamics (RAPIDD) program of the Science and Technology Directorate (US Department of Homeland Security) and the Fogarty International Center (National Institutes of Health). D.T.S.H. acknowledges funding from a David H. Smith post-doctoral fellowship. A.A.C. is partially funded by a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit award, and J.L.N.W. is supported by the Alborada Trust. Thanks to Paul Cryan and Michael O'Donnell of the USGS Fort Collins Science Center for help with species distribution analyses.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ele.1249

Generationing development

The articles in this special issue present a persuasive case for accounts of development to recognise the integral and fundamental roles played by age and generation. While the past two decades have witnessed a burgeoning of literature demonstrating that children and youth are impacted by development, and that they can and do participate in development, the literature has tended to portray young people as a special group whose perspectives should not be forgotten. By contrast, the articles collected here make the case that age and generation, as relational constructs, cannot be ignored. Appropriating the term ‘generationing’, the editors argue that a variety of types of age relations profoundly structure the ways in which societies are transformed through development – both immanent processes of neoliberal modernisation and the interventions of development agencies that both respond and contribute to these. Drawing on the seven empirical articles, I attempt to draw some of the ideas together into a narrative that further argues the case for ‘generationing’ but also identifies gaps, questions and implications for further research

Network analysis of host–virus communities in bats and rodents reveals determinants of cross-species transmission

Bats are natural reservoirs of several important emerging viruses. Cross-species transmission appears to be quite common among bats, which may contribute to their unique reservoir potential. Therefore, understanding the importance of bats as reservoirs requires examining them in a community context rather than concentrating on individual species. Here, we use a network approach to identify ecological and biological correlates of cross-species virus transmission in bats and rodents, another important host group. We show that given our current knowledge the bat viral sharing network is more connected than the rodent network, suggesting viruses may pass more easily between bat species. We identify host traits associated with important reservoir species: gregarious bats are more likely to share more viruses and bats which migrate regionally are important for spreading viruses through the network. We identify multiple communities of viral sharing within bats and rodents and highlight potential species traits that can help guide studies of novel pathogen emergence

Applying the Huntington’s Disease Integrated Staging System (HD-ISS) to Observational Studies

Background: The Huntington’s Disease Integrated Staging System (HD-ISS) has four stages that characterize disease progression. Classification is based on CAG length as a marker of Huntington’s disease (Stage 0), striatum atrophy as a biomarker of pathogenesis (Stage 1), motor or cognitive deficits as HD signs and symptoms (Stage 2), and functional decline (Stage 3). One issue for implementation is the possibility that not all variables are measured in every study, and another issue is that the stages are broad and may benefit from progression subgrouping./ Objective: Impute stages of the HD-ISS for observational studies in which missing data precludes direct stage classification, and then define progression subgroups within stages./ Methods: A machine learning algorithm was used to impute stages. Agreement of the imputed stages with the observed stages was evaluated using graphical methods and propensity score matching. Subgroups were defined based on descriptive statistics and optimal cut-point analysis./ Results: There was good overall agreement between the observed stages and the imputed stages, but the algorithm tended to over-assign Stage 0 and under-assign Stage 1 for individuals who were early in progression./ Conclusion: There is evidence that the imputed stages can be treated similarly to the observed stages for large-scale analyses. When imaging data are not available, imputation can be avoided by collapsing the first two stages using the categories of Stage≤1, Stage 2, and Stage 3. Progression subgroups defined within a stage can help to identify groups of more homogeneous individuals.

'The Brick' is not a brick : A comprehensive study of the structure and dynamics of the Central Molecular Zone cloud G0.253+0.016

© 2019 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.In this paper we provide a comprehensive description of the internal dynamics of G0.253+0.016 (a.k.a. 'the Brick'); one of the most massive and dense molecular clouds in the Galaxy to lack signatures of widespread star formation. As a potential host to a future generation of high-mass stars, understanding largely quiescent molecular clouds like G0.253+0.016 is of critical importance. In this paper, we reanalyse Atacama Large Millimeter Array cycle 0 HNCO $J=4(0,4)-3(0,3)$ data at 3 mm, using two new pieces of software which we make available to the community. First, scousepy, a Python implementation of the spectral line fitting algorithm scouse. Secondly, acorns (Agglomerative Clustering for ORganising Nested Structures), a hierarchical n-dimensional clustering algorithm designed for use with discrete spectroscopic data. Together, these tools provide an unbiased measurement of the line of sight velocity dispersion in this cloud, $\sigma_{v_{los}, {\rm 1D}}=4.4\pm2.1$ kms$^{-1}$, which is somewhat larger than predicted by velocity dispersion-size relations for the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ). The dispersion of centroid velocities in the plane of the sky are comparable, yielding $\sigma_{v_{los}, {\rm 1D}}/\sigma_{v_{pos}, {\rm 1D}}\sim1.2\pm0.3$. This isotropy may indicate that the line-of-sight extent of the cloud is approximately equivalent to that in the plane of the sky. Combining our kinematic decomposition with radiative transfer modelling we conclude that G0.253+0.016 is not a single, coherent, and centrally-condensed molecular cloud; 'the Brick' is not a \emph{brick}. Instead, G0.253+0.016 is a dynamically complex and hierarchically-structured molecular cloud whose morphology is consistent with the influence of the orbital dynamics and shear in the CMZ.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio