Education and adjustment : a review of the literature

Many recent studies evaluate the effects of adjustment on economic growth and on the poor, but few assess the specific impacts of adjustment on the education sector. The author assesses what is known about how adjustment affects education. He concludes that reliable evidence is limited. Most critics of adjustment programs say little about education directly and do not distinguish the effects of adjustment measures from the effects of internal recession, fiscal constraints, or structural problems. Early adjustment programs ignored education issues - but adjustment lasted longer than expected, so the Bank has broadened its approach to protect education from the negative effects of adjustment. Relevant data are scarce and of poor quality. The most common indicators - aggregate financing and enrollment indicators - are difficult to interpret. Moreover, analyses may compare indicators between two before-and-after points but say nothing about how or why indicators change. The effects of changes in financing on coverage, quality, and equity of education are by no means obvious. Education has a long gestation period, so the impacts of adjustment may not yet be evident. Country studies are probably the best framework for analyzing the adjustment process. The database of key education indicators must be improved.Environmental Economics&Policies,Country Strategy&Performance,Curriculum&Instruction,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Primary Education

El tatú carreta (Priodontes maximus) en el Chaco argentino

El tatú carreta (Priodontes maximus) en el Chaco argentino. El tatú carreta (Priodontes maximus) es una especie difícil de estudiar debido a sus hábitos nocturnos y fosoriales y a sus bajas densidades poblacionales. En Argentina no hay estudios poblacionales sistemáticos realizados previamente. Nuestro objetivo fue determinar la presencia, abundancia relativa y patrones de actividad temporal en cinco sitios con distinto grado de intervención humana y categoría de protección legal en el Chaco argentino. Entre junio de 2006 y enero de 2014 realizamos 10 muestreos utilizando cámaras-trampa, colocación de huelleros, recorridos de búsqueda de cuevas y rastros e información de pobladores locales y guardaparques. Utilizamos datos de cámaras-trampa para determinar la presencia, abundancia relativa (registros/ 100 días cámara) y patrones de actividad. La especie fue registrada solamente en tres sitios: el Parque Nacional Copo, la Reserva Aborigen y la Reserva de Recursos La Fidelidad. En la Reserva Aborigen registramos cuevas y huellas, pero no obtuvimos fotografías. En Copo y en La Fidelidad estimamos la abundancia relativa en 0.08 y 0.40 registros cada 100 días-cámara respectivamente. No registramos tatúes ni en los bordes de La Fidelidad, ni en los dos sitios con mayor grado de disturbio humano. Los registros fotográficos indican que el tatú carreta es marcadamente nocturno en el Chaco Argentino. La situación poblacional del tatú carreta en Argentina es preocupante. Los escasos o nulos registros obtenidos en las otras áreas sugieren que La Fidelidad podría conservar uno de los pocos relictos poblacionales de tatú carreta en el Chaco Argentino.The giant armadillo (Priodontes maximus) is a difficult species to study because of low population densities, combined with nocturnal and fossorial habits. No systematic population studies have been undertaken to date in Argentina. Our objectives were to evaluate the species? presence, relative abundance, and temporal activity patterns across five locations with different levels of human disturbance and legal protection in the Argentine Chaco. Between June 2006 and January 2014, we completed 10 surveys, using camera trap and / or track plots, searches for burrows and tracks, and observations by local people and park rangers. We used camera trap records to determine presence, relative abundance (records / 100 camera days) and activity patterns. We only recorded the species at three locations: Copo National Park, Aborigen Reserve and La Fidelidad Resource Reserve. At the Aborigen Reserve we documented burrows and tracks but obtained no photographs. At Copo and La Fidelidad we estimated relative abundance at 0.08 and 0.40 records per 100 camera days, respectively. We did not record giant armadillos near the edges of La Fidelidad, nor in the two locations with greater human disturbance. Camera trap records indicate that giant armadillos in the Argentine Chaco are strongly nocturnal. The population status of giant armadillos in Argentina is a matter of concern. With few or no records at other study locations, La Fidelidad may harbor one of the few relict populations of giant armadillos in the Argentine Chaco.Fil: Quiroga, Verónica Andrea. Centro de Investigaciones del Bosque Atlántico; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Puerto Iguazú | Universidad Nacional de Misiones. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Puerto Iguazú; ArgentinaFil: Di Blanco, Yamil Edgardo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Puerto Iguazú | Universidad Nacional de Misiones. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Puerto Iguazú; ArgentinaFil: Noss, Andrew. University of Florida; Estados UnidosFil: Paviolo, Agustin Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Puerto Iguazú | Universidad Nacional de Misiones. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Puerto Iguazú; ArgentinaFil: Di Bitetti, Mario Santiago. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Puerto Iguazú | Universidad Nacional de Misiones. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Puerto Iguazú; Argentin

Invasive Vegetation Affects Amphibian Skin Microbiota and Body Condition

Invasive plants are major drivers of habitat modification and the scale of their impact is increasing globally as anthropogenic activities facilitate their spread. In California, an invasive plant genus of great concern is Eucalyptus. Eucalyptus leaves can alter soil chemistry and negatively affect underground macro- and microbial communities. Amphibians serve as excellent models to evaluate the effect of Eucalyptus invasion on ground-dwelling species as they predate on soil arthropods and incorporate soil microbes into their microbiotas. The skin microbiota is particularly important to amphibian health, suggesting that invasive plant species could ultimately affect amphibian populations. To investigate the potential for invasive vegetation to induce changes in microbial communities, we sampled microbial communities in the soil and on the skin of local amphibians. Specifically, we compared Batrachoseps attenuatus skin microbiomes in both Eucalyptus globulus (Myrtaceae) and native Quercus agriflolia (Fagaceae) dominated forests in the San Francisco Bay Area. We determined whether changes in microbial diversity and composition in both soil and Batrachoseps attenuatus skin were associated with dominant vegetation type. To evaluate animal health across vegetation types, we compared Batrachoseps attenuatus body condition and the presence/absence of the amphibian skin pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. We found that Eucalyptus invasion had no measurable effect on soil microbial community diversity and a relatively small effect (compared to the effect of site identity) on community structure in the microhabitats sampled. In contrast, our results show that Batrachoseps attenuatus skin microbiota diversity was greater in Quercus dominated habitats. One amplicon sequence variant identified in the family Chlamydiaceae was observed in higher relative abundance among salamanders sampled in Eucalyptus dominated habitats. We also observed that Batrachoseps attenuatus body condition was higher in Quercus dominated habitats. Incidence of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis across all individuals was very low (only one Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis positive individual). The effect on body condition demonstrates that although Eucalyptus may not always decrease amphibian abundance or diversity, it can potentially have cryptic negative effects. Our findings prompt further work to determine the mechanisms that lead to changes in the health and microbiome of native species post-plant invasion

Increasing synergistic effects of habitat destruction and hunting on mammals over three decades in the Gran Chaco

Habitat destruction and overexploitation are the main threats to biodiversity and where they co-occur, their combined impact is often larger than their individual one. Yet, detailed knowledge of the spatial footprints of these threats is lacking, including where they overlap and how they change over time. These knowledge gaps are real barriers for effective conservation planning. Here, we develop a novel approach to reconstruct the individual and combined footprints of both threats over time. We combine satellite-based land-cover change maps, habitat suitability models and hunting pressure models to demonstrate our approach for the community of larger mammals (48 species > 1 kg) across the 1.1 million km2 Gran Chaco region, a global deforestation hotspot covering parts of Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay. This provides three key insights. First, we find that the footprints of habitat destruction and hunting pressure expanded considerably between 1985 and 2015, across ~40% of the entire Chaco – twice the area affected by deforestation. Second, both threats increasingly acted together within the ranges of larger mammals in the Chaco (17% increase on average, ± 20% SD, cumulative increase of co-occurring threats across 465 000 km2), suggesting large synergistic effects. Conversely, core areas of high-quality habitats declined on average by 38%. Third, we identified remaining priority areas for conservation in the northern and central Chaco, many of which are outside the protected area network. We also identify hotspots of high threat impacts in central Paraguay and northern Argentina, providing a spatial template for threat-specific conservation action. Overall, our findings suggest increasing synergistic effects between habitat destruction and hunting pressure in the Chaco, a situation likely common in many tropical deforestation frontiers. Our work highlights how threats can be traced in space and time to understand their individual and combined impact, even in situations where data are sparse.Fil: Romero-Muñoz, Alfredo. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin; AlemaniaFil: Benítez-López, Ana. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Estación Biológica de Doñana; EspañaFil: Zurell, Damaris. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin; AlemaniaFil: Baumann, Matthias. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin; AlemaniaFil: Camino, Micaela. Proyecto Quimilero; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Centro de Ecología Aplicada del Litoral. Universidad Nacional del Nordeste. Centro de Ecología Aplicada del Litoral; ArgentinaFil: Decarre, Julieta. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro de Investigación de Recursos Naturales. Instituto de Recursos Biológicos; ArgentinaFil: Castillo, Hugo del. Guyra Paraguay; ParaguayFil: Giordano, Anthony J.. University of California; Estados UnidosFil: Gómez-Valencia, Bibiana. Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander Von Humboldt, Bogota; Colombia. Universidad de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Levers, Christian. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin; AlemaniaFil: Noss, Andrew J.. University of Florida; Estados UnidosFil: Quiroga, Verónica Andrea. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal; ArgentinaFil: Thompson, Jeffrey J.. Guyra Paraguay; ParaguayFil: Torres, Ricardo Marcelo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal; ArgentinaFil: Velilla, Marianela. Guyra Paraguay; ParaguayFil: Weiler, Andrea. Universidad Nacional de Asunción; ParaguayFil: Kuemmerle, Tobias. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin; Alemani

Effectiveness of Biodiversity Surrogates for Conservation Planning: Different Measures of Effectiveness Generate a Kaleidoscope of Variation

Conservation planners represent many aspects of biodiversity by using surrogates with spatial distributions readily observed or quantified, but tests of their effectiveness have produced varied and conflicting results. We identified four factors likely to have a strong influence on the apparent effectiveness of surrogates: (1) the choice of surrogate; (2) differences among study regions, which might be large and unquantified (3) the test method, that is, how effectiveness is quantified, and (4) the test features that the surrogates are intended to represent. Analysis of an unusually rich dataset enabled us, for the first time, to disentangle these factors and to compare their individual and interacting influences. Using two data-rich regions, we estimated effectiveness using five alternative methods: two forms of incidental representation, two forms of species accumulation index and irreplaceability correlation, to assess the performance of ‘forest ecosystems’ and ‘environmental units’ as surrogates for six groups of threatened species—the test features—mammals, birds, reptiles, frogs, plants and all of these combined. Four methods tested the effectiveness of the surrogates by selecting areas for conservation of the surrogates then estimating how effective those areas were at representing test features. One method measured the spatial match between conservation priorities for surrogates and test features. For methods that selected conservation areas, we measured effectiveness using two analytical approaches: (1) when representation targets for the surrogates were achieved (incidental representation), or (2) progressively as areas were selected (species accumulation index). We estimated the spatial correlation of conservation priorities using an index known as summed irreplaceability. In general, the effectiveness of surrogates for our taxa (mostly threatened species) was low, although environmental units tended to be more effective than forest ecosystems. The surrogates were most effective for plants and mammals and least effective for frogs and reptiles. The five testing methods differed in their rankings of effectiveness of the two surrogates in relation to different groups of test features. There were differences between study areas in terms of the effectiveness of surrogates for different test feature groups. Overall, the effectiveness of the surrogates was sensitive to all four factors. This indicates the need for caution in generalizing surrogacy tests

The views are not necessarily those of the Bank of England or the interim Financial Policy Committee.

Peter Zimmerman for comments and contributions. All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/speeches2 1

Pan-cancer Alterations of the MYC Oncogene and Its Proximal Network across the Cancer Genome Atlas

Although theMYConcogene has been implicated incancer, a systematic assessment of alterations ofMYC, related transcription factors, and co-regulatoryproteins, forming the proximal MYC network (PMN),across human cancers is lacking. Using computa-tional approaches, we define genomic and proteo-mic features associated with MYC and the PMNacross the 33 cancers of The Cancer Genome Atlas.Pan-cancer, 28% of all samples had at least one ofthe MYC paralogs amplified. In contrast, the MYCantagonists MGA and MNT were the most frequentlymutated or deleted members, proposing a roleas tumor suppressors.MYCalterations were mutu-ally exclusive withPIK3CA,PTEN,APC,orBRAFalterations, suggesting that MYC is a distinct onco-genic driver. Expression analysis revealed MYC-associated pathways in tumor subtypes, such asimmune response and growth factor signaling; chro-matin, translation, and DNA replication/repair wereconserved pan-cancer. This analysis reveals insightsinto MYC biology and is a reference for biomarkersand therapeutics for cancers with alterations ofMYC or the PMN

Genomic, Pathway Network, and Immunologic Features Distinguishing Squamous Carcinomas

This integrated, multiplatform PanCancer Atlas study co-mapped and identified distinguishing molecular features of squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) from five sites associated with smokin