Religion, social movements, and zone of crisis in Latin America

This repository item contains a single issue of Issues in Brief, a series of policy briefs that began publishing in 2008 by the Boston University Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future.Based on the outcomes of a three-year project led by Boston University’s Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs (CURA), this Issues in Brief explores the connections between religion and social movements in Latin America, especially in areas where efforts have been made to expand citizens’ rights and institute reforms to improve social justice. The authors use examples presented by collaborating scholars at the project’s conferences to show how religion is, in fact, an intrinsic part of everyday life and has played an important role in both revolutions and evolutions toward democracy in the region. They argue that any assessment of where Latin America has been and where it is headed must understand and consider “the multiple roles played by religion as citizens fight for new rights and reshape democratic politics.

“Post-Western” diplomacy and the Venezuela crisis

Attempts by the Organization of American States to suspend Venezuela may not succeed. But as the Trump administration reshapes its relationship with multilateral institutions, there will be opportunities for “post-Western” diplomacy from within the region and beyond, write David Smilde and Timothy M. Gill

Review Essay: C. S. Lewis and His Circle: Essays and Memoirs from the C. S. Lewis Society

Three reviews of Roger White, Judith Wolfe, and Brendan N. Wolfe, eds., C. S. Lewis and His Circle: Essays and Memoirs from the C. S. Lewis Society (Oxford, 2015). 273 pages. $29.95. ISBN 9780190214340

Religions and Social Progress:Critical Assessments and Creative Partnerships

This chapter engages with three important themes of the larger report: the meaning of progress, its uneven nature, and obstacles to future progress. It also considers a number of political and economic alternatives aimed to overcome these obstacles, emphasizing the need for diverse strategies, open-minded experimentation, and scientific assessment. While it may be impossible to ever reach agreement, the effort to calibrate different interpretations of progress remains an important exercise for political deliberation about how to make the world a better place. The very hope of moving forward implies some agreement on a destination. All of us must take responsibility for the future. Our discussion emphasizes the complexity and multidimensionality of the interpretive debate, but also calls attention to its ideological character. Social actors-individuals, groups, and even academic disciplines-tend to define progress in ways that serve their own interests. In a way, distributional conflict undermines our very efforts to better understand and mediate such conflict. The uneven character of progress is manifest in many different domains. Increases in the global reach of formally democratic institutions have been accompanied by growing concerns about their stability, efficacy, and consistency with democratic ideals

Superconducting thin films of MgB2 on Si by pulsed laser deposition

Superconducting thin films have been prepared on Si-substrates, using pulsed laser deposition from a target composed of a mixture of Mg and MgB2 powders. The films were deposited at room temperature and annealed at 600°C. The zero resistance transition temperatures were 11-15.5 K, with an onset transition temperature of 27 K. Special care has been taken to avoid oxidation of Mg in the laser plasma and deposited film, by optimizing the background pressure of Ar gas in the deposition chamber. For this the optical emission in the visible range from the plasma has been used as indicator. Preventing Mg from oxidation was found to be essential to obtain superconducting films

Incidental cardiac findings on computed tomography imaging of the thorax

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Investigation of pulmonary pathology with computed tomography also allows visualisation of the heart and major vessels. We sought to explore whether clinically relevant cardiac pathology could be identified on computed tomography pulmonary angiograms (CTPA) requested for the exclusion of pulmonary embolism (PE). 100 consecutive CT contrast-enhanced pulmonary angiograms carried out for exclusion of PE at a single centre were assessed retrospectively by two cardiologists.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>Evidence of PE was reported in 5% of scans. Incidental cardiac findings included: aortic wall calcification (54%), coronary calcification (46%), cardiomegaly (41%), atrial dilatation (18%), mitral annulus calcification (15%), right ventricular dilatation (11%), aortic dilatation (8%) and right ventricular thrombus (1%). Apart from 3 (3%) reports describing cardiomegaly, no other cardiac findings were described in radiologists' reports. Other reported pulmonary abnormalities included: lung nodules (14%), lobar collapse/consolidation (8%), pleural effusion (2%), lobar collapse/consolidation (8%), emphysema (6%) and pleural calcification (4%).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>CTPAs requested for the exclusion of PE have a high yield of cardiac abnormalities. Although these abnormalities may not have implications for acute clinical management, they may, nevertheless, be important in long-term care.</p

Development and evaluation of robust molecular markers linked to disease resistance in tomato for distinctness, uniformity and stability testing

Molecular markers linked to phenotypically important traits are of great interest especially when traits are difficult and/or costly to be observed. In tomato where a strong focus on resistance breeding has led to the introgression of several resistance genes, resistance traits have become important characteristics in distinctness, uniformity and stability (DUS) testing for Plant Breeders Rights (PBR) applications. Evaluation of disease traits in biological assays is not always straightforward because assays are often influenced by environmental factors, and difficulties in scoring exist. In this study, we describe the development and/or evaluation of molecular marker assays for the Verticillium genes Ve1 and Ve2, the tomato mosaic virusTm1 (linked marker), the tomato mosaic virus Tm2 and Tm22 genes, the Meloidogyne incognita Mi1-2 gene, the Fusarium I (linked marker) and I2 loci, which are obligatory traits in PBR testing. The marker assays were evaluated for their robustness in a ring test and then evaluated in a set of varieties. Although in general, results between biological assays and marker assays gave highly correlated results, marker assays showed an advantage over biological tests in that the results were clearer, i.e., homozygote/heterozygote presence of the resistance gene can be detected and heterogeneity in seed lots can be identified readily. Within the UPOV framework for granting of PBR, the markers have the potential to fulfil the requirements needed for implementation in DUS testing of candidate varieties and could complement or may be an alternative to the pathogenesis tests that are carried out at present