Editorial

Este documento contiene en texto completo el articulo Editorial publicado en Anuario Iberoamericano de Derecho Internacional Penal; Vol. 1; 7-10;Iberoamerican Yearbook of International Criminal Law; Vol. 1; 7-10;Anuário Iberoamericano de Direito Internacional Penal; Vol. 1; 7-10;2346-312

The role of institutions in state-private sector interaction: the case of the management contract for water and wastewater services in the Amman Governorate, Jordan

Magister Administrationis - MAdminThis research investigates the performance of private sector participation (PSP) in the water sector from a governance perspective. It is concerned with the role that institutions play in the interaction between the state and the private sector, which occurs with respect to the regulation and implementation of such PSP arrangements. The research takes place within the context of a development debate and practice, which identifies water as a key poverty issue in a substantial part of the developing countries, which advocates private sector participation as a remedy to inadequate water management and which acknowledges good governance as a crucial requirement for development. Nevertheless, few studies have scrutinized the impact of governance and institutions on the outcome of PSP arrangements in the water sector. Most research on the performance of PSP arrangements has examined exogenous and endogenous determinants, such as the price mechanism and the property rights allocation, but these factors proved unsatisfactory as explaining variables in the context of natural resource management. To contribute to filling a gap in research this study aims at evaluating the impact of institutional frameworks on the outcome of private sector participation in water supply and sanitation through a case study of the Management Contract for Water and Wastewater Service in the Amman Governorate, Jordan. At the end of the 1990s the quality of water supply and sanitation in the Jordanian capital Amman was unsatisfactory, as supply was insufficient and entailed high costs. Therefore, in 1999, the government of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan contracted a private joint venture to improve water service provision in the Amman Governorate. The research takes into account the specific institutional framework for the mentioned arrangement in Amman, which is comprised of the national judicial and political institutions, the specific regulatory institutions as well as relevant international institutions. These institutions are not limited to laws and regulations only, but also include informal institutions such as traditions. The specific objective of this study is to show how the institutional framework of a transaction affects regulatory processes by abating and amplifying the potential for opportunistic behavior of the contracting parties, and thereby affecting the performance of a privately operated water utility. The examination of the institutional framework of the Amman Management Contract revealed that mainly judicial and international institutions and specific contract rules were constraining the discretion of the contracting parties. Political checks and balances were insufficiently established and the regulatory institutions of the water sector were set up in an improper way. The field study discovered that the resulting discretionary power of certain actor was used opportunistically, which had a detrimental effect on the outcome of the PSP arrangement. Nevertheless the overall performance of the arrangement was good from which the general insight was drawn that regulatory credibility may be developed even in unpropitious environments. However, to be able to judge upon the effect of governance and institutions on a planned or existing PSP arrangement each time a complex assessment of the respective institutional environment is necessary. This is because institutions may not be seen as independent building blocks but rather form a network which is likely to be unique for each country and situation. The mini-thesis is organized as follows. In Chapter 1 an outline of the study and its problem background is provided. Chapter 2 provides a detailed literature review and sets out the theoretical framework and research hypotheses of the study. Chapter 3 outlines the research design and methodology that was used for the study. Chapter 4 provides background detail on the Jordanian political, economic and social situation, on the issues pertaining to the water sector, andon the Amman water contract. Chapter 5 provides a description and analysis of the main research findings. Chapter 6 provides a summary as well as final conclusions and considerations

Effect of social structure and introduction history on genetic diversity and differentiation

Invasive species are a global threat to biodiversity, and understanding their history and biology is a major goal of invasion biology. Population-genetic approaches allow insights into these features, as population structure is shaped by factors such as invasion history (number, origin and age of introductions) and life-history traits (e.g., mating system, dispersal capability). We compared the relative importance of these factors by investigating two closely related ants, Tetramorium immigrans and Tetramorium tsushimae, that differ in their social structure and invasion history in North America. We used mitochondrial DNA sequences and microsatellite alleles to estimate the source and number of introduction events of the two species, and compared genetic structure among native and introduced populations. Genetic diversity of both species was strongly reduced in introduced populations, which also differed genetically from native populations. Genetic differentiation between ranges and the reduction in microsatellite diversity were more severe in the more recently introduced and supercolonial T. tsushimae. However, the loss of mitochondrial haplotype diversity was more pronounced in T. immigrans, which has single-queen colonies and was introduced earlier. Tetramorium immigrans was introduced at least twice from Western Europe to North America and once independently to South America. Its monogyny might have limited genetic diversity per introduction, but new mutations and successive introductions over a long time may have added to the gene pool in the introduced range. Polygyny in T. tsushimae probably facilitated the simultaneous introduction of several queens from a Japanese population to St. Louis, USA. In addition to identifying introduction pathways, our results reveal how social structure can influence the population-genetic consequences of founder events

O Tribunal Penal Internacional: comentários ao Estatuto de Roma

- Divulgação dos SUMÁRIOS das obras recentemente incorporadas ao acervo da Biblioteca Ministro Oscar Saraiva do STJ. Em respeito à Lei de Direitos Autorais, não disponibilizamos a obra na íntegra.- Localização na estante: 341.4(094.2) Coment. T822p 2.ed.- Coordenado por: Sylvia Helena Steiner E Leonardo Nemer Caldeira Brant

Landscape of 4D Cell Interaction in Hodgkin and Non-Hodgkin Lymphomas

Profound knowledge exists about the clinical, morphologic, genomic, and transcriptomic characteristics of most lymphoma entities. However, information is currently lacking on the dynamic behavior of malignant lymphomas. This pilot study aimed to gain insight into the motility of malignant lymphomas and bystander cells in 20 human lymph nodes. Generally, B cells were faster under reactive conditions compared with B cells in malignant lymphomas. In contrast, PD1-positive T cells did not show systematic differences in velocity between reactive and neoplastic conditions in general. However, lymphomas could be divided into two groups: one with fast PD1-positive T cells (e.g., Hodgkin lymphoma and mantle cell lymphoma; means 8.4 and 7.8 µm/min) and another with slower PD1-positive T cells (e.g., mediastinal grey zone lymphoma; mean 3.5 µm/min). Although the number of contacts between lymphoma cells and PD1-positive T cells was similar in different lymphoma types, important differences were observed in the duration of these contacts. Among the lymphomas with fast PD1-positive T cells, contacts were particularly short in mantle cell lymphoma (mean 54 s), whereas nodular lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin lymphoma presented prolonged contact times (mean 6.1 min). Short contact times in mantle cell lymphoma were associated with the largest spatial displacement of PD1-positive cells (mean 12.3 µm). Although PD1-positive T cells in nodular lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin lymphoma were fast, they remained in close contact with the lymphoma cells, in line with a dynamic immunological synapse. This pilot study shows for the first time systematic differences in the dynamic behavior of lymphoma and bystander cells between different lymphoma types

Global, regional, and national disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) for 359 diseases and injuries and healthy life expectancy (HALE) for 195 countries and territories, 1990–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

Source at https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)32335-3. NB only authors with Norwegian affiliation registered in Munin. See source for full author list.Background - How long one lives, how many years of life are spent in good and poor health, and how the population's state of health and leading causes of disability change over time all have implications for policy, planning, and provision of services. We comparatively assessed the patterns and trends of healthy life expectancy (HALE), which quantifies the number of years of life expected to be lived in good health, and the complementary measure of disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), a composite measure of disease burden capturing both premature mortality and prevalence and severity of ill health, for 359 diseases and injuries for 195 countries and territories over the past 28 years. Methods - We used data for age-specific mortality rates, years of life lost (YLLs) due to premature mortality, and years lived with disability (YLDs) from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2017 to calculate HALE and DALYs from 1990 to 2017. We calculated HALE using age-specific mortality rates and YLDs per capita for each location, age, sex, and year. We calculated DALYs for 359 causes as the sum of YLLs and YLDs. We assessed how observed HALE and DALYs differed by country and sex from expected trends based on Socio-demographic Index (SDI). We also analysed HALE by decomposing years of life gained into years spent in good health and in poor health, between 1990 and 2017, and extra years lived by females compared with males. Findings - Globally, from 1990 to 2017, life expectancy at birth increased by 7·4 years (95% uncertainty interval 7·1–7·8), from 65·6 years (65·3–65·8) in 1990 to 73·0 years (72·7–73·3) in 2017. The increase in years of life varied from 5·1 years (5·0–5·3) in high SDI countries to 12·0 years (11·3–12·8) in low SDI countries. Of the additional years of life expected at birth, 26·3% (20·1–33·1) were expected to be spent in poor health in high SDI countries compared with 11·7% (8·8–15·1) in low-middle SDI countries. HALE at birth increased by 6·3 years (5·9–6·7), from 57·0 years (54·6–59·1) in 1990 to 63·3 years (60·5–65·7) in 2017. The increase varied from 3·8 years (3·4–4·1) in high SDI countries to 10·5 years (9·8–11·2) in low SDI countries. Even larger variations in HALE than these were observed between countries, ranging from 1·0 year (0·4–1·7) in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (62·4 years [59·9–64·7] in 1990 to 63·5 years [60·9–65·8] in 2017) to 23·7 years (21·9–25·6) in Eritrea (30·7 years [28·9–32·2] in 1990 to 54·4 years [51·5–57·1] in 2017). In most countries, the increase in HALE was smaller than the increase in overall life expectancy, indicating more years lived in poor health. In 180 of 195 countries and territories, females were expected to live longer than males in 2017, with extra years lived varying from 1·4 years (0·6–2·3) in Algeria to 11·9 years (10·9–12·9) in Ukraine. Of the extra years gained, the proportion spent in poor health varied largely across countries, with less than 20% of additional years spent in poor health in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burundi, and Slovakia, whereas in Bahrain all the extra years were spent in poor health. In 2017, the highest estimate of HALE at birth was in Singapore for both females (75·8 years [72·4–78·7]) and males (72·6 years [69·8–75·0]) and the lowest estimates were in Central African Republic (47·0 years [43·7–50·2] for females and 42·8 years [40·1–45·6] for males). Globally, in 2017, the five leading causes of DALYs were neonatal disorders, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, lower respiratory infections, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Between 1990 and 2017, age-standardised DALY rates decreased by 41·3% (38·8–43·5) for communicable diseases and by 49·8% (47·9–51·6) for neonatal disorders. For non-communicable diseases, global DALYs increased by 40·1% (36·8–43·0), although age-standardised DALY rates decreased by 18·1% (16·0–20·2). Interpretation - With increasing life expectancy in most countries, the question of whether the additional years of life gained are spent in good health or poor health has been increasingly relevant because of the potential policy implications, such as health-care provisions and extending retirement ages. In some locations, a large proportion of those additional years are spent in poor health. Large inequalities in HALE and disease burden exist across countries in different SDI quintiles and between sexes. The burden of disabling conditions has serious implications for health system planning and health-related expenditures. Despite the progress made in reducing the burden of communicable diseases and neonatal disorders in low SDI countries, the speed of this progress could be increased by scaling up proven interventions. The global trends among non-communicable diseases indicate that more effort is needed to maximise HALE, such as risk prevention and attention to upstream determinants of health

Morquio-like dysostosis multiplex presenting with neuronopathic features is a distinct GLB1-related phenotype

Background Morquio B disease (MBD) is a distinct GLB1-related dysostosis multiplex presenting a mild phenocopy of GALNS-related Morquio A disease. Previously reported cases from European countries carry the W273L variant on at least one GLB1 allele and exhibit a pure skeletal phenotype (pure MBD). Only a minority of MBD cases have been described with additional neuronopathic findings (MBD plus). Objectives and Methods With the aim to further describe patterns of MBD-related dysostosis multiplex, we analyzed clinical, biochemical, and genetic features in 17 cases with GLB1-related dysostosis multiplex living and diagnosed in Brazil. Results About 14 of the 17 individuals had three or more skeletal findings characteristic of Morquio syndrome. Two had no additional neuronopathic features (pure MBD) and 12 exhibited additional neuronopathic features (MBD plus). Three of the 17 cases had mild dysostosis without distinct features of MBD. Seven of the 12 MBD plus patients had signs of spinal cord compression (SCC), as a result of progressive spinal vertebral dysostosis. There was an age-dependent increase in the number of skeletal findings and in the severity of growth impairment. GLB1 mutation analysis was completed in 10 of the 14 MBD patients. T500A occurred in compound heterozygosity in 8 of the 19 alleles. Conclusion Our study extends the phenotypic spectrum of GLB1-related conditions by describing a cohort of patients with MBD and GM1-gangliosidosis (MBD plus). Targeting the progressive nature of the skeletal manifestations in the development of new therapies for GLB1-related conditions is warranted

The Evolution of Invasiveness in Garden Ants

It is unclear why some species become successful invaders whilst others fail, and whether invasive success depends on pre-adaptations already present in the native range or on characters evolving de-novo after introduction. Ants are among the worst invasive pests, with Lasius neglectus and its rapid spread through Europe and Asia as the most recent example of a pest ant that may become a global problem. Here, we present the first integrated study on behavior, morphology, population genetics, chemical recognition and parasite load of L. neglectus and its non-invasive sister species L. turcicus. We find that L. neglectus expresses the same supercolonial syndrome as other invasive ants, a social system that is characterized by mating without dispersal and large networks of cooperating nests rather than smaller mutually hostile colonies. We conclude that the invasive success of L. neglectus relies on a combination of parasite-release following introduction and pre-adaptations in mating system, body-size, queen number and recognition efficiency that evolved long before introduction. Our results challenge the notion that supercolonial organization is an inevitable consequence of low genetic variation for chemical recognition cues in small invasive founder populations. We infer that low variation and limited volatility in cuticular hydrocarbon profiles already existed in the native range in combination with low dispersal and a highly viscous population structure. Human transport to relatively disturbed urban areas thus became the decisive factor to induce parasite release, a well established general promoter of invasiveness in non-social animals and plants, but understudied in invasive social insects

The art of indigeneity: Aesthetics and competition in Mexican economies of culture

On the basis of ethnographic research with woodcarvers in Oaxaca, Mexico, this paper investigates the role that aesthetic practices play in economic competition in cultural markets. I explain how one family has become the most successful artisans in their village by aesthetically referencing the indigenous art that is highly sought after by the North American ethnic art market. By reformulating Bourdieu's analysis of artistic fields, I argue that aesthetic competition should be theorised at the level of genres, which allow insight into how individual aesthetic innovations may transform the fields in which art is produced and circulated. I show that by referencing indigeneity, this successful family not only accesses a new market but also renders their work more authoritative than the carvings of their neighbours, which aesthetically reference Mexican ‘artesanías’ (craftwork). In so doing, they not only earn more money but also change the ways that Oaxacan woodcarvings are valued in general