Una aproximación crítica a las mediciones sobre la calidad de la democracia latinoamericana

Este ensayo revisa críticamente una gama de informes de medición de la democracia latinoamericana provenientes de diferentes fuentes de la cooperación internacional involucrada en la región. Cuestiona la tendencia a simplificar la democracia con variables atinentes a sus fortalezas e intereses económicos en una visión estadocéntrica, cuantitativista y generalizante. Señala que esta visión restringida no da cuenta de las acciones e iniciativas ciudadanas atinentes a la reivindicación de los derechos cívicos y políticos y a la participación en la búsqueda de soluciones a los problemas obstaculizantes del desarrollo democrático latinoamericano. Concluye propositivamente, señalando la urgencia de complementar estos informes con estudios rigurosos y objetivos fundamentados en el registro de las particularidades idiosincrásicas de cada país de la región.

Proceedings of the 1st Seminar on Higher Education Rankings and E-learning

First International Seminar on Higher EducationRankings and e-Learning. Proceedings

A chromosomal insertion toolbox for promoter probing, mutant complementation and pathogenicity studies in Ralstonia solanacearum

We describe here the construction of a delivery system for stable and directed insertion of gene constructs in a permissive chromosomal site of the bacterial wilt pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum. The system consists of a collection of suicide vectors the Ralstonia chromosome (pRC) series that carry an integration element flanked by transcription terminators and two sequences of homology to the chromosome of strain GMI1000, where the integration element is inserted through a double recombination event. Unique restriction enzyme sites and a GATEWAY cassette enable cloning of any promoter::gene combination in the integration element. Variants endowed with different selectable antibiotic resistance genes and promoter::gene combinations are described. We show that the system can be readily used in GMI1000 and adapted to other R. solanacearum strains using an accessory plasmid. We prove that the pRC system can be employed to complement a deletion mutation with a single copy of the native gene, and to measure transcription of selected promoters in monocopy both in vitro and in planta. Finally, the system has been used to purify and study secretion type III effectors. These novel genetic tools will be particularly useful for the construction of recombinant bacteria that maintain inserted genes or reporter fusions in competitive situations (i.e., during plant infection).