A glycosylation mutant of Trypanosoma brucei links social motility defects in vitro to impaired colonisation of tsetse in vivo

Transmission of African trypanosomes by tsetse flies requires that the parasites migrate out of the midgut lumen and colonise the ectoperitrophic space. Early procyclic culture forms correspond to trypanosomes in the lumen; on agarose plates they exhibit social motility, migrating en masse as radial projections from an inoculation site. We show that an Rft1-/- mutant needs to reach a greater threshold number before migration begins, and that it forms fewer projections than its wild-type parent. The mutant is also up to 4 times less efficient at establishing midgut infections. Ectopic expression of Rft1 rescues social motility defects and restores the ability to colonise the fly. These results are consistent with social motility reflecting movement to the ectoperitrophic space, implicate N-glycans in the signalling cascades for migration in vivo and in vitro, and provide the first evidence that parasite-parasite interactions determine the success of transmission by the insect host.

Placing Displacement: Place-making in a World of Movement

Over the last two decades, there has been a radical shift in anthropology from stable, rooted and mappable identities to fluid, transitory and migratory forms of belonging. Displacement has become the new trope through which anthropologists have come to look at the world. As a result, place has received an ambiguous position. Focusing on the life experiences of one Somali refugee woman living in Melbourne and her engagement with place, this article questions the current emphasis on space and boundlessness in anthropological discourses on displacement. It argues that rather than developing theoretical concepts that bypass people's experiences, the zooming in on individuals' lifeworlds allows for a close look at the particularity and everydayness of being-in-place. It shows the need for a more complex and nuanced view of displacement ��� one that values people's lived experiences and one that takes the placement in displacement more seriously.

Ethnography of a Land Grab and Gendered Coping Strategies in Northern Sierra Leone

Despite an increased scientific interest in the relatively new phenomenon of large-scale land acquisition (LSLA), data on the implementation of such projects and their impacts on the heterogeneous group of project-affected people are still sparse and superficial. Our ethnographic in-depth research on a Swiss-based bioenergy project in Sierra Leone generates well-documented data and provides insights into gendered access to land and wage employment. In the area where the project is located, customary land tenure applies. Thereby, women are structurally discriminated since they are not entitled to own land. However, user rights grant women and non-landowning men access to land and associated resources. Following the investing development banks��� guidelines, the company considered the local customary law when implementing its project. Nevertheless, the company only consulted and compensated landowners although women and non-landowning men could previously benefit from acquired land as well. Moreover, the company���s policy to enhance employment possibilities for women is barely implemented, and only few local women are hired. In order to cope with the transformed situation some women and non-landowning men continue to engage in subsistence farming on a reduced area of land. Others are involved in informal petty-trade or cooking food for the labourers whereby they subsidize the capitalist production of the company. In one village, women resisted additional land takes of the company. Acting within the framework of a specific power constellation on community level and simultaneously accommodating their claims within policy paradigms on transnational level, they were able to force a landowner to refuse leasing land to the company.

Finding a voice - Nollywood inspired filmmaking practices in Switzerland

Under the name Nollywood a unique video film industry has developed in Nigeria in the last few decades, which now forms one of the world���s biggest entertainment industries. With its focus on stories reflecting ���the values, desires and fears��� (Haynes 2007: 133) of African viewers and its particular way of production, Nollywood brings ���lived practices and its representation together in ways that make the films deeply accessible and entirely familiar to their audience��� (Marston et al. 2007: 57). In doing so, Nollywood shows its spectators new postcolonial forms of performative self���expression and becomes a point of reference for a wide range of people. However, Nollywood not only excites a large number of viewers inside and outside Nigeria, it also inspires some of them to become active themselves and make their own films. This effect of Nigerian filmmaking can be found in many parts of sub���Saharan Africa as well as in African diasporas all over the world ��� including Switzerland (Mooser 2011: 63���66). As a source of inspiration, Nollywood and its unconventional ways of filmmaking offer African migrants a benchmark that meets their wish to express themselves as minority group in a foreign country. As Appadurai (1996: 53), Ginsburg (2003: 78) and Marks (2000: 21) assume, filmmakers with a migratory background have a specific need to express themselves through media. As minority group members in their country of residence they not only wish to reflect upon their situation within the diaspora and illustrate their everyday struggles as foreigners, but to also express their own views and ideas in order to challenge dominant public opinion (Ginsburg 2003: 78). They attempt to ���talk back to the structures of power��� (2003: 78) they live in. In this process, their audio-visual works become a means of response and ���an answering echo to a previous presentation or representation��� (Mitchell 1994: 421). The American art historian Mitchell, therefore, suggests interpreting representation as ���the relay mechanism in exchange of power, value, and publicity��� (1994: 420). This desire of interacting with the local public has also been expressed during a film project of African, mainly Nigerian, first-generation migrants in Switzerland I am currently partnering in. Several cast and crew members have expressed feelings of being under-represented, even misrepresented, in the dominant Swiss media discourse. In order to create a form of exchange and give themselves a voice, they consequently produce a Nollywood inspired film and wish to present it to the society they live in. My partnership in this on���going film production (which forms the foundation of my PhD field study) allows me to observe and experience this process. By employing qualitative media anthropological methods and in particular Performance Ethnography, I seek to find out more about the ways African migrants represent themselves as a community through audio���visual media and the effect the transnational use of Nollywood has on their form of self���representations as well as the ways they express themselves.

Nonverbal synchrony in social interactions of patients with schizophrenia indicates socio-communicative deficits

Background Disordered interpersonal communication can be a serious problem in schizophrenia. Recent advances in computer-based measures allow reliable and objective quantification of nonverbal behavior. Research using these novel measures has shown that objective amounts of body and head movement in patients with schizophrenia during social interactions are closely related to the symptom profiles of these patients. In addition to and above mere amounts of movement, the degree of synchrony, or imitation, between patients and normal interactants may be indicative of core deficits underlying various problems in domains related to interpersonal communication, such as symptoms, social competence, and social functioning. Methods Nonverbal synchrony was assessed objectively using Motion Energy Analysis (MEA) in 378 brief, videotaped role-play scenes involving 27 stabilized outpatients diagnosed with paranoid-type schizophrenia. Results Low nonverbal synchrony was indicative of symptoms, low social competence, impaired social functioning, and low self-evaluation of competence. These relationships remained largely significant when correcting for the amounts of patients��� movement. When patients showed reduced imitation of their interactants��� movements, negative symptoms were likely to be prominent. Conversely, positive symptoms were more prominent in patients when their interaction partners��� imitation of their movements was reduced. Conclusions Nonverbal synchrony can be an objective and sensitive indicator of the severity of patients��� problems. Furthermore, quantitative analysis of nonverbal synchrony may provide novel insights into specific relationships between symptoms, cognition, and core communicative problems in schizophrenia.

Video-based quantification of body movement indicates negative symptoms: a replication

Objective: In schizophrenia, abnormalities in nonverbal behaviors have always been considered as highly relevant. However, due to methodological limitations, nonverbal behavior was rarely quantified objectively. Recent methodological advances now allow a quantification of body movement from ordinary video recordings. We showed that patients��� objectively measured amount of movement in social role-play interactions was closely associated with their symptom profiles (Kupper, Ramseyer, Hoffmann, & Tschacher, Schizophrenia Research 2010). In the present study, a replication of these results in the context of semi-standardized PANSS (Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale) interviews was intended. Methods: 17 patients with schizophrenia were analyzed during the initial 15-min sequence of a videotaped PANSS interview using Motion Energy Analysis (MEA). The amount of patients��� movement was then correlated with their PANSS symptom scores. Results: Sizeable and significant correlations between negative symptoms and reduced movements (r = -.68, p<0.01) and reduced movement speed (r = -.80, p<0.001) were found. Moreover, cognitive symptoms were related to reduced movement speed (r = -.70, p<.01). Conclusion: Negative symptoms were reliably indicated by patients��� nonverbal behavior in psychopathology interviews. Hence, the main result of our earlier study, examining patients��� nonverbal behavior in role play tests, was replicated for the less structured interactions in psychopathological interviews. Results could encourage the use of MEA in a wide range of videotaped social interactions of patients with schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders.

The social construction of infant mortality: From grassroots to medicalization

Infant mortality as a problematic situation has been recognized for some 130 years in one form or another. It has undergone various changes in its empirical dimensions relative to whom we study within the population, what we study--low birth-weight vs. pre-term births--and how we study it--whether demographically or medically. An analysis of the process by which the condition was raised by claims makers as an intolerable situation among America's urban residents reveals that demographic and medical data were sparse. Nonetheless, a judgement about the meaning and significance of the condition was made, and that interpretation led to the promulgation of systems to both document and address the condition as it has come to be defined.^ This investigation depicts the historical context and natural history of infant mortality as one of a number of social problems that came to be defined through the interplay among groups and individuals making claims and how their claims came to the public policy agenda as worthy of collective resources--who won, who lost and why. The process of social definition focuses attention on the claims makers and the ways they contrast the meaning, origins and remedies for this troubling condition. The historical context becomes the frame of reference for understanding the actions of the claims makers and the meaning and significance they attached to the problem.^ We purport that "context" provides a closer reality than disjoined "value free" accounts. Context provides the evidence for the definition, who participated in the process, why and by what means.^ The role of women in the definitional process reveals the differences in approaches utilized by the women of the settlement house reform movement and African-American women working at the grass-roots. Much of the work done by these two groups provided options to the problem's remedy; however, their differences paved the way to our current (principally medically-oriented) definition and its inherent limitations. ^

La miner��a transnacional y territorios posnacionales : un nuevo sentido hist��rico para Santa Mar��a, Catamarca

Este art��culo versa sobre la relaci��n entre la miner��a transnacional y la cuesti��n de la territorialidad vinculada a esta actividad. A medida que se abren fronteras, las relaciones sociales se vuelven m��s desterritorializadas, crece la b��squeda de las ra��ces culturales y nuevas experiencias locales se generan en respuesta a la emergencia de territorios posnacionales (Appadurai, 1999). Estas experiencias definen un nuevo sentido hist��rico para el oeste catamarque��o y Santa Mar��a ��� provincia de Catamarca, Argentina-, donde los sujetos sociales locales - situados hist��ricamente en contextos de periferia del capitalismo global y nacional- mediatizan, interpelan y desnaturalizan algunas de las transformaciones espacio-temporales producidas a partir de la mega- miner��a en las ��ltimas d��cadas, bajo un paradigma extractivista. Por su parte, los sujetos locales examinan su propia historia y analiza las conflictividades en torno a los recursos naturales, y en respuesta, constituyen territorios en red no articulados a los flujos globales del capital sino a espacios de resistencia.

Armando Tejada G��mez: sentido americanista y social de la poes��a

La poes��a de Armando Tejada G��mez (1929-1992) se destaca con perfiles n��tidos en el desarrollo de las letras mendoc��nas correspondiente a la segunda mitad del siglo XX y constituye una faceta m��s de un interesante movimiento cultural no exclusivamente literario, que se conoce como la Generaci��n del '50. En el presente art��culos se analizan las fuerzas que juegan en el campo intelectual de mediados del siglo XX: el viraje a lo popular con la incorporaci��n del coloquialismo y la asunci��n de los ritmos de la canci��n popular, la tem��tica ciudadana, la preocupaci��n social y el sentido americanista. Esta nueva est��tica, que ha recibido las denominaciones de realismo rom��ntico (Freidemberg), de poes��a existencial (C��sar Fern��ndez Moreno), de neohumanismo (Jos�� Isaacson), presenta adem��s como rasgo saliente una gran libertad interior y exterior. Todas estas caracter��sticas se ponen de manifiesto en la poes��a de Tejada G��mez. A ello hay que sumar tambi��n la libertad en el manejo de las convenciones literarias, la borradura de l��mites entre los g��neros, por ejemplo, l��rico y dram��tico, o la incorporaci��n de las denominadas &quot;formas populares&quot; al registro de la l��rica mal llamada &quot;culta&quot;. En cuanto a la libertad m��trica de la que tambi��n hace gala, viene a ser apenas una consecuencia t��cnica de aquella libertad de fondo ya aludida, que asume como objeto po��tico aun la trivialidad de lo cotidiano.

Cooperaci��n y conflicto entre empresas, comunidades y gobierno : nuevos movimientos sociales en el caso de Cerro de San Pedro, M��xico

El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar las relaciones de cooperaci��n y conflicto entre una compa����a minera y las comunidades, los Nuevos Movimientos Sociales y los tres niveles de gobierno involucrados. La compa����a Minera inici�� operaciones para una mina a cielo abierto de oro y plata con el apoyo de los gobiernos locales, estatales y federal. Los habitantes de estas comunidades apoyados por grupos ambientalistas y Organizaciones No Gubernamentales argumentan que el proyecto contamina las Fuentes de agua fresca adem��s de perturbar el medio ambiente y la ecolog��a de la regi��n. La metodolog��a empleada consisti�� en un an��lisis hist��rico social para determinar, en un estudio exploratorio, las principales variables econ��micas, pol��ticas, legales, sociales y culturales que inciden en el caso, sobre todo despu��s de la firma del Tratado de Libre Comercio de Am��rica del Norte. Los hallazgos de esta investigaci��n contribuyen a explicar las relaciones de cooperaci��n y conflicto entre las empresas multinacionales que operan en las comunidades, a analizar el rol del gobierno en sus tres niveles y de los nuevos movimientos sociales en la conformaci��n de las econom��as locales bajo procesos de integraci��n econ��mica regional. Los resultados tambi��n son de relevancia por sus contribuciones para el entendimiento de procesos de responsabilidad social corporativa de las empresas transnacionales y los procesos de contestaci��n y acci��n colectiva de los nuevos movimientos sociales en el desarrollo econ��mico y ambiental de las comunidades locales.

The Dari��n Region, Connecting Road of the Americas, among the expressions of hydric wealth, land vocation and the extractive exploration on its violated forms

Colombia has oceanic waters, catchment areas, like lakes, cienagas and swamps, water flows, like rivers, gorges and streams, small rivers and groundwater. The oceanic waters are the Caribbean Sea-1600 km and the Pacific Ocean-1300 km that comprise the north and west continental territory, respectively. Actually the Region of Dari��n, geographically bounded by the Carribean Sea to the north is becoming to be focused by studies due to use conflicts and disputes about water and a forest reserve on its territories. Considering its location, strategic at northwestern Colombia, frontier region with Central America, several dynamics are imposed. One of them is the implantation of a road system entitled Connecting Road of the Americas. This fact means the construction of an infra-structure that will cross a special zone formed by swamps and jungle known as The Dari��n Gap. Evidences of such interests are revealed by projects like the constructions of Turbo's Port in the Atlantic Ocean, Department of Antioquia and Tribug��'s Port in the Pacific Ocean, Department of Choco, the mountain road and the coastal conection Colombia-Venezuela attending to the main intentions of the central region of the department (Metropolitan Area of Aburr�� Valley-AMVA). Human settlements form a productive system, based on small and medium familiar agriculture's production, corresponding to the western portion and piedmont of Abibe's mountain at its antioquian portion, alluvial plan that forms the rivers on this area, the littoral zone that delimits the Carribean Sea, the Dari��n and Baud�� Mountains and the gulf that receives, among other waters, the ones from Atrato and Le��n, as well as the exodus process constitutes a forced exit resulting from actions of several armed groups. It can be identified intense historical, cultural, political and environmental relations, specially the last one associated with strategic ecosystems that are fundamental for the hydric regulation of the region, as well as food safety of the local inhabitants. Results from two researches (UPB, 2007 y 2010) reveals this quick transformation in the spatial re-configuration, demographical and economical indicators and the exacerbated fight for resources, damaging the extractive vocation in the Region. Path to commerce of illegalities (drugs, guns) and to implementation of the agroindustrial project for biofuel production, cooperation program that involves Venezuela, Brazil and Colombia. Appropriation modes allow the existence of strategies since global interests revealing a development logic that privileges the conception of an artificialized nature. Since the smallest portion of rural areas, specific modes of resources exploration are linked to imposed interests of transnational corporations. Disparate consequences are going deeper evidenced by social, technical and nature transformations, envisioning risks for the habitability's condition

Cambios en la estructura econ��mica social y conflictos sociales en el noroeste del Chubut 1990-2005

Buscamos avanzar en el conocimiento sobre c��mo se desarrolla el movimiento de la sociedad argentina en su conjunto, analizado desde un caso particular que es el noreste del Chubut en el per��odo que va desde la imposici��n de la hegemon��a del capital financiero en 1989-1990 hasta el a��o 2005. Se pretende en esta tesis entender y conceptualizar en t��rminos cient��ficos c��mo se mueve esa sociedad, de qu�� son expresi��n cada uno de sus conflictos, qu�� expresan los distintos sectores que se movilizan, qu�� expresan los cambios estructurales que se desarrollan, etc. Desde esta perspectiva nos interesa espec��ficamente poder aportar al debate sobre cu��les son las opciones de plantear un proyecto alternativo de desarrollo para la provincia, la regi��n y el pa��s. Dentro del tema general de buscar comprender el movimiento de la sociedad, realizamos un abordaje de la realidad desde la utilizaci��n de un conocimiento acumulado y desde un recorte de esa realidad. Ese recorte lo realizamos a dos niveles. En primer lugar en t��rminos espaciales: tomamos como base una regi��n que denominamos el noreste de Chubut. Recortamos de la provincia del Chubut al ��rea que tuvo el mayor crecimiento vinculado a los programas de polos de desarrollo durante las d��cadas del '60, '70 y parte del '80. La misma est�� delimitada por los actuales departamentos de Rawson y Biedma, de acuerdo a la divisi��n administrativa que toma la provincia desde 1957. En segundo lugar realizamos un recorte en t��rminos temporales: abordamos como objeto de estudio al movimiento de la sociedad en esa regi��n durante el per��odo que va de 1989-1990 hasta el 2005. Consideramos que tomar este per��odo nos permite observar el proceso de cambios que se generan con la realizaci��n de la hegemon��a del capital financiero y el proceso de protestas, luchas y conflictos sociales que en el marco de estos cambios se desarrollan en la sociedad. La decisi��n de estudiar hasta el 2005 parte de considerar relevante comprender c��mo continua el proceso despu��s del 2001-2002. En esos a��os se produce la recuperaci��n de la econom��a nacional, con un gran impulso para la regi��n, lo cual genera el inter��s de poder precisar de qu�� se trata esta 'recuperaci��n' y si estamos ante un movimiento org��nico o coyuntural de la econom��a. El per��odo tambi��n nos permiti�� profundizar en el debate de las relaciones de fuerzas pol��ticas, al hacer observable el per��odo en que la burgues��a logra recuperar la representaci��n institucional como expresi��n leg��tima de la sociedad y consigue frenar la protesta social

El nacionalismo frente a la cuesti��n social en Argentina (1930-1943) : Discursos, Representaciones y pr��cticas de las derechas sobre el mundo del trabajo

Nuestra investigaci��n se centr�� fundamentalmente en las distintas formas en que las derechas respondieron a los conflictos suscitados en el mundo del trabajo durante el per��odo de entreguerras. En primer lugar, advertimos que la cuesti��n social fue adquiriendo un rol protag��nico en la agenda nacionalista tal como puede verse, por ejemplo, a trav��s del an��lisis de los peri��dicos. En efecto, los diarios m��s importantes adscriptos al nacionalismo desarrollaron un discurso radical respecto a los problemas sociales e incluyeron secciones espec��ficas para tratar estas cuestiones y expresar una posici��n al respecto. Las respuestas del nacionalismo argentino frente a la cuesti��n obrera han sido m��ltiples y han abarcado distintas esferas de la vida social. Lejos de esperar que la soluci��n a los problemas sociales proviniera exclusivamente de las medidas restrictivas y represivas hacia el movimiento obrero, los nacionalistas elaboraron programas sociales, pol��ticos, econ��micos y culturales que formaron parte de su proyecto de naci��n autoritaria y jer��rquica. Los proyectos sociales y las propuestas de organizaci��n sindical fueron en gran parte inspirados por los fascismos europeos los cuales incluyeron programas de contenci��n social dentro de un orden pol��tico totalitario. En este sentido los nacionalistas argentinos intentaron mediante sus propuestas imponer un orden que contemplara las necesidades b��sicas de los sectores populares y que preservara las jerarqu��as sociales limitando la participaci��n pol��tica o sindical de los trabajadores y eliminando definitivamente alas fuerzas de la izquierda revolucionaria. Las organizaciones obreras nacionalistas incluyeron todo tipo de trabajadores en sus filas y procuraron captar tanto a los afiliados de los sindicatos aut��nomos como a los trabajadores socialistas. Algunas de estas organizaciones fueron ef��meras mientras que otras tuvieron m��s ��xito y lograron atraer adherentes. Las mismas conformaron la corriente que hemos denominado nacionalismo sindicalista, la cual desarroll�� su propia doctrina social fuertemente influenciada por las enc��clicas papales. Las manifestaciones nacionalistas en el espacio p��blico porte��o han sido tambi��n analizadas in extenso. Existieron distintos tipos de manifestaciones para movilizar a los seguidores del nacionalismo y para captar nuevos adherentes, especialmente aquellos provenientes de los sectores populares. Las manifestaciones se convirtieron en el escenario de las disputas ideol��gicas mantenidas tanto contra la pol��tica liberal como contra la revolucionaria. La "revoluci��n nacionalista", seg��n la formulaban sus partidarios, implicaba trascender los aspectos pol��ticos y econ��micos incorporando transformaciones en otras ��reas de la vida social: las costumbres, las formas de vida, los gustos culturales, los valores. Los nacionalistas advirtieron que para lograr este tipo de "revoluci��n" deb��an hacer usa de los medios de comunicaci��n masivos y dise��ar proyectos para regular las industrias culturales. El objetivo de representar a los sectores populares fracas�� rotundamente. El discurso nacionalista que condenaba la diversidad ��tnico-religiosa, que amenazaba con eliminar las distintas voces pol��ticas existentes, y que expresaba un odio visceral a sus enemigos (ya fueran jud��os, anarquistas, comunistas, o liberales) fue extremadamente desafortunado para quienes procuraron ensanchar las bases de un movimiento antidemocr��tico originalmente elitista que, a la luz del contexto internacional y de las condiciones locales, devino en populista