Co-Planar Stereotaxic Atlas of the Human Brain—3-Dimensional Proportional System: An Approach to Cerebral Imaging, J. Talairach, P. Tournoux. Georg Thieme Verlag, New York (1988), 122 pp., 130 figs. DM 268

The brain is a singular organ of unique biological complexity that serves as the command center for cognitive and motor function. As such, this specialized system also possesses a unique chemical composition and reactivity at the molecular level. In this regard, two vital distinguishing features of the brain are its requirements for the highest concentrations of metal ions in the body and the highest per-weight consumption of body oxygen. In humans, the brain accounts for only 2% of total body mass but consumes 20% of the oxygen that is taken in through respiration. As a consequence of high oxygen demand and cell complexity, distinctly high metal levels pervade all regions of the brain and central nervous system. Structural roles for metal ions in the brain and the body include the stabilization of biomolecules in static (e.g., Mg2+ for nucleic acid folds, Zn2+ in zinc-finger transcription factors) or dynamic (e.g., Na+ and K+ in ion channels, Ca2+ in neuronal cell signaling) modes, and catalytic roles for brain metal ions are also numerous and often of special demand.

Metals in Neurobiology: Probing Their Chemistry and Biology with Molecular Imaging

Copper Homeostasis and Neurodegenerative Disorders (Alzheimer's, Prion, and Parkinson's Diseases and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis)

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a systemic protozoan disease that is transmitted by phlebotomine sandflies. Poor and neglected populations in East Africa and the Indian sub-continent are particularly affected. Early and accurate diagnosis and treatment remain key components of VL control. In addition to improved diagnostic tests, accurate and simple tests are needed to identify treatment failures. Miltefosine, paromomycin and liposomal amphotericin B are gradually replacing pentavalent antimonials and conventional amphotericin B as the preferred treatments in some regions, but in other areas these drugs are still being evaluated in both mono- and combination therapies. New diagnostic tools and new treatment strategies will only have an impact if they are made widely available to patients.

http://www.bio.umass.edu/micro/klingbeil/590s/Reading/Leishdiag2007.pdf

Visceral leishmaniasis: what are the needs for diagnosis, treatment and control?

/pdf/economics-of-natural-resources-and-the-environment-43k62iyyte.pdf

Economics of natural resources and the environment

In the last few years the number of human cases of American visceral leishmaniasis in the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte (MRBH), Minas Gerais, Brazil has increased, indicating an elevation in the transmission rate of the disease. The total number of notified human cases in the MRBH since 1994, when the first case was identified, up to 1999 was 345 of which 223 (65%) were from the city itself, indicating an urbanization of the disease in this region of Minas Gerais. The age distribution of visceral leishmaniasis cases in the MRBH shows a higher prevalence in children from 0-4 years old, responsible for 28.9% of the notifications. Clinical and immunological findings from dogs infected with Leishmania chagasi are described. The majority of these animals showed no sign of the disease. Sera from all infected dogs showed detectable Leishmania-induced high titles of antibodies based on the results of an indirect fluorescent antibody test. Samples of isolated Leishmania from human and dogs were characterized as L. (L.) chagasi by biochemical and molecular techniques.

/pdf/visceral-leishmaniasis-in-the-metropolitan-region-of-belo-5b2p3v1xxh.pdf

Visceral leishmaniasis in the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil.

1. The inconvenient fact of antineoliberal mobilization 2. Contentious politics, contemporary market society, and power 3. The argument: explaining episodes of antineoliberal contention in Latin America 4. Argentina 5. Bolivia 6. Ecuador 7. Venezuela 8. Peru and Chile Conclusion.

/pdf/challenging-neoliberalism-in-latin-america-2l3j3nqyix.pdf

Challenging Neoliberalism in Latin America

Introduction Capitalists, Neoliberal Economic Reform, and Democracy Import-Substitution Industrialization and the Breakdown of Democracy Gradual Adjustment Under Military Rule Radical Neoliberalism Ascendant Triumph and Collapse of Radical Neoliberalism Pragmatic Neoliberalism Pragmatic Neoliberalism and the Politics of Chiles Transition from Authoritarianism

The State And Capital In Chile: Business Elites, Technocrats, And Market Economics

In most cases, the presence of an endogenous photosensitizer is a requirement for visible light modification of biomolecules in animal tissues. Riboflavin (RF) is present in all aerobic cells and is a very efficient photosensitizer, presenting a complex photochemistry with a mixed type I–type II mechanisms. Visible light irradiation in the presence of RF diminished the enzymatic activity of horse radish peroxidase (HRP) only when this glyco–enzyme was deglycosilated. In contrast, the activity of catalase is inactivated via singlet oxygen, and that of lysozyme was efficiently inactivated by a mixed type I–type II mechanisms. The reactive species involved in the RF sensitized photoconversion of lysozyme and the aromatic amino acids tryptophan and tyrosine (both free in solution) is discussed. The role of ascorbate and the effect of RF photosensitized processes in biological complex systems, such as the ocular lens and tumoral cell in culture, is analyzed.

Effect of visible light on selected enzymes, vitamins and amino acids.

This article argues that a high degree of relative state autonomy and ideology, while necessary, was not sufficient to explain fully the change from import-substitution industrialization to an open, free-market economy in Chile. A comparison across three distinct policy periods in authoritarian Chile reveals that shifting coalitions of businessmen and landowners, with varying power resources, also played an important part in the outcome. This approach does not seek to vitiate other interpretations of economic change in Chile and elsewhere. The question is not so much which factor is most important, but how and when the different factors matter.

Eduardo Silva

Papers

Visceral leishmaniasis in the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Challenging Neoliberalism in Latin America

The State And Capital In Chile: Business Elites, Technocrats, And Market Economics

Effect of visible light on selected enzymes, vitamins and amino acids.

Capitalist Coalitions, the State, and Neoliberal Economic Restructuring: Chile, 1973–88