Pathogens-Watching

New Articles in PLOS Pathogens

Insertive Condom-Protected and Condomless Vaginal Sex Both Have a Profound Impact on the Penile Immune Correlates of HIV Susceptibility

by Avid Mohammadi, Sareh Bagherichimeh, Yoojin Choi, Azadeh Fazel, Elizabeth Tevlin, Sanja Huibner, Zhongtian Shao, David Zuanazzi, Jessica L. Prodger, Sara V. Good, Wangari Tharao & Rupert Kaul

Summary: In heterosexual men, the penis is the primary site of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) acquisition. Levels of inflammatory cytokines in the coronal sulcus are associated with an increased HIV risk, and we hypothesized that these may be altered after insertive penile sex. Therefore, we designed the Sex, Couples and Science Study (SECS study) to define the impact of penile–vaginal sex on the penile immune correlates of HIV susceptibility. We found that multiple coronal sulcus cytokines increased dramatically and rapidly after sex, regardless of condom use, with a return to baseline levels by 72 hours. The changes observed after condomless sex were strongly predicted by cytokine concentrations in the vaginal secretions of the female partner, and were similar in circumcised and uncircumcised men. We believe that these findings have important implications for understanding the immunopathogenesis of penile HIV acquisition; in addition, they have important implications for the design of clinical studies of penile HIV acquisition and prevention.

[Archived PDF]

Engineering, Decoding and Systems-Level Characterization of Chimpanzee Cytomegalovirus

by Quang Vinh Phan, Boris Bogdanow, Emanuel Wyler, Markus Landthaler, Fan Liu, Christian Hagemeier & Lüder Wiebusch

Summary: Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection is associated with systemic disease in immunocompromised individuals and congenitally infected neonates. Animal CMVs and their bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clones have been utilized as models for CMV infection and thereby contributed immensely to the understanding of pathogenesis, host immune response and underlying molecular mechanism of CMV infections. As the closest relative to HCMV, the chimpanzee CMV (CCMV) holds a great potential as a model system for HCMV infection but its application was limited due to the lack of tools and data for functional genomic analyses. Here, the cloning of the CCMV as a BAC vector made its viral genome available to gene targeting techniques that allow the efficient application of reverse genetic strategies. Furthermore, the multi-omic datasets created in this study provide an in-depth view of the viral gene repertoire and the host cell responses to infection, confirming the close phylogenetic relationship between HCMV and CCMV on a system level. Taken together, the newly established CCMV–BAC system presents a framework for HCMV modeling and comparative studies to address key questions in evolutionary processes and infection mechanisms.

[Archived PDF]

RplI Interacts with 5′ UTR of exsA to Repress Its Translation and Type III Secretion System in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

by Dan Wang, Xinxin Zhang, Liwen Yin, Qi Liu, Zhaoli Yu, Congjuan Xu, Zhenzhen Ma, Yushan Xia, Jing Shi, Yuehua Gong, Fang Bai, Zhihui Cheng, Weihui Wu, Jinzhong Lin & Yongxin Jin

Summary: Ribosomes provide all living organisms the capacity to synthesize proteins. The production of many ribosomal proteins is often controlled by an autoregulatory feedback mechanism. P. aeruginosa is an opportunistic human pathogen and its type III secretion system (T3SS) is a critical virulence determinant in host infections. In this study, by screening a Tn5 mutant library, we identified rplI, encoding ribosomal large subunit protein L9, as a novel repressor for the T3SS. Further exploring the regulatory mechanism, we found that the RplI protein interacts with the 5’ UTR (5’ untranslated region) of exsA, a gene coding for transcriptional activator of the T3SS. Such an interaction likely blocks ribosome loading on the exsA 5’ UTR, inhibiting the initiation of exsA translation. The significance of this work is in the identification of a novel repressor for the T3SS and elucidation of its molecular mechanism. Furthermore, this work provides evidence for individual ribosomal protein regulating mRNA translation beyond its autogenous feedback control.

[Archived PDF]

Structure of a Bacterial Rhs Effector Exported by the Type VI Secretion System

by Patrick Günther, Dennis Quentin, Shehryar Ahmad, Kartik Sachar, Christos Gatsogiannis, John C. Whitney & Stefan Raunser

Summary: Bacteria have developed a variety of strategies to compete for nutrients and limited resources. One system widely used by Gram-negative bacteria is the T6 secretion system which delivers a plethora of effectors into competing bacterial cells. Known functions of effectors are degradation of the cell wall, the depletion of essential metabolites such as NAD+ or the cleavage of DNA. RhsA is an effector from the widespread plant-protecting bacteria Pseudomonas protegens. We found that RhsA forms a closed cocoon similar to that found in bacterial Tc toxins and metazoan teneurin proteins. The effector cleaves its polypeptide chain by itself in three pieces, namely the N-terminal domain including a seal, the cocoon and the actual toxic component which potentially cleaves DNA. The toxic component is encapsulated in the large cocoon, so that the effector producing bacterium is protected from the toxin. In order for the toxin to exit the cocoon, we propose that the seal, which closes the cocoon at one end, is removed by mechanical forces during injection of the effector by the T6 secretion system. We further hypothesize about different scenarios for the delivery of the toxin into the cytoplasm of the host cell. Together, our findings expand the knowledge of the mechanism of action of the T6 secretion system and its essential role in interbacterial competition.

[Archived PDF]

Non-Neutralizing Antibodies Targeting the Immunogenic Regions of HIV-1 Envelope Reduce Mucosal Infection and Virus Burden in Humanized Mice

by Catarina E. Hioe, Guangming Li, Xiaomei Liu, Ourania Tsahouridis, Xiuting He, Masaya Funaki, Jéromine Klingler, Alex F. Tang, Roya Feyznezhad, Daniel W. Heindel, Xiao-Hong Wang, David A. Spencer, Guangnan Hu, Namita Satija, Jérémie Prévost, Andrés Finzi, Ann J. Hessell, Shixia Wang, Shan Lu, Benjamin K. Chen, Susan Zolla-Pazner, Chitra Upadhyay, Raymond Alvarez & Lishan Su

Summary: In the past decade, HIV-1 has infected an estimated 1.5 to 2 million people every year, but vaccines needed to control this pandemic are unavailable. Among vaccines tested in the human efficacy trials, the RV144 vaccine regimen showed a modest efficacy and revealed non-neutralizing antibodies against the virus envelope glycoproteins as a correlate of reduced virus acquisition. To design more efficacious HIV-1 vaccines, a better understanding about antiviral mechanisms of these antibodies is needed. Here non-neutralizing monoclonal antibodies against two immunogenic sites on the virus envelope were evaluated for passive administration to humanized mice that were subsequently challenged with HIV-1. The antibodies did not block mucosal HIV-1 infection but reduced virus burden. The level of virus reduction correlated with the antibody binding potency and the effector functions mediated through their Fc fragments, which included antibody-dependent phagocytosis and complement activation, but not the commonly studied antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity. The importance of the Fc functions was further demonstrated by reduced virus control when mutations were introduced to decrease Fc activities. This study provides new evidence for the important contribution of multiple Fc-dependent antibody functions in immune control against HIV-1.

[Archived PDF]

Variability in an Effector Gene Promoter of a Necrotrophic Fungal Pathogen Dictates Epistasis and Effector-Triggered Susceptibility in Wheat

by Evan John, Silke Jacques, Huyen T. T. Phan, Lifang Liu, Danilo Pereira, Daniel Croll, Karam B. Singh, Richard P. Oliver & Kar-Chun Tan

Summary: Breeding for durable resistance to fungal diseases in crops is a continual challenge for crop breeders. Fungal pathogens evolve ways to overcome host resistance by masking themselves through effector evolution and evasion of broad-spectrum defense responses. Association studies on mapping populations infected by isolate mixtures are often used by researchers to seek out novel sources of genetic resistance. Disease resistance quantitative trait loci (QTL) are often minor or inconsistent across environments. This is a particular problem with septoria diseases of cereals such as septoria nodorum blotch (SNB) of wheat caused by Parastagonospora nodorum. The fungus uses a suite of necrotrophic effectors (NEs) to cause SNB. We characterized a genetic element, called PE401, in the promoter of the major NE gene Tox1, which is present in some P. nodorum isolates. PE401 functions as a transcriptional repressor of Tox1 and exerts epistatic control on another major SNB resistance QTL in the host. In the context of crop protection, constant surveillance of the pathogen population for the frequency of PE401 in conjunction with NE diversity will enable agronomists to provide the best advice to growers on which wheat varieties can be tailored to provide optimal SNB resistance to regional pathogen population genotypes.

[Archived PDF]

Mutational Analysis of Aedes aegypti Dicer 2 Provides Insights into the Biogenesis of Antiviral Exogenous Small Interfering RNAs

by Rommel J. Gestuveo, Rhys Parry, Laura B. Dickson, Sebastian Lequime, Vattipally B. Sreenu, Matthew J. Arnold, Alexander A. Khromykh, Esther Schnettler, Louis Lambrechts, Margus Varjak & Alain Kohl

Summary: Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that transmit human-pathogenic viruses rely on the exogenous small interfering RNA (exo-siRNA) pathway as part of antiviral responses. This pathway is triggered by virus-derived double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) produced during viral replication that is then cleaved by Dicer 2 (Dcr2) into virus-derived small interfering RNAs (vsiRNAs). These vsiRNAs target viral RNA, leading to suppression of viral replication. The importance of Dcr2 in this pathway has been intensely studied in the Drosophila melanogaster model but is largely lacking in mosquitoes. Here, we have identified conserved and functionally relevant amino acids in the helicase and RNase III domains of Ae. aegypti Dcr2 that are important in its silencing activity and antiviral responses against Semliki Forest virus (SFV). Small RNA sequencing of SFV-infected mosquito cells with functional or mutated Dcr2 gave new insights into the nature and origin of vsiRNAs. The findings of this study, together with the different molecular tools we have previously developed to investigate the exo-siRNA pathway of mosquito cells, have started to uncover important properties of Dcr2 that could be valuable in understanding mosquito-arbovirus interactions and potentially in developing or assisting vector control strategies.

[Archived PDF]

Probing the Structure and Function of the Protease Domain of Botulinum Neurotoxins Using Single-Domain Antibodies

by Kwok-ho Lam, Jacqueline M. Tremblay, Kay Perry, Konstantin Ichtchenko, Charles B. Shoemaker & Rongsheng Jin

Summary: Botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) are extremely toxic to humans by causing flaccid paralysis of botulism. The catalytic light chain (LC) of BoNTs is the warhead of the toxin, which is mainly responsible for BoNT’s neurotoxic effects. As an endopeptidase, LC is delivered by the toxin to inside neurons where it specifically cleaves neuronal SNARE proteins and causes muscle paralysis. While the currently available equine and human antitoxin sera can prevent further intoxication, they do not promote recovery from paralysis that has already occurred. We strike to develop single-domain variable heavy-chain (VHH) antibodies targeting the LC of BoNT/A (LC/A) and BoNT/B (LC/B) as antidotes to inhibit or eliminate the intraneuronal LC protease. Here, we report the identification and characterization of large panels of new and unique VHHs that bind to LC/A or LC/B. Using a combination of X-ray crystallography and biochemical assays, we reveal that VHHs exploit diverse mechanisms to interact with LC/A and LC/B and inhibit their protease activity, and such knowledge can be harnessed to predict their specificity towards different toxin subtypes within each serotype. We anticipate that the new VHHs and their characterization reported here will contribute to the development of improved botulism therapeutics having high potencies and broad specificities.

[Archived PDF]

B Cell Overexpression of FCRL5 and PD-1 Is Associated with Low Antibody Titers in HCV Infection

by Clinton O. Ogega, Nicole E. Skinner, Andrew I. Flyak, Kaitlyn E. Clark, Nathan L. Board, Pamela J. Bjorkman, James E. Crowe Jr., Andrea L. Cox, Stuart C. Ray & Justin R. Bailey

Summary: Antiviral immunity relies on production of protective immunoglobulin G (IgG) by B cells, but many hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected individuals have very low levels of HCV-specific IgG in their serum. Elucidating mechanisms underlying this suboptimal IgG expression remains paramount in guiding therapeutic and vaccine strategies. In this study, we developed a highly specific method to capture HCV-specific B cells and characterized their surface protein expression. Two proteins analyzed were Fc receptor-like protein 5 (FCRL5), a cell surface receptor for IgG, and programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1), a marker of lymphocyte activation and exhaustion. We measured serum levels of anti-HCV IgG in these subjects and demonstrated that overexpression of FCRL5 and PD-1 on memory B cells was associated with reduced anti-E2 IgG levels. This study uses HCV as a viral model, but the findings may be applicable to many viral infections, and they offer new potential targets to enhance antiviral IgG production.

[Archived PDF]

Is the Concept of “People-Class” Illuminating?

Abram Leon was a tragic Belgian/Polish Jewish sociologist who was murdered by the Nazis in 1944. He fused the concept of people (e.g., the French people, or the Japanese people) with the concept of class (e.g. “the working class”) to make a hybridized concept of people–class.

Can we say that the Rwandan genocide in 1994, say, was the murder of a people–class (i.e., the Tutsi)?

Were the Armenian victims in 1915 an analogous phenomenon for the Ottoman Empire?

One immediately thinks of the Jews of Europe in WWII and the Chinese in 1965 Indonesia. (Think of the movie, The Year of Living Dangerously with Mel Gibson, which gives some “atmospherics” for this time in Indonesia.)

Is the Abram Leon notion of a people–class helpful in understanding these modern genocidal phenomena as an ensemble?

Meta intelligence is defined as working towards a “Composite Understanding of Education,” as you see in the masthead for this site.

Is people–class such a composite?

Following COVID-19 Evolution Carefully

JAMA Online First: Booster Vaccination to Reduce SARS-CoV-2 Infection

Association of a Third Dose of BNT162b2 Vaccine With Incidence of SARS-CoV-2 Infection Among Health Care Workers in Israel

by Avishay Spitzer, MD; Yoel Angel, MD, MBA; Or Marudi, MSc; et al.

[Archived PDF]

Editorial: Booster Vaccination to Reduce SARS-CoV-2 Transmission and Infection by Anna Wald, MD, MPH

[Archived PDF]

A National Strategy for the “New Normal” of Life With COVID

[Archived PDF]

False-Positive Results in Rapid Antigen Tests for SARS-CoV-2

[Archived PDF]

Characteristics and Outcomes of Hospitalized Patients in South Africa During the COVID-19 Omicron Wave

[Archived PDF]

Highlights From the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions—ApoB as a Risk Marker, an Oral PCSK9 Inhibitor, Aspirin and Dementia, and More

[Archived PDF]

India-Watching

ICRIER Working Paper № 407

India’s Platform Economy and Emerging Regulatory Challenges

by Rajat Kathuria, Mansi Kedia and Kaushambi Bagchi

Abstract

The phenomenal rise of the platform economy has reshaped how economies operate across the world. The importance of digital platforms has never been more evident than in combatting the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Even with the threat of a global recession looming large, technology companies are witnessing a surge in demand for their services. Platforms distinguish themselves from traditional markets by demonstrating speed and scale of innovation and fostering efficient and productive interaction between buyers and sellers. Enterprises using platform-based business models have expanded beyond social media, travel and entertainment to sectors like financial services, healthcare, logistics and transportation. With the objective of building evidence for policy-making in this sector, this study undertakes an in-depth analysis of the impact generated by the platform economy in India, by estimating consumer surplus from the use of platforms, analyzing its impact on traditional businesses either by transformation or disruption. The estimated consumer surplus is Rs. 438.75 per individual per month, amounting to a collective annual surplus of Rs. 3620 billion for India. At current exchange rates this would amount to $47 billion. 

The growth of platforms has also been accompanied by global concern against their anti-competitive practices, the spread of fake news and harmful content, political bias, etc. The paper discusses regulatory changes and areas of concern for market competition, labour and employment, fake news and misinformation, consumer protection, counterfeit goods and data privacy in India.

[Read full article, archived PDF]

[Executive summary, archived PDF]

Economy Watching: Philadelphia Fed

from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia:

Fed President Patrick Harker Says It Will “Soon” Be Time to Taper Asset Purchases

Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker told a virtual audience at the Prosperity Caucus in Washington, D.C., that the asset purchases once necessary during the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic are no longer effective as a tool for supporting the economy. He also said the U.S. economy created millions of jobs in recent months, but “we just can’t fill them.”

Economic Outlook: Growth Despite Constraints

Good evening! Thanks so much for having me. I understand that when this group meets in person there is usually pizza involved — so I intend to collect on that debt next time we do this in the flesh.

I plan to offer a few remarks about the state of the national economy and the path of Federal Reserve policy. Then we can move to our Q&A, which I’m really looking forward to.

But before I do that, I need to give you the standard Fed disclaimer: The views I express today are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of anyone else on the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) or in the Federal Reserve System.

Fed Structure

I know this group encompasses a very diverse crowd — we have everyone from House staffers to Senate staffers here. So, just in case anyone doesn’t know, I want to begin by giving you a very brief explanation of what, exactly, a regional Federal Reserve Bank is. Our nation’s central bank, after all, is quite unusual — unique, even — in its design.

The configuration of the Federal Reserve System — a central bank with a decentralized structure — owes its existence to the 1913 Federal Reserve Act. It is something of a testament to old-fashioned American compromise and reflects the unique demands of the United States and our economy.

The System consists of a Board of Governors, which sits in Washington, and 12 regional Banks around the country.

The Board seats seven governors, including the Chair. Each regional Bank has its own president and board of directors, which is made up of business, banking, and community leaders from the area. Fundamentally, this provides the Fed with a perspective — within each District — of the sectors and issues that make the region tick. Mine is the Third District, which encompasses eastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey, and the state of Delaware. We’re the smallest District geographically, but I like to think we punch above our weight.

The FOMC, which is responsible for monetary policy, is composed of the Fed’s governors and regional Bank presidents. Regional Bank presidents don’t always get to vote. Most of us rotate into a voting position every three years, but the governors always vote, as does the president of the New York Fed. New York, owing to the presence of Wall Street, enjoys something of a “first among equals” status within the System.

While the rest of us don’t always vote, we do always represent our Districts and play a part in the discussion. If you were at a normal FOMC meeting, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell a voting member until the end of the meeting when it’s time to raise hands. Everybody contributes.

The Fed’s decentralized nature is, in my view, a unique strength. We’re making national policy, but we’re doing it for an enormous country, and the averages of economic data can obscure realities on the ground. Conditions look very different in Philadelphia, Dover, or Washington than they do in Dallas, Salt Lake City, or Honolulu. This System gives a voice to a range of localities and sectors. It also allows us to focus on regional issues within each Bank’s District.

The United States has a unique set of needs. It’s easy to forget that we’re an outlier because we’re such a massive country: Only Russia and Canada are bigger geographically, only China and India have larger populations, and no one country has a bigger economy, at least for now. And that economy is vast, spreading across sectors and natural resources in a way that is not typical of other nations.

So, it makes sense that we have a System that feeds back information from around the country.

The State of the Economy

And what that information is telling us is that, for the past 18 months, the economy has moved in tandem with the waxing and waning of the COVID-19 pandemic. During periods when case rates and hospitalizations have declined, the economy has surged as American consumers have voted with their wallets. When COVID-19 risks abate, more Americans dine out at restaurants, check in to hotels, and fill up airplanes. Those are important categories of spending in a country where consumption makes up about 70 percent of total economic activity. In the second quarter of this year, for instance, GDP grew at a very healthy annualized rate of around 6.7 percent as case rates plummeted.

And, of course, the opposite occurs during periods when the virus spikes. When the Delta variant of COVID-19 erupted, fomenting the country’s fourth major wave of the pandemic, things started moving sideways. Consumer confidence tanked, and large industries like hospitality and leisure stagnated at best. So for this quarter, we can expect growth to come in at an annualized rate of around 3 percent, a sharp slowdown from earlier this year. 

But there are reasons to be sanguine that the country’s recovery from this wave of COVID-19 may prove more durable than in the past and that we can avoid a fifth wave. And that is because more than half of the country is fully vaccinated. Getting more shots into arms will save lives and aid the recovery by reducing the size and severity of future spikes. The Delta variant has also concentrated minds: It seems to have not only persuaded more Americans to get shots on their own, but it also pushed more corporations and institutions to mandate their employees to get vaccinated. That is cause for optimism.

Filling me with less optimism is the persistent constraints the economy is operating under.

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed how fragile many of our supply chains are. We’re now experiencing shortages of crucial parts like computer chips, which has hobbled not only the production of cars and trucks, but also comparatively smaller durable goods like home appliances. My recent experience attempting to purchase a printer — there were essentially none at my local electronics store — testifies to that. And good luck trying to find a new washing machine or dishwasher.

These supply chain constraints are rippling through the entire economy. Manufacturers in our region have reported having to curtail production because of difficulties securing raw materials. We’re also seeing low inventory of everything from shoes to backpacks to even chicken wings, which is a particularly troubling development as the NFL season is picking up. Unfortunately, there are indications that these constraints could persist for a couple of more years.

There’s another input lacking in supply as well, further constraining the economy: labor. It isn’t true, as was widely reported, that the economy only created 194,000 jobs in September. In reality, the U.S. economy has created many millions of jobs in recent months — we just can’t fill them. Indeed, job openings are at record highs, hitting nearly 10.5 million at the end of August. Simultaneously, more people are quitting their jobs, and the rate at which open positions are being filled is continuing to slow.

It seems that a combination of factors — trouble accessing childcare or eldercare, lingering fears about the virus, the rise in equities and home values spurring people to retire, and perhaps a general revaluation of life choices — is persuading a lot of Americans to stay on the sidelines even as the economy has reopened. And notably, the elimination of extra federal unemployment benefits has not — at least not yet — appeared to nudge people back into the workforce. I do expect that will change eventually and especially as other forbearance programs run out.

So, where does all of this leave us? For 2021, I would expect GDP growth to come in around 5.5 percent, which is a downward revision from before Delta took hold. Growth will then moderate to about 3.5 percent in 2022, and 2.5 percent in 2023. Inflation, meanwhile, should come in around 4 percent for 2021, though I do see upside risk here. After that, our modal forecast — that is, the average of all of our forecasts — calls for inflation of a bit over 2 percent for 2022 and right at 2 percent in 2023.

Fed Policy

In terms of monetary policy, I am in the camp that believes it will soon be time to begin slowly and methodically — frankly, boringly — taper our $120 billion in monthly purchases of Treasury bills and mortgage-backed securities. This comes down to the efficacy of these purchases as a tool.

They were necessary to keep markets functioning during the acute phase of the crisis. But to the extent that we are still dealing with a labor force issue, the problem lies on the supply side, not with demand. You can’t go into a restaurant or drive down a commercial strip without noticing a sea of “Help Wanted” signs. Asset purchases aren’t doing much — or anything — to ameliorate that.

After we taper our asset purchases, we can begin to think about raising the federal funds rate. But I wouldn’t expect any hikes to interest rates until late next year or early 2023, unless the inflation picture changes dramatically.

Conclusion

Given the strong headwinds facing the economy, it is a testament to its underlying strength that growth continues at a relatively robust pace. That is a tribute, as always, to the ingenuity and tenacity of our people, especially in the face of huge challenges.

Thank you very much again for having me. And now let’s move on to questions.

Sustainable Development Goals: Their Impacts on Forests and People (New Book)

(from the Forest Policy Info Mailing List and IUFRO WFSE)

By Dr. Pia Katila

Forests provide vital ecosystem services crucial to human well-being and sustainable development, and have an important role to play in achieving the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations 2030 Agenda. Little attention, however, has yet focused on how efforts to achieve the SDGs will impact forests and forest-related livelihoods, and how these impacts may, in turn, enhance or undermine the contributions of forests to climate and development. Understanding the potential impacts of SDGs on forests and forest-related livelihoods and development as well as the related trade-offs and synergies is crucial for the efforts undertaken to reach these goals. It is especially important for reducing potential negative impacts and to leverage opportunities to create synergies that will ultimately determine whether comprehensive progress towards the SDGs will be made.

This book discusses the conditions that influence how SDGs are implemented and prioritized, and provides a systematic, multidisciplinary global assessment of interlinkages among the SDGs and their targets, increasing understanding of potential synergies and unavoidable trade-offs between goals from the point of view of forests and people. Ideal for academic researchers, students and decision-makers interested in sustainable development in the context of forests, this book will provide invaluable knowledge for efforts to reach the SDGs. 

The assessment was undertaken by the International Union of Forest Research Organization’s Special Project World Forests, Society and Environment (IUFRO WFSE). It involved 120 scientists and experts from 60 different universities and research and development institutions as well as 38 scientists who acted as peer reviewers of the different SDG chapters. The development and publication of the book and policy brief were made possible by the financial contributions of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and the Natural Resources Institute Finland.

The book is published by Cambridge University Press and available as open access via Cambridge Core.

Read the book [Archived PDF].

Read the related Policy Brief Harnessing forests for the Sustainable Development Goals: Building synergies and mitigating trade-offs [Archived PDF].

Bruegel Publication Alert: The EU-Russia-China Energy Triangle

Policy Contribution

(from Bruegel)

By Georg Zachmann

Concern is growing in the European Union that a rapprochement between Russia and China could have negative implications for the EU.

We argue that energy relations between the EU and Russia and between China and Russia influence each other. We analyze their interactions in terms of four areas: oil and gas trading, electricity exchanges, energy technology exports and energy investments.

We discuss five key hypotheses that describe the likely developments in these four areas in the next decade and their potential impact on Europe:

  1. There is no direct competition between the EU and China for Russian oil and gas.
  2. China and the EU both have an interest in curbing excessive Russian energy rents.
  3. The EU, Russia and China compete on the global energy technology market, but specialize in different technologies.
  4. Intercontinental electricity exchange is unlikely.
  5. Russia seems more worried about Chinese energy investments with strategic/political goals than about EU investments.

Read the full report [Archived PDF].

Third Quarter 2019: Interest Rate Shift Helped Housing but Hurt Bank Net Interest Margins

(from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco)

First Glance 12L provides a first look at banking and economic conditions within the 12th District. The report, “Interest Rate Shift Helped Housing but Hurt Bank Net Interest Margins,” [Archived PDF] notes that District banks’ average quarterly net interest margin slipped as lower interest rates and loan-to-asset ratios weighed on asset yields. The shifting asset mix contributed to margin compression but benefitted average liquidity and risk-based capital ratios. Districtwide loan and job growth cooled but remained above average, and lower interest rates boosted home prices, affordability, and homebuilding. In addition to supervisory hot topics, the report covers wildfire-related risks in California.

Read the full report [Archived PDF].

Education and the Problem of Historical Denials

There’s a deep reason that guarantees the insipid feel of most historical courses and textbooks used in schools at all levels. The problem is that the underlying savagery of history is never really faced but is always fudged over. The books and courses in schools of all levels tend to be “tangential” to any reality.

One of the underlying “motors” of all history is the land question in its two aspects:

1. The National Land Question

Which groups and buccaneers grabbed which land?

Thus North America (USA & Canada) was “taken” by European settlers and various kinds of “ethnic cleansing” took place. (See, say, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee).

Parallel processes took place everywhere including China, Russia, etc.

The truth of these historo-crimes at the root of all history is then avoided “forever.”

This makes all discussions of who got what and why, where and when escapist at best.

2. The Private Land Question

Countries like those in Central America were characterized by the fact that when the European empires such as Spain were removed from “ownership,” handfuls of elite families took al the best farmland and parlayed that into political power. Those the top coffee growers have dominated Central America for centuries and the landless and indigenous are in a permanent emergency. Questioning this distribution leads to mass murders such as under Guatemala’s Ríos Montt (died 2018) in the 1980s.

These two “land questions”—the national and the private—are at the core of all world history and this means that failure to put these truths on the table of educational analysis, leads to “let’s pretend” “denial detours.”

There is a fundamental historical dishonesty that governs the educational process and since “the truth will make you free,” it follows that “the untruth will make you unfree” (i.e., “captive mind” syndrome everywhere).

Memes, Tropes and “Signs” in the “University” That Surrounds Us

A famous face or tune or quip or saying or photo constitutes the raw material for a shared cultural understanding around the world. Everybody somehow knows “James Bond” or “Mercedes” or “Big Ben” in London or the “Eiffel Tower” in Paris.

Think of the Polish movie masterpiece from the mid-fifties, Kanał by Wajda. It shows the doomed resistance story of the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 against the Germans, which followed the Warsaw Ghetto rebellion of a year earlier.

“Kanał” means sewer, and the story takes place in the sewers of Warsaw as this band of resistance fighters tries to avoid being killed by the Germans who still have overwhelming military superiority in weapons, ammunition, etc.

At one point these fighters enter a Polish “bourgeois” home (i.e., great wealth is on display) and one of them, Michal, the classical musician, played by Sheybal (whom you will have seen as a villain in James Bond movies) goes over to the piano they find, a Bechstein, and “plays around” including the famous tango from Uruguay and Argentina, “La cumparsita” (the little parade) which went “viral” (for its time) around 1916-1917 “radiating out” from Uruguay and Argentina.

Famous versions of this tango include Carlos Gardel’s and performances by orchestras led by Juan d’Arienzo, Osvaldo Pugliese and Astor Piazzolla. “La cumparsita” is very popular at milongas; it is a common tradition for it to be played as the last dance of the evening.

The song was named cultural and popular anthem of Uruguay by law in 1997.

Appearances in Movies

Gene Kelly dances to “La cumparsita” in the film Anchors Aweigh (1945). The song was included in a ballroom scene of the film Sunset Boulevard (1950), in which Gloria Swanson and William Holden danced the tango. In the 2006 dance movie Take the Lead, Jenna Dewan, Dante Basco and Elijah Kelley danced to a remixed version.

In the 1959 film Some Like It Hot, “La cumparsita” is played by a blindfolded Cuban band during a scene in which Jack Lemmon dressed in drag dances with overstated flair in the arms of Joe E. Brown who thinks Lemmon is a woman (“Daphne—you’re leading again”). During the filming in 1958, actor George Raft taught the other two men to dance the tango for this scene.

Miscellaneous

In the Olympic Games of Sydney 2000, the Argentine team marched with the Uruguayan music “La cumparsita.” This originated protests and official claims from the Uruguayan government. The work was also an opening part of an infamous radio drama: The War of the Worlds was broadcast as an episode of the American radio drama anthology series The Mercury Theatre on the Air. It was performed as a Halloween episode of the series on October 30, 1938, and aired over the Columbia Broadcasting System radio network. This was directed and narrated by actor and future filmmaker Orson Welles.

Many artistic gymnasts have used variations of the song as their floor routine soundtracks including Vanessa Atler (1998–99), Jamie Dantzscher (2000), Oana Petrovschi (2001–02), Elvire Teza (1998), Elise Ray (1997–98), Natalia Ziganshina (2000), Maria Kharenkova (2013) and MyKayla Skinner (2011–12). Joannie Rochette skated to the song for her short program during the 2009–2010 season, most famously skating a clean performance at the 2010 Winter Olympics after the sudden death of her mother.

Students should realize as part of an education, thought of in the sense we are introducing here, that the world is an “ambient” ecosystem of these cultural icons, memes and tropes and one should be attune to them and how they connect the world into something like a semi-shared experience.

Notice, say, that the Bechstein piano, played by Michal (Vladek Sheybal) in the movie Kanał (he later goes mad and playing an ocarina, starts reciting lines from Dante and loses his mind) is the name of the Bechstein family which were instrumental in the rise of Hitler. The irony should be part of the student’s viewing experience and should show how “screwy” the world is.

Notice too that there’s an ocarina-playing character in the movie Stalag 17 who’s described as mentally unwell.

All of these aspects are part of the material world and the iconic world and the world of “signs” that are part of our education, understood as ambience of which the campus is one part only.