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Despite participatory institutions' increasing ubiquity, we know little about their effects on governance and well-being. What we do know comes largely from Brazil, where positive outcomes have been attributed to civil society's role in implementation. Often, however, participatory institutions are imposed by national governments, with little civil society engagement. In these cases, scholars have argued, participatory institutions are unlikely to improve governance and well-being, as civil society is not present to unlock the institutions' potential. We test this proposition in Peru, the first country featuring government mandated participatory institutions for all subnational governments. We find, surprisingly, that Peru's participatory budgeting process increased pro-poor spending and improved citizen's quality of life. We attribute these outcomes to reduced information asymmetries, made possible by the central role played by an influential and autonomous government agency. We employ a unique panel dataset, as well as an original survey and extensive interviews with government and civil society actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does the structure of democratic institutions affect citizen engagement? This study employs conjoint analysis to assess the effects of institutional design on political participation in participatory budgeting (PB) programs. We find evidence that PB program design strongly affects citizens' interest in participation. Participation appeals more to citizens when PB programs offer participants meaningful control over decision‐making outcomes, when barriers to participation are low, and when resources allocated through PB are targeted diffusely to communities rather than individual beneficiaries. We also find that focusing PB on issues specific to marginalized communities does not necessarily boost interest in participation among members of those communities. Finally, we observe few systematic differences in preferences for participation between demographic groups traditionally associated with low rates of civic engagement compared to other groups. We then use the results surrounding PB to discuss broad implications for citizen participation in participatory institutions and democratic governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The three books reviewed here represent a new generation of rigorous scholarship on participatory institutions (PIs). They demonstrate that -- under certain conditions -- it is possible to build large-scale PIs that strengthen democratic governance and improve citizens' lives. Nonetheless, significant challenges remain. Due in part to the absence of either high-quality national-level comparative data or fine-grained subnational data, and in part to research design choices of existing studies, the literature remains limited in its capacity to make general claims about the causes and effects of large-scale PIs. Ultimately, the key question collectively addressed, but not fully answered, by the works reviewed is whether governments can build PIs that deliver on their promise to improve the quality of democracy and enhance public service provision on a large scale in diverse contexts beyond Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Conceptualizes varieties of participatory institutions according to their function in interest intermediation. • Distinguishes based on what objectives participatory institutions advance, who participates, and how participants connect to the state. • Analyzes five cases from Brazil, Peru, Venezuela, and Ecuador. • Develops tools to explore why participatory institutions succeed in meeting their objectives, and how they change over time. Although participatory institutions have become ubiquitous in contemporary politics, they often serve such different objectives that viewing the institutions as part of the same phenomenon can produce more confusion than clarity. We argue that participatory institutions can serve distinct and even opposite functions in interest intermediation, and develop a conceptual framework that distinguishes participatory institutions based on 1) what political project they were established to advance, 2) whose participation is channeled into these venues, and 3) how participatory institutions engage participants in the policymaking. We illustrate this framework with cases from Brazil, Peru, Venezuela, and Ecuador. We show that participatory institutions can serve a wide array of political projects that connect citizens to the state in radically different ways, including restructuring state-society relations to empower marginalized groups, increasing civil society influence over policymaking and government oversight, expanding parties' electoral coalitions, and constraining the influence of disruptive social movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seth Masket's book Learning From Loss: The Democrats, 2016-2020 draws important lessons from Democrats' postmortem of their 2016 electoral defeat. Chief among these is that, given the party's dependence on white suburban voters and the threat of resurgent Trumpism, they will most likely double down on their risk-averse 2020 strategy, thereby inviting further working-class defections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on practical proposal for a viable socialist electoral strategy and popular control, the Left has never found a way of sustained electoral success. It mentions obvious choice is to abandon the electoral arena altogether and to opt for a permanent "movementism" and constraints that have thus far derailed all attempts to forge an electoral vehicle for the Left. It also mentions first step toward building a socialist party, distinct from workplace organizing.

The Chávez government introduced a ‘Bolivarian’ national curriculum to promote radically different understandings of Venezuelan history and identity. We place the fate of this reform initiative within the broader study of state formation and nationalism. Scholars have long identified mass schooling as the key institution for socialising citizens and cultivating national loyalties, and many states have attempted to alter the nationalist content of schooling with these ends in mind. Venezuela constitutes an ideal case for identifying the specific conditions under which transformations of official national ideologies do and do not gain broader resonance. Using evidence derived from textbook analysis and semi-structured interviews with educational officials and teachers in Caracas, we highlight a new argument, showing that intrastate tensions between the central government and teachers, heightened by a well-established cultural machinery and by teachers’ increasing exclusion from the Chavista political coalition, explain the limited success in government efforts to implement Bolivarian nationalism through the school curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Dimorphic fungal infections (histoplasmosis, blastomycosis, coccidioidomycosis, and cryptococcosis) can occur in immunocompromised and healthy individuals. Cutaneous involvement is often secondary and may be the presenting sign of systemic disease. These ominous infections are frequently clinically indistinct, and patient prognosis is influenced by a timely diagnosis and treatment. Morphologic differentiation between these organisms is not definitive, and tissue cultures represent the diagnostic gold standard in current day practice. However, tissue cultures are rarely obtained and merely represent an afterthought in seemingly unsuspecting cases. Furthermore, when performed, they may take several days or weeks for completion. In situ hybridization (ISH) utilizing oligonucleotide probes directed against fungal ribosomal RNA is a rapid and accurate assay for the identification of dimorphic fungi in paraffin-embedded tissue sections. We present five patients in whom ISH both prospectively and retrospectively confirmed the presence of a cutaneous infection (histoplasmosis, blastomycosis, coccidioidomycosis, and cryptococcosis). In all of the skin sections analyzed, dimorphic fungi were morphologically apparent but not diagnostically discernible. In summary, ISH is a valuable tool in the prompt diagnosis of cutaneous deep fungal infections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cystic sebaceous neoplasms have been seen only in patients with Muir-Torre syndrome (MTS) and have recently been characterized as marker lesions of MTS. Histologically, these lesions form a spectrum of tumors ranging from benign cystic adenomas to proliferative cystic sebaceous tumors. We describe 2 proliferative cystic sebaceous tumors in a 53-year-old man whose workup revealed colonic adenocarcinoma and other sebaceous tumors consistent with MTS. Both the chest wall and the left thigh masses were grossly cystic, measuring 1.0 and 1.5 cm, respectively. Histologic sections demonstrated well-circumscribed cystic neoplasms located in the deep dermis and subcutaneous tissue. Each had a focally infolded cyst wall composed of immature basaloid cells with prominent nucleoli and mitoses, consistent with a proliferative cystic sebaceous tumor. Recognition of cystic sebaceous neoplasm by pathologists and communication to clinicians of its strong association with MTS is of diagnostic importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determines the substrate binding determinants of trypanosoma brucei γ-glutamylcysteine synthetase. Consideration of R366 and R491 as determinants of L-glu binding; Mechanism of substrate binding; Impact of the mutation of residues on the substrates.

Herpes zoster (shingles) is the result of a reactivation of the varicella zoster virus (VZV). Many adults obtain a VZV vaccine in order to prevent zoster. Non-specific injection site reactions and generalized herpes eruptions have been reported to occur, especially in immunocompromised patients. However, these are most often anatomically generalized reactions and histopathologically resemble typical herpes infections. We report a 61-year-old female on immunosuppressant medications for rheumatoid arthritis who presented with a subcutaneous nodule at the site of a recent herpes zoster vaccination. Histopathological examination revealed a dense nodular and interstitial mononuclear infiltrate throughout the mid and deep dermis with extension into the superficial subcutaneous fat. Immunohistochemical staining revealed an admixture of T-cells and B-cells, with a predominance of T-cells. These findings are consistent with a pseudolymphoma (PL), a reactive inflammatory disorder that can resemble cutaneous lymphoma and has rarely been described in herpes infections and post-herpetic scars. In situ hybridization studies for VZV were performed and highlighted occasional deep fibroblasts with nuclear positivity for VZV DNA. A review of post-vaccination reactions and herpes-related PL is discussed with emphasis on using in situ hybridization in establishing the diagnosis. Porto DA, Comfere NI, Myers LM, Abbott JJ. Pseudolymphomatous reaction to varicella zoster virus vaccination: role of viral in situ hybridization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]