Gold surge will boost Bolivian exports

Significance So far this year, gold sales to India have seen that country displace Brazil as Bolivia’s most important commercial partner. While providing employment for workers in the sector, gold production does little to boost fiscal income. It also has major, negative environmental impacts. Impacts Attempts to regulate gold production may exacerbate violent responses. Cooperatives will continue to resist attempts to regulate them and sell gold through the central bank. International criminal activity may be increasingly drawn to Bolivian gold production.

Forty-eight-Week Safety and Efficacy On-Treatment Analysis of Ibalizumab in Patients with Multi-Drug Resistant HIV-1

Background Management of multi-drug-resistant (MDR) HIV-1 remains a challenge. The advent of antiretroviral (ARVs) with novel mechanisms of action are needed to expand therapeutic options for MDR patients. Ibalizumab (IBA) is a humanized monoclonal antibody with a unique binding specificity to the CD4 domain 2, allowing it to block viral entry into host cells without CD4 depletion. Patients completing the 24-week Phase 3 study (TMB-301) continued treatment in study TMB-311. Here, we report the durable efficacy and long-term safety of IBA with an optimized background regimen (OBR) through 48 weeks of treatment. Methods TMB-301 was an open-label study investigating the antiviral activity and safety of IBA plus OBR in highly treatment-experienced patients with MDR HIV-1. Patients received an intravenous loading dose of 2,000mg followed by 800mg doses every 2 weeks for 24 weeks. 7 days after loading dose, an OBR was added with at least 1 additional sensitive agent throughout the study. Following completion of the 24-week TMB-301 study, patients continued to receive IBA at 800mg every 2 weeks under TMB-311 for up to 48 weeks. Safety and efficacy were assessed until 48 weeks. Results A total of 31 patients enrolled in TMB-301 completed the 24-week treatment period. Of 31 patients, 27 entered study TMB-311. These patients were highly resistant patients - 59% and 33% of patients had exhausted ≥3 and ≥4 ARV classes, respectively, and 7% of patients had HIV-1 resistant to all approved ARVs. IBA plus OBR was well tolerated. Of the 27 patients, 24 (89%) continued to receive treatment until Week 48. The three patients discontinued early due to non IBA-related reasons. No new or unexpected safety concerns emerged between Week 24 and 48. The potent suppression of viremia observed Week 24 was sustained through Week 48. Median viral load (VL) reduction from BL was 2.5 log10 at both Week 24 and 48. Of 27 patients (59%) 16 had VL <50 copies/ml and 17 (63%) patients had VL < 200 copies/ml. All 15 patients with VL < 50 copies/ml at Week 24 maintained viral suppression to Week 48. Conclusion IBA plus OBR continued to achieve high rates of virologic suppression through Week 48. The results support the durable efficacy and long-term safety of IBA in highly treatment-experienced MDR patients and offer a valuable treatment option for patients. Disclosures B. Emu, TaiMed Biologics: Employee and Shareholder, Salary; P. N. Kumar, TaiMed: Advisory Board and Investigator, Consulting fee and Grant recipient; G. Richmond, TaiMed: Investigator, Research support; S. Weinheimer, TaiMed: Employee, Salary; C. Marsolais, TaiMed: Commercial partner, Salary and Salary from Theratechnologies, commercial partner; S. Lewis, TaiMed: Employee, Salary and Salary from Theratechnologies, commercial partner

A Real Peace Tradition? Norway and the Manchurian Crisis, 1931–1934

This article questions Norway's role as peace promoter during the Manchurian crisis in the early 1930s. It appears that Norway's attitude towards Japan was more ambiguous and less consonant with the anti-war, anti-Japanese stand hitherto assumed on the basis of Norway's performance in the League of Nations. Norway's foreign ministry was mainly interested in Norway's practical and security needs, and fairly indifferent to events unfolding in the Far East, unless these affected Norwegian economic and political interests. For Norwegian diplomats and senior officials Japan was a civilised state and an important commercial partner. Favourable disposition towards Japan led the foreign ministry in 1934 to appear to acknowledge the ascendance of Emperor Pu Yi in the puppet state Manchukuo. This created considerable embarrassment in diplomatic and political circles.

Evaluation of Learning Objects from the User's Perspective: The Case of the EURIDICE Service

We describe a project to evaluate an image database within an educational context. The partners in the EURIDICE project were educational institutions in a number of countries, together with other agencies and one commercial partner. Input to the database was provided by the commercial partner, a public library, and state archives. Evaluation was guided through a workshop in which all institutions participated to ensure comparability of data across the Project. Specific attention was paid to the needs of sight impaired students. The results indicated that the image database was considered to be of value for teaching and learning, but required further work to make it a fully viable system. In particular, the scope of the database needed to be expanded and the retrieval mechanisms improved.