Scaling up from the top down and the bottom up: The impacts and governance of inter-community forest associations in Durango, Mexico

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Indiana University, Public Policy, 2012Mexico's community forestry experiment has become famous as a global model for sustainable forest use and socioeconomic development. However, many Mexican forest communities are facing significant challenges such as weak organization and limited access to markets. Scholars and practitioners have argued that connections across different levels of governance between local communities, inter-community networks, and other governmental and non-governmental stakeholders may help deal with these situations. Yet there are still gaps in our understanding of why these cross-scale arrangements form, their internal governance, their benefits, and the factors that make them successful. This dissertation addresses these gaps by analyzing the economic, political and forest impacts that inter-community forest associations (FAs) -a type of cross-scale governance arrangement- have on forest communities; and the factors that influence FAs' effectiveness. Drawing on collective action and political economy theories applied to common-pool resources, I engaged in a year-long comparative case study of four FAs in the Mexican state of Durango -two organized by communities themselves (bottom-up) and two created by non-community actors (top-down). The results show that FAs often form from in response to community needs, but also as adaptation strategies and responses to national policies and the political-economic context. Throughout their histories, FAs have played a crucial role in helping communities solve regional problems such as improving road infrastructure, preventing and combating forest fires, and improving market access and political representation. The results also underscore FAs' capture by peasant leaders and foresters using the organizations for profit and for escalating into higher political positions. Finally, I show that leadership, financial autonomy, social capital and enforcement of institutions are crucial for the success of these associations

Economic Performance of U.S. Multinational Agribusinesses: Foreign Direct Investment and Firm Strategy

This paper empirically assesses the sequential relationships among firm strategic factors, FDI activity, and economic performance for a sample of U.S.-based Multinational agribusinesses. The most important findings of this research is a positive direct effect of FDI on performance, the complementary effect between FDI and firm strategic factors (positive and significant interaction terms) on performance, and the positive effect of FDI on performance given some thresholds of firm strategic factors. Specifically, it provides insights about the direct effect of FDI on performance, as well as about the joint effect of firm size and FDI, marketing intensity and FDI, and capital intensity and FDI on performance. These findings provide evidence that FDI activity is an important factor for U.S. agribusiness financial strength.Economic performance, Foreign direct investment, Firm strategic factors, Agribusiness, Agribusiness, International Relations/Trade, Marketing, F230, L250,

Consumer Confidence in the Food System, Media Coverage and Stock Prices of Food Companies: A Regression Analysis

A series of recent and serious food safety incidents have generated a national debate over the significant costs that they impose on various stakeholders - consumers, industry, or the government. This paper examines the impact of media coverage of food safety and defense issues on consumer confidence in food safety, and measures the response of stock prices of food companies to changes in consumer confidence. Results show that, increases in media coverage have a negative impact on consumer confidence, and that decreases in the levels of consumer confidence on food safety have a negative impact on stock prices of food companies, in particular for the larger firms. These findings confirm that the financial performance of food the industry is negatively affected by category-specific food safety events, and the effects of media coverage on consumer confidence in the safety of the food system.Agribusiness, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

An imaging photoelectron-photoion coincidence investigation of homochiral 2R,3R-butanediol clusters

We report an experimental investigation of homochiral cluster formation in seeded molecular beam expansions of (2R,3R)-butanediol. Synchrotron radiation VUV photoionization measurements have been performed using a double imaging electron-ion spectrometer in various configurations and modes of operation. These include measurements of the cluster ion mass spectra and wavelength scanned ion yields and threshold electron spectra. Protonated cluster ions ranging up to n=7 have been observed and size-selected photoelectron spectra and photoelectron circular dichroism (PECD) have been recorded by velocity map imaging at a number of fixed photon energies. Translation temperatures of the cluster ions have been further examined by ion imaging measurements. As well as the sequence of protonated clusters with integral numbers of butanediol monomer units, a second series with half-integral monomer masses is observed and deduced to result from a facile cleavage of a butanediol monomer moiety within the nascent cluster. This second sequence of half-integral masses displays quite distinct behaviours. PECD measurements are used to show that the half-integral mass clusters ions do not share a common parentage with whole integer masses. Using an analogy developed with simple theoretical calculations of butanediol dimer structures, it is inferred that the dissociative branching into integral and half-integral ion mass sequences is controlled by the presence of different butanediol monomer conformations within the hydrogen bonded clusters

Ischemic preconditioning and acute recovery of performance in rugby union players

Ischemic preconditioning has been used as a training and/or pre-competition strategy; however its use for post-exercise recovery is still unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of ischemic preconditioning on performance and recovery ratings following a simulated match in sub-elite rugby players. Following baseline measures, male players (n = 8) performed a 40 min, rugby-specific exercise protocol followed by an intervention: 21 min of ischemic preconditioning (3 × 5 min occlusion at 220 mmHg with 2 min reperfusion at 0 mmHg) or passive rest (control) on 2 separate days. An agility T-test, a single vertical countermovement jump and 30 s of continuous vertical jumps were performed at baseline (–24 h), immediately after exercise, and immediately after the intervention. The rugby-specific exercise protocol induced similar mean heartrates (158.3 ± 18.0 vs. 158.7 ± 16.0 bpm) and perceived exertion levels (8.2 ± 0.9 vs. 8.0 ± 1.0) for both trials with all recovery performance measures and rating of recovery (13.9 ± 1.4 vs. 13.6 ± 1.6) similar between ischemic preconditioning and control trials (best p = 0.385). We conclude that the use of ischemic preconditioning does not improve recovery acutely (~1 h) including specific variables related to rugby performance in amateur rugby union players

Interregional input-ouptut system for Ecuador, 2007: methodology and results

In this paper, we explore the structural characteristics of the interregional input-output system developed for Ecuador for the year 2007. As part of an ongoing project that aims to develop an interregional CGE model for the country, this database was developed under conditions of limited information. It provides the opportunity to better understand the spatial linkage structure associated with the national economy in the context of its 22 provinces, 15 sectors and 60 different products. This exploratory analysis is based on the description of structural coefficients and the use of traditional input-output techniques. Finally, we further explore the spatial linkage structure by looking at the regional decomposition of final demand. It is hoped that this exercise might result in a better appreciation of a broader set of dimensions that might improve our understanding of the integrated interregional economic system in Ecuador.Interregional input-output model; Ecuador; spatial linkages

Detecting web requirements conflicts and inconsistencies under a model-based perspective

Web requirements engineering is an essential phase in the software project life cycle for the project results. This phase covers different activities and tasks that in many situations, depending on the analyst’s experience or intuition, help getting accurate specifications. One of these tasks is the conciliation of requirements in projects with different groups of users. This article presents an approach for the systematic conciliation of requirements in big projects dealing with a model-based approach. The article presents a possible implementation of the approach in the context of the NDT (Navigational Development Techniques) Methodology and shows the empirical evaluation in a real project by analysing the improvements obtained with our approach. The paper presents interesting results that demonstrate that we can get a reduction in the time required to find conflicts between requirements, which implies a reduction in the global development costs.Laboratorio de Investigación y Formación en Informática Avanzad

Detecting web requirements conflicts and inconsistencies under a model-based perspective

Web requirements engineering is an essential phase in the software project life cycle for the project results. This phase covers different activities and tasks that in many situations, depending on the analyst’s experience or intuition, help getting accurate specifications. One of these tasks is the conciliation of requirements in projects with different groups of users. This article presents an approach for the systematic conciliation of requirements in big projects dealing with a model-based approach. The article presents a possible implementation of the approach in the context of the NDT (Navigational Development Techniques) Methodology and shows the empirical evaluation in a real project by analysing the improvements obtained with our approach. The paper presents interesting results that demonstrate that we can get a reduction in the time required to find conflicts between requirements, which implies a reduction in the global development costs.Laboratorio de Investigación y Formación en Informática Avanzad