La formación del sistema agrario colonial de la Nueva Granada, 1550-1650

Treballs Finals de Grau en Història, Facultat de Geografia i Història, Universitat de Barcelona, Curs: 2013-2014, Tutor: Ricardo PiquerasEl proceso de formación del sistema agrario colonial en la Nueva Granada durante los primeros cien años de conquista y colonización, constituye el tema de este trabajo. ¿Cómo se dio este proceso? ¿cuáles fueron los elementos formativos que determinaron su naturaleza? y ¿cómo influyeron éstos en el proceso de diferenciación regional? son algunas de las cuestiones principales. No obstante la fragmentación caracteriza los estudios sobre el tema, razón que ha llevado a la elaboración de un estado de la cuestión. Éste tiene por objetivos: identificar las principales categorías que componen un sistema agrario; realizar un balance de la historiografía de la Colonia (1550-1650) a lo largo del siglo XX, para saber cuáles han sido las categorías trabajadas y cómo se han abordado; reconstruir una imagen parcial del sistema agrario colonial de la Nueva Granda y establecer el estado de las diferentes categorías del sistema agrario colonial de la Nueva Granda. Al final del trabajo se dejan planteados algunos problemas que, a nuestro juicio, pueden contribuir a la investigación sobre este objeto de estudio

Pastures and Cash Crops: Biomass Flows in the Socio-Metabolic Transition of Twentieth-Century Colombian Agriculture

This article aims to situate a national case study of the global periphery at the core of the debate on the socio-ecological transition by drawing on new data of biomass flows in twentieth-century Colombia. We draw up a century-long annual series converting a wide set of indicators from Net Primary Production (NPP) into the final socioeconomic uses of biomass, distinguishing around 200 different categories of crops, forests, and pastures. Our calculations draw on FAOSTAT and several corpuses of national statistics. The results show a fall of 10% in total NPP related to land-use changes involving forest conversion. Throughout the twentieth century, pasture was the most relevant among domestic extraction. Allocations of cash crops to industrial processing rose while the figure for staple crops for primary food consumption stagnated. The critical role of cattle throughout all periods and the higher yields of the industrial cash crops are behind this profile. This might also mean the start of a new trend of using pasture land for more profitable export crops, which establishes a new inner frontier of land-use intensification. Lastly, the article points out the phases of the socio-metabolic transition of biomass, explores the changes in biomass flows by looking at the history of the main drivers, and identifies the socio-ecological impacts of deforestation and industrial agribusiness

Accuracy and consistency of grass pollen identification by human analysts using electron micrographs of surface ornamentation

• Premise of the study: Humans frequently identify pollen grains at a taxonomic rank above species. Grass pollen is a classic case of this situation, which has led to the development of computational methods for identifying grass pollen species. This paper aims to provide context for these computational methods by quantifying the accuracy and consistency of human identification. • Methods: We measured the ability of nine human analysts to identify 12 species of grass pollen using scanning electron microscopy images. These are the same images that were used in computational identifications. We have measured the coverage, accuracy, and consistency of each analyst, and investigated their ability to recognize duplicate images. • Results: Coverage ranged from 87.5% to 100%. Mean identification accuracy ranged from 46.67% to 87.5%. The identification consistency of each analyst ranged from 32.5% to 87.5%, and each of the nine analysts produced considerably different identification schemes. The proportion of duplicate image pairs that were missed ranged from 6.25% to 58.33%. • Discussion: The identification errors made by each analyst, which result in a decline in accuracy and consistency, are likely related to psychological factors such as the limited capacity of human memory, fatigue and boredom, recency effects, and positivity bias

La transición hacia la plantación esclavista: una nueva fuente para el estudio del mercado de trabajo esclavo en Matanzas-Cuba (1755-1810)

Màster Oficial d'Història Econòmica, Facultat d'Economia i Empresa, Universitat de Barcelona, Curs: 2015-2016, Tutor: Roser NicolauEl análisis institucional de largo plazo ha fosilizado las transformaciones institucionales en Cuba, creando la imagen de una sociedad esclavista para todo el periodo colonial. La historiografía sobre la esclavitud, aunque señala el proceso, no ha definido sus principales características y etapas. Este trabajo busca situar históricamente el desarrollo de la economía de plantación en Cuba y el auge de la desigualdad institucional ligada a ella, a partir del estudio de las transformaciones que tuvieron lugar en el mercado de trabajo esclavo de la región de Matanzas en las últimas décadas del siglo XVIII. La información utilizada es el resultado del vaciado detallado de los registros parroquiales de la catedral de San Carlos de Matanzas-Cuba entre 1755-1810. Los resultados obtenidos apuntan a la década de 1780 como el periodo de las principales transformaciones tanto en la disponibilidad de fuerza de trabajo negra, como en el crecimiento del número de propietarios; y la década de 1790 como el periodo de la implantación de las principales características del sistema de plantación, con masivas importaciones de mano de obra masculina y el crecimiento del tamaño de las explotaciones

Cambio institucional y sociedad esclavista: la intensificación del mercado de trabajo esclavo en Matanzas (Cuba), 1755-1810

El análisis institucional de largo plazo ha fosilizado las transformaciones institucionales en Cuba creando la imagen de una sociedad esclavista para todo el periodo colonial. La historiografía sobre la esclavitud, aunque señala el proceso de cambio, no ha definido sus características y etapas. Este artículo busca comprender la formación de la sociedad esclavista cubana, situar históricamente las transformaciones hacia la economía de plantación en las últimas décadas del siglo xviii y describir sus características. Para alcanzar estos objetivos se analiza el cambio institucional y el dinamismo económico resultante a partir del marco teórico de los órdenes sociales propuesto por North, Wallis y Weingast (2009), y se hace un estudio empírico del mercado de trabajo esclavo a partir de los registros parroquiales de la catedral de San Carlos de Matanzas (Cuba) entre 1755-1810. Los resultados apuntan a la década de 1780 como el periodo de las principales transformaciones en la disponibilidad de fuerza de trabajo negra y de crecimiento del número de propietarios; y a la década de 1790 como el periodo de la implantación de las características del sistema de plantación, con masivas importaciones de mano de obra masculina y el crecimiento del tamaño de las explotaciones. Se valida el estudio del mercado de trabajo esclavo para el análisis del cambio institucional y del nacimiento de la sociedad esclavista

The open veins of Latin America: Long-term physical trade flows (1900-2016)

Latin America has long played a key role in the global provision of natural resources. Most of the continent's economies are net exporters of low-value, primary products and importers of manufactured goods at a high price. This pattern of specialised trade has highly negative consequences for economic development, the environment, and the local population's wellbeing. Yet to date, little empirical evidence has been collected on Latin America's total contribution to the rest of the world's regions in historical perspective. Applying the Material Flow Accounting methodology, this paper estimates the physical and monetary trade of 16 Latin American economies between 1900 and 2016. Our results show that: (i) yearly net exports of materials went from 4 Mt to 610 Mt between 1900 and 2016, and greatly accelerated since the World War II. (ii) Latin America is a net exporter of most types of materials (fossil fuels, non-energy minerals and biomass), so it harbours socio-environmental problems associated with different types of extractivism. (iii) Different regional export patterns exist: Andeans export subsoil (mining and energy carriers) while the rest export soil (land-based products). The countries with the lowest net exports are the smallest in size and with the highest population density. (iv) Europe and the USA have historically received most of the imports, but since the end of the twentieth century, the Southeast Asia region is the biggest importer of materials from Latin America. (v) The price received for exported material is much lower than the price paid for imported material; and (vi) various historical periods can be differentiated regarding the relationship between economic growth and physical trade balance

New Insights From Pre-Columbian Land Use and Fire Management in Amazonian Dark Earth Forests

This is the final version of the article. Available from Frontiers Media via the DOI in this record.Anthropogenic climate change driven by increased carbon emissions is leading to more severe fire seasons and increasing the frequency of mega-fires in the Amazon. This has the potential to convert Amazon forests from net carbon sinks to net carbon sources. Although modern human influence over the Earth is substantial, debate remains over when humans began to dominate Earth's natural systems. To date, little is known about the history of human land use in key regions like the Amazon. Here, we examine the history of human occupation from a ~8,500 year-old sediment core record from Lake Caranã (LC) in the eastern Amazon. The onset of pre-Columbian activity at LC (~4,500 cal yr B.P.) is associated with the beginning of fire management and crop cultivation, later followed by the formation of Amazonian Dark Earth soils (ADEs) ~2,000 cal yr B.P. Selective forest enrichment of edible plants and low-severity fire activity altered the composition and structure of forests growing on ADEs (ADE forests) making them more drought susceptible and fire-prone. Following European colonization (1661 A.D.), the Amazon rubber boom (mid-1800s to 1920 A.D.) is associated with record-low fire activity despite drier regional climate, indicating fire exclusion. The formation of FLONA Reserve in 1974 A.D. is accompanied by the relocation of traditional populations and a fire suppression policy. Despite suppression efforts, biomass burning and fire severity in the past decade is higher than any other period in the record. This is attributed to combined climate and human factors which create optimal conditions for mega-fires in ADE forests and threatens to transform the Amazon from a net carbon sink to a net carbon source. To help mitigate the occurrence of mega-fires, a fire management policy reducing fire-use and careful fire management for farming may help to reduce fuel loads and the occurrence of mega-fires in fire-prone ADE forests. As both natural and anthropogenic pressures are projected to increase in the Amazon, this study provides valuable insights into the legacy of past human land use on modern ADE forest composition, structure, and flammability that can inform ecological benchmarks and future management efforts in the eastern Amazon.Funding for this research was supported by the PAST (Pre-Columbian Amazon-Scale Transformations) European Research Council Consolidator Grant to JI (ERC_Cog 616179). Research was conducted under permit 01506.004836/2014-69 from the Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional (IPHAN) and ICMBio permit 106/14-FNT. We thank all residents of Maguarí and Jamaraquá community for their hospitality and help

Load Distribution of Adjacent Prestressed Concrete Box Beam Bridges

One of the most common bridge types is the adjacent prestressed concrete box beam bridge because the system is economical and simple to build; over 43,000 are currently in service within the US. However, they are highly susceptible to strand corrosion and concrete deterioration which can result in early loss of load capacity. Therefore, an experimental program sponsored by the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) was initiated to determine the behavior of deteriorated beams and develop recommendations for load rating and design of this bridge type. Displacement sensors were installed on a bridge in service to measure its deformation under load. Modifications of the bridge condition were made in phases. These phases included the initial condition, removal of the asphalt layer, cutting of the shear keys (beam joint), and construction of a concrete deck. The bridge used in this project was constructed of seven adjacent box beams, with a length of forty feet. Finally, after comparing the results, the change in load distribution was evaluated to determine how much the shear keys contribute to this, and if the addition of a concrete deck was an appropriate rehabilitation solution for the structure

Effects of radio-frequency fields on bacterial cell membranes and nematode temperature-sensitive mutants

Membrane-related bioeffects have been reported in response to both radio-frequency (RF) and extremely low-frequency (ELF) electromagnetic fields (EMFs), particularly in neural cells. We have tested whether RF fields might cause inner membrane leakage in ML35 E. coli cells, which express β-galactosidase (lacZ) constitutively, but lack the lacY permease required for substrate entry. The activity of lacZ (indicating substrate leakage through the inner cell membrane) was increased only slightly by RF exposure (1 GHz, 0.5 W) over 45 min. Since lacZ activity showed no further increase with a longer exposure time of 90 min, this suggests that membrane permeability per se is not significantly affected by RF fields, and that slight heating (≤ 0.1°C) could account for this small difference. Temperature-sensitive (ts) mutants of the nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans, are wild-type at 15°C but develop the mutant phenotype at 25°C; an intermediate temperature of 21°C results in a reproducible mixture of both phenotypes. For two ts mutants affecting transmembrane receptors (TRA-2 and GLP-1), RF exposure for 24 h during the thermocritical phase strongly shifts the phenotype mix at 21°C towards the mutant end of the spectrum. For ts mutants affecting nuclear proteins, such phenotype shifts appear smaller (PHA-1) or non-significant (LIN-39), apparently confirming suggestions that RF power is dissipated mainly in the plasma membrane of cells. However, these phenotype shifts are no longer seen when microwave treatment is applied at 21°C in a modified exposure apparatus that minimises the temperature difference between sham and exposed conditions. Like other biological effects attributed to microwaves in the C. elegans system, phenotype shifts in ts mutants appear to be an artefact caused by very slight heating