FIT V. FAT: REEVALUATING THE USMC BODY COMPOSITION PROGRAM TO INCREASE ACCURACY AND OPTIMIZE LONG-TERM PERFORMANCE

Includes Supplementary MaterialCurrent weight and circumference-based standards rely on an outdated study from 1984 that included few non-white servicemembers. This research analyzes the impacts of recent changes in USMC body composition standards and requirements on the performance of Marines. This research compares the distribution of weight before and after a point in time for various weight zone groups and evaluates how physical fitness scores are impacted by policy given a servicemember’s previous weight. There is evidence that servicemembers actively manage their weight to stay below the weight threshold. This provides evidence that servicemembers avoid the overweight category and consequently, the scrutiny of the circumference-based method. This research does not find a strong relationship between weight and performance, but prior research highlights that restrictive weight standards are associated with adverse health behaviors such as dehydration tactics or disordered eating. Weight loss induced by weight standards may also be associated with increased injury rates. The Marine Corps should reevaluate the body composition program and consider policy changes to incentivize performance, focus on health, and use current predictors of performance to assess servicemembers, rather than appearance standards based on the circumference-based method. These changes could pay dividends toward overall combat readiness and performance.Major, United States Marine CorpsApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

La evolución del arte fantástico en México : Daniel Lezama

Es importante para la historia del arte mexicano considerar la posibilidad de una continuidad del arte fantástico, desde José Guadalupe Posada hasta la pintura figurativa de fin del siglo XX y comienzos de XXI. Mi propuesta se basa en el libro de la historiadora Ida Rodríguez Prampolini, El surrealismo y el arte fantástico de México, escrito en 1969. Para una definición más amplia e incluyente recurro a la tesis literaria del escritor mexicano Omar Nieto Arroyo, publicada en 2015. Desde esta lejanía podremos ver claramente el hilo conductor de la producción fantástica mexicana, y por ende lo más importante: la estupenda maleabilidad del género para mostrar todo tipo de conceptos. Como un ejemplo del arte fantástico de México en la actualidad presento la obra del pintor Daniel Lezama.It is important for the history of Mexican art to consider the possibility of a continuity in fantastic art, from José Guadalupe Posada to the figurative painting of the end of the twentieth and beginning of the twenty-first century. My proposal is based on the historian Ida Rodríguez Prampolini's book El surrealismo y el arte fantástico de México [Surrealism and fantastic art in Mexico], written in 1969. For a broader and more inclusive definition I make use of Omar Nieto Arroyo's literary thesis published in 2015. From this distance we will be able to see clearly the thread unifying Mexican production of the fantastic, and thus what is most important: the wonderful malleability of the genre to show all manner of conceits. I use Daniel Lezama as an example of contemporary Mexican art

Effects of habitat degradation on the evolutionary dynamics of populations in a rainforest cycad (Gymnospermae)

In addition to habitat loss and fragmentation, habitat degradation can have important consequences for biodiversity and population persistence, including effects on ecological and genetic processes beyond decreased demographic viability and the loss of genetic variation. Particularly interesting is the potential for evolutionary changes and adaptation to degraded habitats, that can affect population viability even in the short-term. Here, I explore how environmental changes after habitat degradation affect the evolutionary dynamics of populations of the rainforest cycad Zamia fairchildiana, specifically how habitat degradation affects gene dispersal, inbreeding, directional selection, and genotype-by-environment interactions, and the potential for genetic differentiation between populations. Colonies of Z. fairchildiana showed little genetic differentiation in neutral molecular markers across study sites, thus can be considered as subpopulations. Subpopulations in the disturbed habitat are experiencing different environmental conditions when compared to subpopulation in their native habitat. Disturbed-habitat subpopulations showed a faster life-history. This faster life history is associated with a weaker spatial genetic structure and higher levels of inbreeding in the disturbed-habitat subpopulations. In addition, higher light availability in the disturbed habitat seems to be a major agent of selection on traits like leaf production that have the potential to respond to selection in these subpopulations. Different traits were under selection in the native-habitat subpopulations, suggesting the potential for genetic differentiation between native and disturbed-habitat subpopulations. Genotype by environment interactions in seed germination and seedling survival, in response to light and water availability, further suggested that subpopulations can adaptively diverge between habitats, but the relative role of genetic and environmental factors, particularly maternal effects, on the magnitude and rate of genetic differentiation between subpopulations remains to be evaluated. These results suggest that habitat degradation can have important consequences for the evolutionary dynamics of populations of this cycad, not necessarily typical of habitat loss and fragmentation. This study identified factors and processes important for population persistence in degraded habitats, but population responses to habitat degradation are complex. Thus further studies and long-term experiments are required for better understanding the effects of habitat degradation on population viability