Being different matters!:A closer look into product differentiation in specialty coffee family farms in Central America.

Purpose There is a growing interest in understanding the strategic behaviour of family firms producing international commodities such as coffee, particularly in contexts where decisions about what products to sell, where to commercialise them and how to promote them appear to be highly based on both business and family aspects. The purpose of this paper is to explore product differentiation strategies in family firms in the specialty coffee industry across Latin American countries. Whilst the socioeconomic relevance of coffee production in Central America is unequivocal, the approach and rationale of families that engage in specialty coffee production remain underexplored. Design/methodology/approach This study examines product differentiation in specialty coffee family farms across countries in Central America: Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. The study relies on in-depth interviews, case studies and an interpretative approach to unpick the dynamics of product differentiation by families in business dedicated to producing specialty coffee. Findings The findings show that product differentiation in specialty coffee family farms is influenced by both business and family aspects and driven by entrepreneurial stewards. Coffee-farming families can engage in product differentiation through a shared vision, a combination of traditional and specialised knowledge, and through the continuous development of an exchange network. The findings reveal a connection between families in business balancing family and business interests, and the strategic intention to build up their assets entrepreneurially over time. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature on stewardship and strategic behaviour in family firms when families in business engage in differentiating their products in a highly competitive industry. More specifically, this study focuses on companies across countries where coffee is of crucial socioeconomic importance, and where the said companies are owned and managed by families. The study expands understanding of product differentiation in family-enterprise-first businesses and suggests that the family elements in differentiation can be explained through an entrepreneurial stewardship perspective

Impacts of the Tropical Pacific/Indian Oceans on the Seasonal Cycle of the West African Monsoon

The current consensus is that drought has developed in the Sahel during the second half of the twentieth century as a result of remote effects of oceanic anomalies amplified by local land–atmosphere interactions. This paper focuses on the impacts of oceanic anomalies upon West African climate and specifically aims to identify those from SST anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Oceans during spring and summer seasons, when they were significant. Idealized sensitivity experiments are performed with four atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs). The prescribed SST patterns used in the AGCMs are based on the leading mode of covariability between SST anomalies over the Pacific/Indian Oceans and summer rainfall over West Africa. The results show that such oceanic anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Ocean lead to a northward shift of an anomalous dry belt from the Gulf of Guinea to the Sahel as the season advances. In the Sahel, the magnitude of rainfall anomalies is comparable to that obtained by other authors using SST anomalies confined to the proximity of the Atlantic Ocean. The mechanism connecting the Pacific/Indian SST anomalies with West African rainfall has a strong seasonal cycle. In spring (May and June), anomalous subsidence develops over both the Maritime Continent and the equatorial Atlantic in response to the enhanced equatorial heating. Precipitation increases over continental West Africa in association with stronger zonal convergence of moisture. In addition, precipitation decreases over the Gulf of Guinea. During the monsoon peak (July and August), the SST anomalies move westward over the equatorial Pacific and the two regions where subsidence occurred earlier in the seasons merge over West Africa. The monsoon weakens and rainfall decreases over the Sahel, especially in August.Peer reviewe

Height and body-mass index trajectories of school-aged children and adolescents from 1985 to 2019 in 200 countries and territories: a pooled analysis of 2181 population-based studies with 65 million participants

Summary Background Comparable global data on health and nutrition of school-aged children and adolescents are scarce. We aimed to estimate age trajectories and time trends in mean height and mean body-mass index (BMI), which measures weight gain beyond what is expected from height gain, for school-aged children and adolescents. Methods For this pooled analysis, we used a database of cardiometabolic risk factors collated by the Non-Communicable Disease Risk Factor Collaboration. We applied a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate trends from 1985 to 2019 in mean height and mean BMI in 1-year age groups for ages 5–19 years. The model allowed for non-linear changes over time in mean height and mean BMI and for non-linear changes with age of children and adolescents, including periods of rapid growth during adolescence. Findings We pooled data from 2181 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in 65 million participants in 200 countries and territories. In 2019, we estimated a difference of 20 cm or higher in mean height of 19-year-old adolescents between countries with the tallest populations (the Netherlands, Montenegro, Estonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina for boys; and the Netherlands, Montenegro, Denmark, and Iceland for girls) and those with the shortest populations (Timor-Leste, Laos, Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea for boys; and Guatemala, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Timor-Leste for girls). In the same year, the difference between the highest mean BMI (in Pacific island countries, Kuwait, Bahrain, The Bahamas, Chile, the USA, and New Zealand for both boys and girls and in South Africa for girls) and lowest mean BMI (in India, Bangladesh, Timor-Leste, Ethiopia, and Chad for boys and girls; and in Japan and Romania for girls) was approximately 9–10 kg/m2. In some countries, children aged 5 years started with healthier height or BMI than the global median and, in some cases, as healthy as the best performing countries, but they became progressively less healthy compared with their comparators as they grew older by not growing as tall (eg, boys in Austria and Barbados, and girls in Belgium and Puerto Rico) or gaining too much weight for their height (eg, girls and boys in Kuwait, Bahrain, Fiji, Jamaica, and Mexico; and girls in South Africa and New Zealand). In other countries, growing children overtook the height of their comparators (eg, Latvia, Czech Republic, Morocco, and Iran) or curbed their weight gain (eg, Italy, France, and Croatia) in late childhood and adolescence. When changes in both height and BMI were considered, girls in South Korea, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and some central Asian countries (eg, Armenia and Azerbaijan), and boys in central and western Europe (eg, Portugal, Denmark, Poland, and Montenegro) had the healthiest changes in anthropometric status over the past 3·5 decades because, compared with children and adolescents in other countries, they had a much larger gain in height than they did in BMI. The unhealthiest changes—gaining too little height, too much weight for their height compared with children in other countries, or both—occurred in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, New Zealand, and the USA for boys and girls; in Malaysia and some Pacific island nations for boys; and in Mexico for girls. Interpretation The height and BMI trajectories over age and time of school-aged children and adolescents are highly variable across countries, which indicates heterogeneous nutritional quality and lifelong health advantages and risks

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Heterogeneous contributions of change in population distribution of body mass index to change in obesity and underweight NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC)

From 1985 to 2016, the prevalence of underweight decreased, and that of obesity and severe obesity increased, in most regions, with significant variation in the magnitude of these changes across regions. We investigated how much change in mean body mass index (BMI) explains changes in the prevalence of underweight, obesity, and severe obesity in different regions using data from 2896 population-based studies with 187 million participants. Changes in the prevalence of underweight and total obesity, and to a lesser extent severe obesity, are largely driven by shifts in the distribution of BMI, with smaller contributions from changes in the shape of the distribution. In East and Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, the underweight tail of the BMI distribution was left behind as the distribution shifted. There is a need for policies that address all forms of malnutrition by making healthy foods accessible and affordable, while restricting unhealthy foods through fiscal and regulatory restrictions

Case study of Agroindustrias La Granja

The following document is a case study of the company Agroindustrias La Granja, located in Honduras, Central America, dedicated to the production and sales of the non-traditional agriculture crop, mushroom of Paris. All its production is demanded by Tegucigalpa city. The case was developed with the objective that undergraduate and graduate students can find the problems and situations that a small and medium family firms could face. The student will be able to use several recommended analysis tools, such as SWOT analysis, analysis of optimal marketing mix (Kotler 5 P´s), cash flow, analysis of financial indicators and cost effectiveness indicators. The results are in the Teaching Note, which will be the teacher´s guide for the resolution of the case. Then, there will be a discussion of the case where the students will participate in order to find results and looking for the better solution of the case. In order to realize the case analysis, the students should follow the ‘Harvard Business School’ model. Finally, a framework will be handed to the students for the recognition of the data pursuing to get an action plan linked to a competitiveness strategy for the studied company

Daring to be different:a case study of entrepreneurial stewardship in a Guatemalan family’s coffee farm

This chapter explores a entrepreneurial stewardship perspective in a dynamic environment. The coffee industry in a developing country is examined highlighting how diverse contextual pressures may affect a family in business. This qualitative study focuses in Guatemala, Central America, with a single case study. Findings reveal that contextual crisis can ignite a differentiation approach which align with an entrepreneurial stewardship perspective. Such approach emphasizes a shared vision to look after the family coffee farm, the application of traditional and specialised knowledge to bring out the best features of a product and the development of diverse relationships to serve the business over time

Acinetobacter baumannii Resistance: A Real Challenge for Clinicians

Acinetobacter baumannii (named in honor of the American bacteriologists Paul and Linda Baumann) is a Gram-negative, multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogen that causes nosocomial infections, especially in intensive care units (ICUs) and immunocompromised patients with central venous catheters. A. baumannii has developed a broad spectrum of antimicrobial resistance, associated with a higher mortality rate among infected patients compared with other non-baumannii species. In terms of clinical impact, resistant strains are associated with increases in both in-hospital length of stay and mortality. A. baumannii can cause a variety of infections; most involve the respiratory tract, especially ventilator-associated pneumonia, but bacteremia and skin wound infections have also been reported, the latter of which has been prominently observed in the context of war-related trauma. Cases of meningitis associated with A. baumannii have been documented. The most common risk factor for the acquisition of MDR A baumannii is previous antibiotic use, following by mechanical ventilation, length of ICU/hospital stay, severity of illness, and use of medical devices. Current efforts focus on addressing all the antimicrobial resistance mechanisms described in A. baumannii, with the objective of identifying the most promising therapeutic scheme. Bacteriophage- and artilysin-based therapeutic approaches have been described as effective, but further research into their clinical use is require

Repensar las fronteras, la integración regional y el territorio

Parte del acercamiento decolonial, de esta obra colectiva, se refleja tanto en tratar temas “viejos” y “tradicionales” con nuevas miradas, por ejemplo, desde la integración regional, relaciones transfronterizas, Estado, territorio, y abordar tópicos “emergentes” que no han recibido mucha atención de los centros de investigación.Part of the decolonial approach, of this collective work, is reflected both in treating "old" and "traditional" issues with new perspectives, for example, from regional integration, cross-border relations, State, territory, and addressing "emerging" topics that do not they have received a lot of attention from research centers.CLACSOUniversidad Nacional, Costa RicaIDESPOEscuela de Relaciones Internacionale

Polýtropos, el desarrollo económico desde una óptica interdisciplinar

Al finalizar el 2017, se desarrolló en la ciudad de Pereira, Colombia, el Congreso Internacional de Investigación, Desarrollo Tecnológico e Innovación en Comercio y Desarrollo Económico, Condesarrollo Económico, con el propósito de generar un espacio académico para intercambiar miradas interdisciplinarias, que permitan analizar el pasado, presente y futuro de la economía regional, nacional y continental, para discernir las vías más propicias y adecuadas del desarrollo económico. El presente libro recoge diecisiete trabajos que fueron presentados a la comunidad académica y a la sociedad durante el evento, sumando tanto aquellos que se comunicaron en modalidad Sala, como los expuestos en modalidad Póster, más el trabajo de la doctora Amanda Vargas Prieto, una de los jurados que integraron el Comité de pares evaluadores de Colciencias.At the end of 2017, the International Congress of Research, Technological Development and Innovation in Trade and Economic Development, Economic Development, was held in the city of Pereira, Colombia, with the purpose of generating an academic space to exchange interdisciplinary views, which allow analyzing the past, present and future of the regional, national and continental economy, in order to discern the most propitious and adequate ways of economic development. This book collects seventeen works that were presented to the academic community and society during the event, adding both those that were communicated in the Room mode, as well as those exhibited in the Poster mode, plus the work of Dr. Amanda Vargas Prieto, one of the juries that made up the Colciencias Peer Review Committee.Momento I. Horizontes conceptuales -- La evolución de la responsabilidad social empresarial / Leidy Tatiana Martínez Rodríguez -- Momento II. Exploración de fundamentos teóricos -- Análisis reflexivo sobre los paradigmas de inversión y oportunidades en el mercado de capitales colombiano / Fernando de Jesús Franco Cuartas -- Medición del impacto de la política fiscal sobre el saldo de exportaciones netas en Colombia, Chile, Ecuador y Perú durante el periodo 2010-2015 / Sebastián Espíndola Hernández y Yesid Camilo Martínez Hernández -- Diseño de estrategias para el fortalecimiento de la gestión administrativa, de mercados y financiera, de las Mypes en la ciudad de Barranquilla y su área metropolitana / Gabis de Jesús Amaya Torres -- Momento III. Comercio y desarrollo económico -- Síntesis de investigación aplicada a microempresas rurales mexicanas en comunidades indígenas / Lucio Saldaña Porras, Gracia Aída Herrera González, Jorge Alberto Vásquez Puya, Víctor Muñoz Rosas -- Diseño y desarrollo de un sistema experto que precise el modelo E-Business adecuado para Mipymes en Boyacá / Diego Mauricio Díaz, Jefferson Alberto Solano Camargo y Carlos Alberto Gamboa Rodríguez -- Diagnóstico, diseño y propuesta de los procesos de Gestión del Talento Humano en las Mipymes / Marcos Cabarcas Velásquez, Estéfani Martínez Arroyabe y Edwin Javier Arrieta Valderrama -- La cocina más allá de la experiencia / Cristian Camilo Cardona Zuluaga -- Análisis de la discapacidad y su incidencia en la inclusión social y laboral en Barranquilla / Brenda Mónica Portilllo Vásquez -- Logística inversa en la cadena productiva del calzado, cuero y su manufacturas de la ciudad de Cúcuta / Líliam Flor Barraza Caballero y Yorgeli Nereida Moncada Pérez -- Plan de tecnología e innovación para el desarrollo de políticas ecoamigables en empresas de Barranquilla / Paulo Carrillo López y Jonathan Quant Colpas -- Diseño de ruta agroetnoancestral como estrategia para el mejoramiento de la economía rural en el departamento de La Guajira / Yalile García Calle -- Estudio para la elaboración de una bebida carbonatada a partir de del jugo de caña panelera (Saccharum officinarum) / Carlos Andrés García Rodríguez -- Producción de alimentos funcionales a partir de aromáticas cultivadas en el Atlántico / Yaceris Castro Escorcia, Lisbeth Olmos Blanquicett y Luis Teherán -- Momento IV. Revisiones -- Factores críticos de éxito en las Mipymes de Bogotá / Felipe Alexánder González Castillo y Álvaro Orozco Castro -- Orientación al mercado, generador de ventaja competitiva e innovación: caso distribuidores de químicos / Juan Santiago Calle Piedrahíta -- Momento V. Educación -- Participación de las juventudes en el desarrollo social de Colombia / Amanda Vargas Prieto -- Apropiación de TICS como herramienta educativa para el desarrollo socioeconómico y de emprendimiento, en zonas de difícil acceso y/o afectadas por el conflicto armado / David Sebastián Agredo Navarrona176 página