The Absent Empire: The United States and the South American Regional Subsystem

The United States often acted in Latin America as an empire. Nevertheless, there has been an obvious dissimilarity between US actions in South America and US actions in the rest of Latin America, which is illustrated by the fact that the United States never sent troops to invade a South American country. While geographic distance and strategic considerations may have played a role, they provide at best incomplete explanations for US relative absence south of Panama. The fact that the United States has had a distinct pattern of interactions with South America is thus not captured by the typical concept of Latin America. By recuperating the virtually neglected literature on regional subsystems, this dissertation maintains that researchers of inter-American relations would greatly benefit from a characterization that reflected more regional realities than entrenched preconceptions. Such a characterization would mean subdividing the Western Hemisphere in two regional subsystems: North and South America. This subdivision allows for uncovering regional dynamics that can help explain US relative absence from South America when contrasted to the remainder of Latin America. This dissertation argues that the role of Brazil as a status quo regional power in South America is the key to understanding this phenomenon. Through a historical analysis focusing on specific cases spanning three centuries, this research demonstrates that Brazil has deliberately affected the calculations of costs and benefits of a more significant US involvement in South America. While in the past Brazil has taken actions that resulted in increasing the benefits of US limited involvement in South American affairs, in more recent times it has sought to increase the costs of a more significant US presence. The concluding session considers some of the theoretical and political implications of the framework laid out by this research

ASAS–NANP Symposium: Mathematical Modeling in Animal Nutrition: Opportunities and Challenges of Confned and Extensive Precision Livestock Production

Modern animal scientists, industry, and managers have never faced a more complex world. Precision livestock technologies have altered management in confned operations to meet production, environmental, and consumer goals. Applications of precision technologies have been limited in extensive systems such as rangelands due to lack of infrastructure, electrical power, communication, and durability. However, advancements in technology have helped to overcome many of these challenges. Investment in precision technologies is growing within the livestock sector, requiring the need to assess opportunities and challenges associated with implementation to enhance livestock production systems. In this review, precision livestock farming and digital livestock farming are explained in the context of a logical and iterative fve-step process to successfully integrate precision livestock measurement and management tools, emphasizing the need for precision system models (PSMs). This fve-step process acts as a guide to realize anticipated benefts from precision technologies and avoid unintended consequences. Consequently, the synthesis of precision livestock and modeling examples and key case studies help highlight past challenges and current opportunities within confned and extensive systems. Successfully developing PSM requires appropriate model(s) selection that aligns with desired management goals and precision technology capabilities. Therefore, it is imperative to consider the entire system to ensure that precision technology integration achieves desired goals while remaining economically and managerially sustainable. Achieving long-term success using precision technology requires the next generation of animal scientists to obtain additional skills to keep up with the rapid pace of technology innovation. Building workforce capacity and synergistic relationships between research, industry, and managers will be critical. As the process of precision technology adoption continues in more challenging and harsh, extensive systems, it is likely that confned operations will beneft from required advances in precision technology and PSMs, ultimately strengthening the benefts from precision technology to achieve short- and long-term goals

Team Sport in the Workplace? A RE-AIM Process Evaluation of ‘Changing the Game’

Background: The workplace is a priority setting to promote health. Team sports can be an effective way to promote both physical and social health. This study evaluated the potential enablers and barriers for outcomes of a workplace team sports intervention programme‘Changing the Game’ (CTG). This study was conducted in a FTSE 100 services organisation. This process evaluation was conducted using the RE-AIM framework. Methods: A mixed methods approach was used. Data were collected from the participants in the intervention group prior to, during and at the end of the intervention using interviews (n = 12), a focus group (n = 5), and questionnaires (n = 17). Organisational documentation was collected, and a research diary was recorded by the lead author. The evidence collected was triangulated to examine the reach, efficacy, adoption, implementation and maintenance of the programme. Data was assessed through template analysis, and questionnaire data were analysed using multiple regression and a series of univariate ANOVAs. Results: CTG improved VO2 Max, interpersonal communication, and physical activity behaviour (efficacy) over 12-weeks. This may be attributed to the supportive approach adopted within the design and delivery of the programme (implementation). Individual and organisational factors challenged the adoption and maintenance of the intervention. The recruitment and communication strategy limited the number of employees the programme could reach. Conclusion: The process evaluation suggests addressing the culture within workplaces may better support the reach, adoption and maintenance of workplace team sport programmes. Future research should consider investigating and applying these findings across a range of industries and sectors

ECONewFARMERs Building a future for new farmers in ecological farming through vocational training

In 2013 partners from diffreent european countries started a commom inovation tranfer program with rthe support of Leonardo da Vinci 2013-1-PT1-LEO05-15535 "ECONewFARMERs Building a future for new farmers in ecological farming through vocational training". whithin this paper we outline the outcome of the questionnaires filled by stake holders and - based on the results - the training material developed

Efectos de la suplementación con HMB sobre la composición corporal en ratas

The aim was to investigate the effects of HMB supplementation on the physical performance and anthropometric parameters of Wistar rats that underwent eight weeks of concurrent training. We used 22 male Wistar rats of approximately 60 days of age, And were divided into four groups: control (C), supplemented control (SC), exercise (E) and supplemented exercise (SE). The training consisted of 30 minutes of swimming with an overload corresponding to 70 % of the anaerobic threshold, a one-minute interval, and four sets of ten jumps in water with a one minute interval between sets and a load of 50 % of body weight. After the tests, the tLIM and tTESTE were obtained and used to evaluate the performance of the animals, and anthropometric indices evaluated. The weight increases during the treatment in the SC animals was significantly higher than the animals in groups C and E. The absolute weight of the muscles, kidney and epididymal fat showed higher values for the SC and SE groups in relation to the others352705710Se investigaron los efectos de la suplementación con HMB en el rendimiento físico y los parámetros antropométricos de ratas Wistar sometidas a ocho semanas de entrenamiento concurrente. La muestra consistió en 22 ratas Wistar machos, aproximadamente de 60 días de edad, los que fueron divididos en cuatro grupos: control (C), control suplementado (CS), ejercicio (E) y ejercicio suplementado (ES). El entrenamiento consistió en 30 minutos de natación correspondiente a 70 % de la sobrecarga del umbral anaeróbico, un intervalo de un minuto y cuatro series de diez saltos en el agua con intervalo de un minuto entre series y una carga del 50 % del peso del cuerpo. El tLIM y tTESTE se utilizaron para evaluar el rendimiento de los animales, y los índices antropométricos. El aumento de peso durante el tratamiento CS fue significativamente más alto que las de los grupos C y E. El peso absoluto de los músculos, los riñones y la grasa del epidídimo mostraron valores más altos en los grupos CS y ES en relación con los demá

Spatial Simulation Modelling of Future Forest Cover Change Scenarios in Luangprabang Province, Lao PDR

Taking Luangprabang province in Lao Peoples’s Democratic Republic (PDR) as an example, we simulated future forest cover changes under the business-as-usual (BAU), pessimistic and optimistic scenarios based on the Markov-cellular automata (MCA) model. We computed transition probabilities from satellite-derived forest cover maps (1993 and 2000) using the Markov chains, while the “weights of evidence” technique was used to generate transition potential maps. The initial forest cover map (1993), the transition potential maps and the 1993–2000 transition probabilities were used to calibrate the model. Forest cover simulations were then performed from 1993 to 2007 at an annual time-step. The simulated forest cover map for 2007 was compared to the observed (actual) forest cover map for 2007 in order to test the accuracy of the model. Following the successful calibration and validation, future forest cover changes were simulated up to 2014 under different scenarios. The MCA simulations under the BAU and pessimistic scenarios projected that current forest areas would decrease, whereas unstocked forest areas would increase in the future. Conversely, the optimistic scenario projected that current forest areas would increase in the future if strict forestry laws enforcing conservation in protected forest areas are implemented. The three simulation scenarios provide a very good case study for simulating future forest cover changes at the subnational level (Luangprabang province). Thus, the future simulated forest cover changes can possibly be used as a guideline to set reference scenarios as well as undertake REDD/REDD+ preparedness activities within the study area