The AFP's Institutional Responses to Armed Conflict: a Continuing Quest for the Right Approach

How does the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) deal with the armed conflicts in the country? As the institution tasked to defend the country against internal and external threats, the AFP has come up with various operation plans, through the different political administrations since the Marcos regime, that are aimed at ending the armed conflicts in the Philippines. Has its strategy(ies) succeeded? Why? Read more...armed conflict, human development, human security, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), operation plans

Fake News and Information Literacy: Creating Resources to Develop Source Evaluation Skills at the University of Oregon Libraries

In the months following the 2016 presidential election, much discussion has occurred regarding the proliferation of “fake news” and what impact it may have had on the election results. Regardless of whether there was an actual increase in fake news in the last year, it is certainly true that interest in the topic has increased dramatically. Interest appeared to peak in January, according to Google Trends (Google Trends, n.d.). Widespread concern over how to prevent the spread of this problem has lead to possible solutions cropping up often. Though often excluded from these recommendations, libraries have the opportunity to play a natural role in combating this problem. Librarians have always understood the need for source evaluation skills in determining credibility, and indeed, many libraries across the country have created resources for others to strengthen and cultivate these skills. At the University of Oregon (UO) Libraries, the response has been no different. With clear interest across campus in having the right tools to counteract the effects of fake news, we decided that we needed to create our own research guide. As the Journalism and Communication Librarian, I was in a natural position to compile the relevant resources, which eventually led to the development of an instructional exercise. As interest and need continued, the exercise became the basis for a future workshop on evaluating news sources

Post-Liberal Regionalism in Latin America - A Case Study of Venezuela as a Petro-State.

Since 1910, the major income of Venezuela comes, from the oil exploitation industry which is connected to the consolidation of the nation-state. This oil wealth has throughout history influenced its relations with countries in the Americas, United States and the rest of the world. This case-study examines Venezuela as a petro-state and its impacts on Latin American post-liberal regionalism and political integration by taking a closer look in the history in the Chávez- and Maduro Administration (1999-2014). The study also analysis the various regional integration initiatives (OAS, ALBA-TCP, CELAC, MERCOSUR, PetroCaribe and the Bank of the South) which exist in contemporary Latin America and Caribbean, in which some of them, Venezuela has had a greater impact on, and interest in developing because of the paradigm shift in the country’s foreign policy agenda and rejection of the Washington Consensus Agenda. Thus, the study has both domestic and regional aspects of the Bolivarian Revolution. Key concepts and theories are examined and builds up the framework of analysis. The study is theory-consuming and theory-developing. The purpose of this study is to unfold the following puzzle and research question: Has Venezuela impacted regionalism and the integration processes in Latin America in the 21st Century? Key words: Washington Consensus, Regionalism, Integration, Venezuela, Latin America

Dry weight model, capacitance and metabolic data as indicators of fungal biomass growth in solid state fermentation

Developing improved industrial bioprocesses has been a driver for the growing research attention to solid state fermentation, in particular involving filamentous fungi. Accurate description of fungal growth in these systems is crucial and certainly needed to enable optimal deployment of subsequent engineering work. This manuscript proposes a model based on total dry weight measurement to describe biomass growth for Aspergillus awamori on wheat grains in two systems: Petri dishes and a 1L packed bed bioreactor. The proposed dry weight model can be used not only for identifying growth phases of the fungus but also to calculate key growth parameters such as specific growth rate and maximum biomass concentration. The use of techniques based on capacitance measurements and on metabolic data were also used in order to estimate fungal growth and to validate the proposed model

Nivel de conocimiento y medidas de mitigación ante efectos del cambio climático implementadas por ganaderos en la Microrregión de San Ramón del municipio de San Ramón durante el año 2011

El objetivo de la investigación es evaluar el nivel de conocimiento y las medidas de mitigación ante efectos del cambio climático implementadas por ganaderos en la Microrregión de San Ramón del municipio de San Ramón durante el año 2011. Este estudio, consistió en la aplicación de encuestas a los productores sobre las diferentes problemáticas del cambio climático. Utilizando el sistema estadístico SPSS vr 17 para procesar datos y obtener resultados. En este diagnóstico se tomó como muestra a 14 fincas ganaderas que se encuentran distribuidas en la Microrregión de San Ramón considerando tres variables: Características del sistema de producción ganadero, precepción al cambio climático y estrategias de mitigación. Los principales resultados encontrados fueron que los productores hacen uso de un sistema de producción extensivos convencional, tienen percepción acertada sobre los efectos del cambio climático en su unidad de producción a partir de información en los medios masivos de comunicación y como estrategias de mitigación están dispuestos a implementar dentro de sus fincas la protección de las fuentes de agua, las obras de conservación de suelo, establecer cercas vivas con prendedizos, entre otras, como formas de mejorar las condiciones medio ambientales y la producción en sus explotaciones ganaderas, con el fin de disminuir los efectos del cambio climático. Palabras claves: Cambio climático, Percepción, Medidas de mitigació

Latent Heat Energy Storage in a Household Refrigerator Powered by Photovoltaic Electricity – Heat Transfer Design and Technical Viability

In remote rural areas without access to the electrical grid, the use of a stand-alone photovoltaic (PV) installation to drive a domestic refrigerator can be a viable option for adequate food preservation. In this application, energy storage, probably in electric batteries, is required to guarantee refrigeration conditions during periods without solar energy availability. However, electric batteries are still costly, have limited lifespan and use materials with restricted availability. Latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) can be an alternative to electric batteries with reduced cost and lower environmental impact. The current study presents general design guidelines for a system with a household refrigerator driven by PV power and with LHTES units. The LHTES units consist of finned panels filled with phase change material (PCM) that are placed on the vertical walls of the compartments, and are passively discharged by free convection. A thermodynamic model is used to size the system components and assess the technical viability of the proposed configuration. Special attention is paid to the heat transfer considerations involved in the design of the LHTES units to guarantee the required charge and discharge powers. The analysis is applied to a 400 L sample commercial refrigerator operating in Medellín, Colombia. It is concluded that the refrigerator necessitates moderate modifications to achieve the technical viability of the proposed configuration

Comparacion del abordaje terapeutico tradicional y otro basado en biofeedback visual en patologias vocales, en relacion al porcentaje de la pertubacion de la amplitud (Shimmer)

80 p.La presente investigación tuvo por objetivo establecer la existencia de diferencias significativas en relación a la variación del porcentaje de perturbación de la amplitud (Shimmer) en pacientes con disfonía disfuncional simple que se sometieron a 8 sesiones terapéuticas con diferentes enfoques. (Terapia Vocal Tradicional v/s Terapia Vocal Tradicional más Biofeedback Visual). Para comparar la variación del porcentaje de perturbación de la amplitud (Shimmer), se realizó un análisis acústico pre y post terapia, acompañado de una evaluación perceptual de la voz y una telelaringoscopía que permitió descartar daño orgánico. El total de sujetos participantes del estudio correspondió a 18 personas, de los cuales 9 (3 hombre y 6 mujeres) recibieron terapia vocal tradicional y 9 (3 hombres y 6 mujeres) fueron sometidos a terapia vocal tradicional más biofeedback visual. De acuerdo a los resultados obtenidos, se evidenciaron resultados no significativos estadísticamente entre ambos enfoques terapéuticos, dado que la significancia fue 0,965, lo que indica que el porcentaje de perturbación de la amplitud no tuvo una variación importante para ninguno de los enfoques terapéuticos empleados