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The privatization of water supply and institutional restructuring of water management – through decentralization and the penetration of global firms in local and regional markets – have been promoted as solutions to increase economic efficiency and achieve universal water supply and sanitation coverage. Yet a significant share of service provision and water resources development remains the responsibility of public authorities. The papers in this issue – with case evidence from Argentina, Chile, France, the USA, and other countries – address critical questions that dominate the international agenda on public versus private utilities, service provision, regulations, and resource development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Accurate symptom monitoring is vital when managing pediatric asthma, providing an opportunity to improve control and relieve associated burden. The CHILDHOOD ASTHMA CONTROL TEST (C-ACT) has been validated for asthma control assessment in children; however, there are concerns that response option images used in the C-ACT are not culturally universal and could be misinterpreted. This cross-sectional, qualitative study developed and evaluated alternative response option images using interviews with children with asthma aged 4–11 years (and their parents/caregivers) in the United States, Spain, Poland, and Argentina. Interviews were conducted in two stages (with expert input) to evaluate the appropriateness, understanding and qualitative equivalence of the alternative images (both on paper and electronically). This included comparing the new images with the original C-ACT response scale, to provide context for equivalence results. Results: Alternative response option images included scale A (simple faces), scale B (circles of decreasing size), and scale C (squares of decreasing quantity). In Stage 1, most children logically ranked images using scales A, B and C (66.7%, 79.0% and 70.6%, respectively). However, some children ranked the images in scales B (26.7%) and C (58.3%) in reverse order. Slightly more children could interpret the images within the context of their asthma in scale B (68.4%) than A (55.6%) and C (47.5%). Based on Stage 1 results, experts recommended scales A (with slight modifications) and B be investigated further. In Stage 2, similar proportions of children logically ranked the images used in modified scales A (69.7%) and B (75.7%). However, a majority of children ranked the images in scale B in the reverse order (60.0%). Slightly more children were able to interpret the images in the context of their asthma using scale B (57.6%) than modified scale A (48.5%). Children and parents/caregivers preferred modified scale A over scale B (78.8% and 90.9%, respectively). Compared with the original C-ACT, most children selected the same response option on items using both scales, supporting equivalency. Following review of Stage 2 results, all five experts agreed modified scale A was the optimal response scale. Conclusions: This study developed alternative response option images for use in the C-ACT and provides qualitative evidence of the equivalency of these response options to the originals. Plain English summary: Accurate monitoring of the symptoms associated with pediatric asthma is important when managing the condition. The CHILDHOOD ASTHMA CONTROL TEST (C-ACT) is a questionnaire widely used to measure asthma severity in young children (aged 4–11 years). Each question answered by the child in the C-ACT has four possible answer choices. To help children answer, each choice is presented alongside an image of a male child's face ranging from sad to happy. However, there are concerns that the images used are not culturally universal and could be misinterpreted—due to difficulties translating to electronic formats and a lack of differentiation between the images used. Through interviewing children with asthma, we aimed to address these concerns by developing and testing new images. Alternative image options developed included simpler faces, circles of decreasing size and squares of decreasing quantity. Children aged 4–11 years old were interviewed to test whether they understood the response scale using the new images and if they answered in the same way as with the original images. Interviews were conducted in two stages, with expert guidance at key stages. Results showed that children can interpret and understand the newly developed images and that they answer the questions the same as they would using the original images. These new images have the advantages of being culturally neutral and easier to implement on an electronic device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes the development and evaluation of an assessment instrument for children ages 7–12. The CHILD CARRE measure is a semi-structured interview with 7 domains. Children from the USA and Argentina (N = 134) completed baseline and follow-up assessments. Substance use occurred at an average age of 8. Almost 33% of the children were taking medications for medical issues, more than 50% of them said that medical problem gets in the way of doing things they like to to do and almost 64% of the children stated that they would like to feel better. On average, children completed third grade in school, 56% of them knew how to read and 26% of the children started making money at age 8. Most children (74%) saw someone drunk or high and 23% of children reported alcohol or psychoactive substance use. Among these children using substances, such substance use occurred at an average age of 8, and in the past 30 days they used these substances an average for 5 days. The rating of level of risk on the part of the interviewer placed these children in the "risky" to "very risky" categories. Most children reported seeing their family members smoking (83%) or using alcohol (67%), and 49% reported seeing their family members high on drugs. Few children (10%) had conflicts with the law, while 46% of their family members had legal problems. Some children (30%) reported having serious problems getting along with family members, neighbors, or friends. These results suggest that this measure can serve as the first comprehensive measure to assess multiple life domains for young children at risk for or using psychoactive substances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How should educators teach about one of the most complex and pressing issues of our times? This paper presents an empirically-grounded framework to help educators understand the opportunities and challenges of engaging youth around the topic of migration, including migration involving refugees. It stresses the importance of inviting youth to dialogue in ways that involve "slowing down, sharing stories, and making connections." The framework emerged from a design-based research study involving an experimental online learning community and curriculum on the topic of human migration. Posts and comments involving 140 teens from seven countries were closely analyzed using a modified grounded theory approach that incorporated constructivist principles. 14 interviews with participating educators also informed the analysis. The framework proposes that youth be supported to develop (1) curiosity and engagement about individual migration stories and migration in general, (2) nuanced understanding of the complex and diverse factors that help shape historical and contemporary migration experiences, and (3) critical awareness of their own and others' perspectives on migration and migrants. A visual representation is provided. Specific examples of student dialogue are unpacked to illustrate the framework, with discussion of the following cognitive and affective challenges: "the Three O's" of overgeneralization, overconfidence, and othering. The paper argues that youth of all backgrounds need opportunities to learn about migration in ways that allow them to leverage their various experiences and perspectives and engage with one another in meaningful, authentic ways.

The current study focused on those who had recently experienced a relationship breakup, which add extra stressors to college students who have already suffered from negative influences of COVID-19. Social support could act as a coping resource to alleviate the negative consequences of breakup and COVID-19 on mental health. Although social support has long been found to have a protective role on mental health, several studies indicated that social support could have differential effects, and even harmful effects on people with high negative emotionality. To understand the roles social support play, we used a longitudinal design to study potential moderators (negative emotionality [or neuroticism] and gender) in the relationship between social support and depression. For students who experienced a relational disruption, our research questions were (1) what are the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between social support and depression before and during COVID-19, and (2) are these relationships moderated by negative emotionality and gender? Participants 361 students (M age = 23.3, 64% female) from Argentina and the USA who had experienced recent relationship breakups. Participants completed pre-pandemic questionnaires, and were followed up on depression level six months later, after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results indicated that social support and negative emotionality were significantly related to concurrent depression. Pre-pandemic social support showed a weak correlation with depression levels during COVID-19. Negative emotionality and gender were not significant moderators in both the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations. Results supported the concurrent effects of social support on depression and indicated the potential value of targeting social support during COVID-19. The study also offered several directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a framework to measure unfairness in certain outcomes, like education attendance or basic health services consumption. The determinants of an individual outcome are divided into socially acceptable and unacceptable sources of differences in that outcome. To detect an unfair situation, comparisons are restricted to those individuals who share the same value of the vector of acceptable factors. The relevant argument to compare is the expectation of the outcome conditional on the vector of unacceptable variables. Unfairness is related to inequality in the distribution of those conditional expectations across individuals. An illustration of the framework is presented for the case of high school attendance in the Greater Buenos Aires area and other Argentine cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Labor inspection is a central response to the tremendous gap between formal regulations and outcomes for workers throughout the world. Scholarly and policy debates on labor regulation have focused on improving the targeting of enforcement, changing strategies of street-level agents, and creating private alternatives to state regulation. This paper argues that these proposals, while important, fail to systematically incorporate the potential contributions of worker organizations and, as a result, overlook opportunities for co-enforcing labor standards, a key element of labor inspection. By contrast, we develop a framework to analyze the relationships between worker organizations and state regulators that underpin co-enforcement. We ground this framework empirically in comparative cases, set in Argentina and the United States, presenting two cases of co-enforcement in highly different institutional contexts. In so doing, we seek to illuminate key attributes of labor inspection and guide attempts to enhance enforcement by forging partnerships between regulators and worker organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Argentina and the United States were the principal destinations for Italian immigrants during the Age of Mass Migration. I assemble data following Italians from passenger lists to censuses in Argentina and the United States, enabling me to compare the economic outcomes of migrants with similar pre-migration characteristics but who moved to different countries. Italians assimilated faster in Argentina, and this advantage was unlikely to be due to selection. A higher human capital relative to natives and the Italian-Spanish similarity largely explain Italians' advantage in Argentina. These findings highlight the importance of the fit between migrants' characteristics and those of the receiving country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While internationalization is among the top strategic priorities of universities and colleges globally, research into the expanse of internationalization in the kinesiology discipline is not well researched. Given this gap, critical consideration of the state and status of the phenomenon is needed. Knowing more about what is being done in the name of internationalization within kinesiology and reflecting on how those actions and outcomes are aligned, or not, with key theoretical guidance is necessary in order to plan for improvement accordingly. For these reasons, this paper first provides a primer on internationalization in higher education, including how the phenomenon has come to be defined as well as key contemporary critiques associated with it. In particular, we highlight Beck's (2012) theoretical concept of 'eduscape' to critically consider the influences of globalization on internationalization within higher education kinesiology as well as Khoo, Taylor, and Andreotti's (2016) principles of intelligibility, dissent, and solidarity to consider the ways kinesiology scholars engage critically with internationalization processes. Presented next is a review of the kinesiology literature that is explicitly focused on internationalization. Then, the results of a pilot survey into the views of National Association for Kinesiology in Higher Education (NAKHE) members and other Western kinesiology scholars on internationalization is reported next. The paper concludes with recommendations as to how NAKHE and the broader community of Western kinesiology scholars might best navigate internationalization moving forward. We recommend the complexity-informed and principle-driven approach of inclusive leadership as a means of pursuing cognitive justice in the 21st century.

This paper presents a compilation of personal reflections from 66 contributors on the impact of, and responses to, COVID-19 in accounting education in 45 different countries around the world. It reveals a commonality of issues, and a variability in responses, many positive outcomes, including the creation of opportunities to realign learning and teaching strategies away from the comfort of traditional formats, but many more that are negative, primarily relating to the impact on faculty and student health and well-being, and the accompanying stress. It identifies issues that need to be addressed in the recovery and redesign stages of the management of this crisis, and it sets a new research agenda for studies in accounting education.

Purpose: This study aims to identify the strategic leadership and change management used to obtain the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accreditations as well as the research development on AACSB in the past decade. Design/methodology/approach: This study used a systematic literature review following Petticrew and Roberts' study. The articles were limited to empirical studies published from 2013 to 2022, taken from the Dimensions AI database. Findings: The findings suggested that two leadership styles were used to obtain AACSB accreditation: dominance-oriented transformational and financial leadership, alongside three traits of academic leaders: commitment, engagement and encouragement. Additionally, three change management models/processes were found in the articles: teaching evaluation framework, temporary isomorphism and authenticity. Finally, they discovered that the object of the studies on AACSB accreditation had been narrowed down from the organizational level to smaller objects consisting of schools' identity, teaching, learning and business schools' key players. Research limitations/implications: As this study only used Dimensions AI, potential articles related to the topic outside the database could not be obtained. Thus, it limits the scope of the findings of this paper. Practical implications: This study informs academic leaders in business schools about the role of strategic leadership and change management in obtaining AACSB accreditation. Originality/value: Through a systematic scoping review, this study presented a decade of research development on AACSB in addition to the strategic leadership and change management needed to obtain it.

During the late 1800s and early 1900s, Argentina was among the ten richest economies in terms of gross domestic product per capita with the United States being the leading economy most of the time. However, Argentina grew less and was less stable than the United States in a period of over 140 years (1875–2018). Structural breaks (1935 and 1975) were identified in the declining ratio of Argentina's gross domestic product per capita long-term trend to that of the United States, as well as in the long-term per capita growth rates of Argentina (1911 and 1975) and the United States (1935). The declining ratio partly reflects that growth in the United States accelerated after 1935 (during the post-1930 Great Depression recovery and the Second World War years) while it decelerated in Argentina after 1975 (in the context of large government deficits, high inflation, the first oil crisis, and the Latin American debt crisis). A Bayesian estimation model suggests that long-term growth was generally higher and less volatile in the United States than in Argentina, with relatively low spillovers from one country to the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between theory and qualitative research has been extensively examined in the literature and has emerged as a problematic matter. This debate has been driven forward mainly in Anglo-Saxon countries and has done scant justice to an understanding of these issues in regions of the South. This paper addresses this matter by drawing on a geopolitical perspective. The study here provides an analysis of 24 papers by Latin-American researchers in higher education, as included in the Web of Science between 2006 and 2015. Theories in Latin America are mainly produced in the North and exhibit two patterns: (i) critical perspectives are used to address local problems -- 'epistemic problematization'; and (ii) a nuancing of Northern theories so as to contextualize them -- 'epistemic nuancing'. Suggestions are also made for a new configuration of knowledge production in higher education studies -- a model of knowledge from and for the South.

The genesis and spread of COVID-19 around the world since 2020 have caused severe impacts in every aspect of people's lives, from work life to recreation, social activities to physical health. Higher education has not been excluded. Universities have altered curriculum, changed delivery methods, provided more counseling, purchased new technology, and altered attendance policy for classroom, athletic, social and artistic events (Hamlin, 2021). To assess the impacts of these changes on college students, the authors created a questionnaire to ask students about their perceptions of these COVID-related impacts on their own personal lives. The survey had 56 questions about how the virus affected their academic, social, financial, physical and emotional lives. Over 800 students responded with objective input and subjective comments. Due to the volume of data, the authors have split the study into two parts. The survey results for the first part, academic and social aspects of the survey, were published in "Understanding the Impact of Covid-19 on College Student Academic and Social Lives," Research in Higher Education Journal Volume 41 (see http://www.aabri.com/manuscripts/213347.pdf). It will sometimes be referred to herein to provide clarity to the reader. The actual survey itself can also be found at that site. This paper focuses on the impact of the coronavirus on student financial and physical well-being, which have become major stressors to this age group and have contributed to higher levels of anxiety and depression. It also examines how the virus has affected their social and emotional well-being. Lastly, recommendations are made to help educators understand the severity of the problem, and to take action to provide assistance for those students who have been adversely affected.

Abstract: This paper provides a comparative analysis of the introduction and outcomes of more “market friendly” reforms in Argentina and the United States. Finding several similarities in the early development of the railroad industry in Argentina and in the United States, it continues to provide a detailed review of railroad performance in each country and explains the underlying differences supporting this divergence. Deregulation in the U.S. allowed railroads to recover from near bankruptcy. Nearly every economic variable in the industry indicates that railroads have improved their operations, are more competitive, and are attaining higher levels of financial strength. Privatization of the industry in Argentina yields mixed results. Argentine railroads have been able to improve their operations, increase productivity but are still far from reaching long-term sustainability. Evidence uncovered by this paper suggests that privatization is not a silver bullet for railroad revitalization without a clear transportation policy and the willingness of the government to infuse financial support for infrastructure rehabilitation. The paper concludes by providing several policy alternatives for railroads in the United States and Argentina. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Peterson regional destination and seasonal access restrictions are regulatory options available to mitigate pest risk on imported fresh fruits and vegetables rather than impose an import ban. This paper analyses the economic effects of potential entry of Argentine lemons into the United States under alternative geographic and seasonal restrictions. One challenge to assessing the economic effect of entry is determining the post-entry quantity of Argentine exports. Using a homothetic trans-log expenditure function, we calibrate a set of reservation prices for US demand for Argentine lemons based on observed prices and quantities of other lemon varieties. These are compared with a set of projected entry prices to determine whether entry will occur and post-entry export levels. Across the policy scenarios, Argentine lemon exports to the United States range from 8.0 to 14.9 million kg. Higher prices for Argentine lemons reduce its exports to the European Union and other markets, while lemon exports from Chile and Mexico are adversely affected. Broader applications of regional and/or seasonal restrictions may be effective policies for achieving pest risk mitigation goals in a manner consistent with WTO obligations to minimise distortions to trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many scholars in recent years have focused their efforts on revealing the connection of philosophy and authority. Basically, from Nietzsche onwards, philosophy has witnessed ongoing efforts for "will to power" by some philosophers and of course this motivated many philosophers to take part in politics. Nonetheless, this moot point engendered a serious risk and not only contrasted with the Socratic contributions, but also paved the way for the advent of a new way of making politics where philosophy and scientific prestige are being manipulated following certain interests. By comparing the US and Argentinian climates, this paper explores to what extent philosophy can and must remain independent of politics. Even though one might think of Heidegger as a clear example of this relationship, there are many other philosophers who were interested in politics and committed to political parties. One of the aspects that characterizes this new way of politics is the theatrification of reality, and philosophers are part of this process. To some extent, the prestige given to scholars for their contribution to society is being conferred to some privileged groups to gain more legitimacy, precisely in a world where the classical institutions are gradually declining. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the extent to which party systems are nationalized in four federations. In doing so, the research addresses two questions. First, is dual accountability operational across decentralized countries, or do sub-national voters turn to national cues as a means to economize in a complex information environment? By bringing a cross-national dataset to bear on this question, we are able to provide insight into where and why dual accountability might operate. Second, what explains variation in the extent to which party systems are nationalized across countries and time? We build on previous literature to suggest a number of factors likely to impact the extent of nationalization. We examine those factors in the context of provincial-level elections in Argentina, Canada, Germany and the United States. Using national and sub-national economic data, we find little evidence of dual accountability in any of our countries. We find that economic performance matters little for regional electoral outcomes, and where it does, sub-national outcomes reflect national rather than sub-national conditions. More important are the roles of partisan relations across levels of government and election timing. Sub-national co-partisans of the nationally governing party lose votes, particularly as the time from the most recent national election grows. The strength of these effects varies across our cases in predictable ways. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Please cite this paper as: Salmón-Mulanovich et al. (2010) Frequency of human bocavirus (HBoV) infection among children with febrile respiratory symptoms in Argentina, Nicaragua and Peru. Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses 5(1), 1-5. Globally, respiratory infections are the primary cause of illness in developing countries, specifically among children; however, an etiological agent for many of these illnesses is rarely identified. Our study aimed to estimate the frequency of human bocavirus (HBoV) infection among pediatric populations in Argentina, Nicaragua and Peru. We conducted a cross-sectional study using stored samples of an influenza-like illness surveillance program. Irrespective of previous diagnosis, nasopharyngeal or nasal swab specimens were randomly selected and tested using real-time PCR from three sites during 2007 from patients younger than 6 years old. A total of 568 specimens from Argentina (185), Nicaragua (192) and Peru (191) were tested. The prevalence of HBoV was 10·8% (95% CI: 6·3; 15·3) in Argentina, 33·3% in Nicaragua (95% CI: 26·6; 40·1) and 25·1% in Peru (95% CI: 18·9; 31·3). These findings demonstrate circulation of HBoV in Argentina, Nicaragua and Peru among children with influenza-like symptoms enrolled in a sentinel surveillance program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents news briefs related to the study of sports psychology as of December, 1987. North American sports psychology societies are described, including the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity (NASPSPA), the Canadian Society for Psychomotor Learning and Sport Psychology (SCAPPS), and the Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology (AAASP). Dates of conferences are provided for each group. The formation of the Argentinian Society of Psychology Applied to Sport, and the Australian National Association for Physical Activity are highlighted.

This paper examines relations between the state and capital in Argentina with respect to agricultural biotechnology. Argentina is one of the world's leading exporters of genetically modified (GM) crops and is a key player in the global politics of biotechnology. Whereas in other parts of the world, including other countries in Latin America, active civil societies and some governments have rejected the technology, Argentina has adopted it as a central accumulation strategy. The desirability of this strategy has been secured in material, institutional and discursive arenas of power, producing a particular expression of 'bio-hegemony'. Looking at the role of business in the political economy of agricultural biotechnology is revealing both of the extent and forms of corporate power and contributes to an understanding of hegemony in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The building of the network of submarine telegraph cables in Latin America changed the ways in which diplomats, politicians, business leaders and journalists conducted their affairs. This new network played a part in the resolution of several international crises. Cable communications alerted a British gunboat that brought an end to the summary executions in Cuba (ordered by a Spanish general) of sailors and passengers from a captured ship, the Virginius, that carried a United States flag. International telegraphy made possible the quick settlement of the consequent dispute between Spain and the United States. International cables enabled British businesses, the London press, and the Foreign Office to monitor the Argentine political crisis of 1880 and agree that direct intervention was not advisable. U.S. diplomats helped Chile and Argentina resolve their long standing boundary dispute in 1881. The main point of this paper, however, is that the solutions to these crises obscured early signs of significant problems that became more pronounced in the use of cables in later events: sensationalist coverage of international crises in the U.S. press, an uneven and often misunderstood intimacy between Argentina and Britain, and the intrusiveness of the United States in Chilean politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This study aims to examine the nature of business-to-business marketing practices in two West African nations, Ghana and Ivory Coast, and compare them with marketing practices in another emerging market economy (Argentina) and a developed economy (the USA). Design/methodology/approach - Survey data were collected in both West African nations, Argentina and the USA, using a standard survey instrument used in previous contemporary marketing practice (CMP) studies. Descriptive statistics were used to determine cross-national differences in intensity of use of various CMP activities in Ghana and the Ivory Coast in comparison with Argentina and the USA. Then, cross-national differences in various combinations of marketing practices were identified using cluster analysis. Findings - Business-to-business marketing practices in West African nations conform with the CMP framework in that firms practise both transactional marketing and relationship marketing simultaneously. However, there are differences in the intensity and scope of business-to-business marketing practices in Ghana and the Ivory Coast in comparison with Argentina and the USA. While West African business-to-business firms emphasize traditional transactional marketing with some network marketing components, Argentine firms have a greater emphasis on pluralistic marketing and interaction marketing. By contrast, US firms practise pluralistic marketing (transactional, database, interaction, and networking) with some transactional marketing activities. In addition, West African business-to-business firms are similar to Argentine firms in that a proportion of firms practise marketing at a low level of intensity and rarely use database marketing. These differences are attributable to the nature of market conditions in West Africa. Research limitations/implications - The CMP results generalize to West African nations. However, a direct correspondence is unlikely because of the dominance of transactional marketing practice among West African firms. Further research needs to investigate a broader set of institutional environments in order to provide a clear link between CMP and environmental conditions in emerging African markets. Practical implications - Managers can determine the appropriateness of international benchmarks for West African market conditions. Originality/value - Linking CMP to market conditions in the paper provides an extension to the validity of the CMP framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on a mixed-methods cross-cultural study undertaken in five locations in Argentina, Denmark, Hong Kong, England and the United States in 2018, this paper explores how children (aged five and seven) conceive of playfulness. Following a card-sorting task, 387 children selected familiar activities that they felt were most representative of play and not-play and explained their reasons. The children's justifications were fully transcribed, and five corpora were created (one per site). Lexicometry was applied, generating sets of the characteristic responses per age in each site. In-depth qualitative interpretation of these modal responses revealed nine dimensions across play and not-play: pleasure, social context, materials, movement, agency, risk, goal, time and focus. Commonalities revealed that children's ideas around play are not aligned with specific activities but with the sense of agency in a secure physical and social context when carrying out an activity experienced as an end in itself. Implications for playful pedagogies highlight the need to open up play with opportunities for children's choice and initiative, confident exploration and immersion in the activities in which they participate. [Spanish translation by Mercè Rius.]

This paper enriches the existing set of global trade negotiation simulations by incorporating explicit, country-specific domestic political consequences incurred from trade concessions. Several semesters of testing with undergraduate students in the U.S. and master's students in Argentina demonstrate that the simulation statistically significantly enhances students' understanding of the role that domestic political pressures play in preventing negotiators from reaching the first-best trade regime. Students learn-by-doing that conflicting country philosophies regarding free trade vary substantially not only between developed and developing countries, but also depending on the geography and key industries of each country. The simulation also provides students with current, realistic economic values for the country and the world from freeing trade. Seventeen country tables provide instructors with tremendous flexibility in structuring the negotiation framework. A complete instructor's manual with a detailed description of how to use the simulation, all student handouts and an Excel file that automatically calculates point totals is available via e-mail from the corresponding author.

Conscientious Objection or conscientious refusal (CO) in access to reproductive health care is at the center of current legal debates worldwide. In countries such as the US and the UK, constitutional dilemmas surrounding CO in the context of reproductive health services reveal inadequate policy frameworks for balancing CO rights with women's rights to access contraception and abortion. The Colombian Constitutional Court's holistic jurisprudence regarding CO standards has applied international human rights norms so as to not only protect women's reproductive rights as fundamental rights, but to also introduce clear limits for the exercise of CO in health care settings. This paper reviews Latin American lines of regulation in Argentina, Uruguay, and Mexico City to argue that the Colombian Court's jurisprudence offers a strong guidance for future comprehensive policy approaches that aim to effectively balance tensions between CO and women's reproductive rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soy‐based products are known to pose a viable risk to U.S. swine herds because of their ability to harbour and transmit virus. This publication aimed to evaluate soy imports into the United States as a whole and from foreign animal disease positive (FAD‐positive) countries to determine which products are being imported in the highest quantities and observe potential trends in imports from FAD‐positive countries. Import data were accessed through the United States International Trade Commission website (USITC DataWeb) and summarized using R (version 4.0.2, R core team, Vienna, Austria). Twenty‐one different Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) codes were queried to determine quantities (metric tonnes, MT) and breakdown of different soy product types being imported into the United States from 2015 to 2020. A total of 78 different countries exported soy products to the United States in 2019 and 2020 with top contributors being Canada (546,467 and 481,497 MT, respectively), India (397,858 and 430,621 MT, respectively) and Argentina (122,116 and 79,471 MT, respectively). Soy oilcake (582,273 MT) was imported in the largest quantities, followed by organic soybeans (270,194 MT) and soy oil (134,436 MT) for 2020. Of the 78 countries, 46 had cases of FAD reported through the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) World Animal Health Information Database (WAHIS). Top exporters of soy products to the United States from FAD‐positive countries in 2019 and 2020 were India (397,858 and 430,621 MT, respectively), Argentina (122,116 MT in 2019) and Ukraine (40,293 and 56,392 MT, respectively). The risk of FAD introduction to the United States through soy imports can fluctuate based on where FAD outbreaks are occurring, shipping methods and end usage of products. A system to monitor these factors could help make future decisions about trade and risk of FAD introduction to U.S. swine herds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The microbial-enhanced oil recovery method relies on microorganisms and their metabolic products to mobilize residual oil. It is environmentally friendly and easy to operate. In the past ten years, the microbial-enhanced oil recovery method has attracted a great deal of attention in both research and field applications. Previous reviews focused on microbial-enhanced oil recovery mechanisms, namely IFT reduction, selective plugging, gas production, biodegradation, and wettability alteration. This article summarizes the well-documented field cases in the past ten years. The objectives are to investigate the microbial-enhanced oil recovery mechanisms and application criteria based on field data. A total of ten field cases are reviewed, including cases in Malaysia, USA, Argentina, and China. It was concluded that most of the successful MEOR treatments were conducted for formations with a low temperature (below 55 ° C), low water salinity (less than 100,000 ppm), high water cut (above 75%), and low production rate. Reservoir permeability does not seem to determine the success of microbial-enhanced oil recovery. The current success rate for the microbial-enhanced oil recovery method stands at about 80%. With a better understanding of microbial-enhanced oil recovery mechanisms and field experiences, the microbial-enhanced oil recovery method is expected to prosper and the success rate will improve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]