Patterns of production and sustainability of cattle ranching in the state of Pará - Brazilian Amazon

The aim of this study was to analyze the production patterns present in rural properties producing cattle in the micro-regions that make up the state of Pará. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was applied to identify the patterns, and these data are used to evaluate correlation between the heterogeneity of rural properties and the environmental impact on the identified patterns. The theoretical contribution is based on discussions on global impacts of food production and environmental sustainability and the impacts of livestock production systems in Brazil and the Amazon. Survey data were taken from the 2017 Agricultural Census, available for the 144 municipalities in the state, and pooled into 22 micro-regions. Three patterns of rural properties were identified: the first related to conservation management practices and called transition management; the second highlights aspects associated with information technology and communication (ICT) and productivity called technical productive efficiency; the third indicates the importance of social organization and access to information called social participation. With these patterns, it was possible to develop the Traditional Performance Indicator (TPI), in which the micro-regions of São Félix do Xingu, Itaituba and Conceição do Araguaia were those with the highest values of this indicator, water protection practices are present in the properties, however, in precarious conditions, and conservation practices are rarely used. The correlation between heterogeneity, measured by the size of pasture area in each microregion, and the TPI is positive, strong and significant. In this transition context, public policies are essential to provide access to infrastructure, credit and good animal health and biotechnology practices

Securing the Environmental Water Requirements of Seasonally Ponding Wetlands: Partnering Science and Management Through Benefit Sharing

Although environmental flow regime assessments are becoming increasingly holistic, they rarely provoke water managers to enact the adaptive water reallocation mechanisms required to secure environmental water for wetlands. The conditions that cause science-based environmental flow assessments to succeed or fail in informing the management of environmental water requirements remain unclear. To begin to resolve these conditions, we used process tracing to deconstruct the sequence of activities required to manage environmental water in four case studies of seasonally ponding wetlands in Mediterranean and Mesoamerican watersheds. We hypothesized that, when the flexibility and equitability of the socioeconomic system do not match the complexity of the biophysical system, this leads to a failure of managers to integrate scientific guidance in their allocation of environmental water. Diagnostic evidence gathered indicates that science-management partnerships are essential to align institutional flexibility and socioeconomic equitability with the system’s ecohydrological complexity, and thus move from determination to reallocation of environmental water. These results confirm that institutions e.g., river basin organizations need to be supplemented by motivated actors with experience and skill to negotiate allocation and adaptive management of environmental water. These institutional-actor synergies are likely to be especially important in water scarce regions when the need to accommodate extreme hydrological conditions is not met by national governance capacity. We conclude by focusing on benefit sharing as a means to better describe the conditions for successful science-based environmental flow assessments that realize productive efficiency in environmental water allocation i.e., recognition of multiple values for both people and ecosystems.

Using Governance Mechanisms to Raise the Efficiency of Internal Control Performance to Confront Government Corruption in Iraq: An Empirical Study

The study aimed to reduce the phenomenon of government corruption by developing internal control systems using governance mechanisms, and the factors influencing their support to improve their professional quality, as one of the most important mechanisms of an effective internal control structure that affects the discovery and prevention of fraud and innovative practices, increasing the credibility and transparency of financial and control reports, and contributing to activation Practicing the system of governance, to reduce administrative deception and methods, to control and minimize corruption, and to raise the productive efficiency of government performance, by controlling public spending, preserving public money, and promoting economic rationalization in the use and exploitation of property General resources, and a questionnaire list was designed to achieve these goals, which was distributed to those interested in government internal control divided into three categories: financial monitors in the ministry, inspectors of the central apparatus, and government accountants. The study concluded the importance of applying governance mechanisms in raising the level of efficiency of government internal control systems, in order to reduce the manifestations of government corruption.

ordem da forma jurídica e as políticas de segurança de barragens de rejeitos minerais

O trabalho examina, por meio de uma abordagem interdisciplinar, problemas que tem surgido com as atividades de mineração e construção de barragens de rejeito no Brasil, com reflexões jurídicas, ambien­tais e políticas. Para isso, aborda as respostas internacionais, desafios da gestão de resíduos e prevenção de acidentes, cotejando-as com a legislação brasileira e com a forma como são classificadas as barragens dentro da Política Nacional de Segurança de Barragens (PNSB). Utilizando de uma revisão bibliográfica robusta e crítica foi possível perceber que o atual modelo adotado no Brasil cria e recria distorções espa­ciais e temporais, afetando os mais diversos territórios. Hoje o Estado permite que as empresas de mine­ração façam o que quiserem, da forma que desejarem, construindo barragens cada vez maiores, sem li­mitadores. Com a expansão das barragens ocorre um desperdício de natureza, elevação dos riscos e vul­nerabilidades nos territórios e também, uma redução da eficiência produtiva, sendo o Estado correspon­sável em casos de desastres/crimes corporativos. Palavras-chave: barragem de rejeitos; interdisciplinaridade; legislação; regulação; fiscalização. Abstract The work examines, through an interdisciplinary approach, problems that have arisen with the activities of mining and construction of tailings dams in Brazil, with legal, environmental and political reflections. To this end, it addresses international responses, challenges of waste management and accident prevention, comatose them with Brazilian legislation and how dams are classified within the National Dam Safety Policy (PNSB). Using a robust and critical literature review, it was possible to perceive that the current model adopted in Brazil creates and recreates spatial and time distortions, affecting the most diverse territories. Today the state allows mining companies to do what they want, as they wish, building ever larger dams without limiters. With the expansion of the dams occurs a waste of nature, increased risks and vulnerabilities in the territories and also a reduction of productive efficiency, being the state coresponsible in cases of disasters / corporate crimes. Keywords: tailings dams; interdisciplinarity; legislation; regulation; surveillance. El orden de la forma legal y las políticas de seguridad de las presas de relaves minerales Resumen La obra examina, a través de un enfoque interdisciplinario, los problemas que han surgido con las activi­dades de minería y construcción de represas de relaves en Brasil, con reflexiones legales, ambientales y políticas. Con este fin, aborda las respuestas internacionales, los desafíos de la gestión de residuos y la prevención de accidentes, en coma con la legislación brasileña y cómo se clasifican las presas dentro de la Política Nacional de Seguridad de presas (PNSB). Mediante una revisión de la literatura sólida y crítica, fue posible percibir que el modelo actual adoptado en Brasil crea y recrea distorsiones espaciales y de tiempo, afectando a los territorios más diversos. Hoy en día el estado permite a las empresas mineras hacer lo que quieran, como deseen, construyendo presas cada vez más grandes sin limitadores. Con la expansión de las presas se produce un desperdicio de naturaleza, mayores riesgos y vulnerabilidades en los territorios y también una reducción de la eficiencia productiva, siendo el núcleo estatal responsable en casos de desastres / delitos corporativos. Palabras clave: presa de relaves; interdisciplinaridad; legislación; reglamento; vigilancia.

The Productive Efficiency of Science and Technology Worldwide: A Frontier Analysis

We are interested in how codified knowledge is produced around the globe (which inputs are used to produce scientific articles and patented inventions) and the efficiency of the process (how do the best performers produce more with the same inputs or produce the same with less inputs). Using a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) efficiency frontier approach, we aim to determine which countries are more efficient at producing codified knowledge. We proxy knowledge production by publications and patents, obtained through human (researchers) and non-human (R&D expenditure) resources. We built a 15-year database with more than 800 observations of these and other variables. Our findings enable us to distinguish efficiency by country, geographical region, and income area. We run four different specifications and correlate the results with partial productivity indexes seeking consistency. Under constant returns to scale, the most traditional producers of knowledge are not fully efficient. Instead, small countries with limited resources appear to be efficient. When we add environmental conditions, both sets of countries are efficient producers of knowledge outputs. High-income regions, on the one hand, and East Asia, North America, and Europe and Central Asia, on the other, are the most efficient regions at producing knowledge.

Mathematical Modeling of Manufacturing Lines with Distribution by Process: A Markov Chain Approach

Today, there are a wide variety of ways to produce goods in a manufacturing company. Among the most common are mass or line production and process production, both of which are antagonists. In an online production system, materials move from station to station, receiving added value on a well-defined layout. In a production line by process, the materials randomly visit a set of machines strategically located in order to receive a treatment, almost always through metalwork machines, according to the final product of which they will be part. In this case, there is not a predefined layout, as the incoming materials are sectioned and each piece forms a continuous flow through different workstations to receive some process. This activity depends on the function of the product and its final destination as a component of a finished product. In this proposal, Markov chain theory is used to model a manufacturing system by process in order to obtain the expected values of the average production per machine, the total expected production in all the facilities, the leisure per machine and the total productive efficiency of the system, among other indicators. In this research, we assume the existence of historical information about the use of the equipment, its failures, the causes of failure and their repair times; in any factory, this information is available in the area of manufacturing engineering and plant engineering. From this information, statistical frequency indicators are constructed to estimate transition probabilities, from which the results presented here are derived. The proposal is complemented with a numerical example of a real case obtained from a refrigerator factory established in Mexico in order to illustrate the results derived from this research. The results obtained show their feasibility when successfully implemented in the company.

Phytobiotics in world practice: plant species and active substances, efficiency and limitations, perspectives (review)

In the review the historical preconditions for implementation and the state of use (for 2021) of phytogenic substances as growth and productivity stimulators of farm animals are considered. The main aspects of phytobiotics use have been analyzed in detail: 1) mechanisms of action; 2) distinction between phytobiotics and veterinary medicines; 3) species range of the plants used and their active substances; 4) productive efficiency. The following limitations and disadvantages in the use of existing phytobiotics are considered: they do not have a direct anabolic effect and are useless under severe stress, and by the combination of bad factors the negative effect cannot be overcome. In addition, there are problems with their safety. Other limitations - the composition of phytobiotics varies widely, there is no standardization for active substances, and attempts to do this reveal cytoxicity in very small dosages of these compounds (essential oils, saponins, isoquinoline alkaloids). In the prospect of further studies, unique plant sources from Russia are proposed, which are absent abroad and contain ecdysteroids as biologically active components, not available in the phytogenic substances widely used now. Distinctive properties of phytoecdysteroids and ecdysterone as their main representative are as follows: feed additives containing them relieve severe stress, conventional phytobiotics do not have such an effect; have direct anabolic effect; have pleiotropic (multiple) effect. Their use in livestock breeding does not cause fears, as they are safe substances. It is possible to combine such substances with other antimicrobial agents in order to improve bioavailability and prolong the action of the active ingredient of ecdysterone

Technical Efficiency and Technological Gaps of Rice Production in Anambra State, Nigeria

The traditional approach to modeling productive efficiency assumes that technology is constant across the sample. However, farms in different regions may face different production opportunities, and the technologies they employ may differ due to environmental factors. Therefore, rather than using a traditional stochastic frontier model in such cases, a stochastic meta-frontier (SMF) analysis is recommended to account for environmental factors between regions. It follows that differences in environmental factors between the upland and lowland regions in Anambra State, Nigeria, may result in farmers producing rice under different production and environmental conditions. Using the SMF model, this study, for the first time, determines technical efficiency (TE) and technological gap ratios (TGRs) of rice production from the upland and lowland regions in the Awka North Local Government Area of Anambra State, Nigeria. Our data are from a cross-section sample of randomly selected rice farmers. Results reveal that lowland regional rice producers are on average, significantly more technically efficient (91.7%) than their upland counterparts (84.2%). Additionally, mean TGRs associated with lowland rice farmers are higher (92.1%) than their corresponding upland producers (84.7%). While the upland rice producers are less technically efficient and further away from their full potential, results indicate that both sets of farmers do not use advanced technologies to match the industry’s potential. We suggest that agricultural policy should focus on providing regionally specific technologies, such as improved rice varieties that fit the working environment of the lagging area, to help rice farmers improve their resource efficiency and minimize technological gaps.

Folliculogenesis, Fertility and Biotechnology in Dairy Cattle

The ovarian follicle population is formed by thousands of follicles, preantral and antral, where oocytes are included. During fetal life, the first follicles produced are preantral, and, as they undergo the development process, they reach the final stage of antral follicles, where a cavity/or antrum is developed. All this growth phase is called folliculogenesis, and this chapter will abord the most important aspects of this process. Moreover, not all follicles reach the preovulatory phase and can be fertilized, so we will discuss how reproductive biotechniques can positively influence the fertility of bovine females. We will also discuss the possibility of antral follicle count to influence reproductive performance and the correlation to biotechniques. Finally, we present alternatives on how to improve fertility and productive efficiency in dairy herds.