Soft balancing in the Americas: Latin American opposition to U.S. intervention, 1898–1936

In the aftermath of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, scholars of international relations debated how to best characterize the rising tide of global opposition. The concept of “soft balancing” emerged as an influential, though contested, explanation of a new phenomenon in a unipolar world: states seeking to constrain the ability of the United States to deploy military force by using multinational organizations, international law, and coalition building. Soft balancing can also be observed in regional unipolar systems. Multinational archival research reveals how Argentina, Mexico, and other Latin American countries responded to expanding U.S. power and military assertiveness in the early twentieth century through coordinated diplomatic maneuvering that provides a strong example of soft balancing. Examination of this earlier case makes an empirical contribution to the emerging soft-balancing literature and suggests that soft balancing need not lead to hard balancing or open conflict.

Start-up rheometry of highly polydisperse magnetorheological fluids: experiments and simulations

An extensive experimental and simulation study is carried out in conventional magnetorheological fluids formulated by dispersion of mixtures of carbonyl iron particles having different sizes in Newtonian carriers. Apparent yield stress data are reported for a wide range of polydispersity indexes (PDI) from PDI = 1.63 to PDI = 3.31, which for a log-normal distribution corresponds to the standard deviation ranging from to . These results demonstrate that the effect of polydispersity is negligible in this range in spite of exhibiting very different microstructures. Experimental data in the magnetic saturation regime are in quantitative good agreement with particle-level simulations under the assumption of dipolar magnetostatic forces. The insensitivity of the yield stresses to the polydispersity can be understood from the interplay between the particle cluster size distribution and the packing density of particles inside the clusters.

China and Kazakhstan’s oil and gas partnership at the start of the twenty-first century

Over the past decade, cooperation between China and Kazakhstan in the oil and gas sector has developed significantly. For China, security of its energy supply is a key strategic objective. This paper analyzes the evolution of Sino-Kazakh oil and gas relations, assesses their long-term prospects, and explores how Chinese demand for oil and gas could divert Kazakhstan’s hydrocarbon resources from other energy markets. The netback approach has been used to assess the prices that China will need to offer other producers in Kazakhstan. Sino-Kazakh energy and economic cooperation could create a good basis for free economic zones and development of beneficial ties for both countries.

Polymerization-dependent activation of porcine γδ T-cells by proanthocyanidins

Plant-derived proanthocyanidins (PAC) have been promoted as a natural method of improving health and immune function in livestock. It has previously been shown that PAC are effective agonists for activating ruminant γδ T-cells in vitro, however effects on other livestock species are not yet clear. Moreover, the fine structural characteristics of the PAC which contribute to this stimulatory effect have not been elucidated. Here, we demonstrate activation of porcine γδ T-cells by PAC via up-regulation of CD25 (IL-2Rα) and show that 1) activation is dependent on degree of polymerization (DP), with PAC fractions containing polymers with mean DP >6 significantly more effective than fractions with mean DP <6, whilst flavan-3-ol monomers (the constituent monomeric units of PAC) did not induce CD25 expression and 2) both procyanidin and prodelphinidin-type PAC are effective agonists. Furthermore, we show that this effect of PAC is restricted to the γδ T-cell population within porcine peripheral mononuclear cells as significant CD25 up-regulation was not observed in non γδ T-cells, and no activation (via CD80/86 up-regulation) was evident in monocytes. Our results show that dietary PAC may contribute to enhancement of innate immunity in swine via activation of γδ T-cells.