Strategic vision for ports: the year 2010

This month's FAL leading article is Larry Burkhalter's swan song as a United Nations staff member. Larry has served ECLAC and the UN for more than 22 years and has been the Commission's guiding light in maritime transport and port issues for the most part of that time.

Financing for development in Latin America and the Caribbean: A strategic analysis from a middle-income country perspective

This document was prepared for the Latin American and Caribbean Regional Consultation on Financing for Development, held at the headquarters of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Santiago, on 12 and 13 March 2015, in preparation for the Third International Conference on Financing for Development (Addis Ababa, July 2015).

Governance of strategic minerals in Latin America: the case of Lithium

The objectives of this report are twofold: The first is to provide an integrated overview of the governance of strategic minerals in the Latin American and Caribbean region, focused on sharing the economic-resource rent. The second objective is to provide a context for the policy proposal of the Chilean National Lithium Commission (NLC. The collected data, and information, on the various fiscal regimes can be used as a reference for further research. The objectives in this report are met by analyzing distinct aspects of strategic mineral governance, in three different parts. The lithium-industry serves as a case study for this report, as an example of a strategic mineral.

Crowded Rosselia ichnofabric in the Early Devonian of Brazil: An example of strategic behavior

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Measuring Knowledge Management: A Strategic Approach to Library Information Services

In the study of theoretical trends in Administration, the management of information follows the development of theories of Administration; constant-adaptations are suffered. Information Science area understands and concerns itself with the changes wrought in these endeavour of the knowledge society as new forms of communication and integration. The libraries interact in ways that maximize access to information and facilitate the improvement on their structural environment as strategic approach for your services. The research aims at identifying the requirements and specifications of an information system for knowledge management in the public’s library environment and proposes to achieve a pre-defined structure for the implementation of administration management. The research is conducted with public’s library of the metropolitan region of the North’s Portugal. Portugal libraries are institutions that operate in the social process of their communities reflecting the society and its organic sphere of informational performance. These libraries have developed the organizational theories to make a framework easily for effective management practices and have been using their produced knowledge in the optimization of their actions. In the improvement of systems, theoretical administrative trends become management decisions and result in the ultimate success of the organization. In order to achieve its objectives the study verified an economy based on knowledge management, and its production emphasizes the human capital that permeates the condition of the information in support for the development of communities.

Strategic planning for dairy cattle: SWOT analysis applied to a property of a farmers' association in Dracena, São Paulo state, Brazil

The sector of milk production in Brazil is very heterogeneous (high-tech in large scale X family properties). This study aimed to develop a diagnostic as a basis for a strategic plan to face the challenges inherent in operating a dairy farm in property of a farmers' association in Dracena, São Paulo, Brazil. It was observed that the association needs a more efficient guidance in the marketing, production and finance areas, not to compromise the search for new markets and continued growth in activity.

The strategic application of elecytolyte balance to minimize heat stress in broilers

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Strategic use of dietary electrolyte balance and ratio for broiler chickens

The literature reports dealing with the dietary electrolyte ratio (K+Cl)/ Na are rare, although the concept has been proposed by Mongin in 1981. Thus, its application appears to be limited as a nutritional strategy in feed formulation, which usually meets only the minimum nutritional recommendations in Na, K and Cl. The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of broilers submitted to different dietary electrolyte balances (DEB) Na+K-Cl and dietary electrolyte ratio (DER) from 1 to 21 d of age. A total of 1575 male 1-d old broiler chicks were randomly assigned to 5 treatments with 9 replicates of 35 chicks each. The treatments consisted of diets with 5 relation of electrolytes, arising from combinations DEB/DER 150/3, 250/2, 250/3, 250/4 and 350/3, with use of NaCl, NaHCO3, KCl, K2SO4 and CaCl2. All diets were corn-soybean meal based and formulated to meet or exceed the NRC (1994) requirements. Chicks had ad libitum access to feed and water in floor pens with wood shavings as litter. Body weight, feed intake and feed conversion ratio were measured at 21 d of age. It was found that only the feed conversion was significantly affected (P = 0.0142) by the combinations of relation of electrolytes (DEB and DER). The supplementation levels in DEB and DER were made to fit the data into a surface analysis to allow increasing levels of DEB (150–350 mEq/kg) and narrow and broad ratio of DER (2–4). For the canonical analysis of response surface was obtained the stationary point for body weight (DEB = 255.77 mEq/kg, and DER = 2.73:1) the value was 942.02 g; for feed intake (DEB = 251.69 mEq / kg and DER = 3.51:1), the value was 1200.02 g; and for feed conversion (DEB = 254.62 mEq/kg and DER = 3.06:1) the value was 1.35. The results of this experiment indicated that the best performance was obtained with combinations of relation of electrolytes for DEB between 251 and 255 mEq/kg and DER between 2.73:1 and 3.5:1.