Cuban Case Research Articles

Environmental and energetic impact of refrigeration systems using CO2 (R744): A Cuban case study

Despite the extensive use of CO2 in food retail refrigeration units, it has never been implemented, tested or simulated in Cuba. This work aims to evaluate by simulation a Booster and Parallel compression system in twelve Cuban cities using two different semi-empirical approaches to model the compressors and the gas cooler/condenser. The compressors are modeled with a semi-empirical model and the gas cooler/condenser is modeled with a lumped model based on the ε-NTU method, discretizing the gas cooler in a one-zone model and the condenser into a three zones model. According to the results, the Booster and Parallel average consumptions are 640 MWh and 540 MWh, respectively. Both systems are less efficient than the conventional R404A refrigeration system. The lower capital costs of transcritical systems make them cost-effective solutions compared to the conventional system. Moreover, the Parallel system is an economically feasible alternative compared to the Booster one. The payback period of the Booster system is 10 to 12 years by considering the environmental and operating costs savings respect the Direct eXpansion System, while for the Parallel system the payback period is between 8 and 8.5 years. Both transcritical systems are excellent environmental alternatives to the R404A conventional system.

Multiple and frequent trypanosomatid co-infections of insects: the Cuban case study.

Trypanosomatids are obligate parasites of animals, predominantly insects and vertebrates, and flowering plants. Monoxenous species, representing the vast majority of trypanosomatid diversity, develop in a single host, whereas dixenous species cycle between two hosts, of which primarily insect serves as a vector. To explore in-depth the diversity of insect trypanosomatids including their co-infections, sequence profiling of their 18S rRNA gene was used for true bugs (Hemiptera; 18% infection rate) and flies (Diptera; 10%) in Cuba. Out of 48 species (molecular operational taxonomic units) belonging to the genera Vickermania (16 spp.), Blastocrithidia (7), Obscuromonas (4), Phytomonas (5), Leptomonas/Crithidia (5), Herpetomonas (5), Wallacemonas (2), Kentomonas (1), Angomonas (1) and two unnamed genera (1 + 1), 38 species have been encountered for the first time. The detected Wallacemonas and Angomonas species constitute the most basal lineages of their respective genera, while Vickermania emerged as the most diverse group. The finding of Leptomonas seymouri, which is known to rarely infect humans, confirms that Dysdercus bugs are its natural hosts. A clear association of Phytomonas with the heteropteran family Pentatomidae hints at its narrow host association with the insect rather than plant hosts. With a focus on multiple infections of a single fly host, using deep Nanopore sequencing of 18S rRNA, we have identified co-infections with up to 8 trypanosomatid species. The fly midgut was usually occupied by several Vickermania species, while Herpetomonas and/or Kentomonas species prevailed in the hindgut. Metabarcoding was instrumental for analysing extensive co-infections and also allowed the identification of trypanosomatid lineages and genera.

The Cuban case as depicted in the USSR’s visual propaganda and the Soviet citizens’ letters

The Cuban case as depicted in the USSR’s visual propaganda and the Soviet citizens’ letters

Black Dancers and White Ballet: Case of Cuba

Throughout the XX century, the hard-fought battle of blacks and dark-skinned dancers to perform the classical repertoire on professional stages (including “white ballets”) was a part of the struggle for citizens’ equality. Cuba is a clear example of creating a national ballet school in a country where the fight for social equality was closely connected with overcoming racial segregation. But some researchers have noted that the majority of dancers in the Ballet Nacional de Cuba belong to the Caucasoid phenotype, which means they do not represent the Cuban nation which includes a large variety of phenotypes. We pose the question in what way is the history of Cuban ballet and the artistic experience of its founders connected with the struggle of blacks to have professional dancing careers, and is there actually racial discrimination in Cuban ballet? We demonstrate that the Alonso triumvirate was a good indicator of the problem: Alicia and Fernando as performers, and Alberto Alonso as a choreographer, participated in a cultural movement directed at the rebirth of Cuban identity, they performed African American dances, and they worked together with George Balanchine, who adapted black dance and invited black dancers into his company. However, due to various reasons and circumstances, Alicia Alonso, first for herself and then for the Nacional ballet school and theatre, took a different path, that of entering, on equal footing, the domain of classical ballet, of European art in its essence, in which the white aesthetic is inherent. We would like to demonstrate that the main explanation of the paradox of Cuban ballet became the aesthetic dictatorship of the classics, the dictatorship within “white ballet” which is accepted voluntarily. Classical ballet is an art of subordination to rules and images that are thought of as absolute pinnacles.

The Ritual Solidarity of Masked Processions in Calabar, Cameroon, and Cuba

The Ritual Solidarity of Masked Processions in Calabar, Cameroon, and Cuba

Historia de la ciencia ficción latinoamericana I: Desde los orígenes hasta la modernidad [A history of Latin American science fiction: From its origins to modernity] ed. by Teresa López-Pellisa and Silvia G. Kurlat Ares (review).

Reviewed by: Historia de la ciencia ficción latinoamericana I: Desde los orígenes hasta la modernidad [A history of Latin American science fiction: From its origins to modernity] ed. by Teresa López-Pellisa and Silvia G. Kurlat Ares David S. Dalton (bio) Historia de la ciencia ficción latinoamericana I: Desde los orígenes hasta la modernidad [A history of Latin American science fiction: From its origins to modernity] Edited by Teresa López-Pellisa and Silvia G. Kurlat Ares. Madrid/Frankfurt am Main: Iberoamericana Vervuert, 2020. Pp. 507. Historia de la ciencia ficción latinoamericana I reevaluates the role of science fiction (SF) in the Latin American canon. Arguing that SF literature was common in a region that has long used literature to negotiate its relationship to science, technology, and modernity (pp. 10–11), the authors situate SF at the heart of nation-building projects (p. 14). The volume addresses the conspicuous lack of scholarly attention to SF through a transregional approach that interrogates the place of SF in the national letters of an array of Latin American countries. The collection of chapters hits the sweet spot between identifying new material, providing a theoretically rich analysis, and advocating for a more inclusive history of the region's SF. Miguel Ángel Fernández Delgado's chapter juggles these tasks especially well. He cites key foundational studies in Mexican SF (Ross Larson, María Bermúdez, Ramón López Castro, and Gabriel Trujillo Muñoz), but he focuses primarily on identifying SF (and proto-SF) authors who wrote from the colonial period into the present. His rich analysis shows that Mexico's SF has long responded to its cultural referent. Nineteenth-century literature after independence followed a utopian schematic that lurched between optimism and pessimism as writers grappled with questions of national identity. His discussion of Nervo is especially valuable because it establishes this wellknown author as a trailblazer in Mexican SF. Fernández Delgado's discussion of postrevolutionary SF is equally interesting, particularly as he situates authors like Eduardo Urzaiz, José Urquizo, and even José Vasconcelos as SF letrados who used literature to interrogate different aspects of the present. I especially appreciated Fernández Delgado's emphasis on popular literature (and film) from the 1940s into the 1960s. As his chapter masterfully shows, Mexico's SF—especially when one expands the canon—provides an invaluable lens from which to gauge national development. Emily Maguire's chapter also embodies the volume's project as it traces Cuban SF from the nineteenth century to 1938. She begins by challenging those who would separate the concept of SF from "literature" more generally. In the Cuban case, SF (and texts that can be approached as SF) has been a natural genre from which to interrogate notions of national identity and modernity. Her discussion of Francisco Calcagno's En busca del eslabón: Historia de monos is especially important. The novel's decidedly [End Page 1227] racist narrative centers on a group of Cuban and U.S. doctors who travel to the Brazilian Amazon, Africa, and the South Pacific to find the "missing link" between humans and simians. The novel dialogues with Jules Verne and English-language authors of the time period (pp. 216–17), but it also engages the scientific discourses of the day, particularly those of anthropology, Darwinism, and even phrenology. Maguire's discussion of Juan Manuel Planas's alternative history, La corriente del Golfo, highlights how Cuban SF authors have adapted the popular texts of their day to their own context. The novel's imaginative premise—Cuban rebels almost defeat Spain during the war for independence through scientific means (though they ultimately fail and the United States still intervenes)—alludes to the possibility for SF to imagine a preferred timeline from that of the present. In interrogating the role of SF in all Latin American countries, the book even discusses those cases where SF has been almost nonexistent. In his chapter, Hebert Benítez Pazzolano notes that, unlike the rest of the region of the Río de la Plata—which boasts some of the earliest cases of SF in all of Latin America—SF never enjoyed significant diffusion...

Environmental and Energetic Impact of Refrigeration Systems Using Co2 (R744): A Cuban Case Study

Environmental and Energetic Impact of Refrigeration Systems Using Co2 (R744): A Cuban Case Study

Poetry and the Camp: Epiphanic Witness and Ecstatic Cry in the Spanish-Cuban-American War of 1895–98

Poetry and the Camp: Epiphanic Witness and Ecstatic Cry in the Spanish-Cuban-American War of 1895–98

Money, financial depth and economic growth in orthodox communist nations: the case of Cuba

ABSTRACT The empirical literature on the nexus between finance and economic growth is vast, but two issues have been almost absent from it. One is the role of financial depth in communist countries with minimal market-oriented reforms. The other is the role of currency in circulation not only in these kinds of nations but also in underdeveloped countries, in general. This article investigates the nexus of banking deposits and currency in circulation with long-run economic growth in Cuba. We find a negative overall causality of deposits for economic growth. However, the currency was boosting growth. Our findings point at the relevance of currency for the private sector, and at multidimensional problems in the state-owned sector of Cuba.

Openness processes and new subjectivities: Analysis of the Cuban case

AbstractMotivationPrevious studies of the external restrictions on Cuba have not linked it with political subjectivity. Its consideration allows us to make visible discourses and collective imaginations that help us understand the political and economic dynamics of this Caribbean country.PurposeThe article aims to identify the measures, financial flows, and subjectivities that should be projected in the future both to make this external restriction more flexible and long‐term economic growth sustainable.Methods and approachTo this end, it examines, from both a qualitative and quantitative approach, the interaction among the external constraint, openness processes, and subjectivities in the case of Cuba.FindingsHistorically, Cuba has aimed to mitigate the external constraint that has hampered its economic growth through balances of power and strategic alliances compatible with and reinforced by political subjectivity. However, when these alliances have been broken or have been insufficient to compensate for the scarcity of foreign exchange, opening processes that require new subjectivities have had to be adopted.Policy implicationsThe tension between established and emergent subjectivities will define the limits that any opening process in Cuba will face in the future.

Past and present land reform in Cuba (1959–2020): from peasant collectivisation to re-peasantisation and beyond

AbstractCuba is a paradigmatic case where the term and concept of the peasantry remains of lived importance. Cuban peasants had a significant role in the past as they did return to the political agenda after the Revolution with particular emphasis under Raul Castro’s administration. However, the Cuban case has not been significantly explored from a long-term perspective that connects the old debates and dimensions of land reforms under developmentalist states to the new agrarian questions in the global era. Based on secondary sources, semi-structured interviews and updated data on land structures, this article explores the long-term process of land reform in Cuba.

Developing an improvement strategy in health research innovation and quality based on technology watch adoption: a cuban case study

Objective: To develop an improvement strategy on research, innovation and quality of health, based on technology watch adoption.Method: A non experimental study that comprehends descriptive and bibliometric analysis was used, along with the implementation of technology watch procedure to support the strategy.Originality/Relevance: Technology watch along with strategic intelligence are acknowledged to be key tools in innovation processes as well as in strengthening National Science Technology and Innovation Systems (Guagliano, Villanueva, Perez and Sánchez Rico, 2019); its use has spread to numerous public and private companies, government agencies, consulting institutions, universities and research centers which are being interested in anticipating the continous and emerging challenges from the changing environment and hence making proper strategic decisions (Guagliano, Massaro and Rodríguez Bianchi, 2015); particularly in health care its applications are extended to technology assessment, care services improvement and academic research capacity planning and strengthening (Carrillo Zambrano, Páez Leal, Suárez and Luna-González, 2018). Specifically, Research, Quality and Innovation management at a local health system in Cuba, needs to generate high value-added information and knowledge to enhance performance and accurate decision making.Results: Here we show how the development of technology watch enhance and support the formulation of research, development and innovation projects; and standardization of healthcare services and processes, which were selected as relevant variables in a previous prospective study.Social / management contributions: The results are aligned with the Cuban healthcare strategic goals, for among its current demands, it prioritizes the generation of high-impact scientific and innovative results, as well as the development of a quality strategy that portrays, among its core objectives, health services continuous improvement, based on developing standards, Clinical Practice Guidelines and therapeutic protocols.Theoretical/Methodological contributions: The adoption of Technology and Innovation management and knowledge-based techniques may offer valuable benefits within research and quality of healthcare context.

Biomethane potential from herbivorous animal’s manures: Cuban case study

Anaerobic digestion technology is a feasible alternative for wastes environmental treatment, nutrients recovery (as biofertilizer) and biomethane production. In Cuba, several wastes energy potentials have been evaluated, however, other biomass like horse manure (HM), rabbit manure (RM), and goat manure (GM) has been little studied. This study aims to determine the biochemical methane potential contained in herbivorous animal manures (horse, rabbit and goat) for energy purposes in Cuban context. Anaerobic digestion batch assay in 0.5 L reactors, using a mixture of pig and cow manure anaerobic sludge as inoculum, was performed under mesophilic conditions (35 ± 2 °C) during 40 days. The methane yield potentials of 245, 326 and 112 L CH4 kg/VS were obtained for horse, rabbit and goat manures, respectively, influenced by the difference in their digestive system to digest the grass feedstock. The highest rabbit manure methane potential results attractive for domestic digesters, in which experience is very limited. In addition, due to the availability of horse manure in many municipalities of Cuba, the generation of electricity from this manure (128 GWh/year) could replace 1.4% of the electricity consumed by households, making it promising to further exploitation considering the expected 2030 energetic matrix changes using renewable energy.

Commentary

Commentary

Influence of the socio-economic environment on the entrepreneurs behavior. Cases of cuba and ecuador

Entrepreneurship is an important part of any economy today regardless of its level of development. However, not in all contexts do entrepreneurs operate in the same way, nor are they motivated by the same factors. This research seeks to identify possible coincidence factors and differences between entrepreneurs that operate in different contexts from the point of view of their historical evolution, the duration of these and the economic and social model applied in the countries. Specifically, a comparative study is carried out between entrepreneurs from the republics of Ecuador and Cuba considering various variables such as: personality characteristics (attitude to failure, risk, perseverance and innovation), use of the available time fund for work in entrepreneurship; Impact of the environment in relation to: government regulations, taxes, level of competition and availability of suppliers, as well as the structure of personal expenses projected in the short and long term that entrepreneurs assume as a stimulus for their actions. For the development of the study, a description of the behavior of the variables was initially made and later, by hypothesis testing, to verify differences and similarities between both populations. The study allowed us to identify common and divergent aspects between both populations analyzed. Similarly, it showed how differences in the administrative and financial environment in which entrepreneurs operate generate changes in their priorities and projections.

Ethics in the Immunization of the Cuban People against COVID-19

Covid-19 has raised multiple topics for reflection; among them is the problem of vaccination against such a pandemic. The article seeks to reveal that the Cuban strategy for immunizing the population against this epidemic is based on ethics, whose touchstone outlines the ethical framework that supports decision-making regarding this process and its implementation in social practice. Although immunization has its own principles and norms, in its application against this disease, due to its purposes and scope, moral principles and fundamental rights are applied specifically to benefit all people: girls, boys, the elderly, women and men. The Cuban case constitutes a benchmark to determine what is fair and what is good in safeguarding the fundamental values that are at stake and are essential for everyone, in the face of Covid-19, such as the right to life and health.

ELISA, a feasible technique to monitor organophosphate, carbamate, and pyrethroid residues in local vegetables. Cuban case study

Organophosphates, carbamates, and pyrethroids are among the most commonly used pesticides worldwide. However, these pesticides are toxic not only to insects but also to other non-targets such as animals, including humans. The increasing public concern in recent years about possible health risks due to pesticide residues in the diet has influenced the strategies for crop protection. Over the years, researchers have relied on several analytical methods. The importance of enzyme-linked immune sorbent assays (ELISA) for pesticide analysis has increased over the past decades. This study was conducted to assess ELISA as a rapid, economical, and safe analytical procedure as an alternative prior to chromatographic techniques for monitoring the residues of these target pesticides in local Cuban vegetables. A colorimetric ELISA test kit was used to detect organophosphates and carbamates directly, while the analysis of pyrethroid was performed using paramagnetic particles attached to antibodies specifically to detect pyrethroids. To confirm the positive results, the samples were also analyzed by chromatography. With the use of the ELISA kits, it was possible to determine the presence of organophosphates, carbamates, and pyrethroid residues in the collected samples. The ELISA kits tested showed quantification capacity at values below the detection limit of the chromatographic techniques used. Linear relationships between the quantified values obtained by the chromatographic technique and results obtained through the pyrethroid ELISA test kits were observed. The developed ELISA exhibited high accuracy and is ideally suited as a fast, high-throughput, and low-cost screening test for organophosphates, carbamates, and pyrethroid residues to monitor and control these residue levels in the Cuban agriculture context.

Sanciones como instrumento de coerción: ¿cuán similares son las políticas de Estados Unidos y la Unión Europea hacia Venezuela?

Estados Unidos y la Unión Europea reconocieron a Juan Guaidó como presidente interino de Venezuela, al tiempo que incrementaban las sanciones hacia el Gobierno de Nicolás Maduro para que convocara elecciones e iniciara una transición democrática. Partiendo de la hipótesis de que los objetivos e instrumentos de ambos actores hacia Venezuela no son idénticos, este artículo analiza las semejanzas y diferencias en sus políticas, teniendo en cuenta el antecedente del caso cubano y la literatura sobre sanciones.

A Life Cycle Assessment of Bread Production: A Cuban Case Study

A Life Cycle Assessment of Bread Production: A Cuban Case Study

Macro-social marketing for health: the case of Cuba

The macro-environment in which social marketing is practised is an important factor in how it is structured and practiced, as well as its effectiveness. This paper analyses Cuban practices aimed at encouraging health behaviour change from a social marketing perspective. We utilise the case study method to assess the key social marketing dimensions of three health promotion programmes (tobacco, tuberculosis and AIDS) in Cuba. Each case is assessed against social marketing benchmark criteria used in prior research. Analysis of the cases is used to explicate the Cuban government use of macrosocial marketing approaches to address health challenges. Results demonstrate: (1) how Cuba uses a unique organisational approach to address population health needs and challenges and (2) the role of particularities of the Cuban context in the theory and practice of social marketing in Cuba. An examination of Cuban social marketing activities can broaden our understanding of the way social marketing is conceptualised and practised and may help increase the effectiveness of social marketing to improve health.