Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

In the Ibero-American geography, wildlife research has been traditionally tackled from zoogeography, while ivestock and game animal studies have been addressed from rural, tourism and landscape geography. However, a new “animal geography” has emerged in the Anglo-Saxon geography during the last twenty years. As a branch of cultural geography, this new field focuses on the spatial dimension of the complex relationships between humans and non-human animals. Based on an extensive literature review, this work identifies and analyses various topics that characterize this emerging field. Likewise, challenges and opportunities for Ibero-American geography are explored.

En este número de la revista Ingeniería Industrial se destacan distintos trabajos investigativos enmarcados en las temáticas: Organización del Trabajo y de la producción, Ergonomía, Seguridad y Salud Ocupacional, Calidad,  Gestión de Recursos Humanos, Investigación de Operaciones y Estadística, Informática Empresarial, Gestión del Conocimiento y Logística.

Archaeological investigations in Macizo del Deseado (province of Santa Cruz, Argentina) have allowed registering a large volume of evidence on nomad hunter-gatherers who lived in the area since pre-Columbian times. Specifically in the Bosques Petrificados de Jaramillo National Park (PNBPJ), an area where systematic surface records have been recorded, the current state of these studies require detailed geomorphological mapping to fulfill the needs of archaeological research. In this study, we analyzed the surface of the local terrain, seeking to identify the different geomorphological units where archaeological remains are located. A GIS (Geographic Information System) approach was applied, using geomatics techniques to relate different types of data, including remote sensing images and relevant altimetric information to elaborate the required maps. The baseline data used include the current geological chart for the region (4769-IV chart at 1:250000 scale); the geomorphological sketch of the Laguna Grande sector (1:100000 scale); the hydrographic network obtained from the Digital Elevation Model of the Republic of Argentina (MDE-Ar, 1 arc-second spatial resolution), and high-resolution satellite images available for the area (50 cm resolution Bing images). Geomorphological maps were elaborated through an analysis of the terrain using a non-automated landform recognition method. For the final characterization and differentiation, we used fieldwork information (photographs and descriptions). As a result, nine geomorphological units were identified. In each, the distribution of resources that might have been available for ancient populations was analyzed, and the natural processes affecting the differential preservation and visibility of the archaeological record were identified. These units are:1. Mountain ranges, constituted by rocky outcrops of the oldest formations in the region, from the Jurassic period.2. The basaltic-plateaux unit, formed by three massive lava flows dated between the Eocene and the Plio-Pleistocene.3. The volcanic vent, comprising Cerro Madre and Daughter, a heavily eroded volcanic apparatus from the Mid-Miocene.4. Pediments, deposits made of materials transported by gravity from across broad landscape sectors, accumulated at the bottom of basins and deposited at two different levels, some from the Early Pliocene and others during the Pleistocene.5. Deposits of ancient lake beaches.6. Lake littoral strips formed by sediments associated with water bodies that were larger during the Pleistocene.7. Alluvial plains, with later Holocene-age deposits, distributed in several sectors across the study area, associated with lagoons and streams of the main intermittent watercourses.8. Sediments in depressions and lagoons, also from the Holocene; these are deposited in endorheic basins that are formed in landscape lowlands (mountain range unit) and in basaltic plateaux.9. Mass-displacement unit, consisting of materials from Holocene landslides. The analysis of geomorphological units and their concordance with geological information made it possible to delineate the structure of resources in the locality and generate expectations to be considered in the planning of further fieldwork.             As regards the preservation of archaeological evidence, among the various units defined, basaltic plateaux, volcanic vents, and pediments are the sectors dominated by erosive factors or stability of the terrain surface. Archaeological visibility is high in those cases, and the most resistant materials are expected to continue being exposed on the terrain surface. In contrast, in deposits from beaches and lake littoral strips, alluvial plains, sediments in depressions and lagoons, and landslide deposits, the archaeological visibility on the surface is lower, dominated by optimal conditions for the burial of materials.            This work is a contribution to the establishment of a geological, geomorphological, and geo-chronological contextual framework of the PNBPJ area. The earliest results derived from data gathering about the layers of archaeological data and the thematic cartography obtained have yielded information that constitutes a step forward in archaeological research, laying the foundations for the analysis of decisions on settlement in the landscape by ancient societies. In addition, the differential preservation processes and visibility across the geomorphological units identified represent key information for heritage management activities in this protected area.

This article describes the profound transformations of employment in the Mexican mining sector after the adoption and implementation of several neoliberal legal reforms at the end of the 20th century, ranging from the privatization of state-owned mining companies and mineral reserves to the new Mining Act of 1992, and the important inflow of Canadian capital favored by these legal reforms as well as by the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement. This, along with the rising international prices of metals, particularly gold, led to a boom of Mexican mining, involving a boost of employment led by large metal mining companies.The analysis of these transformations, summarized below, are based on official statistics for a period of 25 years, from 1988 to 2013. These data are displayed in various tables, graphs and maps that support the assertions and conclusions reached, allowing a quick and easy reading and interpretation of the information presented.The growing dominance of the large metal mining companies led to a critical spatial redistribution of the mining employment in the country, which experienced a boom since the mid-2000, led by gold, copper, and silver mining. The expansion of large metal mining companies in areas of Sonora, Zacatecas, and Durango was paralleled by a crisis of small and medium-sized mining, resulting in the extinction of the mining activity in various municipalities across the country. This crisis affected large non-metal mining in specific sectors and areas (the coal crisis in north Coahuila and the extinction of the sulfur mining in southeast Veracruz), but also small and medium-sized metal mining given the high investments required by the new production model: open-pit mining. Thus, while metal mining comprises increasingly larger companies in terms of their number of workers, small and medium-scale mining was virtually confined to non-metal mining, which underwent an atomization process, i.e., an increasing number of smaller companies. This non-metal small and medium-scale mining is nowadays dominated by the mining of construction materials, a modality that gained jobs driven by the construction industry.Workers of large metal companies grew not only in number but also were benefited from the rise in salaries and payroll in real terms. It is worth to point out that Mexican miners enjoy high salaries compared to other Mexican workers, but low when compared with miners in other countries. This evolution, no doubt a positive one, was nonetheless tempered by two phenomena, the rise of subcontracting and of temporary jobs, phenomena promoted from large mining companies to achieve greater flexibility in the hiring and termination of the labor required. This flexibilization in the number of workers was supplemented with the flexibilization of the cost of labor, given the increasing importance of profits sharing in the overall payroll of workers, especially in the large metal mining sector; this way, the cost of labor was linked to company profits.However, payroll and salaries show huge contrasts within the mining industry: salaries are much higher for white-collar versus blue-collar workers; for permanent versus temporary workers; in large versus small and medium-sized mining companies; in metal versus non-metal mining. Thus, while a white-collar worker member of a large mining company earns a monthly salary slightly above $18.5 thousand pesos, a blue-collar worker of a small and medium-sized mining company earns a salary of only $4.1 thousand pesos per month, having even seen his purchasing power reduced over the past years.In short, large metal companies, particularly those linked to precious metals and copper, were the main beneficiaries of the liberal reforms implemented in the country, also driven by the boom in metals prices in international markets. They were responsible for significant changes in mining in Mexico, both positive (increase in employment and salaries) and negative (increase in subcontracting, temporary jobs, and flexibilization of the cost of labor), so that their workers have partially benefited from this boom. However, their response in times of declining prices and the consequences for workers remain to be seen, with large mining having adopted key instruments (flexibilization and temporary of its workforce) to manage with the cycles of sudden and sharp expansion and contraction typical of this activity.

Agriculture has become a common practice in many cities, regardless of the local socio-political and economic environment. Unique territorial expressions have emerged from the interactions between rural and urban dynamics, essentially regarding the modalities in agricultural practices and their potential contribution to sustainable management and food security in urban and peri-urban areas. Some contemporary debates on the role of Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture (AUP) in the spatial rearrangement of metropolitan systems and their rural environment are outlined here. We use concepts such as geographic proximity and organizational proximity, which support the changes in production dynamics, as well as the roles of stakeholders and networks in peri-urban agricultural areas, which strengthen modalities such as short production-consumption circuits. We describe the territorial conflicts that emerge around this phenomenology. Also, we describe some contemporary territorial expressions (characterized as agricultural urbanity or ruralization of the city) in terms of the rural-urban relationship (living framework, landscape, or territorial reserve, agricultural space); also, the conceptualization of territorial projects is analyzed, where agricultural production plays a key role in territorial organization processes (agri-urban projects, urban factories, agricultural parks, etc.). The proliferation of urban agricultural practices, which take place within interstitial spaces or in public urban spaces (urban gardens, community gardens), and their inclusion in policies on sustainable development or food security are discussed as novel elements of agro-urban territorial governance. Various questions are explored regarding the true meaning and potential of urban and peri-urban agricultural practices, such as commodification, which transforms and revalues rural areas, setting new guidelines for rural production and consumption, mainly in peri-urban areas. The trend of urban agricultural practices in the strengthening of processes such as gentrification is outlined as a strategy of real estate capital for revaluation in the marketing of lots as regards urban, peri-urban, and even rural properties, by shifting the uses of land for the development of amenities and rural urbanization; the effectiveness thereof is challenged in relation to territorial sustainability and their influence on urban food consumption patterns. As for urban and peri-urban agricultural practices, the territorial dynamics derived from supportive production and consumption associations is also addressed, This includes organizational models of agro-ecological consumption groups and cooperatives; their integration and implementation of new production and consumption schemes; as political and social self-organization options; as alternative food networks; where aspects worth highlighting include their dimensions and association with local farmers, as well as with the social fabric and its relationship with resilience and urban development strategies. Some international modalities developed from the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model are highlighted. The phenomenon focuses on current developments in metropolitan areas of Western Europe, North America, and Latin America, where urban and peri-urban agricultural production has spread, both within cities and in adjacent areas, where they still coexist with solidly structured agricultural production systems for the daily supply in urban markets. It is concluded that, although its practice has grown, AUP has not attained a significant presence in urban food supply systems yet, still being only marginally considered in the development of territorial public policies. Although AUP contributes to food production in developed countries, its primary impact deals with therapeutic and landscaping (green spaces), as well as with the patrimonial safeguard of urban and peri-urban spaces; in poor countries, it focuses on the food self-sufficiency of the low-income urban population, the recovery of public spaces, the strengthening of the social fabric, and community development.

The discussion of the urban era tends to isolate, dichotomize and overshadow the rural-urban interaction, which is the source and lasting aspect of cities. In this context, this work aims to propose a discussion of the geographic tourist situation addressing this interaction in Latin America. The thesis defended is that the rural-urban friction, tension, and symbiosis by tourism in small cities of the American continent, through the individual and collective idyllic imaginary of culture and "nature" created in the metropolis virtualize concrete ruralities. Methodologically, we propose a cartography of the geographic tourist status that integrates a palimpsest of variables, scales, and temporalities unique to the provincial and metropolitan urban-rural world. It bypasses the strength of the rural/urban or countryside/city dichotomy, as well as the analytical protagonism of the metropolis, to interpret the connectivities of scalar agglomerations where the resistances and/or virtualities of ruralities are the reasons underlying the connections. The theoretical revision and the methodological proposal were supported on the mining sites of Pirenópolis (Goias, Brazil) and Real de Catorce (San Luis Potosi, Mexico).The geographic tourist status seeks to relativize the protagonism of the metropolis as the core of global agglomeration-difussion of the urban era. This requires deeper territorial analysis involving the social, mental, and physical perspectives; in other words, it is at the core of the spatial dialectics. This proposal is justified by being contextually singular and theoretically universal, contrary to the thesis of the urban era that isolates, dicotomizes and eclipses the rural-urban symbiosis, which is the source and lasting aspect of cities. The geographic tourist status is produced by the rural nature as well as by the real and virtual rurality (small city) and imagined rurality (metropolis). Thus, the cartography of the geographic tourist status should consider (i) the mutual interaction and overlap of flows between small and large (or medium) cities, and (ii) the interactions with and between attractive locations on the site or small city itself and its surroundings.The analysis of the small Latin American cities Pirenópolis (Brazil) and Real de Catorce (Mexico) made it possible to confirm the thesis regarding the rural-urban friction, tension, and symbiosis by tourism through the individual and collective imaginary originating in the metropolis, which virtualizes the concrete ruralities inherent to these centers.The representation of this spatial situation integrates a palimpsest of scales, temporalities and variables unique to the provincial and metropolitan urban-rural world. Methodologically, consideration should be given to the technical-political content of each moment within the continuum revealing those perpetually linked worlds -- rural and urban -- that constitute a lasting symbiosis through which the territory brings together history without clear ruptures.

The aim of this study is to compare the effects of a warm-up with the application of loaded and unloaded jumps on the performance in speed, horizontal jumps and vertical jumps in youth handball players. The sample consists of 13 handball players from the city of San Carlos (16.2 ± 1.3 years). An experimental study with a randomized crossover design carried out. 3 different heating protocols applied, which involved running more dynamic stretching (RS), running, dynamic stretching and jumping (RSJ) and finally running, dynamic stretching and jumps loaded with 8% of your body weight (RSLJ). For the pre- and post-warming assessments, a countermovement jump test (CMJ), horizontal jump (HJ) and were used through a 20-meter timed to sprint test. The results show significant differences between pre- and post-test for the 3 groups in the SH (difference for CES: 0.09 ± 0.12; CESH: 0.12 ± 0.16 and EC: 0.07 ± 0.16), while only CES and CESH significantly improved the height in CMJ and sprint time of 20 meters (difference for CMJ: 2.95 ± 0.56 and 3.50 ± 0.73; and sprint 20 meters: 0.29 ± 0,31 and 0.20 ± 0.26, respectively). In conclusion, a warm-up that includes different types of jumps is effective in improving SH, CMJ and speed in 20 meters. More research needed to determine specific benefits of handheld loading jumps to improve physical performance.

Aim: To evaluate the effect of an adapted physical education program on students with hearing impairment on the motor quotient. Method: The design of the study was quasi-experimental, with convenience sampling, involving thirty-eight children with an average age of 7.4 ± 0.9 years, diagnosed with weakness or hearing loss, from two schools of the city of Mexicali, Baja California. Mexico. The participants were randomly divided into an experimental group (n = 23) and a control group (n = 15). The motor quotient was evaluated using the KTK children's body coordination test (Kiphard Körperkoordinationstest für Kindergarten and Schiling, as per the German acronym), through the tests, balancing movements of backs, jumps on one foot, lateral jumps and transposition on a platform. The program was carried out for four months, five times a week, with a duration of 50 minutes per session. The communication with the students was through the Mexican sign language, and the tasks performed emphasized motor coordination. Results: When comparing the results between groups of the motor quotient variable, with the mixed analysis of variance (ANOVA) 2 x 2, a doubly significant interaction between the groups and the measurements was observed (p = 0.01); the percentages of change (Δ %) were 26% for the experimental group, and 6.5% for the control group (Δ%). Conclusion: It is established that the application of a physical education program adapted for four months improves the motor coordination in children with hearing disabilities.

Introduction: The relationship between intraocular pressure (IOP) and acute exercise has been studied in recent years. It has been found that acute exercise has a positive effect on IOP; however, aerobic exercise and strength exercise present different results. As for acute aerobic exercise, it can be mentioned that it provides a positive effect on the intraocular pressure since it decreases, while the strength exercise gives variability in the results obtained according to the research studies consulted. Purpose: Show the results obtained from the investigation related to the aerobic exercise and strength exercise and intraocular pressure in order to provide recommendations to healthy populations with glaucoma. Methods: The literature review searched for articles in the following databases: SportDiscus with complete text, PsycINFO, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection, Rehabilitation & Sports Medicine Source, Google academics, Research Gate, PubMed.Results: Acute aerobic exercise seems to have a significant effect on intraocular pressure: it decreases it. This result occurs in sedentary people with glaucoma. For physically active people or athletes, in order to reduce IOP, it is necessary to exercise at higher intensities compared to sedentary people. Regarding the length of acute aerobic exercise, it seems that, with only 5 minutes, there is a decrease in IOP. At the end of the exercise, the acute effect of aerobic exercise seems to be maintained for a short time in the IOP; more research on  the chronic effect is necessary. Also, more research is needed and should involve variables, such as sex and age, within the study analyses and not as descriptive statistics, in order to know the effect of exercise on them. Regarding the strength exercises, the IOP increases in the upper part of the body when compared with exercises in the lower part. High-intensity strength exercises increase the IOP. Conclusions: The results show that people with normal visual condition and glaucoma can perform aerobic exercise, achieving a positive effect on their visual health. On the other hand, there is a lack of research in strength exercise; it is recommended that these studies be conducted at low intensities, according to the data obtained in this review. Regarding the quality of the studies found, the designs could be improved in the investigations. Most of these studies did not have control groups, nor did they specify the intensity; besides, they missed including descriptive aspects needed to be able to have more accurate information.

The purpose of the study was to relate the levels of physical activity identified in university students with their gender and the academic program to which they belong. The cross-sectional methodology with stratified simple random sampling design without replacement, with a sample size of 329 students, was evaluated by probabilistic surveys using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire short version. The Excel program was used to tabulate the data and the statistical software R-project to obtain BoxPlot graphics and Chi2 test, as well as the correspondence analysis for multivariate data representation. The results were that 65.7% of the students are at a low level, 19.8% on a moderate level, 14.6% in a high level of physical activity. The prevalence of low levels of physical activity in men was 55.6% and in women 70.6%. Statistically, the level of physical activity depends on the student's gender (p <0.05), with women obtaining a lower level of physical activity. The level of physical activity also depends on the undergraduate program that the student studies (p <0.05), acquiring higher levels of physical activity those who study Bachelor of Physical Education. In conclusion, most of the university students are in the margin of sedentarism, with a higher prevalence in women and academic programs with few human movement practices. For this reason, it is suggested to encourage strategies that promote the performance of a regular physical activity, independently of the existence of programs, such as Physiotherapy whose object of study is focused on human movement.