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The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted a unique global experience, arousing both exclusionary nationalistic and inclusionary responses of solidarity. This article aims to explore the discursive and linguistic means by which the COVID-19 pandemic, as a macro-event, has been translated into local micro-events. The analysis studies the global pandemic through the initial statements of 29 leading political actors across four continents. The aim is to examine discursive constructions of solidarity and nationalism through the social representation of inclusion/exclusion of in-, out-, and affiliated groups. The comparative analysis is based on the theoretical and methodological framework of the socio-cognitive approach to critical discourse analysis and is informed by argumentation theory and nationalism studies. The results of our analysis suggest that leaders have constructed the virus as the main outgroup through the metaphors of the pandemic-as-war and the pandemic-as-movement which have entered the national space. Faced with this threat, these speeches have discursively constructed the nation-as-a-team as the main in-group and prioritized (1) a vertical type of solidarity based on nationhood and according to governmental plans; (2) exclusionary solidarity against rule-breakers; (3) horizontal solidarity that is both intergenerational and among family members, and (4) transnational solidarity. It is not by chance that the world stands as a relevant affiliated group that needs to forcibly collaborate in order to face the main outgroup, the virus itself. A major consensus has been found in constructing the out-group. In contrast, the linguistic and discursive constructions of in-groups and their affiliates display a greater variation, depending upon the prevalent discursive practices and social context within different countries.

Este ensayo analiza el periodismo alternativo en Cuba de manera comparada, explicando cómo su deslegitimación legal y discursiva ha servido para justificar ataques tanto directos como indirectos contra los periodistas. El principal argumento es que los acercamientos positivistas pasan por alto las agresiones estructurales y simbólicas que sufren los periodistas, que son difícilmente computables. A esto se une el acercamiento occidental binario a los socialismos tardíos, que ignora la voz de los mismos periodistas y la manera en que experimentan y reaccionan a los ataques. El principal argumento es la necesidad de superar estas barreras analíticas, analizando los ataques contra periodistas alternativos desde una perspectiva interdisciplinar que navegue entre la teoría crítica (Fuchs, 2017; Rogers, 2019) y la teoría decolonial (Mignolo, 2005). Esto nos permitiría entender mejor el rechazo y el miedo que experimentan los periodistas, así como la manera en que se defienden en redes solidarias de apoyo.

In view of the importance of female reproductive traits as a key profit indicator in beef-cattle production systems, the objective of the present study was to explore the relationships between female sexual precocity and potential predictive traits of easy and early measurement, related to the productive and reproductive efficiency. Heifers born in 2011 and 2012 (n = 132) from five genetic groups (Angus, Hereford, Angus-Hereford, Hereford-Angus and Argentine Creole) in 2 years (Trial 1 and Trial 2) under grazing conditions were evaluated. After weaning, the presence of corpus luteum, liveweight, body condition score, hip height, rump fat thickness and rib fat thickness were recorded every 28 days, and Longissimus muscle area at 15 months of age. Also, to evaluate the relationships between age at puberty and the subsequent production efficiency, the annual records of 895 cows (217 Angus, 253 Hereford, 125 Creole, 116 Angus-Hereford and 184 Hereford-Angus) born between 1986 and 2009 were studied to estimate the average annual productivity of cows, and its components of (Co)variance, heritability and breeding values. Nutritional conditions immediately after weaning were determinants in reaching puberty. The univariate animal model for average annual productivity showed a heritability of 0.14 ± 0.05. Regression multiple and covariance analyses revealed that the rib fat thickness at 450 days of age was a good predictor of age at puberty, but lose some relevance as early selection criterion. Finally, it is important for future studies to analyse in more detail the existence of critical thresholds of fat deposition for the onset of reproductive activity.