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The purpose of this article is to discuss the characteristics of China’s strategic partners in Latin America, emphasizing the foreign policy orientations of these nations towards China.

The first part is a theoretical analysis of the foreign economic policy orientations of the Chinese strategic partners in South America. In the second part, attention is paid to the empirical regularities of economic cooperation between China and its South American strategic partners.

China seeks to diversify the profile of its strategic partnerships, as long as they increase Chinas complexity in the orientation of cooperation, using a multidimensional approach, based on three strategic cooperation networks (partners based on ideological affinities, geo-economic partners and trade partners).

This article increases the understanding of how new strategic partnerships take a more active position in the new great geo-economic game in which China is involved. China increases its facilitation role in Latin American Pacific rim countries, as well as its influence in countries historically close to the USA.

The objective of this study is to address the diplomatic and economic implications of the participation of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) countries in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The study examines official documents related to the BRI and LAC's signing of the Memorandum of Understanding within the framework of the BRI (MoUs) in order to look into what it means to join the BRI. Additionally, it also introduces the findings of articles in Asian Education and Development Studies' current issue published in 2020.

In LAC, the BRI does not represent a new policy, but rather the updating and rebranding of a pre-existing one. The BRI primarily consists of an official discursive framework which aims to build a coherent narrative for a wide range of different projects and policies geared toward the improvement of connectivity with China through the development of trade and investments. However, most of these projects were implemented prior to the BRI. Pragmatism lies at the core of this framework which neither has a regulated accession process nor any binding effects. As a result, the signing the MoU represents, foremost, a diplomatic mise-en-scène. The study operates under the belief that BRI membership is not dichotomous; rather, it must be observed in terms of the countries' level of participation. In line with this, the implementation of a generalized BRI policy in LAC countries would not be advisable. Moreover, it must be noted that the BRI's reach to Latin America can be rather problematic due to the fact that the latter was not initially a participant.

The study aims to explore the significance of the BRI beyond the official discourse and discuss the involvement of LAC countries in it. Scholars studying the BRI in other regions have noted that there is not enough information on this policy in the context of LAC.

Consumer inclination towards probiotic foods has been stimulated due to well-documented evidence of health benefits of probiotic-containing products and consumer demand for natural products. It is assumed that the viability and metabolic activities of probiotics are essential for extending health benefits and for successful marketing of probiotics as a functional food. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that even dead or inactivated probiotic cells could extend health benefits, indicating that probiotic viability is not always necessary for exhibiting health benefits.

Attempt has been made to review the literature on the status of probiotic foods available in the world market, their impact on the gut flora and the various factors affecting their viability. Both review and research papers related to efficacy of inactivated, killed or dead probiotic cells towards health benefits have been considered. Keywords used for data search included efficacy of viable or killed, inactivated probiotic cells.

The reviewed literature indicated that inactivated, killed or dead probiotic cells also possess functional properties but live cells are more efficacious. All live probiotic cultures are not equally efficacious, and accordingly, dead or inactivated cells did not demonstrate functional properties to extend health benefits to all diseases.

Capability of non-viable microorganisms to confer health benefits may attract food manufacturers owing to certain advantages over live probiotics such as longer shelf-life, handling and transportation and reduced requirements for refrigerated storage and inclusion of non-bacterial, biologically active metabolites present in fermented milks’ fraction as dried powders to food matrixes may result in the development of new functional foods.

Fishes are important sources of good and high-quality protein in developing countries. Spoilage and keeping quality of fish especially in the tropics is temperature dependence as high temperature and relative humidity accelerate the process of spoilage and fish keeping quality. Fish dehydration removed moisture and extended the shelf life of dried fish. Drying involves removal of moisture from fish as a result of heat and mass transfer done under controlled conditions. This study delves into various drying techniques and drying kinetics of fish.

The review examines fish drying kinetics and the various drying models applicable to fish drying.

This review showed that moisture content and colour of dried fish are affected by time and power level. It was also found that the moisture content of the dried fish varied according to the drying method used. Also, as drying power and drying rate varied inversely with drying time. Eight different thin layer drying models were examined for evaluation of drying data for all the experimental conditions involving fish drying. It was found that the quality of the dried fish decreased with drying. Higher values of effective moisture diffusivity have been found to increase moisture velocity within fish samples which improve removal of moisture to reach equilibrium moisture content at specified relative humidity. However, based on this, effective moisture diffusivity could be a useful parameter to design an effective drying method in terms of time, energy consumption and cost to prolong the storage life of dried fish samples. Drying kinetics and different drying models were considered and explained. The use of these models was considered to be important in choosing appropriate drying conditions for effective drying and to get good quality dried fish samples.

The review considers few available literatures on the subject matter.

The review explores the possibility of creating more awareness for more in-depth research on fish drying kinetics and their usefulness in fish preservation.

This outcome of this study is important to researchers, policymakers and regulatory agencies in developing countries on fish preservation.