Research on WASH sector, environment and water resources in the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia

Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Regular computer users perform better in key school subjects, OECD study shows

Según el informe, aunque hay aún una cantidad considerable de estudiantes que tienen pocas oportunidades para usar los ordenadores, queda claro que consiguen mejores resultados en las asignaturas si los emplean. Y más todavía, los estudiantes de matemáticas que emplean PCs durante unos cuantos años en sus estudios obtienen mejores calificaciones que aquellos que los han utilizado poco tiempo por lo que tenderán a retrasarse respecto sus compañeros de curso. Por otra parte, tanto las chicas como los chicos tienen las mismas oportunidades de acceso a los ordenadores escolares, pero a pesar de que en las escuelas se dispone cada vez de más ordenadores, los estudiantes de quince años los utilizan más en su casa. Al respecto hay que destacar que los estudiantes usan los PC en casa "para muchas funciones y no sólo para jugar". "La mitad de los estudiantes encuestados decían hacer un uso frecuente de los procesadores de textos i de Internet como una herramienta de búsqueda de información"

Barcelona Regional : Past and Present

Aquest llibre és part de l'obra "Barcelona Regional, passat i present" / "Rondes Barcelona, present i futur" que inclou també la publicació Rondes Barcelona, present i futur.Publicació amb motiu de la celebració dels 25 anys de Barcelona Regional (BR) on es recull el passat i projecta el futur del seu paper com a eina clau pel desenvolupament urbà de la ciutat i l’àrea metropolitana de Barcelon

Classificació automàtica amb KLASS de les dades de procés d'una EDAR

In this study an automatic cluster is done on data froma a Waster Water Treatment Plant to obtain specific knowledge of an ill-structured domain like biological wastewater treatment process. The whole process requires the supervision of the expert of the process. This clustering is done using KLASS, which allows to deal simultaneously with numerical and symbolic variables in the description of objects. From this automatic classification, we obtain a set of clusters that can be labelled as typical operational states. All the knowledge and information acquired will be constitute the initial library of a case base reasoning system that together with expert system constitute a decision support system for this WWTP.Postprint (published version

Towards a sustainability-based society: an analysis of fundamental values from the perspective of economics and philosophy

Sustainable development faces numerous challenges when applied in the real-world global economic model of capitalism. The prevailing trend of the economic pillar, in the implementation of sustainability planning based on the triple bottom line (TBL), compromises both the environment and society. This paper aims to address such challenges by proposing a new vision of strong sustainability that is characterised by: i) considering the global economic model in a real-world approach; and ii) having strong core values of sustainability. To evaluate the first characteristic, a review of the literature regarding capitalism and TBL-sustainability has been conducted. For the second characteristic, a historical-philosophical discussion around the role of society and the economy has been conducted. The results suggest that an actual sustainable society requires a fixed and sustained focus on environmental and social pillars together with a flexible organisation of society (including its economic model).Peer ReviewedObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::2 - Fam zeroObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::3 - Salut i BenestarObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::1 - Fi de la PobresaObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::4 - Educació de QualitatObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::15 - Vida d'Ecosistemes TerrestresObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::17 - Aliança per a Aconseguir els ObjetiusObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::16 - Pau, Justícia i Institucions SòlidesObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::5 - Igualtat de GènereObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::6 - Aigua Neta i SanejamentObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::7 - Energia Assequible i No ContaminantObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::9 - Indústria, Innovació i InfraestructuraObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::10 - Reducció de les DesigualtatsObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::11 - Ciutats i Comunitats SosteniblesObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::12 - Producció i Consum ResponsablesObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::13 - Acció per al ClimaObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::14 - Vida SubmarinaPostprint (published version

Safety culture maturity in several latin America mining activities

Health and safety is a crucial issue in the mining industry because of the implication of fatalities in this sector. A study of safety culture maturity in several Latin America countries has been done based on the model from Filho et al. [1]. The questionnaire includes 28 items regarding the type of activity, number of employees and safety culture characteristics of the activity: Information of accidents and misses, organizational structure to deal with the information, involvement of the company in health and safety issues, the way it communicates accidents and misses and commitment of the company towards health and safety. The questionnaire was completed by 58 mining company managers from Bolivia, Peru, Colombia and Mexico. Results show different behaviours depending on the type of company, cooperative or private company. When private companies are analysed, it is seen a level of maturity according to the size of the company, whereas cooperatives does not have a clear trend in terms of size apart from very small cooperatives, less than 10 employees. However, there is a remarkable difference between cooperatives that have implemented continuous improvement systems and the others. In particular, cooperatives with a continuous improvement system have been analysed, displaying much higher safety culture levels. Therefore, it can be concluded that private companies improve their level of safety culture as the size of the company increase, because procedures and control systems are implemented. When cooperative or small companies introduce similar systems they also achieve substantial gains, but their approach is different. Managers from cooperatives have to see economic reasons to implement it, such as the Fairmined certificate.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Service-learning in engineering: analysis of students experiences in development cooperation

Peer ReviewedObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::4 - Educació de QualitatObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::6 - Aigua Neta i SanejamentObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::3 - Salut i BenestarObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::13 - Acció per al ClimaObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::17 - Aliança per a Aconseguir els ObjetiusPostprint (published version