Identifying criteria for evaluating Cloud Services in the Colombian public sector

The Colombian e-government strategy, defined by the Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications (MinTIC), advises Colombian public entities to evaluate the possibility of adopting cloud services instead of acquiring and implementing technology infrastructures. In addition, the MinTIC defined the government\u27s reference framework for enterprise architecture, which establishes a set of guidelines to ensure the quality of IT services. Public institutions should comply with these directives even when they contract services with external providers. In this context, this article aims at identifying evaluation criteria to enable Colombian state institutions to assess the convenience of adopting cloud services in compliance with the MinTIC’s guidelines. To this end, we review the research literature in the field and analyze the e-government guidelines to extract evaluation criteria. As a result, 48 criteria were found and classified in six evaluation categories

Water Funds: Conserving Green Infrastructure

This manual is an effort by TNC to compile, analyze and synthesize its own experience, together with that of the water funds already in existence and under creation, in order to provide operational guidelines to people and organizations interested in establishing a water fund or similar mechanism. Each location has different ecological, social, economic, legal and institutional features and, therefore, each water fund will have its own characteristics, phases and projections. This manual presents general guidelines and logical steps that must be followed to boost the opportunities and benefits of a water fund and to minimize possible obstacles for its creation. It is not intended to be an in-depth look at every aspect of water funds. Although TNC participates in several other initiatives and similar approaches to watershed management, such as the water producers program in Brazil, this document will not address those initiatives and will only focus on the water funds scheme, placing greater emphasis on experiences in the Andean region

OntoTouTra: tourist traceability ontology based on big data analytics

Tourist traceability is the analysis of the set of actions, procedures, and technical measures that allows us to identify and record the space–time causality of the tourist’s touring, from the beginning to the end of the chain of the tourist product. Besides, the traceability of tourists has implications for infrastructure, transport, products, marketing, the commercial viability of the industry, and the management of the destination’s social, environmental, and cultural impact. To this end, a tourist traceability system requires a knowledge base for processing elements, such as functions, objects, events, and logical connectors among them. A knowledge base provides us with information on the preparation, planning, and implementation or operation stages. In this regard, unifying tourism terminology in a traceability system is a challenge because we need a central repository that promotes standards for tourists and suppliers in forming a formal body of knowledge representation. Some studies are related to the construction of ontologies in tourism, but none focus on tourist traceability systems. For the above, we propose OntoTouTra, an ontology that uses formal specifications to represent knowledge of tourist traceability systems. This paper outlines the development of the OntoTouTra ontology and how we gathered and processed data from ubiquitous computing using Big Data analysis techniquesThis research was financially supported by the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation of Colombia (733-2015) and by the Universidad Santo Tomás Seccional Tunja

Using GIS to Predict Corn Yields in Colombia

Crop yield prediction can play an important role in developing the agriculture sector in Colombia. Remote sensing and GIS have proven to be an effective mechanism for this purpose in developed economies. This project created a proof-of-concept application for the Colombian Ministry of Agriculture and other related governmental institutions. The project used existing methodologies including the classification of satellite imagery, interpolation of climate data into continuous surfaces, the extraction of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, and the computation of multiple linear regressions. ESRI ArcGIS provided the interface, software, tools and functions to build the application, and to integrate and automate the application‟s functionalities. Cloud coverage in the imagery and the lack of specialized data affected the accuracy of the crop yields estimates. Nevertheless, the application predicts corn yields with an estimated accuracy of 71% when cloud coverage is minimal. The application can use both Landsat and Spot preprocessed images, and in less than six minutes yield predictions for areas inside Cordoba, a major corn producing state in Colombia

Assessing and classification of academic efficiency in engineering teaching programs

This research uses a three-phase method to evaluate and forecast the academic efficiency of engineering programs. In the first phase, university profiles are created through cluster analysis. In the second phase, the academic efficiency of these profiles is evaluated through Data Envelopment Analysis. Finally, a machine learning model is trained and validated to forecast the categories of academic efficiency. The study population corresponds to 256 university engineering programs in Colombia and the data correspond to the national examination of the quality of education in Colombia in 2018. In the results, two university profiles were identified with efficiency levels of 92.3% and 97.3%, respectively. The Random Forest model presents an Area under ROC value of 95.8% in the prediction of the efficiency profiles. The proposed structure evaluates and predicts university programs’ academic efficiency, evaluating the efficiency between institutions with similar characteristics, avoiding a negative bias toward those institutions that host students with low educational levels

Analysis and diagnostic of Colombian automated manufacturing production

El artículo presenta un enfoque de la automatización hacia los procesos de manufactura en la industria colombiana, teniendo en cuenta diferentes medios de información los cuales generan multiplicidad de datos acerca de la actualidad y el futuro de las empresas respecto a innovación y competitividad nacional e internacional. De otra manera, se dan a conocer los beneficios de la implementación de la automatización en la industria manufacturera desde varios ejes facilitando la adopción de ésta, además, se realiza un análisis comparativo sobre los procesos manufactureros desarrollados en Colombia versus las tendencias industriales actuales, donde se realizan sugerencias factibles para la ejecución de éstos, en los procesos manufactureros para el mejoramiento de la economía colombiana.The article presents an approach to automation with regards to manufacturing processes in the Colombian industrial context taking into account different sources of information that generate a multiplicity of data concerning the present and future of companies facing innovation and national and international competitivity. On the other hand, the benefits of automation implementation in the manufacturing industry are exposed from several angles, thus easing up the understanding of its implementation. In addition to that, a comparative analysis is carried out with respect to the manufacturing processes implemented in Colombia and current industry trends and feasible suggestions for their application to manufacturing procedures so as to improve Colombian economy are proposed

Automation Factors Influencing the Operation of IoT in Health Institutions: A Decision Support Methodology

Health institutions are adopting new technologies for their processes through automation by means of the concept of "Internet of Things" (IoT). Hence, offering innovative tools, applications and technology for the collection of key data and information, which is then integrated and consolidated, covering the different systems and their collaborators. The necessity of receiving quality medical services is essential in the public Policy of any country. The increasing demand for having an adequate number of medical specialists, pharmacies and medications stock, dental and mental health coverage and other, together with the minimization of the waiting list and patient care time have been a crucial concern. Under this context, it is valuable to redesign the processes planning and its coordination through the use of Information & Communications Technology (ICT) and IoT that unifies the systems. Based on previous research, the general purpose is to generate a system model to examine healthcare quality of service and corroborate its effectiveness in a real environment. The aim of this paper focus on the development of a decision support model to define key areas where the inclusion of IoT would sustain the efficiency in health care service. The research methodology is based on case study, integrating planning processes, data analysis, scoring method that interacts with multicriteria approach. A pilot case study is pursued in health institutions in Chile, determining critical factors and the current automation level system appraisal to generate actions of improvement in processes that show poor service quality. The results give rise to the development of an investment plan that can be converted into action plans for a health institution

AIM Triad: A Prioritization Strategy for Public Institutions to Improve Information Security Maturity

In today’s world, private and government organizations are legally obligated to prioritize their information security. They need to provide proof that they are continually improving their cybersecurity compliance. One approach that can help organizations achieve this goal is implementing information security maturity models. These models provide a structured framework for measuring performance and implementing best practices. However, choosing a suitable model can be challenging, requiring cultural, process, and work practice changes. Implementing multiple models can be overwhelming, if possible. This article proposes a prioritization strategy for public institutions that want to improve their information security maturity. We thoroughly analyzed various sources through systematic mapping to identify critical similarities in information security maturity models. Our research led us to create the AIM (Awareness, Infrastructure, and Management) Triad. This triad is a practical guide for organizations to achieve maturity in information security practices.This work received partial support from Proyecto DIUFRO DI21-0079 and Proyecto DIUFRO DI22-0043, Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco. Chile

Un análisis bibliométrico sobre los Programas de Salud y Bienestar Laboral: principales perspectivas de investigación

The implementation of Workplace Health and Wellness Programs aims to improve the health and wellness conditions of employees, reduce absenteeism and in turn positively impact productivity in organizations; however, there has been no evidence of a bibliometric analysis that has allowed identifying research trends by the academic community applying the Tree of Science (ToS) methodology. To cover this aspect, articles published from 2001 to 2020 in the Web of Science database were reviewed, building the ToS of Workplace Health and Wellness Programs, identifying and analyzing the three main research perspectives: health promotion and prevention, mental stress intervention and burnout prevention, and prevention of the effects of obesity through physical activity. Taking into account that the literature identified in this review has been generated mostly in the United States and the United Kingdom, it is recommended that future research be conducted in our country to serve as an academic reference for Colombian organizations to strengthen the management of the health and well-being of  their human talent.La implementación de Programas de Salud y Bienestar Laboral tiene como propósito mejorar las condiciones de salud y bienestar de los empleados, reducir el absentismo y a su vez impactar positivamente la productividad en las organizaciones; sin embargo, no se ha evidenciado un análisis bibliométrico que haya permitido identificar y analizar las perspectivas de investigación de los Programas de Salud y Bienestar Laboral por parte de la comunidad académica aplicando la metodología del árbol de la ciencia (en adelante ToS). Para cubrir este aspecto se revisaron los artículos publicados desde el año 2001 hasta el 2020 en la base de datos Web of Science, construyendo el árbol de la ciencia de los Programas de Salud y Bienestar Laboral, identificando y analizando las tres principales perspectivas de investigación: la promoción y prevención en salud, la intervención del estrés mental y la prevención del burnout, y la prevención de los efectos de la obesidad a través de la actividad física. Teniendo en cuenta que la literatura identificada en la presente revisión se ha generado en mayor proporción en Estados Unidos y Reino Unido, se recomienda la realización de futuras investigaciones en nuestro país que sirvan de referencia académica para que las organizaciones colombianas fortalezcan la gestión de la salud y el bienestar laboral de su talento humano.