Las industrias extractivas y sus implicaciones políticas y económicas

This article reviews the academic literature on the relationship between dependency on extractive industries for export and economic and political performance in developing countries, presenting a state of the art. It first reviews the relationship between dependency on extractive industries for export and political violence, discussing why there are more civil wars in countries that show that dependence. It then reviews the relationship between dependency on extractive industries for export and political regime, discussing the influence that such a dependency might have over prospects for democracy. It finally reviews the relationship between dependency on extractive industries for export and economic and institutional performance, i.e., the so called «resource curse». El artículo revisa la literatura académica sobre la relación entre dependencia de industrias extractivas de exportación y desempeño económico y político en Estados en desarrollo, elaborando un estado de la cuestión. Revisa primero la relación entre dependencia de industrias extractivas de exportación y violencia política y discute por qué hay más guerras civiles en países que dependen de esas industrias. Revisa luego la relación entre dependencia de industrias extractivas de exportación y régimen político y examina la influencia que puede tener esa dependencia en las perspectivas de democratización. Revisa finalmente la relación entre dependencia de industrias extractivas de exportación y desempeño económico e institucional (es decir, la denominada «maldición de los recursos»)

Elementos de una aproximación interpretativa a las Ciencias Sociales

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The Effect of Lean Techniques on Elimination of Waste in Composite Panel Production Using Paired t-test

‘A penny saved is a penny earned’ as this phrase says it all, the key for increased profit lies in the elimination of non-value adding actions in any production process. This study concentrates mainly on the procedures to identify and to reduce the different types of wastes in a production process. Initially the data related to types of waste and their classification according lean techniques were analyzed and implemented on a production process. The data were recorded for a whole month before implementation and for a whole month after implementation. Later the influence of the lean techniques was analyzed on two different sections of waste, for 5% significance value using paired t-test. It was found that there is a positive impact of lean techniques on some areas of production flow

Oxidative fluorination of iridium metal for urban mining: Kinetic studies

AbstractThe process of oxidative fluorination of a compact iridium metal has been studied. For this purpose, tetrafluoridobromates(III) of alkali and alkaline-earth metals were chosen as oxidizing agents with numerous advantages. The main results of this work include the kinetic dependencies for the two following processes: 1) interaction of iridium with molten potassium tetrafluoridobromate; and 2) interaction of iridium with a solution of potassium tetrafluoridobromate in liquid bromine trifluoride. In both cases it has been found out that iridium can be transformed into its soluble fluorinated derivative; the reaction with molten potassium tetrafluoridobromate proceeds almost 50 times faster (in comparison to the interaction in BrF3 solution) and can be potentially applied for the practical purposes

Environmental performance of peruvian waste management systems under a life cycle approach

Peru generated in 2014 a total of 7.5 million metric tons of municipal solid waste (MSW). Of these, 47 % of residues ended up in open dumpsites and only 21 % were sent to controlled landfills. Efforts must be made to conduct a change from open dumpsites to sanitary landfills, reaching an adequate and sustainable waste management system. This study aims at meeting this challenge by means of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. In particular, the objective of this study is to develop a life cycle model that will allow the estimation of environmental impacts linked to waste landfilling in Peru, and to compare in further studies alternatives to determine a more environmentally sustainable solution. The model is flexible in order to be adapted to the three main geo-climatic regions in Peru: the hyper-arid coast, the Andean Highlands and the Amazon Rainforest. The life cycle model was developed with the EASETECH software, taking into account the phases of construction, operation and end-of-life the Peruvian landfills. The main parameters of this model include waste composition and the characteristics and treatment of the leachate and landfill gas, taking into consideration local parameters such as temperature, humidity and precipitation intensity. The model lays the foundation stone to determine the main hotspots in Peruvian sanitary landfills. This information will allow achieving an adequate and sustainable waste management by proposing improvement measures to help stakeholders in the decision-making process

La motivación y la felicidad en el trabajo en Supermercados Wong

La motivación y la felicidad en el trabajo son dos conceptos que van de la mano. Cuando un colaborador se siente feliz en su lugar de trabajo, este va a estar motivado a alcanzar ciertas metas personales y también las de la organización. En el siguiente artículo se expone el caso de la empresa Wong, donde se demuestra el alto nivel de motivación y satisfacción de los trabajadores en sus centros laborales. A través de distintos beneficios que se les ofrece a los trabajadores, uno de ellos son los beneficios de integración y calidad de vida. Cencosud, empresa matriz de Wong, implementó un programa de reconocimiento llamado Cencosud Clima Awards. De esta manera, se demuestra cómo este programa aparte de servir como motivación para los trabajadores porque los reconoce por sus logros, ha podido demostrar que además los trabajadores se sienten muy satisfechos en su lugar de trabajo

Targeted sensibility: Costa Rica’s public opinion and foreign policy towards Nicaragua

Proyecto de investigación B4704 "Estudios de opinión pública" del Centro de Investigación y Estudios Políticos (CIEP) y la Escuela de Ciencias Políticas, con el apoyo del Semanario Universidad.Investigaciones previas han constatado la importancia de la opinión pública sobre los asuntos de política exterior. Este estudio busca identificar la estructura de la opinión costarricense y estimar el efecto de un evento internacional relevante: un fallo de la Corte Internacional de Justicia en el caso Costa Rica vs. Nicaragua. Para ello, se utiliza una serie de encuestas que han incorporado de forma periódica preguntas sobre asuntos exteriores. Se puede confirmar que la valoración de la política exterior constituye una dimensión relativamente autónoma respecto a la política doméstica. Además, los modelos indican que la percepción sobre la conducción de las relaciones exteriores en el país mejoró significativamente luego de conocerse el fallo. Estos resultados muestran que la opinión pública responde ante lo internacional, aunque esto acontece en condiciones de especial sensibilidad, como las relaciones con Nicaragua.Previous research has noted the importance of public opinion on foreign policy issues. This study seeks to identify Costa Ricans’ public opinion structure, in order to estimate the effect of a relevant international event: the International Court of Justice’s decision on the case Costa Rica vs. Nicaragua. For this purpose, we use a series of surveys, which have periodically incorporated questions related to foreign affairs. It can be confirmed that the approval of foreign policy and domestic policy are relatively autonomous dimensions. In addition, the models indicate that the perception of foreign relations in the country improved significantly after the Court’s decision was known. These results show that public opinion in Costa Rica responds to international events, although this happens in conditions of special sensitivity, such as relations with Nicaragua.Universidad de Costa Rica/[833-B4-704]/UCR/Costa RicaUCR::Vicerrectoría de Docencia::Ciencias Sociales::Facultad de Ciencias Sociales::Escuela de Ciencias Política

Combined application of Life Cycle Assessment and linear programming to evaluate food waste-to-food strategies: Seeking for answers in the nexus approach

The great concern regarding food loss (FL) has been studied previously, but in an isolated way, disregarding interdependencies with other areas. This paper aims to go a step further by proposing a new procedure to assess different waste management alternatives based on the nexus approach by means of an integrated Water-Energy-Food-Climate Nexus Index (WEFCNI). The environmental profile of the waste management techniques is determined using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) which, in combination with Linear Programming (LP), explores the optimal aggregation of weighting factors that lead to an aggregated nexus index. The management of residues from the anchovy canning industry in Cantabria (Spain) has been used as a case study, considering the three current applied alternatives: (i) valorisation of FL as animal feed in aquaculture (food waste-to-food approach), (ii) incineration of FL with energy recovery, and (iii) landfilling with biogas recovery. The last two considered the use of energy recovered to produce a new aquaculture product (food waste-to-energy-to-food scenarios). The results indicate that incineration is the best performing scenario when the nutritional energy provided by the valorisation alternative is not high enough and the valorisation technology presents the highest water consumption. Therefore, a minimisation in the consumption of natural resources is suggested in order to improve the application of circular economy within the sector. The use of the nexus index as an environmental management tool is extendable to any food system with the aim of facilitating the decision-making process in the development of more sustainable products.The authors thank the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of the Spanish Government for its financial support via the project GeSAC-Conserva: Sustainable Management of the Cantabrian Anchovies (CTM2013-43539-R) and to Julia Celaya for her technical support. Jara Laso thanks the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spanish Government for its financial support via the research fellowship BES-2014-069368. Pere Fullana and Alba Bala thank the UNESCO Chair in Life Cycle and Climate Change. Ian Vázquez-Rowe thanks the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú for financing the Walaya Project

The coexistence of peace and conflict in South America: toward a new conceptualization of types of peace

South America's predominant democratic regimes and its increasing interdependence on regional trade have not precluded the emergence of militarized crises between Colombia and Venezuela or the revival of boundary claims between Chile and Peru. This way, how can we characterize a zone that, in spite of its flourishing democracy and dense economic ties, remain involved in territorial disputes for whose resolution the use of force has not yet been discarded? This article contends that existing classifications of zones of peace are not adequate to explain this unusual coexistence. Thus, its main purpose is to develop a new analytical category of regional peace for assessing this phenomenon: the hybrid peace. It aims to research the evolution of security systems in South America during the previous century and build a new, threefold classification of peace zones: negative peace zones, hybrid peace zones, and positive peace zones