Corporate Social Responsibility and Peacebuilding: Analysis of a multinational company from Colombia

Resumen La presente investigación busca comprender de qué manera una multinacional 1 colombiana contribuye a la construcción de paz, a través del desarrollo de prácticas de Responsabilidad Social Empresarial -RSE- y conocer cuáles son los retos que enfrenta para que este ejercicio adopte un énfasis en construcción de paz. Para tal efecto, el estudio revisa los informes de sostenibilidad correspondientes al período 2010-2015 publicados por una multinacional que opera en Colombia y los analiza mediante el diseño de teoría fundamentada. Los resultados obtenidos muestran que la multinacional ha contribuido a la construcción de paz en el país, a través de su ejercicio de RSE, por medio de: la orientación hacia el desarrollo de sus stakeholders, la implementación de alianzas estratégicas, el enfoque de derechos humanos en las relaciones que establece con sus grupos de interés, el apoyo al emprendimiento, el impulso al desarrollo local y el impacto en el desarrollo económico y social del país. Con relación a los retos que enfrenta la multinacional analizada para alcanzar un ejercicio de RSE con énfasis en la construcción de paz se encuentra que esta requiere fortalecer la participación en acciones de reconciliación, el análisis del contexto en el que opera, la participación en procesos de negociación de paz, la vinculación laboral de excombatientes irregulares, así como, ampliar la visión de gestión de la diversidad y trascender de la perspectiva de prevención a la de promoción de la salud.Abstract The present research seeks to comprehend in what manner a Colombian multinational1 contributes to peacebuilding through Corporate Social Responsibility-CSR- practices development, and to know what challenges it faces in order for this exercise to adopt a peacebuilding emphasis. To that end, this study reviews sustainability reports corresponding to the 2010-2015 period published by a multinational operating in Colombia and analyses them by means of grounded theory design. The results obtained show that the multinational has contributed to our country’s peacebuilding through the exercise of its CSR by means of: orientation towards its stakeholders’ development, implementing strategic alliances, human right focus on the relationships established with its groups of interest, supporting entrepreneurship, boosting local development and the impact on our country’s economic and social development. With regards to the challenges faced by the analyzed multinational in order to reach a CSR exercise with emphasis on peacebuilding, it was found that it needs to strengthen its participation in reconciliation acts, analysis of the context in which it operates, participation in peace negotiation processes, work incorporation of irregular ex-combatants, as well as to widen its managerial vision of diversity and transcend from a perspective of prevention to health promoting

Análisis de la aplicación de barreras arancelarias a las importaciones ecuatorianas: caso textil y calzado

This document presents a tributary and economic analysis on the effect produced by the changes in foreign commercial policies in regards to the decisions of the agents of the Ecuadorian economy in order to verify at what extent local industry has been enhanced. Whit the objective of estimating specific effects, the analysis focuses on the measures on imports of textiles, leather goods and footwear, from 1996 to 2010. To analyze the economic impact on the changes of trade policies and to verify whether it meets the objectives of the government's economic program is necessary to work with the Armington’s import substitution elasticities. Finally, the analysis incorporates the effects on tax collection to assess the impacts on their payment. The Armington substitution elasticities estimated for Ecuador at the level of the Supply-Use table fluctuates between 0,343 and 0,788 for the footwear and textile industry respectively. These values suggest that the relationship between imported and domestic goods in the case of these industries is low replacement capacity, which means they are not perfect substitutes

Design of lightweight concrete with olive biomass bottom ash for use in buildings

The ash generated during the combustion of biomass in electricity generation plants is a waste that has increased considerably in recent years, and whose management constitutes an environmental problem. In this regard, the recovery of biomass bottom ash as a partial replacement of natural materials for use in different civil engineering applications, as well as for the manufacture of construction materials, has been the subject of numerous studies that have shown its technical feasibility. However, for its application in the development of new sustainable materials, with thermal insulation properties, it is necessary to expand our existing knowledge of it. In this study, the use of bottom ash from original and processed biomass bottom ash in the manufacture of lightweight concrete, as a replacement for sand (15%–25%) and expanded clay (25%–35%), has been evaluated. In addition, after subjecting the ash to a grinding process, it was also incorporated into the concrete by replacing cement. The physical, mechanical, thermal and durability properties were evaluated according to regulations and the results showed that the thermal treatment applied to biomass bottom ash improved the mechanical performance of lightweight concrete. Likewise, thermal conductivity was reduced by up to 43%, which allows these concretes to be used as insulating materials in buildings. Therefore, this study shows the possibility of recovering biomass bottom ash in the manufacture of lightweight concrete for use in construction.Valorization of biomass bottom ash in sustainable construction applications (1264457- R) – BIOCEM, carried out by the University of Cordoba and the University of Granada within the Application for grants for R&D&I projects in the framework of the operational program ERDF Andalusia 2014–202

Exposure to Feminist Humor and the Proclivity to Collective Action for Gender Equality: The Role of Message Format and Feminist Identification

Previous research has pointed out that feminist humor or subversive humor against sexism is an important precursor to collective action for gender equality. This effect has been found contrasting subversive humor with neutral humor, however, to date, no study has explored the impact of the message format. Thus, we conducted two experiments to analyze the effect of exposure to a subversive humorous vignette against sexism (vs. subversive serious information against sexism and neutral humorous vignette) on involvement in collective action for gender equality, considering participants’ feminist identification. In Study 1 (n = 135 men and n = 198 women), participants with lower feminist identification reported a greater proclivity toward collective action after being exposure to both a subversive humorous vignette and subversive serious vignette (vs. neutral humorous vignette). In Study 2 (n = 157 men and 188 women), we replaced the subversive serious vignette with a subversive serious discourse. The results revealed that exposure to a subversive humorous vignette (vs. subversive serious discourse and neutral humorous vignette) increased participants’ collective action proclivity, but only in participants with weaker feminist identification. Both studies highlight a new pathway to motivate collective action for gender equality, as well as the potential effect of humor to promote a change in attitudes.The present research was financially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under Grants Ref. Project PID2019-104239 GB-I00 and Ref. PID2022-138665NB-I00

Enseñanza situada, visualización de la información y gamificación en la educación superior del diseño

La descontextualización de algunas dinámicas o ejercicios llevados a cabo dentro de las aulas con los estudiantes, sumado a algunos cambios tecnológicos y la aplicación de métodos desarrollados hace varias décadas sustentados en teorías educativas desactualizadas durante el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje en el nivel superior del diseño, se ha convertido en un problema actual que se manifiesta a partir de generar prácticas en donde el alumno no siempre logra identificar la relación entre los contenidos académicos y su realidad cotidiana potencializando así los episodios de poca atención durante las clases, así como una posible desmotivación por parte del estudiante. Alejar los contenidos que se abordan dentro de las aulas, muchas veces de manera inconsciente, a los intereses y al contexto social que los estudiantes viven, puede impactar directa o indirectamente en la falta de destrezas, habilidades y capacidades enfocadas en la resolución y en el entendimiento de problemas complejos que se le presentan al estudiante. Bajo esta premisa, en el presente artículo se describen los conceptos de educación situada, sus características y la viabilidad de su uso dentro de la educación superior del diseño, así como dos herramientas alternativas, la visualización de la información y la gamificación como instrumentos que pueden coadyuvar a generar dinámicas significativas para los estudiantes.   Abstract In today's society, the decontextualization of teaching, added to the obsolete and even outdated methods used in the teaching-learning process at the higher level of design, have become a problem that in most cases ends with dynamics in where the student does not identify the relationship between academic content and their reality. This can result in the lack of attention and motivation on the part of the students, resulting in a state of crisis in traditional education. Moving the content addressed in the classroom, often unconsciously, away from the interests and social context that students experience, can directly influence the lack of skills, abilities and capacities focused on the resolution and understanding of complex problems. Under this premise, this article describes the concepts of situated education, its characteristics and the feasibility of its use within higher design education, as well as two alternative tools, the visualization of information and gamification, which can help to generate meaningful dynamics for students

Enseñanza situada, visualización de la información y gamificación en la educación superior del diseño

La descontextualización de algunas dinámicas o ejercicios llevados a cabo dentro de las aulas con los estudiantes, sumado a algunos cambios tecnológicos y la aplicación de métodos desarrollados hace varias décadas sustentados en teorías educativas desactualizadas durante el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje en el nivel superior del diseño, se ha convertido en un problema actual que se manifiesta a partir de generar prácticas en donde el alumno no siempre logra identificar la relación entre los contenidos académicos y su realidad cotidiana potencializando así los episodios de poca atención durante las clases, así como una posible desmotivación por parte del estudiante. Alejar los contenidos que se abordan dentro de las aulas, muchas veces de manera inconsciente, a los intereses y al contexto social que los estudiantes viven, puede impactar directa o indirectamente en la falta de destrezas, habilidades y capacidades enfocadas en la resolución y en el entendimiento de problemas complejos que se le presentan al estudiante. Bajo esta premisa, en el presente artículo se describen los conceptos de educación situada, sus características y la viabilidad de su uso dentro de la educación superior del diseño, así como dos herramientas alternativas, la visualización de la información y la gamificación como instrumentos que pueden coadyuvar a generar dinámicas significativas para los estudiantes.   Abstract In today's society, the decontextualization of teaching, added to the obsolete and even outdated methods used in the teaching-learning process at the higher level of design, have become a problem that in most cases ends with dynamics in where the student does not identify the relationship between academic content and their reality. This can result in the lack of attention and motivation on the part of the students, resulting in a state of crisis in traditional education. Moving the content addressed in the classroom, often unconsciously, away from the interests and social context that students experience, can directly influence the lack of skills, abilities and capacities focused on the resolution and understanding of complex problems. Under this premise, this article describes the concepts of situated education, its characteristics and the feasibility of its use within higher design education, as well as two alternative tools, the visualization of information and gamification, which can help to generate meaningful dynamics for students

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Work Engagement of UK Active Employees

[Abstract] The objective of this investigation was to describe the work engagement perceived by UK workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted. The sample included 1085 participants, aged 18 years and older, living in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic, who were active workers. Data were collected using an online questionnaire and the UWES-9. They were analysed using descriptive statistics, a t-test for equality of means or ANOVA, and the Chi-squared Automatic Interaction Detection method. The mean value in the UWES-9 was 3.46 (SD = 1.11). Participants with lower satisfaction (21.8%) gave significantly low or very low UWES-9 scores in 58.5% of the cases. Greater work engagement was obtained with more resources and less conflict, risk, and stress. In cases where there had been contact with COVID-19, this was associated with slightly lower levels of work engagement. These results could motivate and guide companies to adopt risk prevention measures and protocols to return to normal working conditions after the initial crisis phase of the pandemic

Assessment of an Adaptive Load Forecasting Methodology in a Smart Grid Demonstration Project

This paper presents the implementation of an adaptive load forecasting methodology in two different power networks from a smart grid demonstration project deployed in the region of Madrid, Spain. The paper contains an exhaustive comparative study of different short-term load forecast methodologies, addressing the methods and variables that are more relevant to be applied for the smart grid deployment. The evaluation followed in this paper suggests that the performance of the different methods depends on the conditions of the site in which the smart grid is implemented. It is shown that some non-linear methods, such as support vector machine with a radial basis function kernel and extremely randomized forest offer good performance using only 24 lagged load hourly values, which could be useful when the amount of data available is limited due to communication problems in the smart grid monitoring system. However, it has to be highlighted that, in general, the behavior of different short-term load forecast methodologies is not stable when they are applied to different power networks and that when there is a considerable variability throughout the whole testing period, some methods offer good performance in some situations, but they fail in others. In this paper, an adaptive load forecasting methodology is proposed to address this issue improving the forecasting performance through iterative optimization: in each specific situation, the best short-term load forecast methodology is chosen, resulting in minimum prediction errors.This work has been partly funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the National Program for Research Aimed at the Challenges of Society under the project OSIRIS (RTC-2014-1556-3). The authors would like to thank all of the partners in the OSIRIS project: Unión Fenosa Distribución S.A., Tecnalia, Orbis , Neoris, Ziv Metering Solutions, Telecontrol STM and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. The authors would also like to thank Charalampos Chelmis (University at Albany-SUNY) for the valuable discussion

Los recursos didácticos en la enseñanza de las matemáticas como una herramienta positiva o negativa para el proceso de aprendizaje de los jóvenes

Analizar las consecuencias de la utilización de diversas estrategias y recursos didácticos en la enseñanza de las matemáticas como una herramienta para el proceso de aprendizaje de los jóvenes que llevan un desarrollo óptimo en su aprendizaje sin la utilización de una diversidad de estas herramientas. La investigación de tipo cualitativo, utilizando la investigación-acción con apoyo de las técnicas de observación participante y la entrevista semiestructurada, aplicadas a profesores y alumnos de secundaria de la clase de matemáticas, se centra en las ventajas y desventajas de los recursos didácticos apoyados de las estrategias didácticas. Lo anterior conduce a un análisis sobre la intervención de otros recursos que no sean los básicos en el aprendizaje, tratando de responder ¿Cuáles son los resultados en el desarrollo de las competencias matemáticas en alumnos de secundaria con el uso de otros recursos didácticos que no sean los recursos básicos de una escuela tradicionalista? Se puede suponer que el recurso didáctico facilita el aprendizaje de los alumnos, pero es fundamental que exista una correlación entre los recursos didácticos que se van aplicar y las estrategias didácticas, con esta combinación y su utilización adecuada enfocadas al aprendizaje, los contenidos matemáticos pueden ser más comprensibles, de tal manera que motiva al alumno a buscar su propio conocimiento

Versión colombiana de la escala Acceptance of Modern Myths about Sexual Aggression: primeros análisis psicométricos

En este estudio se presentan los primeros datos psicométricos en muestras colombianas de la Acceptance of Modern Myths about Sexual Aggression Scale (AMMSA) (Gerger, Kley, Bohner y Siebler, 2007), instrumento que permite evaluar mitos modernos sobre las agresiones sexuales. Dos estudios fueron llevados a cabo con muestras universitarias. En el primero, trescientos doce estudiantes completaron la versión colombiana de esta escala así como otros dos instrumentos que miden constructos relacionados (Sexism Ambivalent Inventory, ASI, y Rape Myth Acceptance Scale, RMAS). En el estudio 2, ciento noventa y seis universitarios respondieron tanto a la versión colombiana de esta escala como a una serie de preguntas sobre un escenario ficticio de agresión sexual. Los resultados obtenidos a partir de ambos estudios permiten concluir que las puntuaciones de la versión colombiana de la escala AMMSA poseen una adecuada consistencia interna (Estudio 1, ? = .87; Estudio 2, ? =.86). Los valores de las correlaciones observadas entre laspuntuaciones en el AMMSA y las variables seleccionadas para obtener las evidencias externas de validez se ajustaron a las hipótesis planteadas. Comparada con la escala RMAS, las puntuaciones medias en el AMMSA fueron mayores y sus distribuciones normales. Dichos hallazgos sugierenque la versión colombiana de la escala AMMSA es un instrumento de medida útil para estudiar la percepción social de las agresiones sexuales en muestras colombianas