Discrete Choice Approach For Assessing Deprivation Cost In Humanitarian Relief Operations

One of the key objectives of humanitarian logistics is to guarantee the timely delivery of supplies to people affected by disasters during the response phase. In this regard, it is fundamental to design appropriate models to minimize the social costs of response operations to distribute essential supplies to populations in need. In addition to merely cover logistics cost, social costs include deprivations costs, which are an increasing function of deprivation time, derived from the human suffering caused by the lack of access to a good or a service. This research uses the theory of discrete choices to assess deprivation costs due to the time spent waiting for the delivery of a basket of basic supplies, defined as the changes in the welfare of people affected by disasters. To this end, we designed a stated choice survey, applied to people living in areas affected by floods and earthquakes in Colombia. The estimated models consider the influence of individual's socioeconomic characteristics and random effects on the deprivation cost functions. The functions have a nonlinear structure, strictly increasing, and convex on the deprivation time. The results are useful for estimating the social costs of humanitarian relief operations

Chemical and nano-mineralogical study for determining potential uses of legal Colombian gold mine sludge: Experimental evidence

The present study is focused on the chemical and nano-mineralogical characterization of sludge from gold mine activities, in order to put forward diverse solution alternatives, where lack of knowledge has been found. The sample was collected from “La Estrella” mine of Suarez, located in Department of Cauca, south-west Colombia. The sludge micro-structure and chemical composition were analyzed using a high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) equipped with a dispersive X-ray detector (EDS). X-ray diffraction technique was employed to identify the mineralogical phases present in the sludge. Additional mineralogical characterization was done by using RAMAN spectroscopy. Main findings points to its potential to be used as a fertilizer, this is why, mine sludge contains macronutrients such as P, Ca and S, together with micronutrients like Cu. However, the presence of goethite could decrease the mobilization of nutrients to soils, thus additional alternatives, for instance, a mixture with humus or another material containing Humic Acids should be done, in order to minimizing its retention effect. Additionally, another possible uses to explore could be as construction and ceramic material or in the wastewater treatment for nutrient retention and organic material removal. Rutile (TiO2 nanoparticles) particles have been also detected, what could cause health concern due to its nanoparticle toxic character, mainly during gold extraction process