Search results for: Jorge Luis Morales Romero

Authors: Jorge Santos, Ana V. Girão, F. J. Oliveira, Alexandre C. Bastos

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Protective or decorative coatings containing hexavalent chromium compounds are still used on metal and plastic parts. These hexavalent chromium compounds represent a risk to living beings and the environment, and, for this reason, there is a great need to investigate alternatives. Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) is an environmentally friendly process that allows the deposition of wear and corrosion resistant thin films with excellent optical properties. However, PVD thin films are porous and if deposited onto low corrosion resistant substrates, lead to a degradation risk. The corrosion behavior of chromium-free electroplated coating systems finished with magnetron sputtered PVD thin films was investigated in this work. The electroplated systems consisted of distinct nickel layers deposited on top of a copper interlayer on acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plates. Electrochemical and corrosion evaluation was conducted by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and polarization curves on the different electroplated coating systems, with and without PVD thin film on top. The results show that the corrosion resistance is lower for the electroplated coating systems finished with PVD thin film for extended exposure periods when compared to those without the PVD overlay.

Keywords: PVD, electroplating, corrosion, thin film

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Authors: Won Il Jung, Gene Lee, Luis Rabelo

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Since many weapon systems are getting more complex and diverse, various problems occur in terms of the acquisition cost, time, and performance limitation. As a matter of fact, the experiment execution in real world is costly, dangerous, and time-consuming to obtain Required Operational Characteristics (ROC) for a new weapon acquisition although enhancing the fidelity of experiment results. Also, until presently most of the research contained a large amount of assumptions so therefore a bias is present in the experiment results. At this moment, the new methodology is proposed to solve these problems without a variety of assumptions. ROC of the new weapon system is developed through the new methodology, which is a way to analyze big data generated by simulating various scenarios based on virtual and constructive models which are involving 6 Degrees of Freedom (6DoF). The new methodology enables us to identify unbiased ROC on new weapons by reducing assumptions and provide support in terms of the optimal weapon systems acquisition.

Keywords: big data, required operational characteristics (ROC), virtual and constructive models, weapon acquisition

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Authors: Victoriano Valencia García, Luis Usero Aragonés, Eugenio J. Fernández Vicente

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Nowadays, the successful implementation of ICTs is vital for almost any kind of organization. Good governance and ICT management are essential for delivering value, managing technological risks, managing resources and performance measurement. In addition, outsourcing is a strategic IT service solution which complements IT services provided internally in organizations. This paper proposes the measurement tools of a new holistic maturity model based on standards ISO/IEC 20000 and ISO/IEC 38500, and the frameworks and best practices of ITIL and COBIT, with a specific focus on IT outsourcing. These measurement tools allow independent validation and practical application in the field of higher education, using a questionnaire, metrics tables, and continuous improvement plan tables as part of the measurement process. Guidelines and standards are proposed in the model for facilitating adaptation to universities and achieving excellence in the outsourcing of IT services.

Keywords: IT governance, IT management, IT services, outsourcing, maturity model, measurement tools

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Authors: Luis F. Recalde, Daniela A. Bastidas, Dayana E. Gallegos, Patricia N. Constante, Victor H. Andaluz

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This article presents a non-immersive virtual lab-oratory to emulate the behavior of the Mitsubishi Melfa RV 2SDB robotic arm, allowing students and users to acquire skills and experience related to real robots, augmenting the access and learning of robotics in Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas (ESPE). It was developed using the mathematical model of the robotic arm, thus defining the parameters for virtual recreation. The environment, interaction, and behavior of the robotic arm were developed in a graphic engine (Unity3D) to emulate learning tasks such as in a robotics laboratory. In the virtual system, four inputs were developed for the movement of the robot arm; further, to program the robot, a user interface was created where the user selects the trajectory such as point to point, line, arc, or circle. Finally, the hypothesis of the industrial robotic learning process is validated through the level of knowledge acquired after using the system.

Keywords: virtual learning, robot arm, non-immersive reality, mathematical model

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Authors: Júlia Cristina Bonaldo, Christophe L. Martin, Martiniano Piccico, Keith Beale, Roop Kishore, Severine Romero-Baivier

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Refractory composite materials employed in steel casting applications are prone to cracking and material damage because of the very high operating temperature (thermal shock) and mismatched properties of the constituent phases. The fracture behavior of a model MgO-C composite refractory is investigated to quantify and characterize its thermal shock resistance, employing a cold crushing test and Brazilian test with fractographic analysis. The discrete element method (DEM) is used to generate numerical refractory composites. The composite in DEM is represented by an assembly of bonded particle clusters forming perfectly spherical aggregates and single spherical particles. For the stresses to converge with a low standard deviation and a minimum number of particles to allow reasonable CPU calculation time, representative volume element (RVE) numerical packings are created with various numbers of particles. Key microscopic properties are calibrated sequentially by comparing stress-strain curves from crushing experimental data. Comparing simulations with experiments also allows for the evaluation of crack propagation, fracture energy, and strength. The crack propagation during Brazilian experimental tests is monitored with digital image correlation (DIC). Simulations and experiments reveal three distinct types of fracture. The crack may spread throughout the aggregate, at the aggregate-matrix interface, or throughout the matrix.

Keywords: refractory composite, fracture mechanics, crack propagation, DEM

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Authors: Escada A. L. A., Pereira C. A., Jorge A. O. C., Alves Claro A. P. R.

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In the present work, a susceptibility and efficacy of the Ti–7.5Mo alloy nanotube and Ti–7.5Mo alloy to bacterial biofilm formation after surface treatment was evaluated. The Ti–7.5Mo alloy was obtained in arc furnace under an argon atmosphere. Ingots were then homogenized under vacuum at 1100 ◦C for 86.4 ks to eliminate chemical segregation and after cold worked discs were cutting. Nanotubes were processed using anodic oxidation in 0.25% NH4F electrolyte solution. Biofilms were grown in discs immersed in sterile brain heart infusion broth (BHI) containing 5% sucrose, inoculated with microbial suspension (106 cells/ml) and incubated for 5 days. Next, the discs were placed in tubes with sterile physiological solution 0.9% sodium chloride (NaCl) and sonicated for to disperse the biofilms. Tenfold serial dilutions were carried and aliquots seeded in selective agar, which were then incubated for 48 h. Then, the numbers CFU/ml (log 10) were counted and analyzed statistically. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) on discs with biofilms groupswas performed, atomic force microscope (AFM) and contact angle. The results show that there is no difference in bacterial adhesion between Ti–7.5Mo alloy nanotube pure titanium and Ti–7.5Mo alloy.

Keywords: biofilm, titanium alloy, brain heart infusion, scanning electron microscopy

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Authors: Abdulaziz Alageel, Martino Luis, Shuya Zhong

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The main focus of this research study is on the challenges faced in decision-making in a supply chain network regarding the facility location while considering carbon emissions. The study aims (i) to locate facilities (i.e., distribution centeres) in a continuous space considering limitations of capacity and the costs associated with opening and (ii) to reduce the cost of carbon emissions by selecting the mode of transportation. The problem is formulated as mixed-integer linear programming. This study hybridised a greedy randomised adaptive search (GRASP) and variable neighborhood search (VNS) to deal with the problem. Well-known datasets from the literature (Brimberg et al. 2001) are used and adapted in order to assess the performance of the proposed method. The proposed hybrid method produces encouraging results based on computational analysis. The study also highlights some research avenues for future recommendations.

Keywords: supply chain, facility location, weber problem, sustainability

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Authors: Luís Felipe da Cunha Mendonça

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Normally, rural roads do not have any type of coating, and when they have any coating, they have a high maintenance cost due to the characteristics of natural materials. The Steel Aggregate has specific technical characteristics, which considerably reduce the maintenance costs of rural roads with the execution of the Primary Coating. For use as a primary coating, it must be mixed with clay due to the physical-chemical properties of the material. The application is mainly in the Primary Coating of rural roads due to the cementitious property in the presence of water, offering greater resistance to wear caused by traffic and consequently a longer useful life of the coating. The Steel Aggregate executed on rural roads has reduced particulate emissions and offers normal traffic in any weather condition, as well as creating sustainability. Contribute to the quality of life of communities through improvements in the conditions of rural and urban unpaved roads. Leading to substantial savings in maintenance. Because the durability, if applied correctly, is about 3 years, but if annual monitoring is carried out, it can be extended for more than 5 years.

Keywords: steel slag, co-product, primary coating, steel aggregate

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Authors: Andrea Marcela Morales Reyes

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In the year 2000, the federal government of the United States of America enacted anti-trafficking legislation to prevent human trafficking, prosecute traffickers, and protect the victims. Since then, all 50 states have followed the federal government's example by enacting state-level anti-trafficking legislation. In order to fight human trafficking in the United States, it is paramount that this legislation is not only comprehensively enacted but also enforced. This study reviewed the anti-trafficking laws enacted in each of the 50 states and investigated the success of such laws by reporting the number of trafficking related prosecutions, cases identified, and victims protected. This study reviewed human trafficking reports issued by nonprofits, and state and federal level agencies. An increase in the number of cases investigated since the state laws have been passed reflects a moderate success in the fight against human trafficking in the U.S. This review also found that although every state has passed anti-trafficking legislation, many still lack a comprehensive approach to combat human trafficking; some states lack key provisions to prevent human trafficking, prosecute traffickers, and protect it victims. This, along with the lack of enforcement of the anti-trafficking plans included in each of the state legislations, has meant that the human trafficking cases investigated in fiscal year 2016 are not near the estimated numbers; which in turn suggests that this crime is still greatly unaccounted for. This study concludes that although important steps have been taken at the national and state level to combat human trafficking, the identification and prosecution of human trafficking cases still proves challenging in the United States.

Keywords: enforcement of laws, human trafficking, anti-trafficking legislation, United States

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Authors: Hualter Oliveira Barbosa, Raquel Feitosa do Vale Cunha, Erika Muniz dos Santos, Fernanda Belmira Souza, Fabio Sousa, Luis Henrique Pascareli, Franciney de Oliveira Lima, Ana Cláudia Reis da Silva, Christiane Moreira de Almeida

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Software development is intrinsic human-based knowledge-intensive. Due to globalization, software development has become a complex challenge and we usually face barriers related to knowledge management, team building, costly testing processes, especially in distributed settings. For this reason, several approaches have been proposed to minimize barriers caused by geographic distance. In this paper, we present as we use experimental studies to improve our knowledge management process using the Wiki system. According to the results, it was possible to identify learning preferences from our software projects leader team, organize and improve the learning experience of our Wiki and; facilitate collaboration by newcomers to improve Wiki with new contents available in the Wiki.

Keywords: mobile product, knowledge transfer, knowledge management process, wiki, GSD

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Authors: Jorge Urrutia-Mosquera, Luz Flórez-Calderón, Yasna Cortés

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We assessed the state of progress in terms of urban sustainability indicators and studied the impact of current land use conditions and the level of spatial accessibility to basic urban amenities on travel patterns and sustainable mobility in Santiago de Chile. We determined the spatial impact of urban facilities on sustainable travel patterns through the statistical analysis, data visualisation, and weighted regression models. The results show a need to diversify land use in more than 60% of the communes, although in 85% of the communes, accessibility to public spaces is guaranteed. The findings also suggest improving access to early education facilities, as only 26% of the communes meet the sustainability standard, negatively impacting travel in sustainable modes. It is also observed that the level of access to urban facilities generates spatial heterogeneity in the city, which negatively affects travel patterns in terms of time over 60 minutes and modes of travel in private vehicles. The results obtained allow us to identify opportunities for public policy intervention to promote and adopt sustainable mobility.

Keywords: land use, urban sustainability, travel patterns, spatial heterogeneity, GWR model, sustainable mobility

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Authors: Hector Carcel Luis Alberiko Gil-Alana

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This paper examines the time series behavior of three variables (GDP, Price level of Consumption and Population) in the eight countries that belong to the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), which are Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo. The reason for carrying out this study lies in the considerable heterogeneity that can be perceived in the data from these countries. We conduct a long memory and fractional integration modeling framework and we also identify potential breaks in the data. The aim of the study is to perceive up to which degree the eight West African countries that belong to the same monetary union follow the same economic patterns of stability. Testing for mean reversion, we only found strong evidence of it in the case of Senegal for the Price level of Consumption, and in the cases of Benin, Burkina Faso and Senegal for GDP.

Keywords: West Africa, Monetary Union, fractional integration, economic patterns

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Authors: Patrick Santos, João Casal, João Santos Luis Varandas, Tiago Alves, Carlos Romeiro, Sérgio Lourenço

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Nowadays, technology makes it possible to, in one hand, communicate with various objects of the daily life through the Internet, and in the other, put these objects interacting with each other through this channel. Simultaneously, with the raise of smartphones as the most ubiquitous technology on persons lives, emerge new agents for these devices - Intelligent Personal Assistants. These agents have the goal of helping the user manage and organize his information as well as supporting the user in his/her day-to-day tasks. Moreover, other emergent concept is the Cloud Computing, which allows computation and storage to get out of the users devices, bringing benefits in terms of performance, security, interoperability and others. Connecting these three paradigms, in this work we propose an architecture for an intelligent system which provides an interface that assists the user on smart environments, informing, suggesting actions and allowing to manage the objects of his/her daily life.

Keywords: internet of things, cloud, intelligent personal assistant, architecture

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Authors: Luis Rodrigo Valencia Pérez, Juan Manuel Peña Aguilar, Adelina Morita Alexander, Alberto Lamadrid Alvarez, Héctor Fernando Valencia Pérez

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Financial education is among the areas of opportunity in the Spanish-speaking from an early age to high school, through mobile devices such as cell phones and tablets using ludic and fun applications like interactive games, children can learn money management and investment through time, thereby fostering the habit of saving and/or sound management of cash and family business resources, having interaction with an uncontrolled environment such as the involvement of other players in the external decisions of the environment in which the game is play. The application proposed in Phase 1 (design and development) was designed in multi-user environments, under methodologies of hybrid programming for any platform on the market and designed under CMMI standards that allow for quality production over time, following up on these improvements counting with continuous user feedback and usage statistics.

Keywords: mobile educational games, ludic games, children, multiuser, design and software development

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Authors: Jesús Antonio Puente Fernández, Luis Javier Garcia Villalba

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New trends on streaming videos such as series or films require a high demand of network resources. This fact results in a huge problem within traditional IP networks due to the rigidity of its architecture. In this way, Software Defined Networks (SDN) is a new concept of network architecture that intends to be more flexible and it simplifies the management in networks with respect to the existing ones. These aspects are possible due to the separation of control plane (controller) and data plane (switches). Taking the advantage of this separated control, it is easy to deploy a monitoring tool independent of device vendors since the existing ones are dependent on the installation of specialized and expensive hardware. In this paper, we propose a framework that optimizes the traffic monitoring in SDN networks that decreases the number of monitoring queries to improve the network traffic and also reduces the overload. The performed experiments (with and without the optimization) using a video streaming delivery between two hosts demonstrate the feasibility of our monitoring proposal.

Keywords: optimization, monitoring, software defined networking, statistics, query

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Authors: Riccardo Zanni, Maria Galvez-Llompart, Ramon Garcia-Domenech, Jorge Galvez

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Biopesticides, such as naturally occurring chemicals, pheromones, fungi, bacteria and insect predators are often a winning choice in crop protection because of their environmental friendly profile. They are considered to have lower toxicity than traditional pesticides. After almost a century of pesticides use, resistances to traditional insecticides are wide spread, while those to bioinsecticides have raised less attention, and resistance management is frequently neglected. This seems to be a crucial mistake since resistances have already occurred for many marketed biopesticides. With an eye to the future, we present here a selection of new natural occurring chemicals as potential bioinsecticides. The molecules were selected using a consolidated mathematical paradigm called molecular topology. Several QSAR equations were depicted and subsequently applied for the virtual screening of hundred thousands molecules of natural origin, which resulted in the selection of new potential bioinsecticides. The most innovative aspect of this work does not only reside in the importance of the identification of new molecules overcoming biopesticides’ resistances, but on the possibility to promote shared knowledge in the field of green chemistry through this unique in silico discipline named molecular topology.

Keywords: green chemistry, QSAR, molecular topology, biopesticide

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Authors: M. Peña Aguilar Juan, Valencia Luis, Pastrana Alberto, Nava Estefany, A. Martinez, M. Vivanco, A. Castañeda

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This paper seeks to compare the innovation of Mexico from an economic and human perspective, with the seven most innovative countries according to the Global Innovation Index 2013, done by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The above analysis suggests nine dimensions: Expenditure on R & D, intellectual property, appropriate environment to conduct business, economic stability, and triple helix for R & D, ICT Infrastructure, education, human resources and quality of life. Each dimension is represented by an indicator which is later used to construct a radial graph that compares the innovative capacity of the countries analysed. As a result, it is proposed a new indicator of innovation called The Area of Innovation. Observations are made from the results, and finally as a conclusion, those items or dimensions in which Mexico suffers lag in innovation are identify.

Keywords: dimension, measure, innovation level, economy, radar chart

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Authors: Diego Sánchez, Sandra M. Aguilar, José F. Gómez, Gustavo Montaño, Laura P. Otero, Carlos V. Rey, José A. Martínez, Juliana Robles, Jorge E. Burgos, Juan S. López

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Bogota is making efforts towards urban resilience through Nature-based Solutions (NbS) incorporation in public projects as a climate change resilience strategy. The urban renovation project on the Alhambra square includes Green Infrastructure (GI), like Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) and Urban Trees (UT), as ecosystem services (ES) boosters. This study analyzes 3 scenarios: (1) the initial situation without NbS, (2) the expected situation including NbS in the design and (3) the projection of the second one after 30 years, calculating the ecosystem services, the stormwater management benefits provided by SUDS and the cultural services. The obtained results contribute to the understanding of the urban NbS benefits in public spaces, providing valuable information to foster investment in sustainable projects and encouraging policy makers to integrate NbS in urban planning.

Keywords: ecosystem services, nature-based solutions, stormwater management, sustainable urban drainage systems

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Authors: Alaa Mostafa, Samuel Dagogo-Jack, Vivian Thieu, Maria Yu, Nan Zhang, Dara Schuster, Luis-Emilio Garcia-Perez

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Dulaglutide (DU), a once-weekly glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist, was studied in the AWARD clinical trial program in adult patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) and demonstrated significant hemoglobin A1c (A1c) reduction and potential for weight loss. To evaluate the efficacy and safety of DU 1.5 mg and DU 0.75 mg in patients with T2D by baseline A1c <8.5% or ≥8.5%, a post-hoc analysis was conducted on AWARD-1 to -6 and -8 at 6 months. Across 7 studies, 55% to 82% of the DU-treated patients had a baseline A1c <8.5%, and 18% to 45% had a baseline A1c ≥8.5%. The ranges of A1c reductions with baseline A1c <8.5% and ≥8.5%, respectively, were: DU 1.5 mg: -0.67% to -1.25% and -1.22% to -2.37%; DU 0.75 mg: -0.53% to -1.07% and -1.37% to -2.19%. The A1c reduction from the pooled analysis was greater in patients with baseline A1c ≥8.5% than patients with baseline A1c <8.5%, respectively: DU 1.5 mg: -1.86% and -1.02%; DU 0.75 mg: -1.75% and -0.83%. DU treatments were well tolerated among baseline A1c subgroups. Across the AWARD program, DU 1.5 mg and DU 0.75 mg demonstrated significant A1c reduction in both subgroups with an acceptable safety profile. Compared to patients with baseline A1c <8.5%, patients with baseline A1c ≥8.5% had greater A1c reduction. Disclosures: This study was supported and conducted by Eli Lilly and Company, Indianapolis, IN, USA.

Keywords: A1c reduction, dulaglutide, type 2 diabetes, weight loss

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Authors: Marcelo Müller Beuren, José Luis Duarte Ribeiro

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Studies point that Brazilian large airports are not managing their assets efficiently. Therefore, organizations seek improvements to raise their asset’s productivity. Hence, identification of assets useful life in airports becomes an important subject, since its accuracy leads to better maintenance plans and technological substitution, contribution to airport services management. However, current useful life prediction models do not converge in terms of determinant elements used, as they are particular to the studied situation. For that reason, the main objective of this paper is to identify the determinant elements for a useful life of major assets in airports. With that purpose, a case study was held in the key airport of the south of Brazil trough historical data analysis and specialist interview. This paper concluded that most of the assets useful life are determined by technical elements, maintenance cost, and operational costs, while few presented influence of technological obsolescence. As a highlight, it was possible to identify the determinant elements to be considered by a model which objective is to identify the useful life of airport’s major assets.

Keywords: airports, asset management, asset useful life

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Authors: Jorge A. Schiavon

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This article analyzes the international relations of sub-State governments (IRSSG) in Mexico. It aims to answer five questions: 1) What explains the recent and dramatic increase in their international activities? 2) What is the impact of federalism on the foreign affairs of the federal units? 3) What are the levels or degrees of IRSSG and how have they changed over the last years? 4) How do Mexican federal units institutionalize their international activities? 5) What are the perceptions and capacities of the federal units in their internationalization process? The first section argues that the growth in the IRSSG is generated by growing interdependence and globalization in the international system, and democratization, decentralization and structural reform in the national arena. The second section sustains that the renewed Mexican federalism has generated the incentives for SSG to participate more intensively in international affairs. The third section defends that there is a wide variation in their degree of international participation, which is measured in three moments in time (2004 2009 and 2014), and explains how this activity has changed in the last decade. The fourth section studies the institutionalization of the IRSSG in Mexico through the analysis of Inter-Institutional Agreements (IIA). Finally, the last section concentrates in explaining the perceptions and capacities of Mexican sub-State governments to conduct international relations.

Keywords: federalism, foreign policy, international relations of sub-state governments, paradiplomacy, Mexico

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Authors: Luis Gimeno, Rosmeri da Rocha, Raquel Nieto, Tercio Ambrizzi, Alex Ramos, Anita Drumond

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The transport of moisture from oceanic sources to the continents represents the atmospheric branch of the water cycle, forming the connection between evaporation from the ocean and precipitation over the continents. In this regard two large scale dynamical/meteorological structures appear to play a key role, namely Low Level Jet (LLJ) systems and Atmospheric Rivers (ARs). The former are particularly important in tropical and subtropical regions; the latter is mostly confined to extratropical regions. A key question relates to the anomalies in the transport of moisture observed during natural hazards related to extremes of precipitation (i.e., drought or wet spells). In this study we will be focused on these two major atmospheric moisture transport mechanisms (LLJs and ARs) and its role in precipitation extreme events (droughts and wet spells) in the Amazonia paying particular attention to i) intensification (decreasing) of moisture transport by them and its role in wet spells (droughts), and ii) changes in their positions and occurrence with associated flooding and wet spells.

Keywords: droughts, wet spells, amazonia, LLJs, atmospheric rivers

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Authors: André Luís Brasil Cavalcante, Juan Felix Rodriguez Rebolledo, Lucas Parreira de Faria Borges

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A methodology for the probabilistic analysis of active earth pressure on retaining wall for c-Φ soil backfill is described in this paper. The Rosenblueth point estimate method is used to measure the failure probability of a gravity retaining wall. The basic principle of this methodology is to use two point estimates, i.e., the standard deviation and the mean value, to examine a variable in the safety analysis. The simplicity of this framework assures to its wide application. For the calculation is required 2ⁿ repetitions during the analysis, since the system is governed by n variables. In this study, a probabilistic model based on the Rosenblueth approach for the computation of the overturning probability of failure of a retaining wall is presented. The obtained results have shown the advantages of this kind of models in comparison with the deterministic solution. In a relatively easy way, the uncertainty on the wall and fill parameters are taken into account, and some practical results can be obtained for the retaining structure design.

Keywords: retaining wall, active earth pressure, backfill, probabilistic analysis

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Authors: Ignacio Luis Ramirez, Brittney Holcomb

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This study examines attitudes toward sexual assault based on religious affiliation, religiosity, religious beliefs, attitude about sexual assault education, alcohol, and drug use. This study found respondents who identified themselves as Catholics had more negative attitudes toward sexual assault and were more likely to support victim-blaming statements than Baptists or Protestants. Respondents who indicated a greater problem with alcohol had more negative attitudes toward sexual assault and were more likely to support victim-blaming statements. In reference to gender, males had more negative attitudes toward sexual assault and were more likely to support victim-blaming statements than females. The respondent’s religiosity and religious beliefs did not affect their attitudes toward sexual assault. Additionally, attitudes about sexual assault education and drug use did not affect attitudes toward sexual assault.

Keywords: sexual assault, religion, education, alcohol, drugs

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Authors: Sergio Garcia, Alfredo Trueba, Luis M. Vega, Ernesto Madariaga

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Biofilms adhesion is one of the more important cost of industries plants on wide world, which use to water for cooling heat exchangers or are in contact with water. This study evaluated the effect of Electromagnetic Fields on biofilms in tubular heat exchangers using seawater cooling. The results showed an up to 40% reduction of the biofilm thickness compared to the untreated control tubes. The presence of organic matter was reduced by 75%, the inorganic mater was reduced by 87%, and 53% of the dissolved solids were eliminated. The biofilm thermal conductivity in the treated tube was reduced by 53% as compared to the control tube. The hardness in the effluent during the experimental period was decreased by 18% in the treated tubes compared with control tubes. Our results show that the electromagnetic fields treatment has a great potential in the process of removing biofilms in heat exchanger.

Keywords: biofilm, heat exchanger, electromagnetic fields, seawater

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Authors: Eduardo Remirez, Luis Moreno

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The rapid growth of the private satellite launchers sector is leading the space race. Hence, with the privatization of the sector, all the companies are racing for a more efficient and reliant way to set satellites in orbit. Having detected the current needs for power management in the launcher vehicle industry, the Modular Power Bus is proposed as a technology to revolutionize power management in current and future Launcher Vehicles. The MPBus Project is committed to develop a new power bus architecture combining ejectable batteries with the main bus through intelligent nodes. These nodes are able to communicate between them and a battery controller using an improved, data over DC line technology, expected to reduce the total weight in two main areas: improving the use of the batteries and reducing the total weight due to harness. This would result in less weight for each launch stage increasing the operational satellite payload and reducing cost. These features make the system suitable for a number of launchers.

Keywords: modular power bus, Launcher vehicles, ejectable batteries, intelligent nodes

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Authors: Luis A. Paipa-Galeano, Yavar Jarrah-Nezhad, César A. Bernal-Torres

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This paper presents a case study of four companies in an emerging economy to identify the key success factors and barriers to sustaining continuous improvement practices. The study analyzes the empirical evidence and compares it to the literature review to provide insights for companies looking to increase their maturity level in this area. The five success factors identified are the availability of resources, commitment and support from management, participation of employees in identifying tasks to improve, clear and realistic objectives for continuous improvement, and the existence of a leader or responsible for continuous improvement. The major barriers to success are a lack of alignment between the organization’s strategic objectives and continuous improvement objectives, a lack of motivation in the team, and resistance to change. The paper concludes with recommendations for companies to reduce the risk of improvement failure and increase their maturity level in continuous improvement.

Keywords: emerging economies, Kaizen, continuous improvement sustainability, maturity model

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Authors: Francine Morales Tavares, Jose Alberto Rio Fernandes

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The expanding concept of Heritage and the increased relevance of how heritage places relate to their surroundings is associated with an important shift in public heritage policies and how they consider the development of cities and communities, with an increasingly relevant role of management. Within the current discussions, management plans, mandatory since the year 2005 in areas classified by UNESCO as World Heritage, it is a tool for the reconciliation of cultural heritage demands with the needs of multiple users of a certain area, being especially critical in the case of urban areas with intense touristic pressure. Considering the transformations of the heritage policy management model, this paper discusses the practices on the integration of cultural heritage in urban policies through indicators which were selected from resource manual 'Managing Cultural World Heritage (2013)' and analyzed two case studies: The Management Plan of the Historic Centre of Porto (Portugal) and The Management Plan for the Historic Site of Olinda (Brazil). The empirical evidence concluded that for the historic centre of Porto the increase of tourism is the main aim driver in the management plan, with positive and negative aspects on the heritage management point of view, unlike Olinda, where the plan for the development of local urban policies was identified as essential. Plans also differ in form, content and process but coincide on being unaligned with committed local political leaders’ agendas, with the consequent misunderstandings between theory and practice, planning and management, and critically missing in the field integration of urban policies. Therefore, more debate about management plans, more efficient tools and also, appropriate methodologies to correlate cultural heritage and urban public policy are still lacking.

Keywords: world heritage, management plan, planning, urban policies

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Authors: Luis Andrey Fajardo Fajardo

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We are immersed in complex systems. The human brain, the galaxies, the snowflakes are examples of complex systems. An area of interest in Complex systems is the chaos theory. This revolutionary field of science presents different ways of study than determinism and reductionism. Here is where in junction with the Nonlinear DSP, chaos theory offer valuable techniques that establish a link between time series and complex theory in terms of complex networks, so that, the study of signals can be explored from the graph theory. Recently, some people had purposed a method to transform time series in graphs, but no one had developed a suitable implementation in Python with signals extracted from Chaotic Systems or Complex systems. That’s why the implementation in Python of an existing method to transform one dimensional chaotic signals from time domain to graph domain and some measures that may reveal information not extracted in the time domain is proposed.

Keywords: Python, complex systems, graph theory, dynamical systems

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Authors: Jorge Lus Nisperuza Toledo, Juan Pablo Rubio Ospina, Daniel Santiago Umana, Hector Alejandro Alvarez

Abstract:

This work develops and implements computational codes to calculate the optimal launch trajectories for sending a probe from the earth to different planets of the Solar system, making use of trajectories of the Hohmann and No-Hohmann type and gravitational assistance in intermediate steps. Specifically, the orbital elements, the graphs and the dynamic simulations of the trajectories for sending a probe from the Earth towards the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are obtained. A detailed study was made of the state vectors of the position and orbital velocity of the considered planets in order to determine the optimal trajectories of the probe. For this purpose, computer codes were developed and implemented to obtain the orbital elements of the Mariner 10 (Mercury), Magellan (Venus), Mars Global Surveyor (Mars) and Voyager 1 (Jupiter and Saturn) missions, as an exercise in corroborating the algorithms. This exercise gives validity to computational codes, allowing to find the orbital elements and the simulations of trajectories of three future interplanetary missions with specific launch windows.

Keywords: gravitational assistance, Hohmann’s trajectories, interplanetary mission, orbital elements

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