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1 – 10 of 264Alejandro Rodriguez-Andara, Rosa María Río-Belver, Marisela Rodríguez-Salvador and René Lezama-Nicolás
The purpose of this paper is to deliver a roadmap that displays pathways to develop sustainability skills in the engineering curricula.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to deliver a roadmap that displays pathways to develop sustainability skills in the engineering curricula.
Design/methodology/approach
The selected approach to enrich engineering students with sustainability skills was active learning methodologies. First, a survey was carried out on a sample of 189 students to test the current sustainability literacy and determine the roadmap starting point. Next, a scientometric study regarding active learning methodologies was executed. A total of 2,885 articles and conference proceedings from the period 2013-2016 were retrieved from the Web of Science database. The records were then imported into text mining software to undergo a term clumping process. Annual knowledge clusters based on key terms were outputted. Finally, a roadmap was created by experts based on the annual knowledge clusters.
Findings
Four annual pathways were created along the roadmap to develop sustainability skills during the four-year college course in engineering. The first consisted on promoting a recycling campaign through a circular economy. The second aimed at creating educational videos regarding sustainability. The third reinforced reasoning and argumentative skills by preparing a debate on environmental issues. The last path assumed that the student is working in internship programs and prepared him/her to apply environmental management models to solve sustainability issues within the company.
Research limitations/implications
Roadmaps should be updated approximately every two years to reflect novelty. The proposed methodology shows an easy way to create them.
Practical implications
Results from this paper, as well as the proposed methodology, can be applied to any organization forming individuals: from primary school education to employee training programs in organizations.
Social implications
The development of sustainability skills has a direct, positive impact on professional decision-making and, ultimately, on the environment.
Originality/value
This paper presents a roadmapping process to develop sustainability competences throughout engineering college education.
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Antonio Cuesta Vargas, David Perez Cruzado and Alejandro Rodriguez Moya
People with intellectual disabilities have lower levels of physical fitness compared with peers without intellectual disability, because of the high levels of sedentary behaviour…
Abstract
Purpose
People with intellectual disabilities have lower levels of physical fitness compared with peers without intellectual disability, because of the high levels of sedentary behaviour in this population. This study aims to know the relationship between quality of life and physical fitness in adults with intellectual disability.
Design/methodology/approach
Ninety-six adults with intellectual disability were assessed with quality of life questionnaire and physical fitness tests, which involve balance, muscle strength, flexibility and aerobic condition.
Findings
Adults with higher self-reported levels of quality of life reported higher levels of physical fitness in balance, muscular strength and flexibility. In contrast, in aerobic condition were not found significant correlations with self-reported quality of life.
Originality/value
These findings support the hypothesis that people with intellectual disability with lower levels of physical fitness could influence in their levels of quality of life. This insight is useful for improving treatments to improve physical fitness in this population.
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Alejandro Garcia Rodriguez, Marco Antonio Velasco Peña, Carlos A. Narváez-Tovar and Edgar Espejo Mora
This paper aims to investigate and explain the dual fracture behaviour of PA12 specimens sintered by selective laser sintering (SLS) as a function of wall thickness and build…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate and explain the dual fracture behaviour of PA12 specimens sintered by selective laser sintering (SLS) as a function of wall thickness and build direction with a powder mixture 30:70. To achieve this objective, research related to chemical, thermal and structural behaviours as a function of the input variables was carried out to describe and explain why ductile-fragile behaviour occurs during fractures under uniaxial tension manufactured via a methodology of material analysis and manufacturing processes.
Design/methodology/approach
The factorial design 32 relates the fracture of PA12 tensile specimens to the horizontal, transverse and vertical build directions at 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 mm thicknesses, respectively. Fractographic images revealed the fracture surfaces and their dual ductile-fragile behaviour related to the specimens’ measured crystalline, thermal, surface and chemical properties.
Findings
The study showed that thermal property variables differ depending on the input variables. The wall thickness variable affected this morphology the most, showing the highest percentage of the ductile area, followed by the transverse and vertical directions. It was determined that the failure in the vertical direction is due to crystalline gradients associated with the layer-by-layer construction process. The pore density may be closely related to generating ductile and brittle areas.
Originality/value
In this paper, fracture characterisation is performed based on the mechanical, chemical, structural, thermal and morphological properties of PA12 manufactured by SLS. In addition, a heatmap of porosities in cross-sections is constructed using a machine learning model (k-means) related to dual fracture behaviour. This research revealed significant differences in the fracture type according to the build direction. In addition, thin-section fractography provides a more detailed explanation of the fragile behaviour of the vertical direction associated with crystalline changes due to the direction of the sintering layers.
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Alejandro Rodriguez-Vahos, Sebastian Aparicio and David Urbano
A debate on whether new ventures should be supported with public funding is taking place. Adopting a position on this discussion requires rigorous assessments of implemented…
Abstract
Purpose
A debate on whether new ventures should be supported with public funding is taking place. Adopting a position on this discussion requires rigorous assessments of implemented programs. However, the few existing efforts have mostly focused on regional cases in developed countries. To fill this gap, this paper aims to measure the effects of a regional acceleration program in a developing country (Medellin, Colombia).
Design/methodology/approach
The economic notion of capabilities is used to frame the analysis of firm characteristics and productivity, which are hypothesized to be heterogeneous within the program. To test these relationships, propensity score matching is used in a sample of 60 treatment and 16,994 control firms.
Findings
This paper finds that treated firms had higher revenue than propensity score-matched controls on average, confirming a positive impact on growth measures. However, such financial growth is mostly observed in service firms rather than other economic sectors.
Research limitations/implications
Further evaluations, with a longer period and using more outcome variables, are suggested in the context of similar publicly funded programs in developing countries.
Originality/value
These findings tip the balance in favor of the literature suggesting supportive programs for high-growth firms as opposed to everyday entrepreneurship. This is an insight, especially under the context of an emerging economy, which has scarce funding to support entrepreneurship.
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Jorge Alejandro Silva Rodríguez de San Miguel, Fernando Lambarry-Vilchis and Mara Maricela Trujillo Flores
The purpose of this paper is to design a model to improve drinking water management in Iztapalapa, Mexico City from the perspective of managers and users of the service.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to design a model to improve drinking water management in Iztapalapa, Mexico City from the perspective of managers and users of the service.
Design/methodology/approach
The research question was what elements should an integrated drinking water management model contain to improve drinking water management in Iztapalapa, Mexico City? The research design involved a mixed approach under document analysis, application of semi -structured interviews to four managers of drinking water and measuring perceived service quality and user satisfaction in 360 service users. It included concurrent validity and confirmatory factor analysis.
Findings
The integral drinking water management model is a multidimensional factorially confirmed construct, qualitatively conformed by nine management dimensions, four of perceived quality and three of service satisfaction from home users.
Originality/value
The study fills the gap of little research on drinking water from the perspective of managers and users of the service in a valid and reliable way in Iztapalapa, Mexico City, as no similar research has proposed an integral drinking water management model with the variables used in this research. The model can be applied by following the recommendations to improve water management, which contemplates Mexico’s levels of government to reform the regulations that fragments the management, and taking the budget into profitable activities that support the infrastructure and new water harvesting projects.
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Jorge Alejandro Silva Rodríguez de San Miguel
The purpose of this paper is to look at how water management reflects patriarchal considerations or gender biases that inflict a penalty upon Mexican women and enumerates…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to look at how water management reflects patriarchal considerations or gender biases that inflict a penalty upon Mexican women and enumerates recommendations that can both ameliorate water management across Mexico.
Design/methodology/approach
Peer-reviewed scholarly materials, carefully vetted for empirical worth, for the clarity and soundness of their research methodologies, and for their capacity to account for confounding or complicating factors, are reviewed. Special attention is given to studies, found in academic databases such as EBSCOHost, conducted in the years 2013–2018.
Findings
The Mexican state has finally made some progress in recognizing the hurdles women face in attaining educational equality, but there is not yet the universal application and comity that would ensure appropriate levels of representation in all communities. Mexico will have to do more to compel local actors to give greater credence to the voices of women.
Research limitations/implications
There is a need for further primary research to more comprehensively capture what actions women are taking to carve out a large policy-making space for themselves in a country that has only quite recently begun to realize the contributions women can make to forward-looking water governance policy.
Originality/value
The uneasy confluence between water governance and gender within the Mexican context is an area of growing concern to those interested in how water management systems and protocols shape broader social justice and equality developments across Mexico.
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Jorge Alejandro Silva Rodríguez de San Miguel, Mara Maricela Trujillo Flores and Fernando Lambarry-Vilchis
The purpose of this paper is to describe drinking water management in the 31 states and the capital of Mexico, its municipalities and the most populated boroughs.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe drinking water management in the 31 states and the capital of Mexico, its municipalities and the most populated boroughs.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a validated instrument with exploratory and confirmatory factorial analysis, this research with quantitative approach analyzes management factors such as coordination, responsiveness, financing, organizational design, training and staff capacity in a sample of 333 managers of drinking water in the country.
Findings
More than half of the managers qualified management as regular (55.55 percent). The entities with better management are Mexico City with high and medium values of 18.75 and 75.00 percent, Nuevo León with 10.00 and 70.00 percent and Yucatan with 10.00 and 30.00 percent, respectively. The lowest scores are concentrated in Oaxaca (74.07 percent), Guerrero (66.67 percent) and Puebla (50 percent). The rest of the federal entities fluctuate between the medium values.
Originality/value
There is limited information in literature on drinking water management description in Mexico, in its most populated municipalities and boroughs, because they have not conducted research that integrate variables of a statistically validated model, focused on critical factors of management in the country. The results allow conducting an analysis of the country’s entities for the state to strengthen its management.
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Jorge Alejandro Silva Rodríguez de San Miguel, Mara Maricela Trujillo Flores and Fernando Lambarry-Vilchis
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the measures taken by both the federal government of Mexico and its municipalities in relation to the country’s urban water supply and its…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the measures taken by both the federal government of Mexico and its municipalities in relation to the country’s urban water supply and its management to improve it.
Design/methodology/approach
The PRISMA guidelines were chosen as the framework for this systematic review of the available literature on urban water supply in Mexico, considering the most important and relevant legal and institutional considerations. They were paired with critical qualitative review. Overall, 21 main documents, between 2000 and 2016, were acceptable for inclusion.
Findings
The review closes by proposing that the approach, at present, is excessively rigid, and that greater flexibility would permit municipalities to identify more suitable means of managing their own water supplies with minimal support from the federal government.
Originality/value
Several research articles have been written about the general nature of Mexico’s urban water supply and management at present. However, no attempt has been made to synthesise the evidence and arguments made in this significant body of research. Thus, the key purpose of this review is to do that with the intention of proposing a shift in the country’s approach to urban water management.
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Jorge Alejandro Silva Rodríguez de San Miguel
The purpose of this paper is to review the management of air pollution in Mexico and strategies that have been considered to correct the issues, including potential future…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review the management of air pollution in Mexico and strategies that have been considered to correct the issues, including potential future directions to further improve air quality for Mexico’s environment and people.
Design/methodology/approach
Different serious academic databases were searched for material regarding the issue of air pollution in Mexico, such as Scopus and Social Science Citation Index. Regional concern was an important factor that was considered in this review. Material was considered based on its recency, academic importance and veracity. The studies selected mainly ranged from the mid-1990s to 2018.
Findings
Air pollution in Mexico has been a primary issue for the country’s administration and that of Mexico’s North American neighbour, the USA. It has contributed significantly to climate change and has had detrimental effects on both the environment and on the health of Mexican citizens in various ways. While efforts to ameliorate the situation have been relatively strong, it is hoped that ongoing cooperation between Mexico, the USA and Canada will influence the development of stricter emissions standards.
Originality/value
This paper considers current circumstances and whether enough has been done to mitigate Mexico’s significant air pollution problem. It also considers several recommendations made by commentators as to potential future directions to rectify the issues, as no similar review has been made for a developing Country.
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Jorge Alejandro Silva Rodríguez de San Miguel
The purpose of this paper is to survey water-governance issues impacting women in Mexico and steps that have been taken to rectify the issues, including factors that impact the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to survey water-governance issues impacting women in Mexico and steps that have been taken to rectify the issues, including factors that impact the success of such ventures.
Design/methodology/approach
Various major academic databases were searched for material pertaining to the issue of water management and gender in Mexico, such as EBSCOHost and JSTOR. Both global and regional concerns were a factor in this search. Material was considered on the basis of its recency, academic import, and specificity.
Findings
The review finds that though gender has become a primary concern in addressing water management and other environmental issues, debate has occurred as to whether a perspective of gender mainstreaming or gender-specific projects is preferable in addressing this issue. Although success in implementing gender mainstreaming has been attained by several major organizations, there does not yet exist conclusive evidence that this approach yields desired results.
Research limitations/implications
Information about the efficacy of water access programs is not always available and it is frequently inaccurate. Therefore, much information used in this review takes the form of observations about water policy and its efficacy in regard to gendered approaches.
Originality/value
Women and girls are unevenly affected by a lack of access to water, as it is typically women who bear the brunt of managing household water, and they are more significantly impacted by lacking hygiene facilities.
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