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This paper presents a study conducted in Comuna 13 of Medellín. The author delves into the history of Comuna 13 by giving voice to five images painted on public walls. Through these images, readers are provided with a deeper understanding of the neighborhood's history, collective memory, communal processes, changes, adaptations, and the political, economic, social, and cultural implications, including conflicts, disputes, and areas of ambiguity. Subsequently, the author analyzes the impact of those images on the daily lives of residents. By combining images and text, this paper aims to contribute to the field of graphic anthropology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to find the incidence of university sustainability, as sustainability practices, in university performance at private universities. Design/methodology/approach: Quantitative research using structural equation modelling. Data collection and analysis followed sustainability and performance scales from previous research. The scales were validated by surveying students, teachers and administrative staff of five private universities in Medellin, Colombia. The responses (i.e. 5,344 useful answers) were collected between April 2019 and December 2020 and analysed using the Smart partial least square (PLS) software and the PLS calculation methodology. Findings: The results confirmed the reliability and validity of the sustainability and performance university measurement models and validated the dimensions proposed to determine sustainability and performance holistically in private universities. The results confirmed that universities implementing sustainability holistically in their system positively impact their performance as higher education institutions. The university sustainability is forecasting the University Performance in about 60% of the universities analysed, with a considerable contribution from sustainability in outreach and strategic management. Research limitations/implications: This study was cross-sectional and empirically validated the model of sustainability and performance at five private universities in a single period and territory. A broader validation from longitudinal studies considering other universities in Colombia and Latin America is suggested to understand local and regional trends better. Practical implications: Results provided a model for better understanding the incidence of sustainability in performance holistically at private universities in developing countries such as Colombia. In addition, the proposed dimensions and model could help regional decision-making on higher education. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this paper is one of the first attempts relating a structural equation model and inter-university research on the incidence of sustainability in private university performance. This work contributes to a local consensus on sustainability and performance models at private universities. Furthermore, from this research emerged a joint policy framework for incorporating sustainability holistically and regionally as an effective strategy for universities and their commitment to sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to develop a stable gel-type lubricant emulating commercial conditions. This encompassed rheological and tribological assessments, alongside field trials on the Medellín tram system. Design/methodology/approach: The gel-type lubricant with graphite and aluminum powder is synthesized. Rheological tests, viscosity measurements and linear viscoelastic regime assessments are conducted. Subsequently, tribological analyses encompassing four-ball and twin disc methods are executed. Finally, real-world testing is performed on the Medellín tram system. Findings: An achieved lubricant met the stipulated criteria, yielding innovative insights into the interaction of graphite and aluminum powder additives under varying tests. Originality/value: Novel findings are unveiled regarding the interaction of graphite and aluminum powder additives in tribological, rheological and real-world trials. In addition, the wear behavior of polymers is observed, along with the potential utilization of such additives in tramway systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The deterioration of the environment and especially the crisis due to the availability of water, has led developing countries to advance in protection, avoiding the dumping of wastewater and monitoring quality. In the city of Medellín, the use of electrical conductivity as an indicator of water quality in the Aburrá-Medellín river was proposed as an alternative to explain and keep the community informed about how the river monitoring stations are doing through of colors and thus continue to raise awareness of the importance of caring for water. In order to study the spatial and temporal variations of the water quality in the river from the electrical conductivity indicator, and considering the categorical data obtained with the indicator, a number from 1 to 5 was assigned (very bad, bad, regular, acceptable and good quality, respectively). In these paper We used statistical methods as crosstabulation to describe relationships between the categorical variables through counts and multiple correspondence analysis for representing the associations between the factors affecting the wáter quality using the correspondence maps. It was found that low flows correspond to the most critical quality conditions, and although a deterioration is observed as the river flows downstream (between the monitoring stations) the influence of the water levels is greater. The statistical analysis showed a relatively high association of the quality indicator and the flows also, that the water quality deteriorates in the afternoon and in the final years of monitoring in low flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to understanding the potential for localised knowledge creation that can be generated by multinational enterprise (MNE) entry into cities in the global South from both the MNE and the local economy's perspectives. It presents a qualitative analysis of the activities of the MNE subsidiaries in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector in an emerging investment hub in Medellín, Colombia. The analysis differentiates between the MNEs' local strategies to explore distinct configurations of MNE–local economy relations and their potential for unilateral or mutually beneficial knowledge creation. The findings suggest that the synergy between the MNE strategies and the evolving knowledge environment in the local economy increases the potential of the MNEs' activities for interactive and mutually beneficial knowledge and capability creation with other local stakeholders. In Medellín, these effects predominantly concerned the market-seeking MNEs, not those seeking strategic assets, as expected by evidence in the literature. They also revealed how the specific MNE strategies tended to use and influence the creation of local knowledge resources, which helps shape policies that indiscriminately aim to attract all kinds of knowledge-intensive MNE activities to emerging investment hubs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the scope for upscaling and transnational transfer of participatory landslide risk management strategies for informal settlements in Latin America. Drawing on lessons from transdisciplinary action-research in three neighbourhoods in Medellín, Colombia, and one in São Paulo, Brazil, the paper discusses how bottom-up approaches were developed to co-produce landslide risk management in both Global South cities, in a way that optimises the collaboration between communities and relevant governmental bodies. The analysis focuses on mitigation and 'agreement-seeking', from the perspectives of scale, power and knowledge, which help understand the parallels between co-production of landslide risk management and co-production of urban services. Two key conclusions are that landslide risk management should be built into neighbourhood upgrading and management, and that both community and the state have stronger roles to play in landslide risk management from their respective capacities. The paper also reflects on the role of academia in enabling co-production of landslide risk management through engaging with local communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the problem of optimal location and sizing of distributed generators (DGs) in direct current (DC) grids. To solve it, we propose an optimization approach with an objective function that aims to reduce power losses due to energy transport, while considering all the constraints that represent DC grids in a distributed generation environment. For the mathematical formulation of the problem, we used a mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) model, which allowed us to evaluate the impact of all possible configurations (i.e., location and size of DGs in the DC network) on the objective function and the constraints. The solution method proposed here is a master–slave strategy that implements a hybrid solution methodology that combines a genetic algorithm (GA) and the vortex search algorithm (VSA). The GA is in charge of solving the location problem in the master stage, and the VSA is responsible for sizing the DGs in the slave stage. To evaluate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed GA/VSA methodology, we employed two test systems (i.e., 21 and 69 buses) considering a maximum penetration of distributed generation equal to 40% of the power generated by the slack buses. Furthermore, we also implemented nine other hybrid methodologies based on metaheuristic techniques (proposed in the literature for solving the problem addressed here) to make comparisons. All the solution methods used and proposed in this paper are based on sequential programming to avoid the need for specialized software and thus reduce the complexity and cost of the solutions. The effectiveness of the proposed solution was evaluated in two scenarios: (1) peak power demand and (2) variation in power generation and demand associated with photovoltaic generation and user demand in Medellín, Colombia. The results demonstrate that the GA/VSA methodology achieved the best results in terms of solution quality and processing times in all the test scenarios proposed in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within feminist geography, there is a growing consensus on the need for research to contribute to social change and transformation beyond the academy, and increased emphasis on the co‐production of impact. In this paper I critically reflect and report on how I co‐produced impact with a participatory audio‐visual research project, conducted in collaboration with women in Bogotá and Medellín and researchers and filmmakers based in the UK and Colombia. I focus particularly on co‐producing 'impact‐in‐process', which builds participants' capacities, creates spaces of reciprocal learning and increases participants' confidence and sense of ownership both during and beyond the research process. Yet, while co‐producing impact‐in‐process benefits research participants and has the potential to contribute to social change and transformation, this form of impact is rarely recognised as such. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a methodology to estimate the multidimensional poverty index using spatial data at the street block level. The data used in this study were obtained from Open Street Maps and ESA's land use cover, which are freely available sources of spatial information. The study employs five machine-learning algorithms, including Catboost, Lightboost, and Random Forest, to estimate the multidimensional poverty index with spatial granularity. The results indicate that these models achieve promising performance in predicting poverty levels in Medellín, Colombia. The results showed that the Random Forest algorithm achieved the highest performance, with an MAE of 0.07504. Furthermore, the spatial distribution of the multidimensional poverty estimate was highly correlated with the true values of the distribution. This work contributes to predicting multidimensional poverty by demonstrating the potential of machine learning algorithms to utilize accessible spatial data. By providing evidence of the feasibility of estimating poverty levels at a granular spatial level, this methodology offers a powerful tool for policymakers to make poverty social interventions with low-cost evidence. Furthermore, this study has important implications for poverty eradication efforts in developing countries, where access to reliable data remains challenging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the lack of adequate cycling infrastructure networks in many cities, decision makers must face the challenge of designing connected bicycle facility networks to ensure safe and comfortable access to urban opportunities for cyclists and the usability of infrastructure. This paper addresses the maximal covering bicycle network design problem (MCBNDP). MCBNDP involves making investment decisions to build a cycling network that is aimed at maximizing the coverage of cyclists, while maintaining a minimum total network cost at its minimum. The derived network is subject to a budget limit and accounts for the entire connectivity and directness as fundamental bicycle network design criteria. Cyclists who are located at a given origin are considered covered by the network if a connected path of dedicated cycling infrastructure links them to their desired destination, within a maximum travel distance. We propose a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) formulation, including a two-phase solution approach to solving the MCBNDP. In addition, using a commercial solver, our MILP formulation allows exact solutions to be obtained for large-scale instances with reasonable computing times for these types of problems. This MILP formulation is employed to solve a real instance that is applied to a wide territory of analysis in Medellin city (Colombia). The findings of this paper will contribute to existing literature and support urban policymakers to better spatially allocate the resources and, consequently, maximize the impact of their investments on connected cycling infrastructure networks. Our findings indicate that access to opportunities for cyclists can be easily favored by making small improvements to the existing infrastructure to guarantee safe, direct, and comfortable cycling infrastructure. Because we specify a maximum travel distance rather than a shortest path limitation, our problem ensures that cyclists may have several possibilities for their routes, which may go along the shortest path or any other alternative, however, without exceeding the maximum travel distance. In this direction, our findings confirm that prioritizing coverage, while accounting for full network connectivity, will benefit more cyclists because of the flexible configuration of the new network, which also may ensure its usability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the problem regarding the optimal operation of photovoltaic (PV) generation sources in AC distribution networks with a single-phase structure, taking into consideration different objective functions. The problem is formulated as a multi-period optimal power flow applied to AC distribution grids, which generates a nonlinear programming (NLP) model with a non-convex structure. Three different objective functions are considered in the optimization model, each optimized using a single-objective function approach. These objective functions are (i) an operating costs function composed of the energy purchasing costs at the substation bus, added with the PV maintenance costs; (ii) the costs of energy losses; and (iii) the total CO2 emissions at the substation bus. All these functions are minimized while considering a frame of operation of 24 h, i.e., in a day-ahead operation environment. To solve the NLP model representing the studied problem, the General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS) and its SNOPT solver are used. Two different test feeders are used for all the numerical validations, one of them adapted to the urban operation characteristics in the Metropolitan Area of Medellín, which is composed of 33 nodes, and the other one adapted to isolated rural operating conditions, which has 27 nodes and is located in the department of Chocó, Colombia (municipality of Capurganá). Numerical comparisons with multiple combinatorial optimization methods (particle swarm optimization, the continuous genetic algorithm, the Vortex Search algorithm, and the Ant Lion Optimizer) demonstrate the effectiveness of the GAMS software to reach the optimal day-ahead dispatch of all the PV sources in both distribution grids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governance is a polysemic prescription for contemporary government and at an urban level has been instrumental in some radical and often striking reshaping of cities. This paper examines the interests and power structures behind those changes through the critical examination of the case of Medellin, Colombia, until recently a model of "good governance," internationally acknowledged for its early millennium transformation from "murder capital to model city." Based on extensive literature reviews and interviews, we unveil the forces underlying concrete governance practices. Major characteristics emerging from this perspective concern i) market hegemony, ii) the disempowerment of grass-roots movements and iii) the influence of illegal actors in the complex and shifting dynamics within and between the city's major players. The notion of both "good governance" and model practice are strongly revisited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper concerns the numerical performance evaluation of multi-degree-of-freedom systems equipped with Tuned Mass Dampers-Inerter (TMDIs); a passive control device used for the mitigation of mechanical vibrations induced by dynamic loads. The inerter device is commonly used to increase the apparent mass of classics tuned mass dampers (TMDs), improving its seismic performance. To evaluate the TMDI action, three case studies are employed, determined from three real buildings of Medellin city from low, medium to high rise (30 meters, 97 meters, and 144 meters, respectively). Optimum design parameters are found using a metaheuristic optimization based on the differential evolution method, first, for the minimization of the horizontal peak displacements, and then, for the minimization of the root mean square (RMS) response of displacements. Besides, the case studies are assessed using eight seismic accelerations records representative of the literature. Finally, the seismic performance is evaluated on each case study considering different levels of inertance induced by the inerter device: 5%, 20%, and 50% with respect to the total mass of the building, for which it is observed a better dynamic behavior when TMDIs with lower values of inertance are implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a new approach to the sales comparison model for the valuation of real estate that can objectively estimate the coefficients associated with the explanatory price variables. The coefficients of the price adjustment process are estimated from the formulation of a quadratic programming model similar to the mean-variance model in the portfolio selection problem and are shown to be independent of the property to be valued. It is also shown that the sales comparison model should minimize the variance of the adjusted prices, and not their coefficient of variation as indicated by some national and international valuation regulations. The paper concludes with a case study on the city of Medellín, Colombia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the amount of truck emissions and their variations according to changes in travel schedules or routes and the impact on human health represented by cases of Acute Respiratory Infections (ARI) due to PM2.5 emissions in Medellín, Colombia. To accomplish this, information on each vehicle was collected, including model, year, type of fuel used, Euro, and engine power trucks. The commercial vehicles were equipped with GPS to obtain second-to-second speed, location, acceleration, and deceleration; the rest of the data were provided by the vehicles' owners. All this information was used to estimate emissions with the HBEFA model. The main findings show a decrease of approximately 38% in emissions by changing the truck circulation schedule to off-hours and a generation of 2.35 annual cases of ARI if the amount of PM2.5 increases 1 μg/m3. Moreover, this investigation proposes that the optimal inter-city speed for truck circulation is between 40 km/h and 50 km/h, and it is recommended that some cargo transport operations should be carried out during off-hours, especially at night. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To validate a Food Diversity Questionnaire (CDA, for its name in Spanish) that identifies the prevalence of the risk of deficiency in the intake of eleven micronutrients. Design: The CDA paper form, an online application for data entry and handling, was designed and compared with the 24-h recall (24HR) as a reference method. All data were processed in Personal Computer Software for Intake Distribution Estimation (PC-SIDE) v1 software. A descriptive analysis and comparisons between prevalence, concordance and reproducibility analyses were performed. Setting: Medellín, Colombia. Participants: Women of childbearing age between 19 and 50 years (n 186) who worked for the Buen Comienzo programme in 2019. Results: When comparing the adjusted 24HR technique and the CDA, there was no significant difference in population-level data at risk of deficiency in any micronutrient intake. However, based on individual-level data of the best linear unbiased predictor, the concordance analyses were weak, and although agreements were high according to the diagnostic performance tests, a good ability to detect deficiency was only observed in a few nutrients: vitamin A 100·0 %, Ca 98·7 %, Fe 92·8 %, folates 91·6 %, and pyridoxine 81·8 %. Conclusions: The CDA validated in this study is useful and faster at evaluating population-level data at risk of deficiency in the intake of Ca, Fe, Zn, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, pyridoxine, folates, vitamin B12, vitamin C and vitamin A. Based on individual-level data, a good ability to detect deficiencies was observed in the intake of vitamin A, Ca, Fe, folates and pyridoxine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The textile industry in Colombia is a source of employment for more than 200.000 people and more than 50% of this production is undertaken in Medellin. Modeling and improving textile processes allow this economic line to be competitive internationally. In this paper, we make a description about the use of discrete event simulation in a textile finishing company through the presentation of the results of four scenarios, which finally shows the potential of discrete simulations in productive environments and its high impact when modelling part of reality without the necessity of experimenting with the real system. The method used in this paper is summarized in three major stages: the first one is the simulation methodology, the second one is the data to support the simulation, and the final stage is an analysis of the results with the comparison of the four scenarios. The simulation was statistically validated and verified with the real behaviors of the company and it is executed by using software tools such as EasyFit®, Microsoft Excel® and Simul8®. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the optimal sizing of islanded microgrids (MGs), which use diesel generators to supply energy in off-grid areas. The MG under study integrates photovoltaic (PV) and diesel generation, a battery energy storage System (BESS), and an inverter for the connection between AC and DC voltage buses. Levelised cost of energy (LCOE) and annual system cost (ASC) are considered economic indicators, while the loss of power supply probability (LPSP) is used as a reliability indicator. Fiscal incentives such as the tax benefits and accelerated depreciation applied in Colombia are considered for the optimally sizing of each MG element. Solar measurements were taken at a weather station located in the main campus of Universidad de Antioquia in Medellin, Colombia at a latitude of 6.10 and longitude of −75.38. The objective function is the minimization of the total energy delivered from the power sources that successfully meets the load. The model was implemented in Python programming language considering several scenarios. Two cases were evaluated: the first one considered PV panels, a BESS and a diesel generator, while the second one only considered PV panels and a BESS. The option that does not include the diesel generator turned out to be the most expensive, since additional PV and BESS resources are required to meet the load profile. Furthermore, it was found that the LCOE was lower when tax benefits were taken into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The local government in Medellín, Colombia, has constructed several large infrastructure projects in the past decades as part of a strategy to transform itself into a world-class city. These projects—such as gondola-style mass transit, architecturally striking libraries, and eco-parks—contribute to a neoliberal sustainability agenda that seeks to entice wealthy investors, residents, and tourists into the city. The large-scale urban development projects also exclude marginalized residents and their everyday urban projects from newly valued "natural" commons. This paper argues that the local government uses these large infrastructure projects as a strategy of territorialization, which seeks to control space in the periphery of the city by assembling certain approved actors inside its urban borders while excluding other, less powerful residents as rural, at-risk, or invisible. Relying on data created in community meetings from 2015 to 2017 with displaced people engaged in subsistence urban agriculture, this article provides an empirical example of a territorial assemblage that makes tangible the city's rural-urban border while also dispossessing marginalized residents from their right to the city. This paper contributes to literature in critical urban theory by drawing attention to the fissures and contradictions embedded in such neoliberal urbanism projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Statistical analysis of point processes often assumes that the underlying process is isotropic in the sense that its distribution is invariant under rotation. For point processes on ℝ2, some tests based on the K‐function and nearest neighbour orientation function have been proposed to check such an assumption. However, anisotropy and directional analysis need proper caution when dealing with point processes on linear networks, as the implicit geometry of the network forces particular directions that the points of the pattern have to necessarily meet. In this paper, we adapt such tests to the case of linear networks and discuss how to use them to detect particular directional preferences, even at some angles that are different from the main angles imposed by the network. Through a simulation study, we check the performance of our proposals under different settings, over a linear network and a dendrite tree, showing that they are able to precisely detect the directional preferences of the points in the pattern, regardless the type of spatial interaction and the geometry of the network. We use our tests to highlight the directional preferences in the spatial distribution of traffic accidents in Barcelona (Spain), during 2019, and in Medellin (Colombia), during 2016. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pigs subjected to thermal conditions outside their comfort zones may show altered physiological and behavioural responses, which may consequently cause productive losses. For these reasons, the aim of this paper is to develop a decision tree for the prediction of respiratory rate (RR, mov min_1) of piglets exposed to different thermal situations. The experiment was carried out in an experimental pig farm of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia Campus Medellin, located at the San Pablo Agraria Experimental Station located in the eastern sector of the department of Antioquia, during August 2019. A database containing the raw data for dry bulb temperature - tdb (°C), and relative humidity - RH (%) as input variables, and RR (mov min-1) of six piglets were assessed every two hours as output variable for piglets was generated. The experimental database was composed of 78 observed data. The decision trees were developed to conditions of tdb between 19.2 to 29.5 °C and RH between 50.2 to 88.4%. In the experimental period, RR of piglets submitted to tdb higher than 27.1 °C the RR was around 60 mov min-1, tdb smaller than 27.1 °C the RR varied from 36 to 46 mov min-1. These low values of physiological responses may indicate that the piglets are not in a comfortable situation, so their development, welfare and production can be affected. The decision tree developed can be useful to provide a quick understanding of the piglet's welfare condition based on the environmental variables and physiological responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, sewer utility systems require extending management activities by developing tools, such as deterioration models, to face their aging problem. In the literature on sewer asset management, Support Vector Machines (SVM) have been a useful tool to predict and forecast pipe's structural conditions. In this paper, the differential evolution method was implemented as an optimization tool for the hyper-parameters combinations to use in SVM-based models for two different management objectives (network and pipe levels). These models were applied to Colombia's main cities of Bogotá and Medellin, resulting in a less than 6% deviation in the prediction of structural conditions in both cities at a network level. The DE-optimized SVM models at the pipe level show higher percentages of correct predictions in all structural conditions than non-optimized SVM models (conventional SVM model) for specific management objectives. Therefore, the relevance of optimizing the hyper-parameters of SVM models to improve predictions of the structural condition of unspecified sewer assets became apparent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years the literature on mobility of care has rapidly expanded, and the concept offers a powerful lens to highlight how everyday mobilities are organised, undertaken, and experienced in gendered ways. The concept can nonetheless benefit from further theoretical development. In this paper we enrich the mobility of care concept by drawing on influential conceptualisations of care from feminist theory and analysis of data collected during the COVID-19 lockdown among a group of 40 low-income women living in peri-urban areas of Itagüí, a municipality in the south of the Medellín metropolitan area, Colombia. Through this approach we first argue that relying on a taxonomy of trip purposes limits the understanding of the role of care in urban mobilities and risks underestimating the prevalence of mobility of care. Second, we suggest that activities of self-care also generate mobility of care and that their consideration allows practices and experiences of receiving care to be considered. Finally, we show how care activities are part of, and generate, intertwined mobilities and immobilities, and argue that rendering visible the full extent of mobilities of care demands that careful consideration be given to immobilities as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After being known as the ‘murder capital of the world’ in the 1990s, Medellin has pioneered innovative forms of city planning and management and was acclaimed the most innovative city in the world by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) in 2013. Hosting the World Urban Forum in 2014 allowed it to showcase its approach, key elements of which have been: creation of innovative transport infrastructure linking poorer peripheral districts to the city centre; culture-led regeneration; strong support of local development from the local business sector; and a successful municipally-owned utilities company. However, the city is spreading outwards without services and employment being provided; new low-income developments are replicating high-rise models which failed worldwide; there is limited intervention in the existing informal areas, many being in highly vulnerable locations where the level of risk is likely to increase with climate change; development has little regard for topography, ecological and environmental considerations; investment in accessible and good quality public space is restricted to some areas; the quality of the public realm does not always support health and wellbeing of the ageing population. This paper explores the institutional and socio-economic context in which Medellín has achieved the internationally recognized status of an ‘innovative city’. It questions to what extent social equity, environmental sustainability and citizen empowerment have been promoted as per the ULI claims when it conferred the prize. The paper queries the extent to which ‘urban innovation’ is happening in Medellín, which has considerable implications given its recently found role as a ‘model’ city in Latin America and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focused on understanding the role of marketing capabilities to generate competitive advantages. It is a qualitative paradigm research, with the methodology of in-depth interviews. The objective is to explain and synthesize the main contributions to the marketing capabilities in chemical distributors to achieve better performance. We are found that marketing capacity is a systemic process that responds to the needs of customers, based on a good information system that contributes to communicating the competitive advantage, both from inside and outside of the organization, brand, quality, positioning, and sales price. In conclusion, marketing capacity is the management of resources and the configuration of the organizational skills to generate long-term sales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many Latin American cities, infrastructure was largely financed through development lending over the second half of the 20th century. Exacerbated by debt crises and currency devaluations, public utilities became holders of significant levels of negative value. This encouraged public debt financialisation in order to mitigate the effects of shifting interest rates and devaluation. For David Harvey, negative value is the hallmark of contemporary capitalism whereby one must produce, not for profit, but to retire debt. This statement can be applied to indebted utilities, in the sense that the focus of utility governance – and its relationship towards those dependent on it for services – becomes reoriented towards debt management – or governing by debt. Full‐cost recovery emerges in this context as a mechanism to pay down the infrastructure debt held by utilities, which quickly led to increasing levels of user indebtedness. Service disconnection and pre‐paid metering emerge as processes to recover this user debt by enforcing a culture of payment through service exclusion. In these ways, the responsibility for infrastructure debt 'trickles down' in small – but individually significant – amounts to persons and households, enrolling them in the logic of debt (re)payment. This paper examines these issues through a case study of urban infrastructure financing, debt, and tariffs in Medellín, Colombia from 1960 to 2013. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing concern for mobility-related social inclusion and equity is evident from both academic research and planning best practices. Scholarly research promotes accessibility as the main aim of transport planning, assuming it as the evaluative approach that better conveys how mobility contributes to individuals' well-being and participation in social life. Accessibility can be crucial to address the socio-spatial inequalities that characterise manifold settings across the world. Amongst them, Latin American countries have been keen in tackling such imbalances through mobility-related interventions, as the renowned cases of Curitiba, Medellin and Bogotá show. The widespread interest in mobility as both a cause and effect of social disparities has generated an increasing stream of work that examines Latin American settings through the lenses of accessibility. This paper aims at critically reviewing the growing scholarly works that, providing accessibility-based evaluations, has examined issues of transport and equity in Latin America. Proposing a novel conceptual framework that considers the underlying ethical stance, components of accessibility and implications for planning and policy, this work examines what approaches, features and indicators are present in the current literature, as well as what settings have been taken into consideration by scholarly research. Moreover, the review has an explicit operational interest, to define what indicators are relevant or missing to assess accessibility in the light of social concerns, as well as to consider the current and potential implications that such research findings have on transport planning and policy. The review highlights how a growing but still limited body of work has examined transport and equity in Latin America, suggesting academic, technical and operational avenues to enhance theoretical and practical approaches to the issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On October 26, 2016, a large-scale mass movement occurred surrounding the Medellín-Bogotá highway, near the municipality of Copacabana. This paper investigates the physical and legal conditions of the place where the landslide occurred, and thus, to corroborate the causes, the possibility of avoiding or preventing the phenomenon and the influence of anthropic activities in the sector. To determine the susceptibility to mass movements and verify the physical conditions, it was carried out by means of geological mapping, geomorphology and interpretation of satellite images. The legal and bibliographic review was consulted in the reports of the event, the PBOT of the municipality of Copacabana and the mining file of the Cantera Las Nieves. The area was found to be highly susceptible to mass movements, and exploitation in the Cantera Las Nieves triggered the landslide, which could be avoided. Similar phenomena could occur in the near future in the area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper argues that understanding the ways in which criminals interact with state and non-state actors is crucial to construct a more accurate picture of how local governance arrangements are unfolding in urban policy-making in Latin America. Based on the experience of Medellin, Colombia, it is discussed that alongside decades of violence, rapid urbanisation and economic liberal reforms, the local state has built capacity for service provision and new governance arrangements. But this capacity has not weakened criminal actors’ operations and interactions with society and state actors. By focusing on the neighbourhood level, the paper demonstrates the existence of different strategies that have allowed criminals to benefit from governance arrangements, originally created to promote participatory democracy and urban development. The paper calls for studies to incorporate the role of criminals in contexts where boundaries between illegal and legal spheres of action, and formal and informal arrangements are continuously blurred. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper summarizes the different activities undertaken in order to identify the main causes of the collapse of the Space Building, a 27-story reinforced concrete framed building in Medellín, Colombia. Site investigations, field and laboratory tests, and a detailed analytical work including structural analysis under different considerations were carried out. The main cause of the collapse was associated with the deficient structural capacities of the columns of the building in relation to the dead and service loads imposed at the time of the collapse. The occurrence of high differential settlements, the high compressive stresses in main columns, the repair works that were carried out minutes before the collapse, and the probable shear failure of beams and compressive failure of partitions walls during repair works were identified as probable secondary causes and detonating factors of the building collapse. The authors of this investigation considered that if the building had been designed adequately using the Colombian building design codes available at that time, it would not have collapsed, even if most of the aforementioned detonating events had occurred. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing upon 40 life-history interviews with gang members in Medellín, Colombia, this paper argues that many young men join gangs to emulate and reproduce ‘successful’ local male identities. The accumulation by the gang of ‘masculine capital’, the material and symbolic signifiers of manhood, and the accompanying stylistic and timely displays of this capital, means that youths often perceive gangs to be spaces of male success. This drives the social reproduction of gangs. Once in the gang, the youths become increasingly ‘bad’, using violence to defend the gang's interests in exchange for masculine capital. Gang leaders, colloquially known as duros or ‘hard men’, tend to be the más malos, the ‘baddest’. The ‘ganging process’ should not be understood in terms of aberrant youth behaviour; rather there is practical logic to joining the gang as a site of identity formation for aspirational young men who are coming of age when conditions of structural exclusion conspire against them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traffic accidents are of worldwide concern, as they are one of the leading causes of death globally. One policy designed to cope with them is the design and deployment of road safety systems. These aim to predict crashes based on historical records, provided by new Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, to enhance traffic flow management and promote safer roads. Increasing data availability has helped machine learning (ML) to address the prediction of crashes and their severity. The literature reports numerous contributions regarding survey papers, experimental comparisons of various techniques, and the design of new methods at the point where crash severity prediction (CSP) and ML converge. Despite such progress, and as far as we know, there are no comprehensive research articles that theoretically and practically approach the model selection problem (MSP) in CSP. Thus, this paper introduces a bibliometric analysis and experimental benchmark of ML and automated machine learning (AutoML) as a suitable approach to automatically address the MSP in CSP. Firstly, 2318 bibliographic references were consulted to identify relevant authors, trending topics, keywords evolution, and the most common ML methods used in related-case studies, which revealed an opportunity for the use AutoML in the transportation field. Then, we compared AutoML (AutoGluon, Auto-sklearn, TPOT) and ML (CatBoost, Decision Tree, Extra Trees, Gradient Boosting, Gaussian Naive Bayes, Light Gradient Boosting Machine, Random Forest) methods in three case studies using open data portals belonging to the cities of Medellín, Bogotá, and Bucaramanga in Colombia. Our experimentation reveals that AutoGluon and CatBoost are competitive and robust ML approaches to deal with various CSP problems. In addition, we concluded that general-purpose AutoML effectively supports the MSP in CSP without developing domain-focused AutoML methods for this supervised learning problem. Finally, based on the results obtained, we introduce challenges and research opportunities that the community should explore to enhance the contributions that ML and AutoML can bring to CSP and other transportation areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the consolidation of democratic governments in the 1980s and 1990s, wholesale evictions of entire neighbourhoods ceased to be a solution to urban problems in Latin America. This paper discusses an example of a new generation of municipal programmes aimed at physically upgrading informal settlements while integrating them both physically and socially into the fabric of the city. In Medellín, a city with a recent history of violence and social inequality, the audacious use of well-established ski-slope aerial cable-car technology in dense and hilly low-income informal settlements was followed by major neighbourhood upgrading comprising new social housing, schools and other social infrastructure, as well as support to micro-enterprises. Although lack of mobility contributes to social inequality and poverty, the paper argues that the introduction of quick-fix highly visible transport technology on its own is unlikely to help reduce poverty. Although urban upgrading programmes and the symbolic value of cable-car systems have instilled among the local population a feeling of inclusion and integration into the ‘modern’ city, they can also be understood as mechanisms for the ‘normalisation’ of informal sectors of the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the design of a fiber optic network between Bogotá and Medellin, whose main objective is to optimize the bandwidth by DWDM technology. The design was done with optical transmission equipment OSN 6800 with the latest technology, which can handle up to 80 wavelengths. Moreover, this network utilizes control nodes and network management software through T2000, which is used in the provision of services in the real optical networks. The most important contribution of this article is its practical character, because it can be used by the readers as a tool to guide the design of optical networks for data transmission, using commercial devices and the key parameters that are considered in any design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using modeling techniques as Ordinary Least Squares-OLS, this paper studies the main variables that affect service trip generation (STG) (production and attraction) by the service sector (e.g., maintenance, repairs) in commercial establishments located in urban areas of developing countries. Data obtained from Medellin Metropolitan Area (Colombia) origin–destination freight surveys conducted in 2017–2018 were used to analyze service trips for the first time in the region. This helped determine the number of produced and attracted service trips, average duration per service, most used modes of transport in service trips, and other characteristics that improve the understanding of how service trips work in urban areas This information might help in analyses of variables that mainly influence STG. To this effect, the authors estimated more than 30 service trip production and attraction models for establishments; these models depend on independent variables, such as employment, and establishment's area. Finally, the freight community will benefit from these models because transport planners would analyze service trips as part of the freight and service activities in urban areas to contribute to improve the mobility using the models to plan better the transportation in the areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the evolution of violence trends in the three biggest Colombian cities, Bogotá, Medellín, and Cali. Two of those cities, Bogotá and Medellín, were able to cut dramatically their homicide rates, while Cali did not. The taming of violence in Bogotá and Medellín challenges structural explanations of urban violence in Latin America, which suggest that the effects of neoliberalism, juxtaposed to already very high levels of inequality and social exclusion, should “overwhelm” municipal administrations. The systematic comparison of Bogotá and Medellín, on the one hand, and Cali, on the other, suggests that any explanation of urban violence reduction should take into account political dimensions, including in particular city-level coalition building. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Medellin is one of the main destinations for Colombian IDPs. People expelled from all over the country, seek the big city to remain anonymous as a way to ensure security and find job opportunities. But displaced people not only arrive to Medellin. This city also produces the highest number of forced exiles in Colombia and an important number of these people remain within its boundary. Intra urban displaced people share problems with those internal exiles that travel longer distances in the search of haven. Both were violently expelled from their homes, had lost belongings and social ties. Also, despite the complex Colombian IDP policy, both face lack of protection. But, additionally, those who remain in their home city usually face recognition problems. Authorities deny the IDP status, owing to the short distance between their former and their current home. As a consequence, they cannot access relief and protection programs. This paper analyzes intra urban displacement in Medellin and the response given by national and local authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adoption of e-commerce by a population requires an analysis of its social, cultural and economic environment, so it is necessary to propose and validate models based on the particularities of each region. From this need arises present research with the objective to examine the factors of the E-Commerce adoption in university students of the Medellin city, through the technology acceptance model, adding the variables of Perceived Security and Trust. The quantitative methodological design consisted of a cross-sectional exploratory research study in order to validate the model. A quantitative self-administered questionnaire was applied to 369 university students from the city of Medellin. To check the validity of the measurement scale used, it was developed to confirmatory factor analysis. Various hypotheses were collected and the degree of association was measured by the statistical Somers' D and Cramer's V. In this study, the attitude is correlated in 0.61 with the intention, being the variable with the greatest impact. Furthermore, the ease of use, perceived usefulness and trust, are antecedent of online shopping intention [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large proportion of the world population dwells in houses without the assistance of sufficient engineering knowledge: non-engineered houses. These houses are potentially hazardous, especially in seismic affected regions. The authors have been working on the seismic improvement of conventional timber houses in Japan. This paper introduces the Japanese solution to ensure the structural safety of non-engineered timber houses and its application to the structural improvement of unreinforced masonry houses. The informal houses in Colombia are selected as an example not only because the country is often affected by earthquakes, but development and reconstruction of vulnerable urban districts is strongly promoted and practiced by the present government. Therefore the need for affordable and effective structural improvement method of unreinforced masonry houses is required urgently. On-site investigation of the houses in Medellin, Colombia was carried out by the authors together with the results of preceding researches the average configuration, material and construction method was determined. Material tests of hollow bricks, which are used as interior/exterior walls are operated. The compressive, shear and tensile strength as well as load displacement properties of each individual brick and mortar-brick joint was obtained experimentally. The mixture of the mortar was based on that which is used in conventional houses of Medellin, Colombia. The horizontal load carrying capacity of an average Unreinforced masonry house is calculated based on the results of material tests. Several types of structural strengthening of unreinforced masonry is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses how the institutional processes, the school management as well as the contexts in which the school and the students are circumscribed, could impact the performance in the high-school graduation-year test (ICFES). A survey was applied with the purpose of know the actions and interactions among educative process actors. Factor Analysis and Hierarchical econometric models were used with the purpose of construct indexes and measure the impact of the considered variables. We found that school level variables, including management, explain a high percentage of the performance variability, while those constructed variables associated to student's characteristics have a low impact. And parent human capital and the initial student conditions are much more important than the teacher human capital. Contrary to the expected, it's not clear what kind of use and if to increase infrastructure resources favors the achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Market segmentation is useful for formulating adequate, sustainable mobility policies. • Segmentation should consider individual differences in attitudes and perceptions. • We identified three groups: Traditionalists, Green Conscious and All Matters. • We proposed sustainable strategies considering the heterogeneities of each group. This paper draws attention to the need for formulating tailored, sustainable transport policies considering heterogeneity in the population regarding their preferences and attitudes. In this regard, we propose a market segmentation for incentivising sustainable transport policies. Our analysis builds from the responses of 1,041 car owners towards environmentally friendly transport alternatives in a survey issued in the five largest Colombian metropolitan areas: Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, Barranquilla, and Bucaramanga. Using the collected data, we estimated a Multiple Indicators Multiple Causes (MIMIC) model to evaluate individual attitudes towards the environment, green transport policies, car use, and technology. A cluster analysis based on the MIMIC results identified three groups: Traditionalists, Green Conscious and All Matters. Results make the contradiction between car attachment and environmental concern evident. The lower the environmental concern, the higher the attachment to the car. However, the differences between Traditionalists and All Matters are less pronounced. Finally, we proposed sustainable strategies considering the heterogeneities of each group, analysed the implications of developing custom-made actions and marketing strategies for promoting sustainable transport policies, considering the interests and characteristics of each targeted group in the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education for sustainable development in universities provides the university's community (i.e. students, administrative and academic staff) with the skills and capabilities needed to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development. Education for sustainable development has been introduced into curricula, research, outreach activities and campus operations. Several tools exist nowadays to assess this incorporation. Most of them are focused on the environmental aspect of campus operations and within academic issues but do not consider the entire system. This research aimed to propose an integration of sustainability throughout the university as a system, considering existing tools and frameworks, and proving the theoretical proposal in an empirical context. Thus, this paper focuses on sustainability from a whole-institution perspective, analysing the university as a system conformed of two subsystems, the academic and the administrative. The research used a sequential, mixed-method. The quantitative phase undertook a literature review using bibliometric and content analysis, followed by a qualitative phase using the thematic analysis method to develop the University Sustainability concept. The University Sustainability analysis integrated education for sustainable development aspects for the academic subsystem and the corporate sustainability paradigm for the administrative subsystem. Consequently, a sustainability measurement scale for the University Sustainability concept was developed and proved using the exploratory factor analysis. The survey was applied to directors, academic and administrative staff, and under and post-graduate students of two private universities located in Medellin, Colombia. A total of 1799 useable responses were collected and analysed with SPSS software. The analysis' outcome exposed all factors loaded above 0.40, and overall, the alpha coefficient was 0.930. Results revealed the reliability and validity of the instrument. Hence, the University Sustainability concept was validated, and its measurement scale is suitable to be used in assessing the sustainability of universities holistically. The evidence from the studied universities shows the relevance of corporate sustainability and social issues in the developed University Sustainability concept. • University sustainability considered the academic and administrative subsystems. • Administrative subsystem was highly related with corporate sustainability. • Academic subsystem embraced education for sustainable development in higher education. • High reliability measurement scale assesses holistically sustainability in universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an electrical infrastructure planning method for transit systems that operate with partially grid-connected vehicles incorporating on-board batteries. First, the state-of-the-art of electric transit systems that combine grid-connected and battery-based operation is briefly described. Second, the benefits of combining a grid connection and battery supply in Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems are introduced. Finally, the planning method is explained and tested in a BRT route in Medellin, Colombia, using computational simulations in combination with real operational data from electric buses that are currently operating in this transit line. Unlike other methods and approaches for Battery Electric Bus (BEB) infrastructure planning, the proposed technique is system-focused, rather than solely limited to the vehicles. The objective of the technique, from the vehicle's side, is to assist the planner in the correct sizing of batteries and power train capacity, whereas from the system side the goal is to locate and size the route sections to be electrified. These decision variables are calculated with the objective of minimizing the installed battery and achieve minimum Medium Voltage (MV) network requirements, while meeting all technical and reliability conditions. The method proved to be useful to find a minimum feasible cost solution for partially electrifying a BRT line with In-motion Charging (IMC) technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyse whether the Colombian government's classification of households into socio-economic strata accurately reflects the level of quality of life of households in Medellin. To this end, logit multilevel models and a novel graphic analysis were used. Our findings suggest that the stratification criteria currently used in Medellin should be revised. The socio-economic strata, which only considers the characteristics of the dwellings, streets and surrounding areas, explain approximately one tenth of the variability in self-reported quality of life. When other economic and non-economic factors are considered, a different strata ranking for guiding public policies than that used in Medellin was estimated. Neighbourhood safety and personal safety are key drivers of quality of life, whereas higher consumption expenditure is most effective in the most disadvantaged strata. • Socio-economic strata explain 10.26% of variability in self-reported quality of life. • The current strata ranking does not adequately reflect citizens' quality of life. • Neighbourhood safety and personal safety are key drivers of quality of life. • Higher consumption expenditure is most effective in the most disadvantaged strata. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The circulation of ideas about 'best practices' and policies shape multi-scalar governance networks. This paper examines the role of the international press, both as an actor and as a medium for the circulation of urban planning models. We aim to deepen the theoretical notions on the role of media, particularly the written press, in building narratives of 'urban models', and their circulation in other contexts. And second, by extending the reaches of multi-sited ethnography as the main methodological approach to follow policy mobility. This research monitored, and analysed news items published about Medellín on the digital editions of several newspapers across the globe between 2004 and 2017. The resulting examination shows, firstly, how the changes of the image of the city has been portrayed over time, with a growth of news items highlighting Medellín's urban model as an inspirational source for other cities in the world. Secondly, the research shows the importance of international media for building a particular storytelling about urban transformations. We argue that newspapers constitute a key informational infrastructure for urban policy mobility contributing to amplify mythical narratives of 'urban models' and to institute new metrics of good governance. • Newspapers constitute a key informational infrastructure for urban policy mobility. • Digital press contributes to amplify mythical narratives of 'urban models'. • Media contributed for building a storytelling about Medellín's urban transformation. • Main narratives about Medellín: the 'violent city' and the 'city in transformation'. • Positive news and international press interest become new good governance metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on a joint meeting of International Union of Forestry Research Organizations working parties held to discuss pests and diseases of pine in the tropics. The meeting was held at the Forest Protection Laboratories at Priedras Blancas, near Medellin, Colombia, over the period 3rd to 8th September 1978. The main objectives of the meeting were to integrate the organization and future activities of the two working parties and provide an opportunity for technical exchange between them. The papers presented gave a basis for a valuable exchange of information and ideas.