Abstract: In this study, an approach for dressing metallic bonded honing stones with hard cutting grains on the basis of electrolysis is investigated. By a combination of concepts from electrochemical machining (ECM) and electropolishing, a test rig was designed and put into operation. In general, it can be stated that the approach investigated in this paper has proved to be a suitable dressing method for honing stones. However, the dressing result is highly dependent on bond components, cutting grain size, and concentration which lead to local differences in the material removal and irregular topographies. This could be overcome, for example, by setting the dressing parameters more precisely based on the best results presented in this paper. Resumen: En este estudio se investiga un enfoque para el rectificado de piedras de bruñir metálicas con granos de corte duros sobre la base de la electrólisis. Mediante una combinación de conceptos del mecanizado electroquímico (ECM) y del electropulido, se diseñó y puso en funcionamiento un equipo de pruebas. En general, se puede afirmar que el enfoque investigado en este trabajo ha demostrado ser un método de rectificado adecuado para las piedras de bruñir. Sin embargo, el resultado del reavivado depende en gran medida de los componentes de la unión, el tamaño del grano de corte y la concentración, lo que provoca diferencias locales en la eliminación de material y topografías irregulares. Esto podría superarse, por ejemplo, ajustando los parámetros de reavivado con mayor precisión sobre la base de los mejores resultados presentados en este trabajo.

Abstract: This paper analyzes how changes in political conditions affect distributive politics. We study the case of Colombia, focusing on the strategic allocation of land in relation to the electoral cycle. Relying on over 55.000 municipality-year observations on land allocations, exogenous timing of elections and sociodemographic controls, we show that there is a political land cycle (PLC), and that this cycle is dependent on the local political conditions in place. We analyze the changes in the PLC derived from the implementation of a deep political reform that increased political competition and the fiscal and administrative capacity of the state, doing so heterogeneously across municipalities. We show that the PLC decreased by half after the reform, with this reduction being stronger in municipalities in which political competition and fiscal and administrative capacity increased the most. The heterogeneous reduction in the PLC does not appear to stem from an aggregate weakening of distributive politics, but rather, from a recomposition of the distributive politics portfolio: away from the allocation of private targeted benefits like land, and towards the strategic allocation of public goods. We discuss the incentive and capacity effects explaining this re-composition likely affecting the relative costs and benefits of different types of distributive politics resources. The results evidence the importance of understanding not only the territorial dimension of distributive politics, but also how the specific traits of resources determine distributive politics strategies and their resilience to contextual changes. Resumen: Este artículo analiza cómo los cambios en las condiciones políticas afectan la política distributiva o clientelismo. Estudiamos el caso de Colombia, analizando la asignación estratégica de tierras en relación al ciclo electoral. Basándonos en más de 55.000 observaciones por año y municipio de asignaciones de tierras baldías, y aprovechando las fechas exógenamente determinadas para la realización de elecciones políticas durante los últimos 50 años, mostramos que existe un ciclo político de la tierra (PLC), y que este ciclo depende de las condiciones políticas locales. Luego analizamos los cambios en el PLC derivados de la implementación de una profunda reforma política (la Constitución de 1991) que incrementó la competencia política y la capacidad fiscal y administrativa del Estado, haciéndolo de manera heterogénea entre municipios. Mostramos que el PLC disminuyó a la mitad después de la reforma, con una mayor reducción en los municipios en los que la competencia política y la capacidad fiscal y administrativa aumentaron más. La reducción heterogénea en el PLC no parece provenir de un debilitamiento agregado de las prácticas clientelistas, sino más bien, de una recomposición del portafolio de clientelismo: este pasa de basarse en la asignación de beneficios privados como la tierra, a basarse en la asignación estratégica de bienes públicos. Discutimos los efectos de incentivos y de capacidad que explican esta recomposición del portafolio de clientelismo. Los resultados evidencian la importancia de comprender no solo la dimensión territorial del clientelismo, sino también cómo las características de los recursos a ser usados para clientelismo determinan las dinámicas clientelistas y su resiliencia a cambios contextuales.

Abstract: Language assessment literacy (LAL) is a critical field for researchers, scholars, or anyone interested in improving the language teaching environment. Understanding the basics of testing and the ability to perform testing related activities becomes more significant in testoriented countries. In this regard, earlier studies have investigated various factors related to English language teaching. However, the assessment literacy of teachers has been relatively investigated within the context of Colombian language teaching. There is no broader research to understand how LAL operates in English teachers in the country. This study aims to examine how Colombian English language teachers currently use language assessment within the classroom, specifically, on two major aspects: the purposes of English language assessment, and second, English language assessment practices (traditional assessment, alternatives in assessment), as well as the role of teachers’ beliefs in assessment. The data collected correspond to a quantitative instrument, an online questionnaire. The total number of respondents was 32. The results suggest that teachers in Colombia in most of the cases develop assessment instruments by using their own knowledge and experience, in order to obtain information on the progress of the students, to provide them with feedback during the learning process, and to determine their final grades. Some implications with respect to language assessment practices and further suggestions to professional development. Based on the findings, the article concludes with suggestions that can be implemented to develop language assessment awareness of English teachers in Colombia.

Abstract: The spread of the COVID-19 disease caused by the respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has resulted in unpredicted measures restricting daily flights. Although passenger demand for travel has considerably reduced, the pre-existing impacts of gases generated by aeroplane engines on the environment are still substantial. This paper uses a modelling-based scenario analysis to assess the restriction policies relating to air transport in Argentina, Brazil and Colombia during and after the pandemic and their effects on the environment. The simulation results highlight the need to reduce the negative environmental impact produced by the aviation sector and suggest that policymakers should try to focus on creating ways to reduce the impact made by the aviation industry on the environment, through a coordinated environmental policy between countries, including the three that are the subject of the present case study in order to highlight these issues. Resumen: La propagación de la enfermedad COVID-19 causada por el síndrome respiratorio porcoronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) ha dado lugar a medidas imprevistas que restringen los vuelos diarios. Aunque la demanda de viajes de los pasajeros se ha reducido considerablemente, los impactos preexistentes de los gases generados por los motores de los aviones en el medio ambiente siguen siendo sustanciales. Este documento utiliza un análisis de escenarios basado en modelos para evaluar las políticas de restricción relacionadas con el transporte aéreo en Argentina, Brasil y Colombia durante y después de la pandemia y sus efectos sobre el medio ambiente. Los resultados de la simulación destacan la necesidad de reducir el impacto ambiental negativo producido por el sector de la aviación y sugieren que los responsables de la formulación de políticas deberían tratar de centrarse en crear formas de reducir el impacto de la industria de la aviación en el medio ambiente, a través de una política ambiental coordinada entre países, incluyendo los tres que son el tema del presente estudio de caso con el fin de resaltar estos temas.

Abstract: Krafla Geothermal Field is located inside the Krafla Caldera in the Northeast of Iceland. The tectonic settings consist of a central volcano and its corresponding fissure swarm formed due to extension from plate spreading. The central volcano has a collapsed caldera dating ~110.000 years (Sæmundsson, 2008). Within the Krafla post Caldera collapse period, the orientation of the different extensional eruptive fissures evidence rotation of the plate. The initial events evidence above 20 degrees from North strike, whereas more recent events shifted orientation to be closer to 15 degrees North (Árnason, 2020). This paper discusses the chronological evolution of the Fissure Swarm inside Krafla Caldera and the effect on the stratigraphic reconstruction made in 2019 to compare conceptual models of the south zone subareas: Hvíthólar, Vestursvæði, and Sandabotnaskarð. This paper derived from the MSc Thesis project 3D Conceptual Model Hvíthólar Sub-area, Krafla carried out in 2019. This paper complements other publications such as (Castillo et al,2020).

Resumen: La Inteligencia Artificial (IA) está en todas partes. Es una parte importante de nuestros sistemas financieros, de nuestras redes sociales, e incluso de los mecanismos que usamos para resolver nuestras disputas legales. Aunque muchas profesiones relacionadas con el Derecho han sido identificadas como libres de automatización (Frey & Obsborne, 2013), esto no significa que nuestra industria sea inmune a la tecnología. Lo que significa es que, como lo menciona Kaplan (2015), en el estado actual de la tecnología, aún hay trabajos vitales dentro del campo legal para los cuales las máquinas no necesitan ser utilizadas. Todo abogado utiliza bases de datos para revisar los precedentes, las leyes aplicables y las normas de los procesos judiciales. En general, como abogados nos basamos en inteligencia artificial incluso cuando "Googleamos" un tema relevante para investigar un caso. Estos ejemplos cotidianos ilustran el amplio impacto que la tecnología tiene en nuestra profesión y la sutil definición de un "sistema inteligente". Muestran, además, lo importante que es para los profesionales del derecho entender cómo la tecnología está afectando nuestro campo. En sentido amplio, un sistema inteligente puede ser definido como cualquier sistema que toma la información proporcionada por el usuario y le da, a cambio, una salida procesada a través de un proceso informático que debería ser útil para ese usuario. Esto incluye no solo los sistemas de inteligencia artificial, sino también las bases de datos en general e incluso, los sistemas de registro y seguimiento temporal.

Abstract: It is argued that civil war and protests are mutually exclusive processes. However, the prevalence of protests and their proximity with or simultaneity to armed conflict contradicts this idea. Conflict and confrontation involve different types of interactions between the state and its opponents, which can involve protests, mass mobilization, clashes, and even armed conflict. Thus, we can understand conflict as existing in a continuum. Analyzing protests and protestors as related to armed conflict may serve to widen our understanding of conflict. This chapter presents the case for linking protest with a wider understanding of conflict, considering its links with other categories of contestation such as armed conflict. We can thus envision different types of contestation as being related. If we consider this possibility, we can then analyze processes of escalation and de-escalation between different expressions of contestation. This chapter reflects on the similarities and differences between different categories used to understand contestation, focusing on the categories of protests, civil conflict, and civil war. I claim that while a distinction between protests and armed violence is often made based on the degree of violence involved in these processes, this in itself does not mean that these forms of conflict are disconnected. Through focusing on the nature of their political claims, we can understand these processes of contestation as related to each other. Thus, we can analyze how mass mobilization escalates into armed conflicts, and we also observe cases of post agreement scenarios where mass mobilization follows the signature of peace agreements (a de-escalation process). Evidence from the case of South Africa is presented to illustrate this.

Abstract Purpose: By considering the organizational legitimacy framework, this work examines how offending companies decouple their narratives from the facts as a communication strategy when handling environmental crises in the Latin American context. It also considers the implications of such behavior in terms of its potential inconsistency with the organizational value system, and therefore with the ethical sense of the crisis communication practice. Design/methodology: The research relies on a multi-case study approach, where four major environmental incidents involving four extractive companies in Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, and Argentina are analyzed. By scrutinizing public sources, these companies’ crisis communication processes are examined to allow for the linking of theory and practice. Findings: Results obtained suggest that to defend their legitimacy, companies deliberately conveyed untruthful messages and decouple their communication in crisis from reality, which in turn exposes a delinking between values and actions, resulting in ethical concerns for the practice of both crisis management and crisis communication. This work identifies four different decoupling-based crisis communication strategies performed by companies and the way these are accompanied by secondary strategies. Research limitations/implications: By emphasizing the connection between legitimacy and crisis communication, the study illustrates how narrative-fact decoupling (i.e., untruthful crisis communication practices) can be an indicative of more profound organizational contradictions. However, due to the constraints of case studies, it is acknowledged that the results obtained have boundaries for generalization. Originality/value: Instead of approaching decoupling as a trigger for crisis, the present investigation considers decoupling as a communicational strategy some companies engage with, when handling crisis. Furthermore, by focusing on Latin America, the study reflects the potential impact that the geographical context may have on the bodies of knowledge of organizational crisis communication and legitimacy.

Abstract: This study examines outsourced workers’ assessment of job satisfaction and the degree to which it can be affected by their perception of the reputation of the outsourcing company (i.e., their employer), that of the user company (i.e., their client), and their level of affective commitment to each one of them. Therefore, this study proposes a partial least squares structural equation model with four correlational hypotheses and two mediation hypotheses. A cross-sectional instrument was administered to 138 outsourced workers employed by the same outsourcing company in Colombia. The results indicate that the outsourcing company’s reputation has a slight influence on its employees’ affective commitment to said company, but not on their job satisfaction. Finally, the user company’s reputation has a strong influence on its outsourced workers’ affective commitment, and the latter variable plays a partial mediating role in the link between the user company’s reputation and outsourced employee satisfaction. Resumen: El presente estudio se propuso indagar por la forma en que los trabajadores en condición de tercerización laboral conciben su nivel de satisfacción en su trabajo, y el grado en que dicha valoración puede ser afectada en función de su propia percepción de reputación sobre la empresa subcontratista (su empleador) y la empresa usuaria (su cliente), así como de su nivel de vinculación afectiva con respecto a cada una de ellas. Para ello se planteó un modelamiento de ecuaciones estructurales mediante mínimos cuadrados parciales, empleándose cuatro hipótesis correlacionales y dos hipótesis de mediación. De esta manera, se aplicó un instrumento transversal sobre una muestra de 138 trabajadores tercerizados, vinculados a una misma empresa subcontratista en Colombia. Los resultados obtenidos indican que la reputación de esta empresa parecería incidir ligeramente sobre la vinculación afectiva de los trabajadores con respecto a ella misma, más no sobre su propia satisfacción en el trabajo. Finalmente, se observa una fuerte incidencia de la reputación de la empresa usuaria sobre la vinculación afectiva de sus trabajadores, variable que a su vez ejerce un rol de mediación parcial dentro del vínculo existente entre la misma reputación (de la empresa usuaria) y la satisfacción de los trabajadores.

Resumen: Este artículo ilustra el papel del populismo en la defensa de empresas estatales transgresoras, a partir del estudio del caso de la empresa Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) y su relación con el Estado venezolano durante la era del autodenominado “socialismo del siglo XXI”. Para ello se hace una investigación descriptiva y de sistematización de datos sobre algunos eventos de transgresión socioambiental en los que incurrió la compañía entre 2010 y 2020. Los resultados apuntan al uso continuo de una retórica incendiaria, constituida por el antielitismo, la defensa de la soberanía popular y la consideración de una ciudadanía homogénea y virtuosa. Esto sugiere que el populismo también puede ser utilizado como un estilo discursivo particular para defender la legitimidad de empresas transgresoras subordinadas al poder. Abstract: This work illustrates the role of populism in defending transgressing state-owned companies, based on the case of Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and its relationship with the Venezuelan state during the self-titled era of ‘21st-century socialism.’ To this end, a descriptive research design and systematization of data was performed on some socio-environmental transgressions by this company between 2010 and 2020. The results point to the continued use of inflammatory rhetoric, represented by anti-elitism, defense of popular sovereignty, and the consideration of homogeneous and virtuous citizenship. These findings suggest that populism can be used as a particular discursive behavior meant to defend the legitimacy of transgressing, subservient-to-power companies.