Tekhné

10

Authors: Jorge Pirolo, José Zacarías

The Industrial Engineering School of the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello of Guayana seeks to penetrate the consulting market by helping the SME’s to improve or reformulate their processes. In the present work it is proposed to create a tool for the first step in consulting, process diagnosis. For the design of the process diagnosis methodology of the SMEs, several existing tools were studied from which those processes and subprocesses were obtained that are of vital importance to increase the competitiveness of each company, either of goods and services, presenting a series of questionnaires for each process to be evaluated, resulting in a percentage compliance diagnosis of each process. The methodology was applied to a local company in order to exemplify its applicability, use and results.

15

Authors: Roque Garcia Ruiz, Eduardo Garcia Romero

Climatic change that is being felt actually, is related to similar processes that occurred in Peru and on the island of Easter, before its evolution from XIIIth century, after the effects of torrential rains and landslides that modified the topographic relief in the places where both cultures developed. The Incas from their first king Manco Capac in the XIIIth century, conformed cultivation terraces on the high grade slopes, using terraces or stone walls, built mostly in topographic forms of amphitheatres product of instability in the past. Moais on the island of Pascuas were partially hidden by mudslides in the past, whose inhabitants from Polynesia populated for the second time the islands at the beginning of the year 1200 being organized by areas of cultivation, with local deforestation of the island, standing out after the Inca visit in the XVth century the construction of the ahu where were recovered and placed the moais. The Incas conformed cultivation terraces on the high grade slopes, using terraces or stone walls, built mostly in topographic forms of amphitheatres product of instability in the past, whereas the Pascuenses were organized by areas of culture, with local deforestation of the island, standing out after the Inca visit in the XVth century the construction of the ahu where the moais were placed. On Easter Island, a large part of the moais are covered by land, with thicknesses of up to 7 meters, relating this huge thickness of sediments to stability problems in the prominent volcanic relief, caused by rains of greater duration and intensity. Similar rainfall climatic conditions predominated in the Andean area, causing stability problems on mountain slopes, with the development of amphitheater topographic forms, and large sediment inputs to river valleys, with conformation of colluvial cones. This is due to rainfall saturation between the 11th and 12th centuries, following a global increase in temperature, related by several researchers with the current global warming. At present, the exponential increase of hydrological events from 1980 to 2017, related to torrential rains and landslides, predicts a greater number of events by 2030, possibly with a progressive decrease in temperature. From this date to 2030, the competent bodies of each nation will have to assess the risks of the populated areas at the foot of mount, in order to construct works to lessen the effects of landslides and the relocation if necessary.

20

Authors: Guillermo Centeno Bordones

This research aims to analyze the technological capacity as a complex adaptive system in the chemical laboratories of university research centers. As for the research methodology the level of research that has been adopted in this study, is the research of descriptive type, with a transectional field design, the population under study were 11 research centers with chemical laboratories in the region carabobeña, with 69 subjects chemical investigators, the sample was non-probabilistic of census type. The instrument of data collection was a Lickert type survey with 32 items having a reliability coefficient of Crombach's alpha of 0, 78. The technique of data analysis was the descriptive statistics for the determination of frequencies and relative frequencies, for the representation of trend graphs. As a relevant result of the research it can be said that when the technological capacity is observed as a complex adaptive system it is possible to visualize to this process from a more complete and human perspective, where the feedback capacities of the factors that conform it are manifested, developing a technological memory that allows the effective construction of knowledge and accumulated experiences in the management of research, development and chemical innovation in a laboratory.

3

Authors: Joaquín Benítez

This paper intends to explore the links between the practice of the Environmental Impact Assessment with the principles of the Sustainable Development and the Bioethics. This research was made thru the revision of important references and authors who establish some significant links which were analyzed by the author. The more important characteristics of the Environmental Impact Assessment practice in Venezuela were described and the links with the Sustainable Development, thru the analysis of evidences provided by previous works was made, the results are linked with positive connections. Also were explored the links between the Environmental Impact Assessment practice and the Bioethics principles established by Potter and Alicardi, resulting in findings of several positive links.

7

Authors: Luís Ramírez, Mayra Narváez, Joaquín Benítez, María Remedios

This document presents the results obtained after applying some of the indicators proposed by ISO 37120: 2014, referring to the sustainable development of the cities, in three Venezuelan localities, specifically the Municipality of Chacao, Guayana and Maracaibo city. The data processed corresponds to the 2011 National Census and references to City Halls and Municipalities. Some areas evaluated are the collection of waste, availability of drinking water and food, proportion of voters who exercised their right to vote in the elections of 2013, percentage of people below the poverty line, and others. The analysis is oriented in the comparison between each locality and the extreme values obtained, in order to make important findings for future investigations that deepen the continuous improvement in the quality of life of Venezuelan people.

14

Authors: Heriberto Echezuría

Values of strong motion duration

16

Authors: Rafael Muñíz

Biomimetics (of bios, life, and mimesis, imitate) is a new science based on the study of models, systems and processes of nature with the purpose of imitating them and thus pose possible solutions to practical problems to cover some of the human needs. Biomimetics is a method by which designers and engineers build on the knowledge of how organisms solve complex problems in their relationship with the environment throughout an evolutionary process of billions of years. To this end, scientists from different areas of knowledge have started the development of multiple projects aimed at emulating natural processes by introducing a series of new concepts that today are used by organizations worldwide in the construction of goods and services. Current design methods require new approaches to generate innovation. The methodological approaches presented in this article facilitate the conceptualization of product design strategies, based on the functional specifications provided by living beings.

20

Authors: Beatriz Soledad-Rodríguez

The selective molecular recognition properties of the Molecularly Imprinted Polymers (MIPs) make them highly sensitive and with high selectivity and affinity for the analyte. The molecular imprinting technique is based on the preparation of a highly crosslinked polymer around an analyte used as a template or template molecule. Initially the analyte is contacted with a suitable monomer in order to form a prepolymerization complex, subsequently is added the cross-linker, the initiator and the solvent (porogen) with which the polymerization is carried out. Once the polymer is obtained, the template molecule is extracted, releasing the specific recognition sites. It is because of these recognition sites within the polymer matrix (complementary to the molecule under analysis in the form and position of the functional groups) that selective molecular recognition occurs. Molecularly Imprinted Solid Phase Extraction (MISPE) is a technique frequently used for the analysis of environment, food and bioanalytical samples. Analyzing an analyte in complex mixtures often requires several pretreatment steps. If the compound to be analyzed is present in very low concentrations, it must be concentrated to be detected by standard analytical techniques. On the other hand, if the sample has other compounds, a previous step that involves its cleaning is necessary. Solid-phase extraction is a widely used technique for pre-treatment of samples, since it is flexible and easy to automate. This paper presents the molecular printing process and its applications in combination with solid phase extraction, to be used as an alternative for the pre-concentration of complex samples such as food and environment.

6

Authors: Andy Y. Contreras-Molina, Beatriz E. Soledad-Rodríguez

Antibiotics are used both in animals and humans for the treatment of various diseases and the residues found in the excretions flow into the soil and wastewater, and later to bodies of water contaminating them. Several analytical techniques are used to determine the presence of antibiotics, including High Performance Liquid Chromatography with Ultraviolet Detection (HPLC-UV). The aim of this work was to determine ampicillin in low concentration solutions using an equipment of High Resolution Liquid Chromatography with Ultraviolet Detection (HPLC-UV). The Detection Limit (LOD) was 24.2 μg L-1 and the Limit of Quantification (LOQ) was equal to 86.3 μg L-1, reaching a pre-concentration of the sample of 50. With this pre-concentration of the sample, ampicillin could be determined at a concentration of up to 3.2 μg L-1 with a recovery rate greater than 94%. The coefficient of determination obtained (R2) was 0.998 and the correlation coefficient, R, was 0.99, showing a linear correlation in the working range.

9

Authors: Heriberto Echezuría

The parameters that define the linear correlation between the logarithm of the shear strength, Log(Su), and the logarithm of the water content, Log(), namely the independent term (TI) and the absolute value of the slope (m), are used to establish when soil behavior changes from plastic to non plastic depending upon the amount of non plastic material within the soil mix. It was verified for CL materials for which three types of behavior were identified, i.e. plastic for IP>8, intermediate for 68 and non plastic for 06. The intermediate behavior means that the soil may behave sometimes as plastic and some other times as non plastic, so it defines a threshold zone. For other soils such as CH, ML and MH there exists the same type of correlation observed for CL but it was not possible to establish if they have the same type of behavior as the CL in the intermediate and non plastic zones. To establish whether or not the soil behavior will be controlled by the amount of non plastic material it is necessary to determine its Log(Su)-Log() line and afterwards increasing its amount of non plastic content by say 10% or 20% and obtaining again the Log(Su)-Log() line. If both, the absolute value of the slope and independent term (TI) decrease and both approximate to the limiting values of TI=4 and m=2 then the material will be within the threshold zone o very near it. If on the contrary, the values of both parameters increase as the amount of non plastic material increase then the soil is controlled by the plastic fraction in it. The new Equivalent Plasticity Chart along with the equivalent liquid limit, LLeqv, and the equivalent plasticity index, IPeqv, as well as the parameters of the Log(Su)-Log() line yield much more information than the conventional Plasticity Chart and Atterberg limits Log(Su)-Log()Log(Su)-Log()Log(Su)-Log() regarding the plastic or non plastic behavior of the soil.

17

Authors: María I. López

An exploratory study, regarding the performance of students in the fundamental Mathematic courses taken in the School of Civil Engineering of “Universidad Católica Andres Bello” (UCAB), Caracas Campus, during the intensive periods August-September 2015 and August-September 2016, was conducted. For each curricular unit, student performance was calculated as (i) percent of students with passing grade, (ii) mean of grades, and (iii) range of grades, after both intensive sessions were over. Results show that, generally, student performance reached mid values with high grade dispersion; it was better than regular semesters. Furthermore, there was no correlation with the results of the study with course repetition or with the performance in the following courses. It is worth to notice that such intensive sessions fulfilled elements of curricular pertinence and academic quality related to the satisfaction of the needs of academic actors, usage of time as a student resource and curricular pursuance. This study has brought to light the topics of future research concerning: the coherence between the curricular design and its implementation, the adequacy of the classroom management, and the effectiveness related to the achievement of the educational purposes. All within the framework of the integral development of UCAB students.

27

Authors: Alejandro Ríos

The abstract is required for all papers. It must be written in English. A brief summarize of the research work not more than 300 words in length should be typed here. It must include a statement of relevance, the main objective, the scope of work to be presented, and most significant findings. Do not include figures, citations, special characters, equations, tables, illustrations or bullet lists in this section. The abstract must be followed by a list of keywords (maximum 7 keywords in English separated by semicolons).