Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

The present study analyzed the chemical and biological components of the sludge generated in the industrial wastewater treatment system in a crude palm oil extractor, determining the dangerousness and identifying the final destination thereof, in two zones, the oxidation lagoon No. 4 and in the geotube. In addition, it was established if the flocculant used in the passage of mud from the lagoon to the geotube affects its chemical characteristics. For this, three samples were taken in three different days and months. For oxidation lagoon No. 4, three subsamples were collected at different points to form a composite sample, and in the geotube samples were taken at 0.5 and 2 m depth. Analyzing agricultural parameters such as NPK, high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus concentration were obtained, compared with fertilization guidelines, and adequate levels for potassium, which indicates that it can be used for agricultural use, the resulting NPK ratio is 3: 3 :1. The corrosivity based on the pH of the mud is within the "non-corrosive" range according to the regulations. The reactivity, based on the level of cyanides, was established as negligible. Heavy metal toxicity, in terms of nickel, chromium, lead and cadmium, was below permissible levels. The flammability of sludge, qualitatively, was determined to not register the presence of flammable gases. In the biological parameter infectious by concentration of total coliforms, the result is under the permissible limits. Finally, the mud of both the lagoon and the geotube turns out to be "non-hazardous" according to national and international regulations and its chemical characteristics are not altered by the use of the indicated flocculant.

This article demonstrates the effectiveness in the application of new non-corrosive biodegradable acid technology for oil well cleaning. To this end, laboratory tests were carried out on metal coupons with carbonate inlays comparing with conventional acid. From the results obtained it was evidenced that the non-corrosive biodegradable obtained greater elimination of carbonates and less metal corrosion than the other one. Afterwards, a field test is shown on a piece of equipment with corrosion and carbonates, leaving it to soak for a period of 24 hours. As a result, an integral cleaning of the equipment was observed. Additionally, compatibility test was carried out with crude oil from the eastern basin of Ecuador, observing excellent phase separation, good interfacial tension, and little or no adsorption on the walls of the test bottle. Finally, it is shown the results of a production history of a well where the conventional acid treatment was changed for the non-corrosive biodegradable acid. The production history shows that with conventional acid a production drop of 150 bpd was obtained while with the non-corrosive biodegradable product the production drop was 80 bpd. Within the conclusions the use of non-corrosive biodegradable acid eliminates the incrustations present in the oil wells without causing corrosion in the mechanical equipment and its biodegradable property facilitates the operation in the field.

The need to manage organic solid waste generated by orange juice sellers, in the city of Quito, proposes a process to convert orange peels, into raw material for obtaining citrus pectin giving this residue an added value. In Ecuador there is no pectin producing plant, which forces the industries that use this product, to import at an approximate cost of $ 34 per kilogram. In the city of Quito, according to the census carried out by the National Police in 2016, there are approximately 600 street vendors of orange juice, who generate 16200 kg of waste daily, which is equal to 5913 tons per year. For the use of waste, the design of a pilot plant for obtaining pectin by acid hydrolysis is proposed; prior to the implementation of the plant, several tests were carried out in the laboratory for the optimization of the process, in order to determine the production cycle; based mainly on the thermodynamics and the kinetics of the reactions. Finally, an economic study is presented to determine its viability.

The McArthur Forest Fire Danger Index (FFDI) is the most common tool to investigate fire weather in Australia. However, there have been scarce advances in the creation of fire weather metrics in this country since the FFDI development in 1967. This study aims to test a simple fire weather index for Victoria, Australia. The proposed index “Victorian Seasonal Bushfire Index” (VSBI) incorporates knowledge of local and remote fire weather drivers for this region. The index was designed for Victoria since it is one of the most bushfire prone regions in the world. The VSBI formulation is based on local fire weather data and El Niño-Southern Oscillation indicators. The index is a seasonal alternative to the FFDI with a simple compilation. Using weather stations observations, the VSBI and seasonal metrics of the FFDI show an increasing trend in fire danger in Victoria during the period 1974-2010. Additionally, VSBI and FFDI show strong correlations during the antecedent (September-October-November) and concurrent (December-January-February) bushfire seasons. Moreover, the VSBI shows a strong fire weather seasonal forecasting skill. The VSBI fire activity forecasting skill is moderate. These results show that a simple index like the VSBI can be a useful alternative to traditional fire weather metrics in Australia

This article explores the concepts of art and memory. Through them its importance, mutual relationship and social content are highlighted. Starting from the above, it makes a qualitative exploration, through the comic or comic strip, of the memory of several massive processes of human rights violations, occurred during the repression lived in Central America and South America between the decades of the fifties and nineties of the twentieth century, and in Spain with the Civil War and Franco’s dictatorship.The purpose of this study is to highlight the ethical and aesthetic role played by the comic art with respect to human rights, especially regarding the rights of victims to truth, justice and reparation. I conclude by pointing out as main findings that the comic is a cultural manifestation, artistic expression and mass media that contributes effectively to the preservation and construction of memory and even its potential as a narrative to resist and refute history and official truths.

In 2007 a Truth Commission (CVE initials in spanish) was created in Ecuador with the objective of investigating facts that violated human rights that occurred during the period 1984-2008, as well as formulating reparation, judicialization and institutional reforms policies. During its investigation, the CVE incorporated as sources of information both testimonies of victims and / or their relatives as declassified documentation from archives of military and police institutions, as well as some documented complaints from the Comisión Ecuménica de Derechos Humanos (CEDHU). The process unleashed by the CVE gave way to processes for formulating policies aimed at judicialization and reparation, but it also gave way to the emergence of other actions and diverse expressions -which went beyond legal and institutional boundaries- favoring the appearance of a shared scenario between convergent and dissident memories of a past of political violence, the latter offer alternative views to the official one.

In this article it’s proposed to take a postmodern attitude toward Law –in general–and specifically toward constitutional law. Based on Umberto Eco’s description of the postmodern, identifiable as a way of revisiting the past in use of irony, the article goes on to identify four ways of operating in art: neoclassicism, romanticism, realism and avant-garde, with regulatory and political approximations and idealist and skeptical attitudes, regarding the law, which Martti Koskenniemi highlights in his work. The work identifies his proposal of a culture of formalism with the postmodern attitude of talking about law in the era of lost innocence, and extending it to a field different from the one in which it was conceived: constitutional law.

Law and Art have something in common: their humanistic character. On the other hand, justice, as an ideal, has been represented from the most varied cultural and artistic conceptions. The Western tradition, for example, offers us the image of a woman who uses a bandage on her face, armed in one hand with the scale of saucers and in the other with a sword, elements which allow us to play with that iconography. Then we endow it with a meaning: we assume that the bandage gives it honesty, that the scale weighs the arguments and that the sword forces to fulfill the woman’s decision. It intends to relate these typical attributes to the cinema, known as the seventh art, trying to understand the forms and ways to represent this popular image.

Este número de la revista FORO es una apuesta por entender el derecho de otra forma; por tal razón, se propone dos objetivos: primero, acercarse a las conexiones entre el arte y el derecho desde diversas miradas estéticas y en lo posible fuera de los puntos de vista tradicionales de los derechos de autor y la libertad de expresión; segundo, continuar con el esfuerzo conjunto iniciado en 2016 por profesoras y profesores del Área de Derecho de la Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, Sede Ecuador, de generar nuevas comprensiones y sensibilidades que motiven un quehacer más humano y creativo del derecho, con el curso avanzado “Miradas estéticas del Derecho y la justicia”, al que este monográfico justamente debe su título.

Utopia has several meanings, many of them contradictory and applicable to different situations. In this essay utopia will be understood as a possibility of a different and better world, which is real, exists and is possible. Utopias can also be negative and positive. A negative utopia is the hegemonic one and revolves around the capitalism, which organizes not only the economy but a way of living. A positive utopia is the one that emerges from many forms of life and practices of indigenous peoples and occurs in the Andean world, and that could be based on the concepts of Sumak Kawsay and Pachamama. To explain the negative and positive utopia will be used two important works of contemporary literature, Cien años de Soledad by García Márquez, which reflects the hegemonic modernity and ends in a pathetic and desolate loneliness, thanks to capitalism. At the other end we use La caverna by Saramago to explain some principles of Andean coexistence. In this novel, through its characters, we try to demonstrate that different coexistence forms to the hegemonic one exists and are in resistance, that is, they are a real and positive utopia, and shows that another world is possible and necessary.