The detection of urban expansion through digital processing of satellite images provides valuable information for understanding the dynamics of land use change and its spatial relationship with environmental factors. In order to apply or generate effective land-use planning policies, it is essential to have a historical record of the regional distribution of human settlements, an element that is practically non-existent in our country. For this reason, this text aims to determine the urban growth rate during the period 2000–2014 in the state of Hidalgo, Mexico, and to identify potential expansion zones from Landsat images. Six Landsat scenes were used for the spatial analysis of the state urban coverage and their relationship with the road influence area was evaluated. Two maps were obtained as cartographic products: one of urban coverage distribution and another of the municipalities with the greatest expansion, whose areas are located in the Valle del Mezquital region. However, Mineral de la Reforma, Tetepango, Tizayuca and Pachuca de Soto stand out for their growth rates during the study period: 183.44%, 102%, 94% and 68.5%, respectively. In total, the state urban area in-creased 72.3 km² from 2000 to 2014 with an average growth rate of 1.8% per year. Such growth was associated with the areas of influence of important road infrastructure, such as the Libramiento Arco Norte in Hidalgo. Therefore, the Mezquital Valley and the Mexico Basin are considered as potential regions for urban expansion in the state.

In recent years, the foundry sector has been showing an increased interest in reclamation of used sands. Grain shape, sieve analysis, chemical and thermal characteristics must be uniform while molding the sand for better casting characteristics. The problem that tackled by every foundry industry is that of processing an adequate supply of sand which has the properties to meet many requirements imposed upon while molding and core making. Recently, fluidized bed combustors are becoming core of ‘clean wastes technology’ due to their efficient and clean burning of sand. For proven energy efficient sand reclamation processing, analysis of heating system in fluidized bed combustor (FBC) is required. The objective of current study is to design heating element and analysis of heating system by calculation of heat losses and thermal analysis offluidized bed combustorfor improving efficiency.

The development of the personal innovative competences in workers is of capital importance for the competitiveness of organizations, where the ability of the employees must respond in an innovative way to diverse situations that arise in specific contexts. Considering this, the question arises: How do innovative employees' competences affect the sustainable development of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs)? Therefore, the objective of this work is to present a multi-criteria method based on the Analytic Network Process (ANP), to relate innovative personal competences and the sustainable development of MSMEs. An instrument was applied to groups of experts from 31 Ecuadorian fruit-exporting MSMEs, to develop a multi-criteria decisional network that allowed identifying the innovative personal abilities that have the greatest impact on the sustainable development of these organizations. The results demonstrate the relevance of the elements of innovative personal competencies, with a cumulative participation of 39.15%, Sustainable Export Development with 32.18% and Improvements with 28.66%. It also presents three types of analysis: i) Global to establish the weight of each variable; ii) Influences, to establish solid cause-effect relationships between the variables and iii) Integrated. The most relevant innovative personal competences for sustainable development and improvements for exporting SMEs are teamwork, critical thinking, and creativity within the international context.

Young people are a traditional risk group for radicalization and involvement in protest and extremist activities. The relevance of this topic is due to the growing threat of youth radicalization, the expansion of the activities of extremist organizations, and the need to organize high-quality preventive work in educational organizations at various levels. The article provides an overview of research on the topic under consideration and also presents the results of a series of surveys in general educational institutions and organizations of secondary vocational education (n = 11,052), universities (n = 3966) located in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation. The results of the study on aspects of students’ ideas about extremism are presented in terms of assessing their own knowledge about extremism, the presence/absence of radically minded people around them, determining the degree of threat from the activities of extremist groups for themselves and their social environment, and identifying approaches to preventing the growth of extremism in society. Conclusions are drawn about the need to improve preventive work models in educational organizations towards a targeted (group) approach.

This study explores the impact of technology effectiveness, social development, and opportunities on higher education accessibility in Myanmar, focusing on private higher education institutions. Utilizing a sample of 199 respondents, with an average age of X (SD = Y), the research employs standardized questionnaires and descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis to examine the relationships between these variables. The findings indicate that technology effectiveness significantly enhances higher education accessibility, with strong positive correlations (r = 0.752, p < 0.001) and substantial impacts on educational outcomes (β = 0.334, p = 0.001). Social development also plays a crucial role, demonstrating that supportive social norms and community engagement significantly improve accessibility (β = 0.405, p < 0.001). Opportunities provided by technological advancements further contribute to enhanced accessibility (β = 0.356, p < 0.001), although socio-political and economic challenges pose significant barriers. The study highlights the interconnectedness of these factors and their collective influence on educational accessibility. Practical implications include the need for strategic investments in technological infrastructure, promotion of supportive social environments, and innovative solutions to leverage opportunities. Future research directions suggest longitudinal studies, broader demographic scopes, and in-depth analyses of specific technological and infrastructural challenges. By addressing these areas, stakeholders can develop effective strategies to improve higher education accessibility, ultimately contributing to the socio-economic development of Myanmar.

With the purpose of knowing the phytosocilogy of weeds associated to a carrot crop (Daucus carota L.) under conditions of the municipalities of Ventaquemada and Jenesano-Boyacá, one lot per municipality destined to carrot cultivation was selected and a W-shaped layout was made covering an area of 500 m². Relative density, relative frequency, relative dominance and the importance value index (IVI) were calculated, as well as the Alpha and Beta diversity indices for the sampled areas. A total of 6 families and 11 species were counted, of which 63.64% were represented by annual plants and 36.36% by perennial plants. The class Liliopsida (Monocotyledon) was represented by the Poaceae family. The Magnoliopsida class (Dicotyledon) was represented by the following families: Asteraceae, Brassicaceae, Boraginaceae, Leguminosaceae, Polygonaceae, the last one being the one with the highest number of species. The species R. crispus and P. nepalense were the ones with the highest values of Importance Value Index (IVI) with 0.953 and 0.959, respectively. According to the Shannon-Wiener diversity and Simpson’s dominance indices, the evaluated areas presented a low species diversity and a high probability of dominant species. The results obtained can serve as a basis and tool for carrot growers in the evaluated areas to define management plans for the associated weeds and thus optimize yields in this crop.