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The leather sector in Colombia is substantially represented by micro and small companies. If it is observed from the productive part, this industry is a generator of employment, intermediate goods and industrial growth; it is volatile, because it is highly dependent on the behavior of the demand for the products it offers, it increases or decreases over time in accordance with fashion trends. This research focuses on characterizing the Leather Goods sector in the Department of Nariño, based on a market analysis of the industry, using the tool of Porter's competitive forces. It is carried out under an interpretive paradigm and qualitative approach, the type of research is descriptive and the technique used is the interview and survey; concluding that it is an unattractive sector. The sector is perceived as having a level of rivalry in balance between competitors, as well as with suppliers; it is at a medium-low level to negotiate with its buyers, but it is substantially threatened by substitute products; Their entry barriers are low and their exit barriers are high. In general, despite the threats encountered, it still has potential for growth and development for those who know it and are capable of being innovative., O setor de couro na Colômbia é substancialmente representado por micro e pequenas empresas. Se observada desde a parte produtiva, esta indústria é geradora de empregos, bens intermediários e crescimento industrial; é volátil, pois é altamente dependente do comportamento da demanda dos produtos que oferece, aumenta ou diminui ao longo do tempo de acordo com as tendências da moda. Esta pesquisa se concentra em caracterizar o setor de Artigos de Couro no Departamento de Nariño, com base em uma análise de mercado da indústria, usando a ferramenta de forças competitivas de Porter. É realizada sob um paradigma interpretativo e abordagem qualitativa, o tipo de pesquisa é descritiva e a técnica utilizada é a entrevista e levantamento; concluindo que é um setor pouco atrativo. O setor é percebido como tendo um nível de rivalidade em equilíbrio entre concorrentes, bem como com fornecedores; está em um nível médio-baixo para negociar com seus compradores, mas está substancialmente ameaçado por produtos substitutos; Suas barreiras de entrada são baixas e suas barreiras de saída são altas. Em geral, apesar das ameaças encontradas, ainda tem potencial de crescimento e desenvolvimento para quem o conhece e tem capacidade de inovar., El sector marroquinero en Colombia está representado substancialmente por micro y pequeñas empresas. Si se observa desde la parte productiva, esta industria es generadora de empleo, bienes intermedios y crecimiento industrial; es volátil, porque es altamente dependiente del comportamiento de la demanda por los productos que ofrece, se incrementa o disminuye por temporalidades de acuerdo con las tendencias de la moda. Esta investigación se centra en caracterizar el sector Marroquinero en el Departamento de Nariño, partiendo de un análisis de mercado de la industria, mediante la herramienta de las fuerzas competitivas de Porter. Se realiza bajo un paradigma interpretativo y enfoque cualitativo, el tipo de investigación es descriptivo y la técnica utilizada es la entrevista y encuesta; concluyendo que es un sector poco atractivo. El sector se percibe con un nivel de rivalidad en equilibrio entre competidores, al igual que con proveedores; se encuentra en un nivel medio bajo para negociar con sus compradores, pero se ve amenazado sustancialmente por productos sustitutos; sus barreras de entrada son bajas y de salida son altas. En general, pese a las amenazas encontradas, aún tiene potencial de crecimiento y desarrollo para quienes lo conocen y sean capaces de ser innovadores.

The use of seaweed as fuel has been mentioned in ethnographic and historical sources of different coastal regions. Nevertheless, the archaeological record of seaweed burning is still limited to contexts where preservation is exceptional and macroscopic discrimination of charred remains is possible. Here, we evaluate the effectiveness of Raman spectroscopy in discriminating seaweed vs. plant/wood char. Our dataset (N = 92) consists of modern and archaeological seaweed and plant/wood charred remains, including specimens of unknown origin from the Atacama Desert coast, Northern Chile. The charred samples were processed to obtain 13 parameters which were then fed into five supervised machine learning models. The models, built on samples of known origin (seaweed and plant/wood), performed remarkably well in terms of accuracy, kappa, sensitivity, and specificity. The models were used for final predictions on 10 non-identified archaeological charcoals. Our results suggest that Raman spectroscopy combined with machine learning techniques is a robust methodology for discriminating seaweed and plant/wood charred remains in the archaeological record. The predictions on unknown samples confirm that seaweed was used as fuel in a specific funerary ritual in the southern Atacama Desert coast around 5000 cal BP. Furthermore, charred specimens of Lessonia spp. recovered from combustion features in other northern Chile coastal settlements, suggest that seaweed pyrotechnology developed by Atacama Desert coast people is likely a long-term process. As for coastal archaeology, this work encourages new research on seaweed as an alternative/main fuel in coastal deserts and evaluates possible bias for chronologies from coastal archaeological settlements around the globe.

Soils are at the crossroads of many existential issues that humanity is currently facing. Soils are a finite resource that is under threat, mainly due to human pressure. There is an urgent need to map and monitor them at field, regional, and global scales in order to improve their management and prevent their degradation. This remains a challenge due to the high and often complex spatial variability inherent to soils. Over the last four decades, major research efforts in the field of pedometrics have led to the development of methods allowing to capture the complex nature of soils. As a result, digital soil mapping (DSM) approaches have been developed for quantifying soils in space and time. DSM and monitoring have become operational thanks to the harmonization of soil databases, advances in spatial modeling and machine learning, and the increasing availability of spatiotemporal covariates, including the exponential increase in freely available remote sensing (RS) data. The latter boosted research in DSM, allowing the mapping of soils at high resolution and assessing the changes through time. We present a review of the main contributions and developments of French (inter)national research, which has a long history in both RS and DSM. Thanks to the French SPOT satellite constellation that started in the early 1980s, the French RS and soil research communities have pioneered DSM using remote sensing. This review describes the data, tools, and methods using RS imagery to support the spatial predictions of a wide range of soil properties and discusses their pros and cons. The review demonstrates that RS data are frequently used in soil mapping (i) by considering them as a substitute for analytical measurements, or (ii) by considering them as covariates related to the controlling factors of soil formation and evolution. It further highlights the great potential of RS imagery to improve DSM, and provides an overview of the main challenges and prospects related to digital