Recent Submissions
Item type:Item, Access status: Open Access , Educating for Belonging: Practical Wisdom Against the Technocratic Drift in Business Education(Springer, 2026-07-09) Sotomayor, Manuel; Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. Departamento Académico Posgrado en NegociosThis paper advocates for a humanistic transformation of business education, drawing on three converging scholarly traditions: the capabilities approach (Sen 1999; Nussbaum 2011), the humanistic management tradition (Melé 2003; Pirson 2017; Dierksmeier 2019), and Pope Francis’s vision of integral ecology (Laudato Si’, LS 137–139). It offers a philosophical and pedagogical critique of the technocratic paradigm that dominates sustainability discourse in business schools — a paradigm that Critical Management Studies (Alvesson & Willmott 1992; Spicer & Alvesson 2025) has shown to be structurally resistant to transformation, operating through the slow formation of identity and desire rather than through explicit instruction alone. Through a normative lens, the paper re-centers practical reason, affiliation, and moral imagination as the foundations of transformative leadership formation. It argues that genuine reform is obstructed by structural barriers — accreditation pressures, ranking systems, and market forces — that systematically incentivize instrumental over ethical formation. At the same time, it identifies emerging alternatives in business education that point toward viable pedagogical reform. In response to both this diagnosis and these possibilities, it proposes principles for an education capable of forming leaders with the practical wisdom, relational depth, and moral imagination that a crisis-ridden world demands.Item type:Item, Access status: Open Access , Flow-Through Aptamer-SERS Microfluidic Platform for Aflatoxin B1 Detection in Food Crops(ACS, 2026-06-26) Veliz, Lorena; Galarreta, Betty Cristina; Lagugné-Labarthet, François; Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. Departamento Académico de QuímicaMycotoxins are secondary metabolites produced by fungal species. Due to its high toxicity, Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is one of the most hazardous mycotoxins found in various food crops. The ability to detect such a toxin is therefore important for the safe consumption and handling of large quantities of crops. For this, surface-enhanced spectroscopy provides the sensitivity to detect low concentrations of analytes but is limited in terms of specificity toward a given analyte. This work explores how to enhance the selectivity of a SERS active platform by conjugating it with aptamers designed to specifically recognize AFB1 target molecules. A robust flow-through lab-on-a-chip platform with an integrated SERS gold nanohole array functionalized with an aptamer (apta-SERS) was developed and tested on real samples, demonstrating rapid, high-affinity toxin detection. The sensitivity of the nanoholes was evaluated in the range of 10–700 ppb, and in the presence of a complex matrix such as food crop extracts, a limit of detection of 10 ppb was reached. Such a platform enables in situ AFB1 detection through SERS-enhanced aptamer recognition that forms a hairpin loop secondary structure around AFB1. The developed microfluidic platform minimizes direct contact with contaminated samples, and results are highly selective and reproducible, making it promising for other portable toxin-detection applications.Item type:Item, Access status: Open Access , A Dual Craig-Bampton Substructuring Method for Nonlinear Systems Using Nonlinear Normal Modes(Elsevier, 2026-11) Flores, Pedro A.; Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. Departamento Académico de IngenieríaIn flexible mechanical systems, nonlinearities frequently arise in the equations of motion due to factors such as large deformations, nonlinear force interactions, or material behavior. When transient dynamic analysis is performed using the finite element method (FEM), these nonlinearities can significantly increase computational cost. Model order reduction techniques that preserve essential nonlinear dynamics are thus critical for efficient simulation. This paper proposes a nonlinear extension of the Dual Craig-Bampton (DCB) substructuring method for systems with non-classical damping. The approach incorporates nonlinear normal modes (NNMs), constructed via invariant manifold theory, into the dynamic component of the reduction. Two numerical case studies are presented: a cantilever Bernoulli beam with cubic stiffness at its support, and a planar truss structure with nonlinear springs, both subjected to harmonic loading. The proposed method achieves excellent agreement with full-model simulations using the Hilber-Hughes-Taylor (HHT) method, while significantly reducing the number of degrees of freedom. Results demonstrate the method’s potential for accurate and efficient nonlinear transient analysis in structural dynamics.Item type:Item, Access status: Open Access , Seismic Performance Assessment of RC Wall Buildings with Low Boundary Confinement using a Nonlinear Beam-Based Model(ELSEVIER, 2026-07-12) Loa, Gustavo; Tarque, Nicola; Murcia-Delso, Juan; Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. Departamento Académico de IngenieríaThe performance and safety of modern reinforced concrete (RC) wall buildings with limited boundary confinement remains uncertain in countries with evolving design practices and moderate-to-high seismicity. This paper presents a numerical assessment of their seismic response through nonlinear analyses conducted on 20 code-conforming prototype buildings, developed after examining typical design and detailing characteristics of RC wall buildings constructed in Peru between 2010 and 2023. The analyses employed an efficient beam-based modelling approach for walls that accounts for axial–shear–flexure interaction, previously validated with experimental data. The nonlinear static analyses show ultimate roof drift ratios with an average of 1.35% (ranging from 0.85% to 2.53%) and overstrength ratios with an average of 2.43 (ranging from 1.78 to 3.54), indicating moderate deformation capacity with significant variability across building heights, with failure primarily governed by concrete crushing at wall boundaries under flexural deformations. Their limited displacement capacity is attributed to high axial load ratios, slender wall geometries, low aspect ratios, reduced confinement zones, and low transverse reinforcement ratios. For the design basis earthquake (DBE), displacements obtained from nonlinear dynamic analyses exceeded code expectations by an average factor of 1.6, with displacement demand/capacity ratios ranging from 0.25 to 0.83. Under the maximum considered earthquake (MCE), an average displacement demand/capacity ratio of 0.90 was reached, and multiple buildings experienced global failure. These results suggest that code-based designs may underestimate seismic demands, leading to insufficient seismic joints, greater damage to structural and non-structural elements, and increased collapse risk. The findings provide insight into the vulnerability of RC wall buildings with low boundary confinement in Peru and across other Latin American countries with similar design practices and seismic hazard.Item type:Item, Access status: Open Access , Integrating chemical potentials and free energy functions in chemical equilibrium through a guided computational problem-solving activity: the ammonia synthesis reaction(Springer, 2026-05-16) Coello, Yves; Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. Departamento Académico de CienciasA guided, stepwise thermodynamic analysis of the ammonia synthesis reaction is presented in the form of a multipart student problem with an accompanying guided computational solution. The activity is designed to strengthen student understanding of chemical potentials (µ), Gibbs (G), and Helmholtz (A) free energies, and their quantitative connection to chemical equilibrium under different thermodynamic constraints. The problem is organized into pedagogically sequenced tasks involving the calculation and interpretation of µ, G, and A as functions of the reaction extent, together with the determination of the equilibrium position (reaction extent) and the equilibrium constant, under conditions of constant temperature–pressure and constant temperature–volume. The influence of pressure and temperature on free energy profiles and equilibrium position is examined quantitatively. A computer-assisted approach is employed to allow students to focus on conceptual understanding rather than extensive numerical calculations or algebraic manipulation. A Wolfram Mathematica notebook is provided to facilitate calculations and visualization of results, supporting the integration of thermodynamic concepts within a unified problem-solving framework applied to a reaction of industrial relevance.
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