Since the dawn of the digital age, our society has experienced big cultural changes. Questions have arisen as to how to manage this new digital world surrounding us and influencing our daily lives, how to deal with its purposes and the associated phenomena, both positive and negative. It seems undeniable that this new media is here to stay and won‟t cease to impregnate our social spheres and our human spaces in many ways, so it‟s crucial to understand it as much as possible. In this research particularly, cases of virality online are analyzed. These cases are content (or people) that gain widely and rapidly, popularity and exposure online, for many different reasons. How does this virtual fame influence the lives of these people? What does it mean to be popular online for a reason which seems positive? What does it mean to be popular online for a reason which seems negative? Does „going viral’ suppose a risk for the person involved in it? Given the contemporary nature of these events, it is important to take a look at them from an academic perspective, in order to understand our online behavior and therefore ourselves as a social species. The novelty of this topic supposes an interesting look on our communication style and our culture as well. An ethnographic perspective constitutes the approach of study elected, because virality implicates masses, masses that follow with individuals that feel the need to be part of something, to be informed about a common knowledge. Through the method of interviews, this topic will be address. Three people involved in viral cases online will be questioned; some of them went viral for good reasons, some of them for not very good ones. A contrast is expected to emerge. Desde el surgimiento de la era digital, nuestra sociedad ha experimentado grandes cambios culturales. Varias preguntas se han presentado con respecto al manejo de este nuevo mundo que nos rodea e influencia, cómo lidiar con sus propósitos y fenómenos, tanto positivos como negativos. Es inevitable la presencia de estos nuevos medios, los cuales permean nuestras esferas sociales y espacios humanos de muchas maneras. Es crucial alcanzar un entendimiento sobre esto. En esta investigación particular, se analizaron casos de viralidad online. Estos casos se refieren a contenidos (o personas) que adquirieron una amplia y rápida popularidad online, por muchas razones. ¿Cómo influye entonces esta fama en la vida de estas personas?, ¿Qué significa ser popular online por una razón que parece positiva?, ¿Qué significa ser popular online por una razón que parece negativa?, “volverse viral” ¿supone un riesgo para la persona involucrada? Dada la contemporaneidad de estos episodios, es importante mirarlos desde una perspectiva académica, para poder entender nuestro comportamiento digital y por ende entendernos a nosotros mismo como especie. La novedad de este tema supone un interesante estudio sobre la comunicación y la cultura humana. Este estudio se lleva a cabo desde una perspectiva etnográfica, debido a que la viralidad implica el análisis de masas, masas compuestas por individuos que desean ser parte de algo, desean conocer un conocimiento común. Este proceso se lleva a cabo por medio de entrevistas. Tres personas involucradas en casos virales son cuestionadas; unos individuos se volvieron famosos online por razones positivas, y otros por razones no tan buenas. Emerge entonces un contraste interesante.

Conventional agricultural practices are often contrary to human health and environmental conservation. Use of and exposure to pesticides in agricultural communities in tropical countries is a pressing public health problem and an important facet of environmental degradation. This research project was undertaken by documenting use and exposure behaviors among agricultural communities in San Cristobal, Antioquia (Colombia). The research questions were: (1) What are the primary factors associated with the use of pesticides and do those factors differ between pesticide users and agroecological adherents? (2) How do campesino pesticide users and agroecological adherents(non-pesticide users) differ in their attitudes and beliefs with regards to pesticide use and exposure? and (3) How do these factors influence campesinos‟ behaviors associated with pesticide use and exposure? I implemented qualitative and quantitative methods in this investigation. The qualitative approach was based on community participatory ethnographic research. The latter involved participant observation, interviews, and focus groups aimed at existing pesticides users and agroecological adherents. The quantitative approach used questionnaires to derive demographic information, scale-based evaluations of attitudes and beliefs, pesticides decision making, perceived confidence, and perceived control. Findings showed that the most relevant factors related to pesticide use and their categories included: a) individual: beliefs, attitudes and knowledge; b) interpersonal: family support and cultural acceptance of pesticide use; c) economic: fear of living within financially unviable constraints, market conditions and lack of economic support from the government; d) cultural: collective acceptance or tolerance of pesticide use and exposure and onset of negative reactions when stopping pesticide use; e) political: deficient regulations for controlling pesticide use control and adequate utilization of protective equipment. Pesticide users experienced the most apprehension regarding stopping pesticide use as they often believed pesticides allow them to obtain better crop yields and, therefore, higher monetary gains. Pesticide users lacked a positive attitude toward personal protectionequipment, regardless of the risks to which they may be exposed. Pesticide training was deficient in this population showing a clear need to improve safety conditions and training to reduce occupational hazards. Future studies should explore with greater detail these attitudes and beliefs so as to promote mid- to long-term public health interventions that directly address the sense of food and income insecurity found among the population of pesticides users, which blocks their transition into a non-pesticide scenario for agricultural production. Over the short-term, public health programs should continue to educate the population of pesticide users on the immediate risks of exposure. The decision making process surrounding pesticide use in the studied population was influenced by a variety of factors. Campesinos who were prone to use pesticides for their crops often exhibited diminished degrees of knowledge about adverse effects of pesticides on human health, believed pesticides are necessary for their crops, had negative attitudes about stopping pesticide use, had a strong family influence toward the use of pesticides, experienced economic fear of stopping pesticide use, cultivated flowers as their main source of income, expressed strong social acceptance of pesticide use, experienced negative community reactions when attempting to stop pesticide use, received government subsidies for pesticide use, and had never received any training on the use of required protective equipment. Campesinos who showed more proclivities towards the use of pesticides were convinced that pesticides are necessary for their crops as they guarantee substantial yields and larger specimens of the different crop varieties. They also exhibited low perceived control, low perceived confidence, and a low perception of adverse pesticide effects on human health and the natural environment. Future studies are required to fully comprehend the unique occupational health and safety needs of these campesinos. Additionally, future studies should be aimed at designing and introducing long-term, well-structured public health interventions to increase awareness about the harmfulness of pesticides on human and environmental health so as to promote a well-established behavioral change in relation to pesticides use reduction among these communities.

Recent projections estimate that the Netherlands needs circa 33 GW of offshore wind capacity in the North Sea to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. To this end, the Dutch government has very ambitious plans to create new wind sites far from shore and integrate that power generation to the high-voltage power grid in the next years. Due to the challenges of connecting future massive amounts of offshore wind power into the grid TenneT operates it becomes urgent to investigate new alternatives for this purpose. A grid topology with transmission capacities above 1 GW connecting offshore wind farms at distances close to 100 km in a standardized, modular, and cost-efficient manner is the focus of this thesis. With eight point-to-point HVDC links in operation in Germany and more expected in near future, TenneT TSO is analysing new offshore grid connection concepts to achieve a reliable and secure operation of the infrastructure connecting wind energy both in Germany and the Netherlands. A solution is presented in this thesis report in which new wind farms are connected with 66-kV cables to a centralised platform with a connection capacity of 1050 MW. This platform will utilise HVDC technology based on VSC conversion techniques and MMC topology. It is expected that the 66-kV cables will not be connected to a single busbar through paralleled converter transformer, but that this will be done with at least three converter transformers connected to each other on the valve side but not connected on the 66-kV side. A dynamic performance study of a test network with the novel connection topology developed in PSCAD has been done. Each component of the system was studied to obtain a complete overview and understanding of the overall behaviour. All the associated control loops for the MMC terminals and wind turbines were modelled in detail. Through several simulations based on eight cases and scenarios the performance of the offshore 66-kV ac grid and the MMC-HVDC link using the control schemes of MMC converters as in a typical grid connection topology for OWFs was assessed. Proyecciones recientes estiman que los Países Bajos necesitan alrededor de 33 GW de capacidad eólica marina en el Mar del Norte para cumplir los objetivos del Acuerdo de París. Para este fin, el gobierno holandés tiene planes muy ambiciosos de crear nuevas plantas eólicas lejos de la costa e integrar esa generación de energía a la red eléctrica de alto voltaje en los próximos años. Debido a los desafíos de conectar cantidades masivas de energía eólica marina a la red que opera TenneT en el futuro, es urgente investigar nuevas alternativas para este propósito. El objetivo de esta tesis es estudiar una nueva topología de red con capacidades de transmisión por encima de 1 GW que conecte parques eólicos marinos a distancias cercanas a 100 km de manera estandarizada, modular y rentable. Con ocho enlaces HVDC punto a punto en operación en Alemania y más esperados en el futuro cercano, TenneT TSO está analizando nuevos conceptos de conexión a la red en el mar para lograr una operación confiable y segura de la infraestructura que conecta la energía eólica tanto en Alemania como en los Países Bajos. En este reporte de tesis se presenta una solución en la que los nuevos parques eólicos están conectados con cables de 66 kV a una plataforma centralizada con una capacidad de conexión de 1050 MW. Esta plataforma utilizará tecnología HVDC basada en las técnicas de conversión VSC con topología MMC. Se espera que los cables de 66 kV no se conecten a un solo punto eléctrico a través de transformadores convertidores en paralelo, sino que esto se hará con al menos tres transformadores convertidores conectados entre sí en el lado del convertidor, pero no en el lado de 66 kV. En este documento se presentan los resultados de un estudio dinámico de una red de prueba con la nueva topología de conexión desarrollada en PSCAD. Cada componente del sistema se estudió para obtener una visión general completa y una comprensión del comportamiento de toda la red. Todos los lazos de control de las estaciones convertidoras MMC y las turbinas eólicas se modelaron en detalle. A través de varias simulaciones basadas en ocho casos y escenarios se evaluó el comportamiento de la red de ac de 66 kV en alta mar y el enlace MMC-HVDC utilizando los esquemas actuales de control de los convertidores MMC de las topologías típicas de conexión de red para granjas eólicas marinas.

Adaptable Morphodynamics addresses the development of complex high density urban systems over space and time. Building morphologies can be conceived as living organisms that change in form, shape and structure through the interaction of physical, informational and geometrical processes. This research focuses on density, environmental quality and spatial identity. These studies are extended to present-day Hong Kong and addresses a design system that aims to reinterpret spatial logics, connected with local socio-cultural attributes, into a set of rules and code for an “intelligent densification”. From the data gathered, two strategies are developed in parallel and as they become more defined, they begin to inform one another until a holistic urban approach is developed. Urban porosity and Urban growth at different scales (neighbourhood, plot and building) become the key design tools to achieve environmental performance, in terms of urban ventilation, housing public programmes, and maximizing pedestrian and bicycle accessibility for all people through a fluid mobility network at ground and multiple layers of connectivity. Existing building morphologies are transformed computationally into porous organisms and are used to construct accurate models of growth for regaining the lost demographic pressure. Multi-objective evolutionary algorithms are employed to generate a complex urban design model. This is characterized by the emergence of public green areas, integration of socio-cultural amenities within the existing building morphologies and by generation of a comfortable outdoor microclimate, at different operational scales. The improvement of the well-being of the urban population could be achieved through a spatial approach based on principles of social inclusion, especially in the most deprived areas of the patch, characterized by illegal and informal settlements, known as “rooftop villages or sky-slums”. The main target, in the long term, will be to develop an “urban intelligence” that takes into account the mutual relation between demographic demand, site constraints and the potentialities and limitations of the architectural targets.

Tesis de Nicolás Osorio para optar al título de Doctor en Medicina, en la Facultad de Medicina de París, en 1865. A lo largo del documento, escrito en francés, Osorio analiza el comportamiento de los tumores que obstruyen el líquido cefalorraquídeo.

On average, 44% of total water abstraction in Europe is used in agriculture. Evidence of water scarcity in Europe is borne out by research that shows increasing strain on water resources in 30% of EU member states. Current research seems to validate the view that wastewater treatment and reuse is a technical opportunity to address the imbalances between agricultural water demand and European water resources in the long term. Currently, just 2.4% of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents are reused, and thus the water reuse potential in Europe remains high. This document reports on and analyses the performance of a prototype-scale plant installed to treat real wastewater in rural Spain using a Treat & Reuse Membrane Bioreactor (T&R MBR). It shows that the T&R MBR is an improvement on MBR operations due to the fact that it produced a solids-free, nutrient rich and high-quality permeate in which Escherichia Coli was removed to values < 1 ufc/100ml. Furthermore, Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD5), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Turbidity and Suspended Solids (SS) were typically lowered to concentrations below the legal limit established in countries such as France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Cyprus and Portugal. Additionally, the system was able to extract nutrients from the wastewater inflow and to retain them in the permeate at 80% and 60% of the Nitrogen (once transformed to Nitrates) and Phosphorous, respectively. These results, combined with the continuing reduction of capital and operating costs for the T&R MBRs, suggest that they are an increasingly cost-effective technology for producing treated effluents suitable for water reuse in agriculture. This study also suggests possible limitations regarding the fate of micro-pollutants during treatment. Nevertheless, the system works efficiently so long as the wastewater input meets the typical composition of raw municipal wastewater with minor contributions of industrial wastewater. This would imply low concentration of trace organic contaminants (TrOCs) and Heavy Metals, as well as slight to moderate salinity (i.e. 0.7-3.0 dS/m). In spite of the fact that the T&R MBR technology can reduce the fresh water and fertilizer consumption of the agriculture sector, this system cannot be implemented in countries where the legislation restricts the reuse of effluents with significant concentrations of Nitrates and Phosphorous (e.g., Germany). Therefore, the present document suggests a set of technical criteria addressing the European challenges regarding water reuse in agriculture.

This research is focused on obtaining an important reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions resulting from the use of fossil fuels by increasing the efficiency of pre-combustion carbon capture. It examines a new, low-risk, approach that uses conventional water gas shift reactors and acid gas removal technology in a unusual arrangement, within an Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle power plant (IGCC). Timmins (2010) proposed a flowsheet of this nature and it is this flowsheet that is used as the starting point for this research project. Process simulation in UniSim Design R390 is conducted  to validate the viability of such  a flowsheet and to investigate optimal plant configuration. The modelling output is compared to US DOE baseline studies for competing technologies (2010).The physical solvent, Selexol, is used for cardon dioxide (CO2) absorption as recommended by researchers as the most energy efficient amongst the range of physical and chemical solvents investigated. There are mainly two thermodynamic models required to meet all of the needs of this complex process. Most of the process is modelled with the Peng-Robinson equation of state but the Selexol absorber and desorber is modelled using the non-random-two-liquid model  (NRTL) for the liquid phase and the ideal gas law for the vapour phase. A beseline flowsheet model is successfully modelled that could be attached to an IGCC plant to enable it to continue producing electric power whilst capturing 90% of the carbon derived from the fuel. The model is used for process development, and for energy efficiency evaluation. Every major item of capital equipment has been included, modelled and sized to produce a cost analysis and additionallly, the model output was used for a preliminary life cycle analysis (LCA). From the results produced in this study, the proposed process appears to be a feasible, energy-efficient, alternative technology for incorporating carbon capture within an IGCC flowsheet.

The need of understanding the relationship between the physical habitat and ecology in the fluvial systems has become a major issue due to an increasing environmental conciousness but also because of the normativity which demand the achievement of the good status of the water bodies and its ecosystems. Exactly this requirement is prescribed by the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) which have included the hydromorphology as an important aspect of evaluation due to the influence that it has on the ecology of a river system. The hydromorphology gets relevance because it study the system as a whole, involving the interactions between ecology, hydrology and fluvial geomorphology. As a response to the WFD each country of the European Union has developed a method for guaranteeing the compliance of the normativity. Elements of such methods and of international literature are collected for the development of a methodology that fulfill the gaps of the current Colombian water normativity and support the decision making in the environmental planning and impact assessment. This guide for the river morphological restoration in Colombia is a complete hydromorphological analysis of a selected river which main purpose is to make an approach to the general aspects of the river in the macro scale, followed by an assessment in the meso scale in which the river is segmented, classified and the hydromorphological conditions are scored; finally, a simulation is performed for a critical reach, called in this work the “bottle neck” reach. The simulation consists in a hydrodynamics model (or hydromorphodynamics model as optional), its results of depth, velocity and substrate in combination with the preferences of a fish indicator species, are computed in the software CASiMiR and give the habitat suitability in the study area for the simulated conditions. The application of such methodology is applied in a mountainous river reach downstream the Punt da Gall dam in Switzerland for which the hydromorphological aspects in the macro and meso scale are assessed and in the micro scale the habitat distribution of fish indicator species are calculated. The present work is an attempt to apply the habitat simulation as a tool for determining hydromorphological quality, for river restoration activities and for determining minimum habitat conditions when the discharge is regulated. Future investigations include the application in a Colombian river for which the collection of biological data still is a challenge.

In the last years Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC) has received an increasing attention in academic research due to its ability to achieve optimal process operation of nonlinear processes. NMPC has been applied to several pilot plants; however major obstacles like plant model mismatch and disturbances have to be overcome in order to allow industrial applications. Multi-stage NMPC (MSNMPC) is a robust NMPC approach which achieves optimal process operation under uncertainties of the process model. A complete workflow from simulation studies to real application of MSNMPC has been developed to overcome the mentioned obstacles. However, explicit knowledge from the fields of mathematics, optimization theory, and process control is required. Therefore, efficient methods for evaluation of MSNMPC that support the transition from simulation to application in the real process are required. In this master thesis a module that applies several evaluation methods to offline simulations of MSNMPC is developed. The effectiveness of the module is shown in the case study of an industrial batch polymerization reactor.

Youth suicidality is a worldwide major concern; even more, if a specific population of youth, as young people in the child welfare system, are likely to be at higher risk. Therefore, emerge the need to identify particular characteristics that may be predictors of these suicidal behaviors in order to provide better prevention and intervention programs. Portugal is a country that does not have information regarding youth suicide in care. Seeking to contribute to this matter this study aims to make a profile of young Portuguese people (of 16- and 17- years old) in residential care with suicide attempts, identifying the relation between suicidality and sociodemographic variables, type of placement and maltreatment, mental health problems and risk behaviors. Comparisons of the data gathered were made on adolescents in residential care with suicide attempts and adolescents without it, bivariate analyzes were carried out to identify the difference between samples. Results supported a statistical relationship with physical neglect as a type of maltreatment, and alcohol and drugs abuse as factors that may increase the risk of suicide attempts. Regarding mental health, treatments do not cover the whole population with suicide attempts, with lightly less of half of the adolescents with suicidality not receiving psychiatric treatment. Further analysis is needed to identify if more rigorous mental health treatment might reduce suicidality. Resúmen: La tendencia suicida en los jóvenes es una preocupación importante a nivel mundial; aún más, si una población específica, como aquellos quienes están en el sistema de bienestar, tienen probabilidades de tener riesgos mayores. Por esta razón, surge la necesidad de identificar características particulares de los jóvenes en el sistema de bienestar que puedan predecir comportamientos suicidas con el fin de proporcionar mejores programas de prevención e intervención. Portugal es un país que no tiene información sobre el suicidio juvenil en el sistema de bienestar. Buscando contribuir a esta área, el siguiente estudio pretende hacer un perfil de jóvenes portugueses (de 16 y 17 años) en acogimiento residencial con intentos de suicidio, identificando la relación entre la variable tendencias suicidas y variables sociodemográficas, perfil del acogimiento y tipo de maltrato, problemas de salud mental y comportamientos de riesgo. Se compararon los datos de adolescentes en acogimiento residenciales con intentos de suicidio y adolescentes sin intentos, llevando a cabo análisis bivariados para identificar la diferencia entre las muestras. Los resultados revelaron una relación estadística entre negligencia física como un tipo de maltrato, y abuso de alcohol y drogas como factores que pueden aumentar el riesgo de intentos suicidas. En cuanto a la salud mental, se identificó que los tratamientos no cubren a todos los jóvenes con intentos de suicidio, hallando que no reciben tratamiento psiquiátrico un poco menos de la mitad de los adolescentes con tendencias suicidas. Por esta razón, se considera necesario realizar más análisis para identificar si un tratamiento de salud mental más riguroso podría reducir las tendencias suicidas.