This thesis introduces a financial simulation model covering two related financial domains: Mobile Payments and Retail Stores systems. The problem we address in these domains is different types of fraud. We limit ourselves to isolated cases of relatively straightforward fraud. However, in this thesis the ultimate aim is to introduce our approach towards the use of computer simulation for fraud detection and its applications in financial domains. Fraud is an important problem that impact the whole economy. Currently, there is a lack of public research into the detection of fraud. One important reason is the lack of transaction data which is often sensitive. To address this problem we present a mobile money Payment Simulator (PaySim) and Retail Store Simulator (RetSim), which allow us to generate synthetic transactional data that contains both: normal customer behaviour and fraudulent behaviour. These simulations are Multi Agent-Based Simulations (MABS) and were calibrated using real data from financial transactions. We developed agents that represent the clients and merchants in PaySim and customers and salesmen in RetSim. The normal behaviour was based on behaviour observed in data from the field, and is codified in the agents as rules of transactions and interaction between clients and merchants, or customers and salesmen. Some of these agents were intentionally designed to act fraudulently, based on observed patterns of real fraud. We introduced known signatures of fraud in our model and simulations to test and evaluate our fraud detection methods. The resulting behaviour of the agents generate a synthetic log of all transactions as a result of the simulation. This synthetic data can be used to further advance fraud detection research, without leaking sensitive information about the underlying data or breaking any non-disclose agreements. Using statistics and social network analysis (SNA) on real data we calibrated the relations between our agents and generate realistic synthetic data sets that were verified against the domain and validated statistically against the original source. We then used the simulation tools to model common fraud scenarios to ascertain exactly how effective are fraud techniques such as the simplest form of statistical threshold detection, which is perhaps the most common in use. The preliminary results show that threshold detection is effective enough at keeping fraud losses at a set level. This means that there seems to be little economic room for improved fraud detection techniques. We also implemented other applications for the simulator tools such as the set up of a triage model and the measure of cost of fraud. This showed to be an important help for managers that aim to prioritise the fraud detection and want to know how much they should invest in fraud to keep the loses below a desired limit according to different experimented and expected scenarios of fraud.

Abstract: This contribution provides for a main comparison between the new Article X proposed by the OECD under Action 6 Final Draft and the new Article 22 of the 2016 US Model Income Tax Convention. For purposes of the above, this contribution is divided in two main parts. The first part contains a comparative analysis of the main differences resulting from a tax treaty policy perspective. The second part compares both proposals under an itemized approach. This second part addresses the specific wording differences between new Article X proposed by the OECD under Action 6 Final Draft and the new Article 22 of the US Model Income Tax Convention. At the time of drafting, some additional changes to the final version of the Article X proposed by the OECD under Action 6 could be made as consequence of the disclosure of the latest version of the US LOB on 17 February 2016. Resumen: Este artículo hace una comparaciòn entre el artìculo X propuesto por la OCDE bajo la acción 6 del reporte final contra la erosión de la base gravable y la transferencia de utilidades, y el nuevo artículo 22 del Modelo de Convenio del Impuesto sobre la Renta de los estados Unidos (modelo 2016). Para efectos delo anterior, el artículo está dividido en dos partes principales. La primera parte establece un análisis de las principales diferencias en materia de política tributaria en relación con la suscripción de tratados. La segunda parte analiza las diferencias específicas en la redacción de ambos artículos.

Face recognition is a specific case of object recognition. It has received special attention in the recent years due to a great variety of applications such as robot-human interaction, control by gesture, surveillance, security, and people tracking. The idea of face recognition is to give a computer system the ability of finding and recognizing human faces fast and precisely in images or videos. Face recognition aspires to work similar to human perception. Humans identify a big number of known faces, even after years of separation, or under extreme occlusion conditions, e.g. just by looking at a small part of a face. It is a complex task since faces can have different colors, poses, expressions, and sizes or they can be affected by illumination variations or occlusion conditions. Today, there are different methods of face recognition: feature-based approaches (low-level analysis, feature analysis, active shape models) that make explicit use of facial-features such as skin color, facial landmarks or face geometry, and image-based approaches (linear subspace models, neural networks, statistical approaches). The recent increase in the volume of data and computational resources has led to the need for fast and scalable recognition techniques. These techniques should be robust to non-rigid deformations, clutter, occlusion and illumination variations, but, at the same time, they must be sensitive to variations among faces from different persons. For these reasons, neural networks have become a surge of interest Initially, shallow regular neural networks could be used for small image sizes, but they would not scale to deeper networks since a huge amount of parameters would be necessary to be learnt, which can easily cause overfitting. As a result, Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) were proposed. In a CNN, neurons in a layer are connected to small regions of previous layers, which is different to regular neural networks, where all neurons are connected in a full manner. Besides, CNNs make correct assumptions about the nature of the images, for example locality of pixel dependencies \cite{ImageNet}. In general, CNNs have fewer connections and parameters, they are easier to train, and they present similar or better performance than the regular neural networks \cite{ImageNet}. As an extension of the CNNs, deep CNNs were introduced by Imagenet authors because a big number of high-resolution images and powerful GPUs are now available. The authors increased the number of convolutional layers, and they use large receptive fields in the first convolutional layer. As a result, overfitting, which is inherent to the large size of the model, is avoided and effective results are achieved. In addition, the authors of the VGGnet continued adding convolutional layers, but they keep the size of the receptive fields very small (3x3 convolutions) with a stride of 1, throughout the whole network, which decreases the amount of parameters.

The classical job-shop problem is among the most studied scheduling models because it can model a variety of real-life applications. This problem can be reinforced by integrating the operation flexibility to obtain a more realistic model, called Flexible-Job shop Scheduling Problem (FJSP), that capture the salient features of modern systems. To consider both productivity and customer service in the FJSP, objective function such as regular criteria that consider an increasing function of the completion times of the jobs are needed. Makespan consists of minimizing the maximal completion time of all jobs, and it is the most studied criterion in the FJSP. However, minimizing other regular criteria are better suited to capture critical factors that affect the profit of manufacturing and service systems and thus their competitiveness; in particular the importance of jobs(customers) with weighted criteria. This thesis presents innovative general local search approaches to minimize regular criteria in the FJSP in two ways: Single criterion and multi-criteria called Multi-Objective Flexible Job-shop Scheduling Problem (MOFJSP). The local search approaches make use of a generalization of the disjunctive graph model, iteratively progress from one solution to another using two neighborhood structures (N1 and N2). N1 consists of moving all critical operations that belong to critical paths of jobs which affect the criterion being optimized and N2 is a subset of N1 where only operations which belong to blocks. New, efficient and fast sufficient feasibility conditions to obtain moves of the neighborhoods and evaluation functions that assess the quality of the feasible moves are proposed.

The Surface energy Balance System (SEBS) was utilised for evaluating the spatial and temporal variation of the actual evapotranspiration (ETa) over the Gumara basin, using satellite images from Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) in combination with meteorological data of the study area, for 12 days of 2006, 6 corresponding to the dry season, and 6 corresponding to the rainy season. The daily ETa was estimated for these days, and then a simple extrapolation of ETa proportionally to the ETp was used to compute the monthly and annual ETa. SEBS estimated an average ETa of 0.84 mm/day for the 6 dates of January, and an average of 4.24 mm/day for the 6 dates of the rainy season. The lowest value was obtained in Jan 2nd, with 0.73 mm/day, and the highest was observed in Sep 21st. Monthly ETa showed the lowest value of 34.20 mm in February; whereas the highest was observed in June with 115.67 mm. The annual ETa was about 847.12 mm, for the 2006. The average ETp estimated for the 12 analysed dates by Pan Evaporation method was about 4.15 mm/day, whereas for the Penman Monteith method was approximately 4.22 mm/day. Particularly for the rainy dates, the daily ETa was very similar to the ETp, with an average difference of 0.16 mm/day. In the water balance method, the difference between the estimated runoff with the ETa by SEBS, and the measured runoff at the station was of approximately 175.60 mm/year. According to these results and, although there are uncertainties associated with the model and the inputs utilised, the SEBS seemed to estimate reasonable values of ETa for the study area.

In the Caribbean coast of Colombia, within a triangle-shaped mountainous massif covered by a dense jungle of endemic flora (known as the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta), lies the archaeological park Teyuna-Lost City. A series of terraces, roads, stairs, spillways and sewerage systems form the largest and most impressive archaeological settlement in Colombia. Given the complexity of its geographical location, the place remained unnoticed, hidden and well protected for over 400 years. However, since its discovery, in 1975, the site has been subjected to different political, social and cultural dynamics that have affected its management and conservation. In the context of Colombian post-conflict, Teyuna has been perceived by many as an alternative to enhance their living condition. However, tensions promoted by stakeholders, communities and illegal armed groups are affecting the appropriate dissemination of its cultural values. After all, some communities conceive Teyuna as a business rather than as a National Heritage. In this project, I present an analysis of the bodies that are behind the tourism market, the limitations of the community-based tourism in the post-conflict scenario, the power imbalances on Teyuna´s management, and the dissemination problems of the archaeological site.

This clinical report discusses how Dance Movement Psychotherapy (DMP) can be used to support the psychological recovery of adults who suffer from mild depression. The first part offers a critical review of the literature related to depression, psychodynamic theory and its links with DMP. The second part shows a case study that unfolded whilst working one-to-one with a female client in the context of a mental health day centre. Except for holiday breaks and scheduled absences, client and therapist met once a week over a period of six months for a total of eight DMP sessions, with five more left until the end of the treatment. This academic paper is informed by the thought process that developed during this time, in which a therapeutic relationship was gradually built around the themes of loss, self-identity and the hope of moving forward. By approaching the body as a living metaphor, teeming with imagery and symbols, both therapist and client found useful tools on the journey of working through depression and integrating its difficult emotions through Dance Movement Psychotherapy.

Abstract: This study explores the visibility of ethnic identity features of the San Andreans in the history curriculum of its state schools. It uses a comparative approach through a content analysis of the Social Science curriculum, and the Afro Colombian Studies lecture plan of study. The findings of the research shed light on the theoretical perspectives of ethnic and social identity, and the implications these have on history education. In the findings, I highlight in particular the presence of global and national identifications and their correlation with national curricular guidelines. Finally, I argue that there is an urgent need for the inclusion of distinctive traits of the San Andreans within the history subject. By adopting this approach, students of the island will be able to develop a critical understanding of their histories and reflect on their presence and identity socially and politically. Resumen: Este estudio explora la visibilidad de las características identitarias étnicas propias de los San Andresanos en el curriculo de historia o Ciencias Sociales en colegios públicos. En la investigación se usa un enfoque comparativo por medio del cual se examina, a través de herramientas como el análisis de contenido textual, el currículo de la materia Ciencias Sociales y el plan de estudio de la Cátedra de Estudios Afrocolombianos. Los resultados muestran la correlación entre las perspectivas teóricas de la identidad social y étnicas y las implicaciones que estas tienen en la educación y enseñanza de la historia como materia. En lo encontrado resalto particularmente la presencia de identidades globales y nacionales y su relación con las políticas curriculares nacionales. Finalmente, presento la necesidad de incluir las distintas características de los San Andresanos en la materia de Historia o Ciencias Sociales ya que al tomar este enfoque, los estudiantes de las islas estarán en la capacidad de desarrollar el entendimiento y tener una perspectiva crítica acerca de su propia historia y el cómo se refleja en ella las identidades sociales y políticas a las que se encuentran expuestos.

The following research is an exploration on the development of solutions from the discipline of graphic communication, to support war victims in Colombia. The research was focused on the study of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and the methods to treat this mental disorder such as Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Art Therapy. The initial phase of the project consisted on creating a book inspired onthe therapies mentioned above, exploring how graphic communication could facilitate trauma treatment and visually reinforce those methods previously studied. Afterwards, the project advanced into using illustration as a tool to criticize the psychological and sociocultural effects of Colombian war on victims and society. The social discomfort motivated by war led me to think of Colombia as a nation suffering from analogue trauma, a moderated emulation of PTSD. Thus, my illustrations were collages inspired on each symptom of PTSD, Magic Realism – One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, and photojournalists Jesús Abad Colorado, Josh Rushing and Álvaro Ybarra. Finally, these illustrations explored how graphic communication could motivate debates and nurture critical perspectives about armed conflict in Colombia; also, raise awareness about the importance of supporting victims with mental health programs.

"The dissertation is an analytical review of the available literature on marine protected areas (MPAs) to propose some governance, and spatial management mechanisms in the Colombian Caribbean Sea, particularly in the Seaflower MPA. The Seaflower MPA is facing several challenges regarding political issues of boundary disputes and also adverse impacts on the marine environment from the increase in shipping activities. This is largely due to the expansion of the Panama Canal and the possible Nicaragua Canal, which is increasing the maritime traffic of international shipping to almost double that of today. In addition, the increase in seabed activities is also a threat to the ecosystems within it. This research describes the Colombian framework of MPAs, and it also shows the issues that face the Seaflower MPA today. The aim is to propose and to recommend some governance and management measures based on the ecosystem-based approach to establish a transboundary agreement keeping the integrity of the MPA and giving regional relevance for the protection of the unique ecosystems. Furthermore, to address the issues of negative impacts from shipping, some protective measures have to be taken to protect the ecosystems and safe navigation guaranteeing long-term sustainable development. "