This research is part of the project entitled ""CANOPOR"". Overall, this project aims to carry out studies of forest canopy dynamics through Airborne LiDAR scanning. From this perspective, this study focus on developing a methodology for segmentation automatic or semi-automatic tree crowns in tropical rain forest. The study area corresponds to Paracou experimental in French Guiana. On this scenario, a combination of combination of high resolution optical images and LiDAR scanners is used. The present document provides full details about the pre-treatment process, images treatment, results and comparisons with different segmentation approaches. The validation method is also discussed. Results revealed that the use of LiDAR and variables such as elevation and intensity are a valuable source of information for understanding the structure of complex ecosystems in tropical forests. 

Este estudio fue desarrollado para expandir el conocimiento actual sobre la productividad de profesores universitarios y los factores que pueden contribuir a incrementar los niveles de productividad académica de los docentes de educación superior. Se utilizó una muestra de aproximadamente 4000 profesores vinculados de tiempo completo a instituciones de educación superior en Estados Unidos de América. La muestra provino de una de las bases de datos restringida del National Center for Educational Statistics: National Study of Postsecondary Faculty 1999 –NSOPF:99 (Estudio Nacional de Profesores Universitarios). La primera pregunta de investigación, abordaba el problema de “cómo modelar estadísticamente la producción académica de profesores universitarios como variable latente”, fue desarrollada usando técnicas de modelación de ecuaciones estructurales (Structural Equation Modeling – SEM) tales como Análisis Factorial Confirmatorio (CFA), Análisis Factorial Confirmatorio de Múltiples Grupos, Análisis de Perfiles Latentes (LPA), y CFA con covariables (MIMIC). La segunda pregunta de investigación analizaba los factores asociados a niveles altos de productividad académica y fue abordada a través un grupo de análisis exploratorios, usando Modelos Jerárquicos de Regresión Logística (HGLM). Para modelar el comportamiento productivo de la muestra se identificaron tres factores: inflación, producción individual y producción colectiva, los cuales se constituyeron en la variable dependiente para la segunda pregunta de investigación. Múltiples variables, tales como, rango académico y tipo de institución, entre otras, fueron relacionadas de manera positiva o negativa a las tres variables dependientes. El efecto de las variables explicativas fue diferencial en cada uno de los factores. Estos resultados sugieren cierto nivel de independencia en las variables asociadas con cada uno de los factores en el modelo de producción académica. Adicionalmente, un segundo resultado de este estudio es el desarrollo de una nueva ruta analítica para entender la roductividad académica como una variable latente.  Los resultados del estudio tienen implicaciones importantes para la generación de políticas y estrategias para el desarrollo profesional de profesores universitarios. Adicionalmente, provee de información valiosa a investigadores en el área de superdotación y desarrollo del talento que están abordando el problema de cómo favorecer los procesos de producción creativa y de desarrollo del talento en adultos. Futuras investigaciones sobre productividad académica deberían incluir indicadores más amplios que permitan abordar otras dimensiones de las responsabilidades académicas de profesores universitarios como por ejemplo la docencia. Estos estudios permitirán tener una comprensión mas precisa de una concepción más amplia de lo que es la académica en instituciones de educación superior.

Este documento estudia el tema penitencia y nueve piezas penitenciales en las Canciones y villanescas espirituales de Francisco Guerrero (España, 1528 – 1599). Este cuerpo específico de repertorio, único en la España del siglo XVI, sirve como medio para hacer un análisis más global del tema penitencial en la música y la poesía de la época. El resultado es un análisis de los elementos textuales y musicales de estas obras penitenciales, acompañado por una investigación del contexto en el cual fuero creadas, publicadas e interpretadas.

Given the social inequalities that exist in Barranquilla and the lack of inclusive public environments, this research analyses the potential of scaling up the main asset of the city’s cultural capital – its carnival – to support a strategy that would materialize the vision of a city with useful, attractive, inclusive and vibrant public places that promote equality of quality of life during the whole year. Ethnographic research is done to understand the cultural DNA of the city, both during the carnival and the rest of the year, in order to have elements for the construction of the strategy. The research is done mainly on two levels: institutional and ground level, and has input from local authorities, academics, citizens, private and non-governmental organizations. From informal conversations, formal interviews, field observation and direct experience in the city the author analyses holistically physical, social, economic aspects among others. The first section of the work explains the importance of the carnival as part of the cultural capital of the city, and the social inclusiveness that occurs in public spaces when it takes place. The second section explains the main needs and challenges that the stakeholders of the carnival have in order to keep taking advantage of and growing this asset for the public good of the city. The third section proposes the strategy for Carnival 365 to provide solutions both to the lack of inclusive public spaces in the city, and the challenges of the carnival to keep operating in the long run. Fo r this purpose, the strategy integrates carnival initiatives and processes that are already operating in the city and have the potential to be scaled up to be available during the entire year in public spaces. Four main pillars of action are recommended to be implemented with specific initiatives that can be fostered to be the cement that would sustain the pillars of the strategy in its early stages of creation. The strategy proposes incremental solutions to understanding the city’s own capabilities and limitations, instead of embedding external models or initiatives that could be disrupting in the early stages of implementation. Finally, the conclusion connects the solutions that the strategy of Carnival 365 gives, based on the principles of equality within the context and urban complexities of Barranquilla, and provides a wider reflection about the relevance of the cultural capital of cities to provide quality of life and opportunities to citizens, despite the existence of large social inequalities.

An analysis of the slum grading processes of one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Bogotá, Ciudad Bolívar. Many efforts of the municipality and the Colombian government to solve poverty issues in this area of Bogotá have not been proposed in the best manner. The government efforts have been implemented with a silo approach instead of foster changes in this marginal part of the Colombian society in a multidimensional way. Therefore this document uses two case studies. First, the case studies CODI (Community Organizations Development Institute) of Thailand as a governmental institution having a holistic view of the problematic as well as a holistic solution for the poverty problems. And second, the case of Medellín and the implementation of the MetroCable as a trigger for the development of housing and urban regeneration strategies in marginal areas. This documents analyses how Bogotá and its institutions are wasting a lot of efforts and opportunities to solve in a more effective manner poverty problems within its territory. Moreover, this thesis recognises the proposal of the MetroCable of Ciudad Bolívar as the perfect scenario to apply the PMR tool (Polígonos de Modalidad Reestructurante – Restructuring Nodules) to suggest a multidimensional slum upgrading process around this major urban intervention.

Financial inclusion has become an important objective for policy makers and regulators around the world. This is perhaps due to greater access to financial services has been associated with promote more economic growth and sustainable development, therefore, greater inclusion is being considered as a fundamental tool to reduce poverty and as a key element to boost the economy, particularly in developing countries. However, despite the apparent benefits that it can bring to society, there are some aspects that are worth being considered in order to frame a clear vision that inspires better policies towards financial inclusion. An important question that emerges is what would be the challenges and the best alternatives to reach inclusion without going beyond what is necessary. Answering this question is perhaps the key point that regulators and policymakers should carefully consider before setting out new policies that seek better and greater access to financial services. The aim of this work is therefore highlight the emerging challenges and the possible alternatives that might have a positive impact in the enhancement of financial inclusion. To this end, it will provide a general overview of the current state of inclusion and it will present some figures of the progress achieved so far. It will also address two of the main issues that need to be overcome, specifically the shortcomings of regulations and the lack of financial literacy. This document will argue that the main challenge is to strike a balance between the interests of the different actors involved in the provision of financial services; therefore, the main role for regulators and policy makers should be set out a framework with fair condition for all participants and particular for those new actors, such as mobile network operators and correspondent banks, which are playing a fundamental role in the enhancement of financial inclusion. However, the shift towards proper inclusion might also require that these interventions are complemented by adequate education policies that promote a better use of financial services.

There is a great need of expanding horizons for modelling and prediction on cycling planning. This Research evaluates prediction of cyclists’ movement through an urban street environment, by using the theory of “Natural Movement” (Space Syntax), due to the positive explanation of pedestrian movement on similar environments. By relating spatial patterns to movement, Munich Urban area was chosen and a Geographic Information System model of the Real Street and cycling network was defined and refined. A series of locations were selected to test their correlation to real cycling traffic counts and with a GIS based transport model. Building this model from Open Source Data and Empirical Traffic Counts leaded to a series of recommendations regarding higher quality for experimental data and how cycling infrastructure should be modelled, considering a different approach on how to model network elements and embracing further factors that influence the route choice for cyclists.

This dissertation analyzes health human capital issues in developing countries. The first two essays examine the production of human capital at the household level, and the third essay analyzes supply of health care services. The first essay tests for noncooperative behavior using the Mexican Family Life Survey (MXFLS), a nationally representative longitudinal survey of households that identifies and keeps track of local and international migrants. Migration introduces asymmetries of information that might trigger noncooperative behavior of spouses left behind. I use the MXFLS to study noncooperative behavior in Mexican households and the way this behavior and effects children's human capital. I find that migration causes noncooperative behavior in the spouse left behind, namely spouses reduce the time in doing chores and do not change their labor supply. At the same time, boys do more agricultural work and girls have to spend more time in taking care of other members. Migration positively affects school enrollment, but nonlinear e effects suggest younger children are bearing most of the negative effect because, as the literature suggests, lower school enrollment at early ages means lower cognitive achievement later on. In the second essay I analyze production of health in Chinese children. Modernization and subsequent changes in lifestyle have caused a dramatic increase in prevalence of obesity in China. Since obesity is one of the main forces driving noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), increases in prevalence of obesity in children lead to higher incidence of NCDs and reduction in health human capital. Intervention in public policy must be based on an understanding of how health is produced in the household. I use the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) to carry out structural estimation of the health production function for children in China. Results suggest that calorie intake is the most important input in the production of excessive weight with an impact on weight three times larger than sedentary activities and six times larger than physical activities. Calorie intake also has a more than proportional effect on unhealthy extra weight. These results suggest that public health policies must focus on reducing excessive calorie intake. The third essay studies subsidies for public hospitals in Colombia. Health services in Colombia are provided by public and private hospitals that, by law, must compete with one another in a perfectly competitive environment. However, by constitutional mandate, public hospitals must guarantee health care for all - even in municipalities where market conditions cannot sustain a hospital and government subsidization is required. The subsidy should provide the hospital enough solvencies to operate as well as incentives to be efficient. I propose a method to estimate subsidies for public hospitals. The method combines measures of efficiency derived from cost frontiers and production frontiers. Estimations for 2008 suggest an aggregate subsidy of $4869.2 MM Colombian pesos. Also, the proportion of costs that must be subsidized is lower for hospitals that offer more complex health services.

This thesis aims to increase the understanding about leadership in social innovation projects since they constitute an efficient alternative to merge the social and business arenas. In order to do so it identifies, describes and analyzes the characteristics that shape the perceived leadership style of the formal leader (Project Manager) of financially sustainable social innovation projects, departing from the challenges that this leaders face and the previous literature. The study begins examining the literature of social innovation projects to demonstrate that due to their specific nature, they constitute an interesting and particular context to study leadership. Then, the extensive leadership literature is explored in order to understand that different schools have described leadership styles using a diverse number of elements and that the different leadership schools have agreed that leadership is contingent to the context. Consequently, a framework of twelve unified characteristics was created to allow the re-definition of the existent leadership styles in a common language. Additionally, leadership in neighboring contexts (leadership in innovation and leadership in projects) was reviewed to identify common challenges with leaders of social innovation projects and the possible implications in terms of characteristics of their leaders. The study had an inductive approach and is cross-sectional, focusing on the most common challenges faced by the leaders of social innovation projects and the perceived characteristics present in leaders of social innovation projects. Semi-structured interviews were used to get the insights of eleven interviewees in ten financially sustainable social innovation projects in the UK. The analysis was developed using a series of templates which provided the flexibility to interpret and categorize the findings in order to answer the research question and accomplish the objective, combining both deductive and inductive reasoning. The results evidence six common challenges that those leaders of financially sustainable social innovation projects face as well as a set of twelve common characteristics that contains behaviors, knowledge, skills or emotional attributes that shape the leadership style. These are: the ability to build and maintain relationships, idealized influence, self-awareness of the leader, flexibility, delegation – Freedom, intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration, motivated by emotional reward, an awareness social need – personal motive, the ability to use business tools and understand social need, the ability to show evidence of social impact, and the ability to raise awareness of their cause and explain their business model. The results of the thesis contribute to the existing literature of the field and could have constructive implications in the selection of leaders for this type of projects, in the design of study programs, and in a clarification of the both the nature and the boundaries of field. Furthermore, the application of the results could impact positively giving hints on how to lead social innovation projects in order to obtain better results for both the project and society.

The relationship between the perception of security and governance in Colombia was studied. The thesis explores the reasons behind the disparity between data about Colombia’s security conditions and the evolution of Colombians perception of their own subjective security. The analysis of public opinion surveys and official data, when contrasted, make evident the interconnected relationship between the incumbent presidents and the levels of governance. Implications for the country’s future political stability are discussed as well as the international consequences caused by Colombia’s instability.