Airways and lung parenchyma are distensible anatomical structures and in healthy subjects dilate with each inspiration. This process is even more evident during deep inhalations (DI). The bronchodilatory and bronchoprotective effect of a DI depends on the tethering forces on the airway wall by the expanding parenchyma, and the loss of this function appears to be associated with airway hyperresponsivenes - a characteristic feature of asthma. Models have assumed that the peribronchial parenchyma expansion (EPB) equals that of the subtended parenchyma (ESL). However, the changes in EPB during bronchoconstriction and its relationship with ESL have not yet been characterized. In this thesis, EPB and ESL were measured at baseline and then studied as they changed during bronchoconstriction and DI, and a novel distensibility measurement was proposed. HRCT scans from subjects with mild-to-moderate asthma (AS) and healthy controls (NA) were acquired in 3 conditions in supine position: at baseline, following a methacholine challenge, and with a DI to TLC. ESL and EPB were quantified as the average of the regional voxel-gas-to-tissue-ratio for each segmental region, and for a spherical region around each of the corresponding segmental airways. The difference in parenchymal expansion (E), the vertical-distance between airway’s center point and the respective segment’s center-of-gravity, and the relative distensibility were also measured. E varied among segments with a systematic vertical-distance dependency for all conditions and subjects, significantly higher in NA than AS (P < 0.05). At baseline average segmental E adjusted by vertical-distance was near zero and increased monotonically with bronchoconstriction and after a DI, following closely a linear relationship with average expansion of the lung (ELung) for all AS and NA subjects and conditions. No significant differences were found in this relationship between AS and NA but E adjusted tended to be higher for AS at TLC. We found that EPB, adjusted for the relative-vertical-distance, was lower than ESL (E > 0) with a difference that increased with average-lung-expansion. The spontaneous increase in lung volume following bronchoconstriction or DI increased peribronchial expansion up to a half of the increase in segmental expansion at the same height. This difference represents a type of airway-parenchyma-uncoupling that has not been described, can have important mechanistic implications on the effects of a DI on airway distensibility, and suggests that in clinical asthma a lack of homogeneous parenchymal stiffening may also contribute to airway hyperresponsiveness.

Abstract: Liquid Homes is a study about migration based on social sciences theories, contemporary films, and my personal experiences. Within this understanding of migration, the concept of Home is identified as a physical and imaginary place pertaining to all individual of society, to which civil rights and urbanism are related, and which is in constant tension in a global system because of the processes of modernity, the development of industrialisation and capitalism. In this text an analysis of contemporary migration is proposed throughout films produced during the European migrant crisis (2015- ), to do a critical analysis about the approach and representation in films of the migrant population and to suggest recognition, humanism and familiarity with migrant communities and their civil rights. It was my last evening in Lisbon crossing the Tejo river in a ferry going to the other side of the city. We came over the second floor and sat down on the chairs with the windows facing the sunset. She was looking at messages on her mobile phone, while I was looking at the colour and shadows projected on her face. Suddenly she surprised and said: A bomb has exploded in the main harbour of Beirut. It is when this story about Liquid Homes started. Until this moment I had not any mental map of Lebanon, I knew it was part of the „Middle East” region with an Arabic culture. She told me she has some friends in Beirut because she was doing her field based research thesis in a Palestinian Refugee Camp called Shatila. I guess that the mixture of feelings between her and me at that moment have impressed in my memory the need to understand Shatila. Feelings about the beginning and the finishing of new stages of our lives, moving again of (from/to) homes, in different non-established houses, around different people, different languages and geographies. In my case, feelings of coming back to a place with legal rules made to make it the hardest for foreigners and for their establishment of a normal life, a hostile place in an economic way, where you are not welcome if you are not coming to produce or give money to the society. With the time I have understood that Shatila is a “Liquid Home” for its inhabitants. As a “new city” is for migrants. A “Liquid Home” is a place for waiting - for the return or for continuing towards the desired land and the desired lifestyle, with the difference that for people in Shatila and their parents before them were born there, but they do not have legal right over the land nor over pretty much anything in the place they inhabit. I identify a liquid home as the space constructed to be easily changed according to political international movements, according to the economic profit of international relationships under the flagship of solidarity. An artificial urbanization made with modular materials to be easily moved and articulated, where the architecture of the houses, of the streets, of the daily human relations can be withdrawn from their users as an expropriation not just of their houses but as well of their civil rights. As a nobody, who occupy the territory, liquid homes are a result of liquid societies, a modernisation of the urban lifestyle understood within Zygmunt Bauman’s analysis of the late modernity, where the reality of the inhabitants of the society is made to allow constant and contrasting changes. The objective of this writing is to describe how the phenomenon of migration, cities and citizenship have been told in cinema from 2015 until now, and to analyse different approaches, methods of research and filming migration and the noncitizenship, using cinema as a cultural expression that reflects the modern thinking and troubles of a migration society. I will also use personal notes as an ethnographic research method, reflecting my experience as a foreigner and all that not having a citizenship in the place where I live has meant.

The political, economic and social implications of producing and sanctioning the so- called ‘intangible heritage’ through heritage listing is a widely researched topic in the field of Cultural Heritage Studies. In this study I examine the impacts of community-led intangible heritage designation at a local level through discussing the inscription of the “Wayuu Normative System Applied by the Pütchipü’üi (Palabrero)”, an indigenous system of justice, in UNESCO’s system of inventories and Colombia’s intangible heritage list.

Investigación acción educativa, que tiene como objetivo, establecer la incidencia que poseen los soportes hipertextuales digitales, en el desarrollo de la literacidad crítica, de los niños de grado sexto, de una institución privada en la ciudad de Bogotá. Como soporte teórico, se tiene en cuenta la clasificación que hace Ada, apoyada en el trabajo de Freire, relacionada con las cuatro fases interactivas, para el desarrollo de la lectura creativa, como una propuesta holística para la enseñanza de la literacidad crítica y la teoría Educativa del Hipertexto, expuesta por Rueda, quien traduce conceptos de la Deconstrucción de Derridá y la Semiología de Barthes a este campo. La estrategia metodológica empleada, es una secuencia didáctica, en talleres virtuales. constituidos por dos actividades fundamentales, la primera, encargada de efectuar un acercamiento, a los conceptos teóricos relacionados con el soporte hipertextual digital y la segunda, dedicada a la enseñanza de la literacidad crítica, empleando diferentes textos literarios de carácter narrativo como: el cuento, el mito, la leyenda y la fábula.

Este trabajo presenta el desarrollo de una intervención pedagógica realizada en el colegio República Bolivariana de Venezuela, ubicado en la ciudad de Bogotá en la localidad de Los Mártires. La intervención se llevó a cabo con estudiantes del grado noveno en el área de Lengua Castellana y literatura. El proceso centró su acción en la producción escrita de textos narrativos cortos, a partir del análisis composicional y el efecto desde lo sensorial, que produce el texto literario en la recepción que hace el lector. Para tal fin, la propuesta se fundamentó en dos aspectos básicos: la construcción de una nueva perspectiva en la función que debe tener la literatura en el aula, desde el enfoque de la teoría de la recepción y específicamente en la experiencia estético literaria (Loise Rosenblatt y Daniel Pennac); y, el desarrollo de la producción escrita a partir de la creación literaria (Benigno Delmiro Coto y Sneider Saavedra) aunado al desarrollo de la escritura como objeto de estudio que establece una serie de fases para su implementación (Bereiter y Scardamilia, Daniel Cassany y Delia Lerner). En este sentido, se diseñaron ocho talleres iniciales y cinco que se aplicaron fuera de los tiempos establecidos para la intervención, dando continuidad al proceso para mostrar resultados tangibles de la producción inédita de los estudiantes.

Pregnancy during adolescence is a worldwide public health concern. In developing countries, 14 million adolescents give birth each year, which accounts for 90% of all worldwide pregnancies. The proportion of adolescent women aged 10-19 whom have been pregnant in Mitú, Colombia is of approximately 25%, in comparison to 19.5% at the national level. This report aims to review the effectiveness and identifying best practice of adolescent pregnancy interventions in low and middle income countries and use formative research to make specific recommendations for policy and practice to prevent adolescent pregnancy in Mitú, Colombia. EMBASE, Medline, CINHAL, Cochrane library, GLOBAL HEALTH, ADOLEC, Popline, LILACS and REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH LIBRARY were searched to identify studies examining adolescent pregnancy prevention interventions in developing countries. GOOGLE was searched to identify grey literature. Five semi-structured interviews were also conducted with key service providers in the field of Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health in Mitú to explore the needs of the region in regards to adolescent pregnancy prevention and the barriers and facilitators for programme implementation. The literature review found that adolescent pregnancy prevention interventions in developing countries had a positive impact on the knowledge of pregnancy prevention and may contribute to the delay of sexual initiation. However, impact on the use of contraceptive methods and reduction of adolescent pregnancy inconclusive. Interviews revealed key societal, familial and individual factors that were viewed to be linked to adolescent pregnancy in Mitú. Relationships between military personnel and young women appeared to be an important factor in high teenage pregnancy rates. Barriers for the adequate implementation and continuation of programmes included lack of political commitment, lack of financial, human and material resources and lack of inter-institutional collaboration, the high rate of staff turnover and the lack of monitoring programmes. Only few facilitators were mentioned that consisted mainly in the willing of both adolescent and military to collaborate in the implementation of adolescent pregnancy prevention interventions. In conclusion, evidence suggests that adolescent pregnancy prevention strategies are effective in increasing knowledge of pregnancy and might delay sexual initiation in low and middle-income countries. Features of effective programmes were identified and discussed and are important in designing and developing new strategies. However, cultural, environmental and social barriers need to be addressed through political commitment and inter-institutional collaboration in order to develop effective interventions for pregnancy prevention in Mitú.

Abstract: The rapid and ongoing process of urbanisation in Bogota has brought about significant socio-spatial segregation between city-dwellers. Such segregation is becoming increasingly complex as patterns of fragmentation are evolving towards a more ‘cellular’ differentiation between rich and poor –urban segregation which changes in terms of scale: from macro (neighbourhoods) to micro scales (blocks, streets). Urban segregation has been associated as a barrier for disadvantaged communities, especially when it becomes an intensifier of inequalities. Unequal access to services, availability of local employment, urban facilities, opportunities and supportive social relationships are examples of how segregation affects the distribution of quality of life, undermines attempts for social inclusion and, ultimately, creates unjust geographies. Alongside this context, public policy and measurements of quality of life have frequently overlooked spatial contexts of inequalities since a utility-based definition of well-being is often taken for granted. With the city of Bogota as a testing ground, this thesis analyses how and to what extent new patterns of urban segregation affect the distribution of capabilities and quality of life among young adults. Based on a capability place-based approach to wellbeing, this research will attempt to conceptualise urban quality of life, look at how patterns of urban segregation affect urban functionings, and quantify to what extent microsegregation explains differentials in capability achievement of quality of life among young adults in Bogota.

Abstract: Many materials of scientific interest show a disordered phase, with their molecules presenting positional disorder, orientational disorder or both. Processes of interest to life also occur in these kind of phases as it is the case of liquid water present in many biochemical problems of interest such as protein folding. The study of these disordered phases is inherently difficult due to their lack of periodicity as in ordered crystals. In this work, molecular dynamics simulations (MD) are used to study two disordered phases: the liquid and the plastic crystal. The configurations obtained by MD are analyzed using different methodologies to obtain insights into the local ordering of the molecules and into their dynamics. The local ordering of the systems is studied using the Euler angles method considering the molecules as rigid bodies. Probability distributions describing the positional and orientational molecular ordering are obtained. These probability distributions are analysed using information theory concepts that provide a deeper understanding of the results. Two systems of interest are studied: hexachloroethane and water. The structure of the liquid and plastic crystal phases of hexacloroethane are investigated and the results from MD and the local ordering analyses are compared to previous works using simulations and neutron diffraction experiments. A Bayesian approach is used in order to obtain the intra-molecular structure of the molecule from the neutron diffraction experimental data, a set of parameters in better agreement with the plastic phase is obtained compared to previous electron diffraction experiments. Liquid water at room conditions is studied on the short range order, presenting a contribution to the ongoing topic of its local structure. The ordering of water at distances beyond the first hydration shell is also studied using the information theory approach. Findings of this work support recent experimental and simulation data showing the existance of long range correlations in water. Finally, plastic crystals phases of water found at high pressures by MD are studied and compared to a high pressure liquid and the ice vii form by comparing their local ordering and dynamics. The methodologies used in this work provide a powerful technique to analyse disordered phases and the results obtained will contribute to the understanding on the structure of such phases. Resumen: Muchos materiales de interés científico se presentan en fases desordenadas, donde las moléculas se encuentran desordenadas posicionalmente, orientacionalmente o ambas. Así mismo, procesos que son importantes para la vida se desarrollan en este tipo de fases. Un ejemplo de ello es el caso del agua líquida que está presente en muchos de los problemas importantes en bioquímica, como el plegamiento de proteínas. El estudio de estas fases desordenadas es inherentemente complejo debido a que no presentan periodicidad en la estructura como en el caso de sólidos cristalinos. En este trabajo se usa la simulación mediante dinámica molecular (MD) para estudiar dos fases desordenadas: el líquido y el cristal plástico. Las configuraciones obtenidas por MD son analizadas usando diferentes metodologías para entender el ordenamiento local y la dinámica de estas fases. El ordenamiento local de los sistemas se estudia usando el método de ángulos de Euler considerando las moléculas como cuerpos rígidos. Se obtienen distribuciones de probabilidad que describen el ordenamiento molecular posicional y orientacional. Estas distribuciones de probabilidad se analizan usando conceptos de teoría de la información que permiten entender mejor los resultados obtenidos. Se estudian dos sistemas de interés: hexacloroetano y agua. La estructura de las fases líquida y de cristal plástico en el hexacloroetano son investigadas y los resultados de MD y de los análisis de ordenamiento local son comparados con resultados previos de simulación y de difracción de neutrones. La estructura intra molecular del hexacloroetano se estudia usando análisis bayesiano haciendo un fit de los datos de difracción de neutrones, el conjunto de parámetros obtenidos mejoran resultados previos de experimentos de difracción por electrones respecto a la fase plástica. Se investiga el orden de corto alcance del agua a temperatura ambiente, contribuyendo al debate sobre su estructura local que es un tema aún abierto. El órden del agua para distancias más allá de los primeros vecinos también se estudia usando el enfoque de la teoría de la información. Los resultados encontrados dan soporte a experimentos y simulaciones recientes que muestran correlaciones de largo alcance en el agua. FInalmente, se estudian las fases plásticas del agua halladas recientemente por MD a altas presiones. Estas fases se comparan con una fase líquida a alta presión y con el hielo vii tanto en su ordenamiento local, como su dinámica. Las metodologías usadas en este trabajo constituyen una herramienta clave para el análisis de fases desordenadas y los resultados obtenidos contribuirán al entendimiento de la estructura de tales fases.

Based on the needs of the market regarding the management of medicines in the cold chain, we have thought about the cration of Logi Farma; a company designed for the transport of medicines in the cold chain, that will allow its customers to have the satisfaction of the correct handling of the medicines and the conservation of the suitable temperature during the process of transport; from the beginning of the chain to its final destination. It is designed to start its operation in the city of Bogota, with projection of operation at national level. The whole plan is designed so that in the second year of operation it starts with the recovery of the initial investment.

Despite ample evidence about the short-term impacts of conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs on education and health outcomes, little is known about their long-term effects. This paper evaluates the longer-run impacts (after nearly 10 years) of Mexico’s renowned CCT program Oportunidades, on the rural youth. In particular, it examines the effects of differential exposure to the program (of 1.5 additional years) on education and employment outcomes as well as adult life-style decisions (marriage and migration). The results do not show strong evidence of significant long-term impacts on education (except for the elder youth). There is some of evidence that early exposure to Oportunidades is associated with a higher probability of engaging in certain types of jobs. However, there is no indication of a shift away from agricultural activities. Finally, there is some evidence suggesting that longer exposure to the program may cause women to delay marriage. This effect could enhance women’s possibilities of participating in the labor market (through a reduction or postponement of the domestic workload.) However, finding no significant impact on earnings or probability of employment may imply that in these poor rural communities additional human capital accumulation may not suffice to improve the productive lives of these young adults in the long-run.