The successful evolution of a power system is achieved when its future growth path is visualized. Visualizing and interpreting the future are crucial to understand the risks to which the power system is exposed. These are mostly caused by the interdependencies between the power system and other systems (e.g., transportation sector, fuels sector, industry, etc.); and the resulting uncertain environment where these systems perform. Then, the objectives of planning are to reduce the risks of uncertainties and to gain some control over the future by linking it with the past; otherwise risks might materialize in catastrophic consequences. In particular, motivated by the need of mitigating future risks in power systems, this work focuses on finding robust and flexible investment strategies in the generation capacity expansion planning problem under exposure to multiple uncertainties. They are present in different sources and types such as fuel costs, investment and operational costs, demand growth, renewables variability, transmission capacity, environmental policies, and regulation. The problem when considering multiple uncertainties is much harder, not only because the increased computational effort, but also because it is hard to model the combination of their occurrences in a single optimization problem. Since each uncertainty deserves special treatment, they are grouped into two categories. Those (categorical) uncertainties that really impact the portfolio investment decisions are classified as global; whereas those that quantitatively describe the intrinsic imperfect knowledge of the categorical are considered local uncertainties. So, to effectively account for robustness, defined as the ability to perform well under unforeseen situations, and flexibility, defined as the ability to adapt cost-efficiently to different situations, modern tools are illustrated and implemented in a computationally tractable manner, resulting in promising planning tools under uncertainty.

El objetivo principal de la presente tesis doctoral es la determinación de los HCG e HAP asociados a las partículas, emitidos por un motor diésel utilizando diversos combustibles de origen renovable. A partir de este objetivo general se definen varios objetivos específicos: La puesta a punto de un método efectivo para la identificación y cuantificación de los HCG individuales en los gases de escape del motor diésel. Este procedimiento debe incluir la metodología de muestreo, extracción, concentración y análisis, garantizando la conservación de los analitos objetivo. El desarrollo y validación de una metodología novedosa de especiación de los HAP asociados a las partículas. Esta técnica debe utilizar una combinación de extracción térmica y microextracción en fase sólida, de modo que se eliminen los inconvenientes de la extracción con disolventes tradicional y se incremente la selectividad y repetitividad del método.

The aim of this report is to demonstrate and explore how the vernacular architecture and crafts of the Andean region of Colombia could inspire the creation of an interior installation that is designed to convey a personal interpretation of the tensions associated with the current internal conflict in Colombia and a sincere aspiration for sustainable peace. To approach this hypothesis, the perspectives of experts in those matters were imperative and guided the further research of alternative secondary methods that included books, journals, and official publications. The main structure of the report attempts to address three principal chapters. The first chapter intends to recognise and highlight the importance of Guadua to the vernacular architecture and crafts associated with the Andean region of Colombia. The second chapter focuses on the investigation of the current trends and science behind narrative design and the infinite possibilities of storytelling in exhibitions and set design. Finally, the third chapter explores the current internal conflict between the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and Colombia’s National Government, which in theory is being tried to be resolved from the study of peace agreements and new possibilities for both parts achieving justice and repair.Findings obtained throughout the research and analytical process show that Guadua’s characteristics as a construction material represent a new insight in the scenario of a sustainable world. Furthermore, Colombia’s ongoing conflict, although it depends on many factors, should be acknowledged globally and has the potential to be tackled from a new artistic perspective, where an interior installation encodes a sincere aspiration for sustainable peace.

The FreshWaterMill project is a transfer of Environmentally Sound Technology (EST) from The Netherlands to Colombia that involves several Dutch companies, the Delft University of Technology and Coralina (corporation for sustainable development of the Archipelago San Andrés, Providence and Saint Kathleen). The installation place is Johnny Cay, a small islet 1.5 km northeast from San Andrés, Colombia, uninhabited and exclusive for touristic use (Van Tonningen, 2014). The technology is a wind powered reverse osmosis (RO) system that can fulfil the drinkable water and electricity demands of the Cay. This way can be alleviated the sanitary conditions resulting from unsustainable touristic practices. Moreover, this project is seen as a promoter of sustainable development in the Archipelago (Coralina, 2006), and as a potential solution to provide electricity and water to rural and remote areas of low utility coverage but abundant wind power. There are no environmental or social impact analyses that validate the sustainable character of the technology transfer. Moreover, although it is intended to improve the livelihood of target users their opinions are not reflected in the project plans. This situation resembles those factors that describe the trend to failure of technology transfers. Therefore this research made an integral assessment of the project as a Socio-Technical System (STS) to provide useful findings and recommendations that could lead it away from such trend. The Functions of Innovation Systems (FIS) framework (Van Alphen, 2008) was chosen for a systems approach analysis. Through this was found that poor planning, insufficient financial resources and ineffective communication channels are the most relevant barriers for a successful implementation of the FreshWaterMill. The most relevant drivers are the suitability of the place for a wind/RO system, the planning of a local educational center, a remarkable advocacy for Renewable Energy Technologies (RETs) in the Archipelago and the existence of local human capital and R&D on RE. Five conditions for self-organization were derived from the PAR (Participatory Action Research) methodology to explore the likeliness of self-organization for bottom-up management. Through this methodology was shown that the difficult relationship between the corporation and the touristic service providers, their lack of group cohesion, managerial and operational capacities, ignorance and/or misuse of instruments for self-organization, make unfeasible for this group to address the barriers and support the drivers of the project. Relevant conditions from the context not covered by the previous methodologies were also included. These reflected that the advocacy for RETs is counteracted by the fragmentation between institutional actors and their lack of managerial skills on technology topics, which makes them rely on national and international assistance to achieve a technological transition. The regular interaction that Johnny Cay workers will have with the windmill, the affinity of the life plan of young adults to the project objectives and the likeliness of this group to make economic contributions urges the need for a participatory approach. The socio-cultural crisis of the Archipelago supports this recommendation. However, the difficulty of institutional entities to understand and assume the roles that require a participatory approach and the path dependency on top-down regulation makes it a complex challenge. A participatory approach for the FreshWaterMill is indirectly supported by the management plan of the Natural Regional Park Johnny Cay and the Community and institutional participation board. Additional to the commitment of the corporation to assume an enabling role, the process needs a mediator so the touristic service.

The main purpose of this research is to demonstrate the connection between the vernacular architecture of La Cabaña and El Chuzo, two coffee regions of Caldas, Colombia, and how their ordinary domestic spaces of everyday life are defined and intimately related to the process of coffee production. The study of both veredas will lead us to understand an architecture that has been shaped by the two systems of coffee production in Caldas, known as Latifundios1 (La Cabaña) and minifundios2 (El Chuzo). Both systems determine the social and economic structure of the Caldas coffee region and therefore also its vernacular architecture and its peoples’ everyday life. This study will demonstrate the tangible and intangible qualities of these places, enabling us to understand in a deep way their values, meaning, and change over time. In Colombia, a country just starting to document its history and to create a written patrimony, being able to narrate what people do not know about La Cabaña and El Chuzo is a way to work toward a better understanding of the coffee region´s vernacular architecture and cultural landscape, and its sense of place and identity. To achieve this understanding of the coffee region, the project is undertaken in the emerging field of Cultural Landscape studies. This methodology aims to identify and analyze the essential and fundamental qualities of specific places, to then reveal their sense of place and identity. The study is done through historic photographs, oral histories, interviews, direct observation and documentation of peoples’ everyday lives around the process of coffee production. Only by studying how people live and the activities that take place in their domestic spaces and by being part of their everyday life, will we be able to understand how the vernacular architecture of La Cabaña and El Chuzo has been shaped by the process and culture of coffee production.

Résumé: La figure de Syméon Seth est celle d’un intellectuel encyclopédiste, comparable à celle de son contemporain Michel Psellos en ce qui concerne son attachement aux grandes familles constantinopolitaines. Pourtant, Seth se consacre à développer la science médicale plus que les autres branches du savoir, et il ne se limite pas à pratiquer la médecine dans le milieu privée des empereurs puisqu’une bonne partie de sa vie il l’a dédiée à l’écriture, des manuels à usage quotidien et d’autres manuscrits d’ordre théorique ou littéraire. Nous pensons qu’un portrait bio-intellectuel de Syméon Seth peut nous montrer s’il y a une pensée byzantine originale au tournant des XIe et XIIe siècles, et, de plus, s’il existait une dialectique entre la culture populaire et la plume des lettrés de la plus haute culture. Resumen: La figura de Syméon Seth es la de un intelectual enciclopedista, comparable a la de su contemporáneo Michel Psellos en lo concerniente a los lazos con las grandes familias de Constantinopla. Sin embargo, Seth se dedica a desarrollar la ciencia médica mucho más que las otras ramas del Saber, y no se limita a practica la medicina en el medio privado de los emperadores porque una buena parte de su vida la dedicó a la escritura, de manuales de uso cotidiano y otros manuscritos de tipo teórico o literario. Pensamos que un retrato bio-intelectual de Syméon Seth puedo mostrarnos si huno un pensamiento bizantino original alrededor de los siglos XI y XII, y, además, si existió una dialéctica entre la cultura popular y la pluma de los letrados de la más alta cultura.

Resumen: Se hace un estudio de los aspectos legales de las asociaciones público privadas (APP) en Colombia bajo el régimen de la ley 1508 del 2012 que busca determinar la necesidad y la coherencia de esta ley en el ordenamiento jurídico colombiano. Se propone identificar la naturaleza legal de las transacciones de tipo APP en la legislación colombiana y determinar si esta regulación es coherente con las reglas del régimen de contratación estatal o si le son derogatorias. En aras de establecer los elementos esenciales del concepto se hace referencia a las llamadas “experiencias internacionales” más representativas que inspiraron al legislador colombiano y las características de la definición adoptada por la ley colombiana. El estudio luego se enfoca en las particularidades del régimen de la Ley 1508 de 2012 frente a la compra pública tradicional, dando especial atención al principio de valor por dinero y a las reglas particulares que rigen la estructuración, el proceso de selección y la ejecución de proyectos APP. Abstract: A study of the legal aspects of public private partnerships (PPP) in Colombia under the Law 1508 of 2012 that assesses the question of the necessity and the coherence of the law into the Colombian legal system. It purports to identify the legal nature of PPP transactions under the Colombian law and to determine whether such a regulation is in accordance with the public procurement regime or if it abolishes it. Aiming to establish the key elements of the concept, reference is made to the most representative international experiences that inspired the Colombian legislator and the special characteristics of the definition adopted by the Colombian law. The study then focuses on the peculiarities of the regime set forth under the Law 1508 of 2012 compared to the rules of the traditional public procurement, special attention is given to the principle of value for money and the particular rules governing the structuring process, the awarding of the contracts and the execution of PPP projects.

Prescriptive ideas on war have been traditionally focused on the reasons and the means of war. However, contemporary scholars have emphasised the importance of normative judgements about the aftermath of armed conflicts. Although peacetime after war has been mainly guided by notions of corrective justice like retribution and restoration, a distributive approach to justice is currently proposed to redress socio-economic inequalities within highly unequal post-conflict scenarios. From this perspective, a peaceful state of affairs that preserves severe inequalities could not be deemed a just peace. In this regard, Colombian conflict is frequently utilised as an example of the expected role of distribution after war. Then, it seems a relevant question whether reducing socio-economic inequalities through mechanisms of distributive justice must be considered indispensable for a just peace after war. I will argue that distributive justice must be regarded as essential for a just peace within highly unequal post-conflict societies like Colombia. To that end, consequentialist and deontological arguments for post-conflict distribution will be discussed to analyse Colombian case as a scenario in which a just peace must necessarily include notions of distribution.

El presente texto tiene como objetivo central abordar el debate acerca de la definición de reglas en los manuales de convivencia y las formas de mediar conflictos entre los distintos actores del sistema escolar en Colombia. El análisis describe las tensiones entre legitimidad y democracia por un lado y  disciplina y autonomía de las instituciones por otro, a partir de dos referentes teóricos, el planteamiento de Habermas sobre la noción de juridificación y de Bobbio sobre democracia social. La investigación es de tipo teórico, se propone una reflexión desde la  hermenéutica crítica de los resultados del análisis documental de las decisiones de la jurisprudencia colombiana sobre manuales de convivencia. La revisión de los referentes filosóficos y el análisis de la forma en que se ha abordado el conflicto en las instituciones escolares permitieron concluir que a pesar de que exista una juridificación de la escuela que se visibiliza con la intervención vía tutela contra las instituciones, en muchas ocasiones esto ha sido una respuesta de los distintos actores  para frenar la ausencia de democracia social en las instituciones escolares.

In Latin America, Duty of Memory, or Deber de memoria, forms part of Transitional Justice measures that strive to symbolically address mass historical violations through the public recognition of victims and the incorporation of their stories of pain, exclusion, and repression into their national narratives. Within this context, Argentina and Colombia are two examples of the complexities inherent in attempting to restore the social networks. Scarred by a past military dictatorship (1976-1983) and a continuing internal armed conflict (1946-), both nations have applied Transitional Justice Systems and Duty of Memory as state policy. However, even when the two countries share the same framework, the political dynamics of each country and the ways their civil societies conceive of justice, vary considerably. Argentina is closer to a Retributive Justice model in which individual criminal accountability for the past is prioritized of over other forms of symbolic reparation. Colombia frames its past and present through Restorative Justice, defining violations as collective wrongdoings and basing reparation on dialogue, negotiation, and restoration of the bonds of trust. These two distinct viewpoints can be contrasted through the analysis of the material aspect of Duty of Memory, that is, the Memorial Museums and Trauma Sites that have emerged as spaces of reflection and commemoration in both countries. This study takes one memorial museum and one trauma site as embodiments of two outlooks on Duty of Memory. The memorial museum is the Museum House of Memory in Medellín, Colombia. The Trauma Site chosen is the Space of Memory and Human Rights of Argentina located in the Navy-Petty Officers School of Mechanics (ESMA), one of Buenos Aires former Secret Detention Centers. The goal of this thesis is to explore how the architectural, spatial, aesthetic, and educational practices of these two sites are influenced by the state obligations required by Duty of Memory but also establish a two-way relationship with this framework, defining its content. Resumen: En América Latina, Deber de Memoria es un concepto incluido dentro del esquema de Justicia Transicional que aborda violaciones históricas a los derechos humanos a partir del reconocimiento de las víctimas y la incorporación de sus historias de dolor, exclusión y represión en la narrativa nacional. En este contexto particular, Argentina y Colombia resaltan como dos naciones que han ratificado el sistema de Justicia Transicional y Deber de Memoria como política estatal en las últimas décadas. Esto se ha hecho con miras a restaurar el tejido social afectado por una dictadura militar (1976-1983) y un conflicto armado interno (1946-). Sin embargo, aun cuando existe un marco compartido, las dinámicas políticas y la manera en que la sociedad civil concibe la justicia y la reparación, varían considerablemente. Argentina se acerca más a un modelo de Justicia Retributiva en donde la justicia penal individual por las violaciones prevalece sobre otras formas de reparación simbólica. En contraste, Colombia enmarca su pasado, y presente, a través de la Justicia Restaurativa. Esto significa que el Estado define las violaciones como una infracción colectiva, buscando reparar mediante el restablecimiento de los vínculos de confianza, la negociación y el diálogo. La diferencia de estos dos acercamientos se hace tangible en el análisis del aspecto material del Deber de Memoria. Es decir, en los museos memoriales y los sitios de trauma que han surgido como espacios de conmemoración y reflexión en ambas naciones. La siguiente investigación toma un museo memorial, el Museo Casa de la Memoria de Medellín, y un sitio de trauma, el Espacio Memoria y Derechos Humanos de Buenos Aires, como puntos de partida para observar las diferencias entre los dos modelos. Esto se hace a partir de un análisis textual y visual de las prácticas arquitectónicas, espaciales, estéticas y educativas de dichos lugares. Los dos ejemplos demuestran que los museos memoriales y sitios de trauma no sólo responden a las obligaciones estatales del Deber de Memoria sino, estableciendo una relación recíproca con este modelo, definen también su contenido.