Abstract: The central aim of this research is to scrutinize the liability regime associated with environmental harm resulting from mining activities in the Area. The thesis endeavors to identify and analyze the gaps in the existing legal framework, particularly under UNCLOS. It questions whether the current standards, which are predominantly based on negligence, are sufficient for safeguarding the ecological integrity of this vital global common. The research is driven by the pressing need for an effective legal regime that aligns with the CHM principle and adequately protects the marine environment from the risks of deep-sea mining. Resumen: El objetivo central de esta investigación es examinar el régimen de responsabilidad asociado con el daño ambiental resultante de las actividades mineras en la Zona. La tesis se esfuerza por identificar y analizar las lagunas en el marco legal existente, especialmente bajo la Convención de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Derecho del Mar (UNCLOS). Se cuestiona si las normas actuales, que se basan predominantemente en la negligencia, son suficientes para salvaguardar la integridad ecológica de este vital bien común global. La investigación se impulsa por la apremiante necesidad de un régimen legal efectivo que se alinee con el principio del Patrimonio Común de la Humanidad (CHM) y proteja adecuadamente el medio ambiente marino de los riesgos de la minería en el lecho marino profundo.

Abstract: Background: Multidrug resistant TB cases have been on the rise, risking advances in TB prevalence and control. Early diagnosis and targeted initial treatment are paramount for effective management and control of spreading of MDR/XDR-TB cases Methods: 161 isolates from patients with L-J culture confirmed TB in Lima, Peru, were tested with MODS+ assay, the diagnostic test and Sensititre, the reference standard. Analysis of growth patterns of bacteria in both methods were used to determine susceptibility/resistance of each isolate to three first line and six second line anti-TB agents, using two different critical concentrations (CC) for each antibiotic. Results: Agreement between susceptibility profiles and operational characteristics of diagnostic test yielded high performance and strong agreement with rifampicin 1μg/ml (agreement percent 90%, Kappa value 0.80) and amikacin 1μg/ml (agreement percent 96%, Kappa value 0.81), moderate for isoniazid 0.4μg/ml (agreement percent 89.4%, Kappa value 0.78), moxifloxacin at both CC’s 0.5μg/ml and 0.25μg/ml (agreement percent 93 and kappa values 0.73 for both), levofloxacin 2μg/ml (agreement 93%, kappa 0.69) and amikacin 2μg/ml (agreement 96%, Kappa 0.81), minimal for levofloxacin at CC 1.5μg/ml (agreement 90%, kappa 0.57) kanamycin at both CC’s 10μg/ml and 5μg/ml (agreement 87%, kappa 0.52) and ethionamide 5μg/ml (agreement 89%, kappa 0.46), weak for PAS 10μg/ml (agreement percent 93.9, kappa value 0.29), and none for ethambutol (Kappa value 0.02 for CC 10μg/ml, 0.07 for CC 5μg/ml). Conclusions: MODS+ assay is a cost-effective option for the diagnosis of TB and MDR/XDRTB, specially, in low resource settings with high TB incidence. Further operational research using lower CC’s, results read on different days and placed in settings with high and low TB and MDR/XDRTB burden could offer better sensitivities and wider applicability of results.

Abstract: This thesis aims to discuss and analyze the influence of women's work on the social construction of the Tarapacá territory, located in the Amazon region of Colombia. Tarapacá was established as a Colombian district as a result of the territorial conflict between Colombia and Peru over the Amazonian border. The period studied extends from the 1930s, when the border conflict occurred, to the year 2022. The research is based on historical documentary sources, interviews, and academic works that highlight the ways in which women understand, produce, and transform the environment. The theoretical framework falls within the field of environmental history with a focus on gender. The study of the relationships between gender and the environment throughout the history of this Amazonian territory seeks to document the legacy of women and understand how it manifests in the present. This work analyzes the relationship of women with the territory from the perspective of socio-spatial formation, considering the historical influence of their work in the construction of social space. Among the results, it is highlighted that the colonialist view tends to treat nature as passive and subordinate, resulting in the oppression of both nature and individuals considered ""non-agents"" and ""non-subjects,"" especially indigenous women. An approach aligned with the perspective of Well-Living (in Spanish, Buen Vivir) of the Andean-Amazonian peoples challenges this view and recognizes the agency and subjectivity of all living beings. For Amazonian women, their connection with nature is used as a strategy to position themselves in the political sphere, sustain life, and protect their territories. This symbolic and practical relationship with the environmental surroundings is fundamental for cultural preservation and resistance against exploitation and territorial dispossession. Resumen: Esta tesis tiene como objetivo discutir y analizar la influencia del trabajo de las mujeres en la construcción social del territorio de Tarapacá, ubicado en la región amazónica de Colombia. Tarapacá fue establecido como un distrito colombiano como resultado del conflicto territorial entre Colombia y Perú por la frontera amazónica. El período estudiado abarca desde la década de 1930, cuando ocurrió el conflicto fronterizo, hasta el año 2022. La investigación se basa en fuentes documentales históricas, entrevistas y trabajos académicos que destacan las formas en que las mujeres conocen, producen y transforman el ambiente. El marco teórico se enmarca en el campo de la historia ambiental con enfoque de género. El estudio de las relaciones entre género y ambiente a lo largo de la historia de este territorio amazónico busca documentar el legado de las mujeres y comprender cómo se manifiesta en el presente. El trabajo analiza la relación de las mujeres con el territorio desde la perspectiva de la formación socioespacial, considerando la influencia histórica de sus trabajos en la construcción del espacio social. Entre los resultados, se destaca que la visión colonialista tiende a tratar la naturaleza como pasiva y subordinada, lo que ha resultado en la opresión tanto de la naturaleza como de las personas consideradas ""no agentes"" y ""no sujetos"", especialmente las mujeres indígenas. Un enfoque cercano a la perspectiva del Buen Vivir de los pueblos andinoamazónicos desafía esta visión y reconoce la agencia y subjetividad de todos los seres vivos. Para las mujeres amazónicas, su vínculo con la naturaleza es usado como una estrategia para posicionarse en el ámbito político, sustentar la vida y proteger sus territorios. Esta relación simbólica y práctica con el entorno ambiental es fundamental para la preservación cultural y la resistencia contra la explotación y la desposesión territorial.

Abstract: In this thesis, I test if the effect of state intervention on economic growth and inequality depends on the level of institutional quality a country presents. I use three different proxies to measure the degree of state intervention in the economy, then I specify a model which includes an interaction term between rule of law and one of the proxies of state intervention. The model is tested in a cross-panel dataset for at most 58 countries in 7 three-year periods, from 1998 to 2018. I find evidence for a non-linear relationship between income per capita and state intervention when the latter is proxied as market openness, varying on the level of rule of law. Contrary to expectations, countries with better institutional quality do not benefit the most from freer markets. As for inequality, I find non-robust evidence of a crossover interaction between public employment and rule of law, yet this result is not economically meaningful. Resumen: En esta tesis, compruebo si el efecto de la intervención estatal sobre el crecimiento económico y la desigualdad depende del nivel de calidad institucional que presenta un país. Utilizo tres indicadores distintos para medir el grado de intervención estatal en la economía y, a continuación, especifico un modelo que incluye un término de interacción entre la variable de Estado de Derecho (rule of law) y uno de los indicadores de intervención estatal. El modelo se testea en una base de datos de panel con un máximo de 58 países en 7 períodos de tres años, de 1998 a 2018. Encuentro pruebas de una relación no lineal entre la renta per cápita y la intervención estatal cuando esta última se aproxima como apertura del mercado, variando en función del nivel de Estado de Derecho (rule of law). Contrario a lo esperado, los países con mejor calidad institucional no son los que más se benefician de mercados más libres. En cuanto a la desigualdad, encuentro pruebas no robustas de una interacción cruzada entre el empleo en el sector público y el Estado de Derecho, aunque este resultado no es económicamente significativo.

Natural Resource Revenues: An opportunity to grow? Estimating the effect of royalties on Colombian departments Abstract: Do royalties from the natural resource extraction contribute to economic growth in the Colombian context? To answer this question, this study examines the allocation and use of royalties in the 32 Colombian departments between 2005 and 2019, period that spans two different governance schemes. Using panel data analysis, it finds that from the allocation perspective, there are indications of the natural resource curse in producing departments. In terms of the returns of the investments, the results highlight issues related to the efficiency and quality of public investment in the main sectors, despite the significant contribution of the 2011 royalties’ reform to address revenues mismanagement and equity issues. These results point to imbalances in the royalties’ policy, thus contributing to inform the current debate on energy transition and future policy reforms. Resumen: ¿Contribuyen las regalías provenientes de la extracción de recursos naturales al crecimiento económico en el contexto colombiano? Para responder a esta pregunta, este estudio examina la asignación y el uso de las regalías en los 32 departamentos colombianos entre 2005 y 2019, periodo que abarca dos esquemas de gobernanza diferentes. Utilizando análisis de datos de panel, encuentra que desde la perspectiva de la asignación, hay indicios de la maldición de los recursos naturales en los departamentos productores. En términos de los retornos de las inversiones, los resultados destacan problemas relacionados con la eficiencia y la calidad de la inversión pública en los principales sectores, a pesar de la importante contribución de la reforma de las regalías de 2011 para abordar la mala gestión de los ingresos y los problemas de equidad regional. Estos resultados apuntan a desequilibrios en la política de regalías, contribuyendo así a informar el debate actual sobre la transición energética y las futuras reformas de política.

Abstract: I document differences in inflation rates across gender in the UK between 2001 and 2021. Using data from the interview and diary components of the Living Costs and Food Survey, for the period spanning 2001-2021, I compute gender specific inflation rates for male and female households. I find that average annual inflation was higher for male than for female households (17 and 15 basis points higher for single and cohabitating male households than single and cohabitating female households, respectively). This difference persists after controlling for other sociodemographic characteristics. Differences are mainly explained by male households spending a significantly larger part of their consumption budget in relatively higher-inflation product categories, such as transport, restaurants and hotels, and alcohol and tobacco. Deflation in clothing and footwear, a category on which female households spent around twice as much as male households, further increased the gap. I also document a significant amount of heterogeneity in inflation within gender. Resumen: Documento las diferencias en las tasas de inflación por género en el Reino Unido entre 2001 y 2021. Utilizando datos de los componentes de entrevista y diario de la Living Costs and Food Survey del Reino Unido, para el periodo comprendido entre 2001 y 2021, calculo las tasas de inflación específicas por género para los hogares masculinos y femeninos. La inflación media anual fue mayor en los hogares masculinos que en los femeninos (17 y 15 puntos básicos, respectivamente). Esta diferencia persiste después de controlar otras características sociodemográficas. Las diferencias se explican principalmente por el hecho de que los hogares masculinos gastan una parte significativamente mayor de su presupuesto de consumo en categorías de productos que experimentaron una mayor inflación, como transporte, restaurantes y hoteles y alcohol y tabaco. La deflación en ropa y calzado, una categoría en la que las mujeres en la que los hogares femeninos gastan aproximadamente el doble que los masculinos.

Abstract: The thesis critically deals with Urban Greening, a phenomenon that transformed contemporary urban areas in the post-industrial landscape. After a deep exploration of literature and field fieldwork, this research defines such an issue as “an accumulative mechanism of translation of the perception and relationship between society and urban nature”. By inquiring greening mechanisms in the cases of Rotterdam and Torino, the work proposes a design experiment to challenge the current ways of production of green bodies, by fostering new relationships in the urban sphere. The first part of the thesis defines urban greening through literature, contemporary definitions, and categorizations. Aiming for a redefinition of the concept by means of the deconstruction into its main components; society, nature, time, and interactions. The research directly moves towards a better understanding of what greening and nature can mean, by confronting the ideas of some significant authors, such as Matthew Gandy, Phillippe Descola, and Lucilla Barchetta, among others. The exploration understands the relevance of greening as a term that has gained momentum in the past few decades, with the decline of the post-industrial landscape and the increasing degradation processes of the Anthropocene. However, the general approach, wishes to go beyond the contemporary notions of greening, as one of the promises of the so-called “sustainable city”, and explore the constructions and narratives that have constituted its meaning throughout time. The second part of the inquiry takes two contemporary cities as case studies: Rotterdam and Torino. By analyzing their greening history and urban expansion, to later take a look at the modern-day panorama in terms of administration, governance, and policies around green infrastructures. Moreover, confronting this Greening agenda with the projects that will shape the future of Rotterdam and Torino, assessing their reach, coherence, and implementation in terms of the Sustainable City. As a result of the case studies exploration, the thesis draws a series of considerations that suggest new types of relationships around urban greening. The last part of the study wishes to challenge current ways of urban greening, by experimenting with a form of planning that drifts apart from the objectification of green elements and hopefully tries to integrate spontaneity in urban relationships.

Abstract: The supply chain is a network of nodes that connects the different states through which a raw material must go from the source to being a finished product available to the consumer. The intermediate nodes that help reduce the distances between the manufacturer and the customer when distributing products are called warehouses, distribution centres or cross-docks. These facilities serve as temporary storage that reduces distribution costs and allows products to be available closer to the customers when required. In many operations worldwide where automation is not an option as it is a costly alternative, these warehouses, distribution centres and crossdocks manually operate with workers their activities of loading, unloading, picking, sorting, storing, among others. This study seeks to address the workforce sizing problem in warehouses, distribution centres or cross-docks to understand what the indicated number of workers should be to meet the site's performance indicators, meet demand and reduce operating costs. The research was developed under a methodology with mixed methods, where from an exploratory sequential approach, it begins with a systematic literature review to find the most relevant variables or factors used by multiple studies when trying to address the problem of dimensioning the workforce in distribution centres, warehouses, or cross-docks, as well as contrast their approaches and identify the techniques and tools used. With this, a total of 46 variables were found by breaking down their frequency of appearance by journal article or conference proceeding, clustering them into 7 categories which are input and output operations, material handling equipment (MHE) performance, warehouse configuration, warehouse performance, product complexity, picking operations and labour and worker conditions. Based on these variables, some were used in the technique that most frequently appeared in the literature, simulation. Here, a crossdock of a company belonging to the mass consumption sector was virtually represented using Flexsim software. The objective of this simulation was to find the number of forklifts needed to handle the loading and unloading operation of 5 types of trucks under different demand scenarios, or the total number of trucks to attend per day. After developing the model and extracting the results for 4 demand profiles, a sensitivity analysis was carried out where the influence of the forklift quantity on the crossdock performance measures was demonstrated, finding that as the number of forklifts increased, the average truck cycle time decreased, the total quantity of trucks attended reached the expected number per day according to the demand profile, and the average forklift utilization decreased. Finally, the limitations were shown from the literature and from the simulation model to address the workforce sizing problem, giving suggestions for future research that can deepen or address the problem from another approach.

Abstract: Reservoir models of deep-water channels rely upon low-resolution but spatially extensive seismic data, high vertical resolution but spatially sparse well log data and geomodeling methods. The results cannot predict architecture below seismic resolution or between well logs. Usually, the data and interpretations that provide constraints for modeling workflows do not capture sub-seismic scale architecture. Therefore, standard modeling methods do not generate models that include details that can impact hydrocarbon flow and recovery. Constraining models to well and seismic data is problematic. Employing measured sections in the Tres Pasos Fm. (Magallanes Basin, Chile) is feasible to predict deep-water channel architecture, specifically channel stacking patterns with 1D information analogous to well data. This research performed near-wellbore modeling to generate multiple scenarios of channel stacking patterns constrained by machine learning-derived probabilities using (i) conditional Monte Carlo simulation with soft probabilities per channel element within the measured section choosing the highest probabilities for each element (ii) conditional Monte Carlo simulation of channel stacking, (iii) template-based modeling, (iv) forward modeling with Markov transition probabilities without matching to thickness and (v) conditional Monte Carlo simulation constrained to measured section thickness. Machine learning workflows generate channel position probabilities (i.e., axis, off-axis, margin) within a measured section given the interpreted top/bases of channel elements. These probabilities constitute the input for Monte Carlo simulations capturing channel element stacking patterns at the measured section locations. The most likely 2D channel stacking pattern scenarios defined channel centerline points, and volumes of the individual channel elements can be generated connecting them. Surface-based modeling offers a way to depict reservoirs of hydrocarbons, water or low-enthalpy geothermal systems in which small-scale heterogeneity needs to be captured explicitly by bounding surfaces because it impacts fluid flow, improving our forecasts of resource exploitation. Furthermore, predicting heterogeneity controlled by depositional architecture is critical for transport and storage capacity in CO2 reservoirs. The dataset provided and the advent of these flexible and accurate methods to depict the subsurface offer the opportunity to overcome the historical limitations of grid-based models and allow us to assess multiscale architecture that controls fluid flow. This research aims to show the results of modeling deepwater channels, including a 1D identification of architectural positions and a 2D arrangement of channel stacking patterns.

Abstract: Colombia is a country whose economy is largely driven by SMEs companies, but with the advance of technology, their production and growth is stagnating. Only companies that have under- stood the importance of innovation and have applied technologies framed in the DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION are making progress. One of the most critical reasons why these companies have not yet begun to go through this change of ideology is due to the lack of knowledge and support. The information is abundant but it is not compiled in a single digital site, where any- one can find it. Companies will continue to invest in technology to support the shift towards remote work and automation, but that is no longer enough. One of the most relevant findings when talking to various stakeholders, has been to understand that in the collective imagination of entrepreneurs, there are misconceptions about what DT means. It is common that this concept is framed in a series of myths that confuse and are transferred from voice to voice, creating a panorama of misinformation. That is why, I took on the challenge of creating a digital strategy that brings together in one place the dimensions that are part of the DT. The objective is to demystify the preconceived ideas of entrepreneurs so they can understand that their perception of digital reality has been created under ideas that do not correspond to the truth. Therefore, to achieve this change of mentality, a common and direct language will be used in order to make people feel identified with their false ideas about the concept and as a result, they will experience a desire to explore further. Resumen: Colombia es un país cuya economía está en gran medida impulsada por empresas pymes, pero con el avance de la tecnología, su producción y crecimiento se están estancando. Solo las empresas que han comprendido la importancia de la innovación y han aplicado tecnologías enmarcadas en la TRANSFORMACIÓN DIGITAL están progresando. Una de las razones más críticas por las cuales estas empresas aún no han comenzado a pasar por este cambio de ideología se debe a la falta de conocimiento y apoyo. La información es abundante, pero no está recopilada en un solo espacio digital, donde cualquiera pueda encontrarla. Las empresas continúan invirtiendo en tecnología para respaldar el cambio hacia el trabajo remoto y la automatización, pero eso ya no es suficiente. Uno de los hallazgos más relevantes al hablar con diversos interesados ha sido comprender que en la imaginación colectiva de los empresarios, hay conceptos erróneos sobre lo que significa la Transformación Digital. Es común que este concepto se enmarque en una serie de mitos que confunden y se transmiten voz a voz, creando un panorama de desinformación. Por eso, asumí el desafío de crear una estrategia digital que reúna en un solo lugar las dimensiones que forman parte de la TD. El objetivo es desmitificar las ideas preconcebidas de los empresarios para que puedan entender que su percepción de la realidad digital se ha creado bajo ideas que no corresponden a la verdad. Por lo tanto, para lograr este cambio de mentalidad, se utilizará un lenguaje común y directo con el fin de que las personas se sientan identificadas con sus ideas falsas sobre el concepto y, como resultado, experimenten el deseo de explorar más a fondo. Dentro de esta estrategia y como artefacto final, desarrollé un sitio web llamado ""Mitos Digitales"", los empresarios podrán comprender el concepto, sus componentes, beneficios, la tecnología más usada, historias de éxito y una recopilación de mitos desarticulados. Finalmente, podrán encontrar algunos recursos en términos de formación y ayuda financiera que el gobierno y las organizaciones privadas en Colombia están proporcionando para apoyar y fortalecer el crecimiento y desarrollo tecnológico de las pymes.