Abstract: Bogotá Social Backbone proposes the development of a backbone of social infrastructure for the most needed people in Bogota, those who usually do not have access to the professional services of an architect. I selected three ""free"", abandoned, and problematic spaces along the Caracas Avenue in Bogotá, and three clients who inhabit them; a drug addict who was displaced from El Bronx, a prostitute from Santafé neighborhood and a recycler from Caracas 59. Social architecture is proposed with the objective of being a platform for these people to reintegrate into society with dignity, providing minimal housing, as well as places for training and for the development of a life project. Resumen: Bogotá Social Backbone propone el desarrollo de una columna vertebral de infraestructura social para las personas más necesitadas de Bogotá, aquellas que normalmente no tienen acceso a los servicios profesionales de un arquitecto. Seleccioné tres espacios ""libres"", abandonados y problemáticos a lo largo de la Avenida Caracas en Bogotá y tres clientes que los habitan; un drogadicto desplazado de El Bronx, una prostituta del barrio Santafé y un reciclador de la Caracas con 59. La arquitectura social se propone con el objetivo de ser una plataforma para que estas personas se reintegren dignamente a la sociedad, proporcionándoles una vivienda mínima, así como lugares para la formación y para el desarrollo de un proyecto de vida.

Resumen: En este trabajo de fin de máster, se utiliza el edificio Lake Shore Drive Apartments de Mies Van der Rohe como punto de partida para desarrollar un proyecto básico y de ejecución de un edificio de 208 viviendas con garajes y trasteros el cual cumpla con las especificaciones del Código Técnico de la Edificación. Se aplican los conocimientos adquiridos durante el máster en Construcción y Tecnología Arquitectónicas para explorar sistemas estructurales más eficientes y lograr que el edificio sea sostenible, con un consumo de energía casi nulo. Esto se logra a través del acondicionamiento pasivo de su envolvente, así como de la implementación de las instalaciones necesarias para el correcto funcionamiento de la edificación. Además, se implementan sistemas que garanticen su comportamiento frente al fuego. De igual manera, se elabora un presupuesto que permita conocer la viabilidad de la construcción, así como su mantenimiento durante su ciclo de vida.

Abstract: The aim of this research was to investigate the combustion behaviour of coal and biomass blends using a pilot-scale bubbling fluidised bed reactor. The blends were prepared with a traditionally used biomass fuel (i.e. wood) and selected rich in alkali-metals biomass fuels (i.e. wheat straw and spent coffee grounds (SCG)) to investigate the potential of SCG as a fuel and the effect of ilmenite on agglomeration tendency when used as an additive and alternative bed material. To elucidate the interaction between the fuels in the blends and the effect of ash composition, thermogravimetric and ash fusibility studies were performed looking at both the parent fuels and blends. Initially, thermogravimetric studies focused on understanding the thermal decomposition of coal blended with by-products (spent coffee ground (SCG), and coffee husk (CH)) of coffee crop. Blends with wood were included for comparison purpose. The blends were prepared by blending coal with biomass at 10, 30 and 50 wt%. The experiments were performed under inert and oxidising conditions to elucidate the thermal behaviour and fuel interactions. The results showed that the inclusion of either spent coffee grounds or coffee husk in coal combustion can enhance the combustion performance. Indeed, the blends with spent coffee grounds were found to be more reactive than those with coffee husk and with similar characteristics to the blends with wood. It was attributed to the existence of synergistic effects. These results offer compelling evidence of the potential of by-products from the coffee crop, especially spent coffee grounds for energetic applications. The study of ash fusibility characteristics investigated the ash fusibility temperatures under oxidising conditions of coal ash blended with ash from spent coffee grounds. Blends with wheat straw ash were included for comparison purpose. Particular attention was paid to the blending ratio effect on ash fusibility temperatures. The results showed that SCG is an interesting fuel in co-processing due to the low ash content and high ash fusibility temperatures when blended with coal. The high ash fusibility temperatures of the blends were attributed to the high content of CaO, MgO, and P2O5 in SCG with negligible content of SiO2 and Cl, complementing the high content of Al2O3 and Fe2O3 in coal. Evidence from this study suggests that the high ash fusion temperatures in the blends of coal with spent coffee grounds can reduce the common operational issues related to biomass ash such as agglomeration. This can also provide confidence for large scale thermochemical conversion systems fuelled by such kind of coal and biomass blends to be able to maintain long-term stable operation. The final part of this research focused on co-combustion experiments in a pilot-scale BFB aiming to investigate the potential of SCG as a fuel, and ilmenite as an additive and alternative bed material. For comparison purpose blends of coal with wheat straw and wood pellets were also combusted in the same BFB reactor under similar combustion conditions. Similarly, kaolin and bauxite, and silica sand were compared to ilmenite when used as an additive and alternative bed material, respectively. The inclusion of biomass in coal combustion showed marked differences in the temperature profiles, gas emissions, and combustion performance. The results showed that coal and SCG blends can be combusted for energy applications with improved combustion efficiency compared to wheat straw and wood commercial pellets. Nevertheless, high N content in SCG represents a challenge in terms of NOx emissions that should be addressed.

Abstract: Pharmaceutical Compounds (PCs), are synthetic substances intensively consumed by humans and continuously released into the urban wastewater. Often, the removal of PCs from wastewater is found to be insufficient, or even absent if population is not connected to the sewage system and wastewater is directly emitted into the environment. In the last decades, the PCs have aroused special attention because they have been found in surface water at concentrations that can cause negative effects on the aquatic biota and environment. Studies employing PCs monitoring and modelling techniques on surface waters have been mainly conducted in developed countries, while studies in developing countries are still scarce. Attempting to fill this gap, this work focused specifically in Colombia, where the occurrence of PCs has not been thoroughly studied and monitoring plans are barely done due to high costs. This work employed the Exposure to Pharmaceuticals in the Environment (ePiE), a spatially distributed model only implemented and used in Europe, to predict concentrations of PCs in rivers and lakes by considering their consumption, fate and transport. So, it aimed to create a new ePiE model network taking as a case of study the prediction of Naproxen and Paracetamol in the Upper Catchment of the Cauca River, Colombia, an area with a different socio-economic and climatic conditions with respect to the European continent. The methodological approach included: a) data collection on PCs’ consumption, physicochemical properties and removal in Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs); b) consolidation of geodata of the study area such as hydrology, hydrography, urban agglomeration and WWTPs location; c) model building by using the open-source software environment R; d) analysis of the model sensitivity to input parameters; e) model validation. The results showed that all concentration predictions deviate within a range of only one order of magnitude from measurements which is a remarkable result when dealing with such high uncertainties. In terms of magnitude prediction, for the worst-case scenario, Naproxen and Paracetamol were found to exceed the environmental standards thresholds in 9% and 1% of the model river network nodes respectively. Overall, this research aimed to assess the applicability of the ePiE model in estimating the presence of PCs in a subregion of Colombia, demonstrating that it is feasible to expand ePiE to other areas and giving insights about the spatial distribution of pharmaceuticals substances so hotspots can be identified and several scenarios can be built in future works.

Returning to the original vocation of the philosophical task and to that defined by the phenomenology of Husserl, we propose to renew the approach towards the experience of falsehood starting from the Greco-Roman to restore a structure to thought and life based on the consideration of a series of «spiritual exercises» and Husserlian phenomenology to go « back to the 'things themselves». This philosophical-phenomenological project seeks to make us understand that in the face of falsehood, a rigorous thought, devoid of prejudices, can be envisaged by suggesting a tension towards a style of «philosophical life», which is consistent with our relationship to others and in our way of life, that is, from an ethical-phenomenological tension capable of placing the body as a psychoanalytic object par excellence according to Sartre’s assertion. Resumen: Retomando la idea de Husserl de ver la filosofía como una vocación de ver las cosas como ""ellas mismas son"", el trabajo de tesis se propone replantear el concepto de ""mentira"" y brindar un acercamiento filosófico a la experiencia de la mentira a partir de la época grecorromana y hasta nuestra época para ofrecer una estructura novedosa al planteamiento del tema y a la vivencia de la mentira basada en la consideración de la puesta en práctica de una serie de « ejercicios espirituales» y de fenomenología husserliana para volver « a las ""cosas mismas"", ofreciendo una alternativa de pensamiento dirigida hacia un estilo de «vida filosófica», que sea coherente con nuestra relación con los demás y con nuestro modo de vida, es decir, desde una tensión ético-fenomenológica capaz de situar al cuerpo como objeto psicoanalítico por excelencia según la afirmación de Sartre.

Abstract: In this research I study, through the scope of Haesbaert’s (2011) des-re-territorialization theory, the reincorporation of former guerrilla FARC members in the Nasa indigenous territory of Caldono. My main objective is to analyze the FARC’s reterritorialization strategy in the Nasa indigenous territory. To this end, I first seek to understand the economic, political and cultural aspects of the territoriality processes of three main actors present in the Territorial Space for Capacitation and Reincorporation (ETCR) and its surroundings: the Nasa indigenous people, the former FARC fighters, and the Colombian State. From the standpoint of an intercultural perspective, I analyze the different present and past exchanges, dialogues, and encounters between these actors to determine if exists a superposition of territorialities and if so, where the possible points of encounter and dis-encounter between take place. Thence, my research seeks to determine the elements that make Caldono a successful case and a point of reference for other processes of reterritorialization in the country. Through multiple research methods, including participant observation, semi-structured interviews, surveys, and social cartography, this research finds that there is great continuity in the encounters between indigenous and FARC territorialities in the everyday spaces and also in those associated with the processes of the indigenous authorities. However, the research unveils also some dis-encounters, namely around the territorial strategy of the cooperative Coomeep, presented as a supra-organism that seeks to participate in the territory’s public and private life. The dis-encounters have to do with two main points: i) economically, with the hyperintensive and monoculture nature of the productive projects proposed by the FARC; and ii) politically, with the fact that during the municipal elections of 2018 the FARC party did not maintain its alliance with the MAIS party. The research reveals that the disencounters between the State and the other two actors’ territorialities find roots in the State’s conception of territorial security and control, which are based on the militarization of the territory and on the historical debt the State has with the indigenous reserves of recognizing them legally as territorial entities. In conclusion, the thesis points out that despite the inconsistencies between the different constructions of territoriality, the territorial institutionalism of Caldono’s indigenous authorities and the attitudes and practices of the former FARC members have allowed for the establishment of a peace infrastructure under which the three actors considered, each one with heterogeneous interests, can come together and reach consensus to build new spaces that lead to territorial harmony and peace. Resumen: En esta investigación estudio la reincorporación de los excombatientes de las FARC-EP en el territorio indígena Nasa de Caldono a la luz de la teoría de la des-re-territorialización propuesta por Haesbaert (2011). Mi objetivo principal es analizar la estrategia de reterritorialización en territorio indígena propuesta por los excombatientes de las FARC-EP. Para esto, busco comprender primero la territorialidad en términos económicos, políticos y culturales de tres de los principales actores presentes en las inmediaciones y dentro del Espacio Territorial de Capacitación y Reincorporación (ETCR): el pueblo indígena Nasa, los excombatientes de las FARC-EP y el Estado colombiano. Luego, partiendo de una perspectiva intercultural, analizo los diferentes intercambios, diálogos y encuentros que se dan y se han dado entre estos tres actores para determinar si existe una superposición de territorialidades y percibir dónde están los posibles puntos de encuentro y desencuentro entre estas. Con esto, mi investigación busca determinar cuáles pueden ser los elementos que hacen de Caldono un caso exitoso y un punto de referencia para otros procesos de reterritorialización en el país. Por medio de varias herramientas de investigación como la observación participante, entrevistas semi-estructuradas, encuestas y cartografía social, esta investigación encuentra que hay una gran fluidez en los encuentros entre territorialidades indígenas y farianas en los espacios cotidianos y aquellos asociados a los procesos de las autoridades indígenas, pero que existen desencuentros alrededor de la estrategia territorial de la cooperativa Coomeep, esta última presentada como un supraorganismo que busca participar en la vida privada y pública del territorio. En el dominio productivo, los desencuentros tienen que ver sobre todo con la naturaleza hiperintensiva y de monocultivo de los proyectos productivos propuestos por las FARC y, en el dominio político, con el hecho de que, durante las elecciones municipales de 2018, el partido FARC no mantuvo su alianza con el partido del MAIS de presentar un candidato en conjunto. Los desencuentros con el Estado tienen que ver con su concepción de seguridad y control territorial basada en la militarización del territorio y con la deuda histórica en relación al reconocimiento legal de los resguardos indígenas como entidades territoriales. En conclusión, este trabajo resalta que, a pesar de estos desencuentros, la institucionalidad territorial de las autoridades indígenas de Caldono y las prácticas y actitudes de los exguerrilleros de las FARC-EP han permitido que se establezca una infraestructura para la paz bajo la cual los diferentes actores considerados, cada uno con intereses heterogéneos, se pueden encontrar y llegar a consensos para construir espacios nuevos que lleven a una verdadera convivencia y paz territorial.

Background: Post-stroke fatigue (PSF) is one of the most challenging clinical consequences to manage after stroke as no effective treatment has been developed. However, the mechanisms of PSF remain unclear. Aims: This study aimed to replicate Vecchio et al (2017) using resting-state EEG in stroke patients suffering from varying degrees of fatigue to describe the functional organisation within sensory and motor networks. Methods: Resting-state eyes-open EEG was recorded in 22 strokesurvivors. Upper limb functional tests (grip strength, Nine Hole Peg Test), symbol digit modalities test (SDTM), anxiety and depression scale (HADS), Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS-7), state fatigue, and Neurological Fatigue Index (NFI-stroke) were measured. Graph theory was used to calculate the small-world (SW) index. SW was calculated in four separate networks, motor and sensory within the left and right hemispheres. Exact low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (eLORETA) was applied using seven frequency bands (delta, theta, alpha1, alpha2, beta1, beta2, and gamma). Results: Correlation analysis demonstrated a positive association between SW in the right motor network in beta2 band and higher FSS-7 score and a negative correlation between SW in the left sensory network in alpha1 and higher state fatigue. Conclusion: Beta oscillations have been associated with top-down processes which are crucial for perceptual inference and alpha oscillations are involved in sensorimotor information processing. The interaction between the top-down and bottom-up processes, and perceived error explains the sensory attenuation model of fatigue. Our results were consistent this model of fatigue as stroke survivors had difficulty in attenuating the sensory input leading to higher perceived effort.

Abstract: The Fourth Industrial Revolution has increased data exchange among organizations, creating security and privacy concerns. Federated Learning (FL) has emerged as a popular approach to address these challenges by enabling privacy-preserving machine learning (ML) on sensitive data. FL is an ML approach where models are trained locally on decentralized data, allowing organizations to collaborate and learn from each other’s data without sharing it, thereby ensuring data privacy and security. This thesis explores the application of FL for arrhythmia classification based on 12-lead ECGs while preserving medical records privacy. The performance of the FL models is evaluated under different degrees of heterogeneity in client labels, so-called Independent and Identically distributed or IID. The methodology involves a global server coordinating local modules and a four-step processing pipeline, where the local models’ weights are aggregated at the global server, and the resulting model is sent back to the clients (hospitals). The study achieves competitive classification performance for IID and non-IID data, along with a 28% reduction in training time compared to state-of-the-art methods. The findings have implications for privacy-preserving ML and early detection and diagnosis of cardiac diseases. Finally, the thesis demonstrates the FL’s effectiveness for accurate arrhythmia classification while preserving medical records’ privacy, making it a valuable tool in healthcare applications and contributing to advancing the Data Science field. Resumen: La Cuarta Revolución Industrial ha aumentado el intercambio de datos entre organizaciones, generando preocupaciones en cuanto a seguridad y privacidad. El Aprendizaje Federado (AF) ha surgido como un enfoque popular para abordar estos desafíos al permitir el aprendizaje automático (AA) preservando la privacidad en datos sensibles. El AF es un enfoque de AA en el que los modelos se entrenan localmente en datos descentralizados, lo que permite a las organizaciones colaborar y aprender de los datos de los demás sin compartirlos, garantizando así la privacidad y seguridad de los datos. Esta tesis explora la aplicación del AF para la clasificación de arritmias basada en electrocardiogramas (ECG) de 12 derivaciones, preservando al mismo tiempo la privacidad de los registros médicos. El rendimiento de los modelos de AF se evalúa bajo diferentes grados de heterogeneidad en las etiquetas de los clientes, conocido como Independiente e Idénticamente Distribuido o IID. La metodología implica un servidor global que coordina módulos locales y un proceso de cuatro pasos, donde los pesos de los modelos locales se agregan en el servidor global, y el modelo resultante se envía de vuelta a los clientes (hospitales). El estudio logra un rendimiento de clasificación competitivo para datos IID y no IID, junto con una reducción del 28% en el tiempo de entrenamiento en comparación con los métodos más avanzados. Los hallazgos tienen implicaciones para el AA preservando la privacidad y la detección temprana y diagnóstico de enfermedades cardíacas. Finalmente, la tesis demuestra la eficacia del AF para una clasificación precisa de arritmias preservando la privacidad de los registros médicos, convirtiéndolo en una herramienta valiosa en aplicaciones de atención médica y contribuyendo al avance del campo de la Ciencia de Datos.

Resumen: El estudio resalta la oportunidad para fortalecer la biodiversidad, especialmente a través de la enseñanza de las ciencias ambientales y biociencias con un impacto esperado en el aumento en los niveles de alfabetización científica y su relación bidireccional con la educación y la cultura ambiental en la sociedad colombiana, con foco de estudio e impacto en la población estudiantil de ciencias naturales, biología y educación ambiental en los tres niveles educativos, así como la comunidad académica de las áreas de bioeconomía, ecosistemas naturales y territorios sostenibles. Se realizó una revisión y selección de la literatura científica bajo criterios de inclusión y exclusión como el año de publicación, los idiomas, los países de publicación y/o ejecución del estudio y las bases de datos utilizadas. Así, se tuvieron en cuenta autores que publicaran trabajos de investigación cualitativa y cuantitativa tanto aplicada como no aplicada tales como Boff, Caamaño, Calixto Flores, García & Rodríguez, González González y López & Sánchez. Se encontraron numerosas tendencias, tensiones y limitaciones en la integración de los conceptos de educación ambiental, biodiversidad y alfabetización científica, que se presentan como desafíos en el qué, el para qué y la estructura de la educación ambiental; las definiciones y la enseñanza en la alfabetización científica y la complejidad y relevancia en la comprensión de la biodiversidad. Se hallaron herramientas y conceptualizaciones con un impacto positivo para la conservación de los ecosistemas naturales estratégicos del país como la transversalización de la educación ambiental en el currículo; y el uso sostenible de los recursos por parte de las comunidades y la resignificación y apropiación del ambiente dentro de la cultura de las regiones como las necesidades ambientales contextuales de las poblaciones alfabetizadas. Se resalta el abordaje amplio y complejo de la biodiversidad dentro de un planteamiento nuevo hacia una pedagogía ambiental.

Abstract: With growing traffic demands and structural degradation accelerated by climate change, there is a critical need for continued advancement of concrete repair and strengthening technologies to enable extended bridge service life. Specifically, transitioning to cost-effective reinforced concrete (RC) retrofit strategies that further enhance durability under service loading conditions and minimize damage development under extreme hazard conditions, which are more probable to occur in longer-lasting concrete structures, are key elements of next-generation concrete bridges. This thesis explores the use of iron-based shape memory alloys (Fe-SMAs) as an active shear retrofit strategy for RC components. SMAs are a class of smart materials with the unique property of the shape memory effect, allowing them to fully recover plastic deformations when subsequently heated. By installing prestrained Fe-SMA strips and activating the shape memory effect, an active pressure can be introduced to help close cracks and apply a confining stress in the concrete. The primary objective is to evaluate the performance and practicality of Fe-SMA as an active shear strengthening technique in comparison to traditional methods such as external steel reinforcement and fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites. The experimental phase of this study involved conducting push-off tests on RC specimens retrofitted with pre-deformed Fe-SMA strips. The goal was to assess the efficiency of active shear retrofitting. Additionally, finite element analysis (FEA) simulations were employed to model Fe SMA-retrofitted RC structures and investigate their behaviour under shear loading conditions. Key findings indicate that Fe-SMA retrofits, through transverse prestressing as part of the active retrofit strategy, contributed to notable improvements in the stiffness and strength of damaged RC components. Similar to passive retrofit methods, increased shear capacity was observed with higher levels of transverse reinforcement. Notably, combinations of substantial shear reinforcement ratios and elevated transverse prestressing provided the most significant gains in shear strength. Furthermore, the addition of prestressed Fe-SMA retrofits was found to effectively reduce shear crack widths and mitigate the progression of subsequent shear crack width growth. This study not only demonstrates the potential of Fe-SMA as a promising solution for active shear strengthening but also contributes to the development of future field-scale tests. The presence of Fe-SMA in damaged structures offers the prospect of multiple improvements, marking a significant advancement in the field of shear retrofitting.