Abstract: Objective: To describe the prevalence pattern of anemia among Indigenous children in Latin America. Methods: PRISMA guidelines were followed. Records were identified from the databases PubMed, Google Scholar, and Lilacs by two independent researchers between May and June 2021. Studies were included if the following criteria were met: a) studied Indigenous people b) was about children (from 0 to 12 years old); c) reported a prevalence estimate of anemia; d) had been conducted in any of the countries of Latin America; e) was published either in English, Portuguese, or Spanish; f) is a peer-reviewed article; and g) was published at any date. Results: Out of 2,401 unique records retrieved, 42 articles met the inclusion criteria. A total of 39 different Indigenous communities were analyzed in the articles, and in 21 of them (54.0%) child anemia was a severe public health problem (prevalence ? 40%). Those communities were the Aymara (Bolivia); Aruak, Guaraní, Kamaiurá, Karapotó, Karibe, Kaxinanuá, Ma-cro-Jê, Suruí, Terena, Xavante (Brazil); Cabécar (Costa Rica), Achuar, Aguaruna, Awajún, Urarina, Yomybato (Peru); Piaroa and Yucpa (Venezuela); and Quechua (Peru and Bolivia). Children below two years had the highest prevalence of anemia (between 16.2% and 86.1%). Among Indigenous people, risk factors for anemia include nutrition, poor living conditions, access to health services, racism, and discrimination. Bolivia and Guatemala are scarcely studied, despite having the highest proportion of Indigenous communities in Latin America. Conclusions: Anemia constitutes a poorly documented public health problem among Indigenous children in 21 Indigenous communities in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru. In all Indigenous communities included in this study child anemia was an issue, especially in younger children. Resumen: Objetivo: Describir el patrón de prevalencia de anemia en niños indígenas de América Latina. Métodos: Se siguieron las directrices PRISMA. Los registros fueron identificados en las bases de datos PubMed, Google Scholar y Lilacs por dos investigadores independientes entre mayo y junio de 2021. Los estudios se incluyeron si cumplían los siguientes criterios: a) estudiaban a indígenas; b) eran sobre niños (de 0 a 12 años); c) reportaban una estimación de prevalencia de anemia; d) se habían realizado en cualquiera de los países de América Latina; e) se publicaron en inglés, portugués o español; f) eran artículos revisados por pares; y g) se publicaron en cualquier fecha. Resultados: De los 2.401 registros únicos recuperados, 42 artículos cumplían los criterios de inclusión. Un total de 39 comunidades indígenas diferentes fueron analizadas en los artículos, y en 21 de ellas (54,0%) la anemia infantil era un problema grave de salud pública (prevalencia ? 40%). Esas comunidades eran aymara (Bolivia); aruak, guaraní, kamaiurá, karapotó, karibe, kaxinanuá, macro- jê, suruí, terena, xavante (Brasil); cabécar (Costa Rica), achuar, aguaruna, awajún, urarina, yomybato (Perú); piaroa y yucpa (Venezuela); y quechua (Perú y Bolivia). Los niños menores de dos años presentaban la mayor prevalencia de anemia (entre el 16,2% y el 86,1%). Entre los indígenas, los factores de riesgo de la anemia son la nutrición, las malas condiciones de vida, el acceso a los servicios sanitarios, el racismo y la discriminación. Bolivia y Guatemala están escasamente estudiados, a pesar de tener la mayor proporción de comunidades indígenas de América Latina. Conclusiones: La anemia constituye un problema de salud pública poco documentado entre los niños indígenas de 21 comunidades indígenas de Bolivia, Brasil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, México y Perú. En todas las comunidades indígenas incluidas en este estudio, la anemia infantil era un problema, especialmente en los niños más pequeños.

Abstract: Blue ocean carbon projects are climate mitigation and adaptation solutions that are considered winwin schemes for conservation and well-being and an ecosystem-based solution towards sustainable development. However, local communities have declared their concerns about the potential of ocean grabbing and the negative impacts on their livelihoods. Looking at the case of Colombia, coastal communities are vulnerable to climate change and marginalized communities such as indigenous peoples, women and afro-descendant groups live under poverty conditions and unsatisfied basic needs. Therefore, blue carbon projects should include safeguards to protect these communities from ocean grabbing based on procedural and substantive climate justice. Resumen: Los proyectos de carbono azul son soluciones de mitigación y adaptación para el cambio climático, que se consideran como esquemas gana-gana para la conservación y el bienestar, así como soluciones basadas en ecosistemas para el desarrollo sostenible. Sin embargo, las comunidades locales han manifestado su preocupacion en relación con la probabilidad de acaparamiento del oceano y los impactos negativos en sus medios de vida. En el caso de Colombia, las comunidades costeras son vulnerables al cambio climático, así como comunidades marginadas (comunidades indígenas, mujeres y afrodescentiendes) que viven en condiciones de pobreza y necesidades básicas insatisfechas. En ese sentido, los proyectos de carbono azul deben incluir salvaguardas para proteger a estas comunidades del acaparamiento del oceano con base en argumentos de justicia climática procedimental y sustantiva.

Abstract: Over twenty years passed since American and Canadian forces arrived in Afghanistan to start the War on Terrorism as a response to 9/11, and during this period, there has been an enormous controversy about the nature and the scope of the Afghanistan intervention. Amidst this controversy, this dissertation aims to unravel a strategic puzzle: why and how the United States and Canada adopted similar engagement levels, especially similar counterinsurgency (COIN) strategies between 2005/2006 and 2011. During this time, the United States and Canada fought against insurgent groups, sought to maintain stabilized areas by mentoring Afghan forces, and invested in infrastructure and governance. These goals, which corresponded to the ‘clear,’ ‘hold,’ and ‘build’ COIN components, entailed sending troops and civilian officials to a war zone and committing financial resources. According to structural realism as a dominant IR theory, the similarity of American and Canadian engagements constitutes a puzzle because this theory would expect that countries with different relative standings in the international system are meant to adopt different foreign and security policies. To unravel this puzzle, this dissertation uses neoclassical realism. Like a realist theory, it examines the effects of relative material capabilities on foreign policy, which is an essential factor in comparing American and Canadian foreign and security policies. Yet, unlike structural realism, it considers dimensions other than states’ relative standing, such as perceptions and domestic politics, which, along with the relative standing, help to unpack the puzzle above. Based on this theory, the central argument of this dissertation is that the similarity of American and Canadian engagements resulted from similar systemic stimuli from the post-9/11 strategic environment, foreign policy executives’ (FPE) similar strategic beliefs, and comparable abilities to mobilize domestic resources. By showing the occurrence of factors on both American and Canadian sides bringing about the outcome above, this dissertation seeks to undermine the ideas of the “Americanization” of Canadian foreign and security policy and the syndrome of “parochialism” of the United States regarding its Northern neighbour.

Abstract: The present work revolves around the protection and adaption of the Hacienda Perodias, an old farmhouse from the XVII century that is located in southwest Colombia. Besides being part of the nation’s rural built heritage, this building complex is connected also to the processes of evangelization and slave trade carried out at that time in South America. In order to illustrate how profound this embodied memory is translated into today’s social and cultural dynamics, this work is organized into three parts. The first, standing from a broader scale, covers the socio-geographical scenario in which this typology of building, the Casa de Hacienda, emerged and the social meanings that have been attached to it throughout time. Next, entering the scale of the constructed object, the second part focuses on the geographical, historical and architectural dimensions of the farmhouse in addition to the analysis of its current condition. All this is in order to properly understand the scope of the adaptation possibilities that this object that has been abandoned for more than two decades may have, opportunities that are contained in the final part of this work. In a quest to re-signify the collective memory linked to its spaces, the third and final part presents the proposed intervention of the Hacienda as a large eco-park, a refuge for wildlife and low-impact human activities, which lies at its heart the architectural complex of Perodias, now revitalised as a community centre. By giving a new life to this site, the project would seek to protect both a built heritage represented in its architecture and the cultural values shared by the surrounding communities, whose history can also be found linked to the hacienda. As a new centre for the transmission of ancestral knowledge and cultural expressions that in turn aims to enhance the capacities and opportunities of its inhabitants, the Perodias hacienda would finally be reborn.

Abstract: Extinction learning and specifically the renewal effect has enabled for decades an insight into the complex dynamics of learning processes. Although context represents a critical stimulus in extinction learning, what constitutes a context and how it is represented is still not fully understood. Under the frame of the “Collaborative Research Center SFB 1280”, this master’s thesis established a functional experimental paradigm, on an open arena for context control experiments with birds. For this purpose, three pigeons were trained on a discrimination task following an ABA extinction-renewal protocol in two separate experiments. Three distinctive levels of contextual stimuli were tested in experiment 1: spatial awareness, local visual information and global visual information. Experiment 2 used modified versions of the spatial and local contexts. Results suggest a stronger renewal response for the local condition in both experiments and a medium renewal response for the spatial condition. The global condition barely produced any renewal. Manipulations on saliency and continuity of contextual stimuli provided evidence for context formation based on associative learning rules rather than relevant physical properties of contextual stimuli. Overall, the findings in this thesis support the assumption of no real distinction between cues and context.

Abstract: These orientation fluctuations trigger the so-called mismatch losses in PV strings, as every PV module along the same string is receiving different irradiance levels. In consequence, the string power output is determined by the PV module producing the least power. As of now, PV project developers do not count with PV modelling software capable of handling the wave dynamics created by wind blowing over water bodies, so they rely on strong gross assumptions in order to make these still inadequate tool work for this purpose, risking a miscalculation of the energy yield of these solar-based installations. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the effect of waves on the performance of floating systems along with the analysis of the cooling effects related to the exposure of PV modules to the free water surface. For this, it was selected three potential sites for the deployment of floating PV plants as well as two of the most popular racking structures used floating photovoltaics: individual floaters where each PV module is supported by a floater, and modular raft in which strings of PV modules are installed on top of rafts. For the wave field modelling, a python script has been developed relying on the PVlib package and meteorological inputs from the Meteonorm software and NASA’s MODIS satellite. The wave fields are modelled by means of the JONSWAP and the SPM wave energy spectrum for deep and shallow waters, respectively. Thus, a stochastic approach is taken for the modelling of the wave field, which is made of overlapping waves. With regards to the wave – PV module interaction, a geometrical approach was implemented supported on simple vector calculus, seeking low computational resource demands for a faster processing. Simulation results show how the direction of wave propagation is set to be the determining factor in the understanding, estimation, and the development of mitigation strategies of mismatch losses, while other wave characteristics do not play a crucial role in this issue. Similarly, it was demonstrated how modular rafts floating PV configurations present, under the right circumstances, energy gains compared to groundmounted setups. In contrast, individual floaters are set to always experience mismatch losses, ranging up to from 5% to 10%.

Abstract: This study explores a rupturing way of understanding the value of domestic work from a feminist economics perspective based on the voices of Latin American migrant domestic workers in the Netherlands. Using a feminist standpoint view epistemology and qualitative methods of research, this document presents what is the value of domestic work according to their experiences and thoughts. The value of domestic work is defined by domestic workers into three levels: what is value for domestic workers, for employers, and for society. Value is relational, contextual-dependent and contradictory. Despite its importance for the human flourishing, devaluation appears at all levels of value, and it is expressed in the corporeal experiences by domestic workers Findings hope to contribute to making visible the domestic work in a context of migration as well as enriching feminist economics epistemologies and methodologies of research.

Abstract: This study focuses on the ways perceptions and realities of transit migration shape the poli-tics and practices of health-related social provisioning for transit migrants in the Colombian side of the Darien Gap, particularly in the municipalities of Turbo and Necoclí. It contributes to understanding the logics of inclusion and exclusion that justify which services are provided to this population and how. Moreover, it studies the intersection between the vulnerabilities of transit migrants and the precarious conditions that they find in this border zone. This research is based on 15 interviews with formal actors involved in the provisioning of health and 12 residents of Turbo and Necoclí, as well as on observations in strategic locations where migrants access public health services. This study finds that transit migrants arrive to health provisioning system in which non-governmental actors support and complement the public provisioning of health for transit migrants and that the conception of transit migrants as outsiders of the system of provisioning is problematized in a context in which legal citizenship does not guarantee social rights.

Abstract: Background: Although Latin American migrants (LAMs) are one of the fastest-growing migrant populations in England, they still face health barriers that make them unaware of their HIV status, leading to late HIV diagnosis, AIDS, and even death. Thus, this study aims to assess the differences in HIV outcomes among newly HIV-diagnosed LAMs compared to other England populations. Methods: Data on new HIV/AIDS diagnoses in the UK during the 2011-2020 period were obtained from the HIV and AIDS New Diagnoses and Deaths Database (HANDD) and the HIV and AIDS Reporting System (HARS). Potential associations between the region of birth and late HIV diagnosis, AIDS at HIV diagnosis, and mortality were analysed by logistic regression. Furthermore, a comparison between LAMs and the main populations living in the UK was examined. Lastly, a descriptive trend analysis was made. Results: From 2011 to 2020, 47,828 new HIV diagnoses were reported in the UK, with almost a third (29.2%) being late diagnoses. Over half of new diagnoses (52%) were made in migrants, LAMs representing 9.3% of those diagnoses. In general, newly diagnosed HIV LAMs are not more likely to be diagnosed late than UK residents (aRRR: 1.02; 95%CI: 0.90–1.15). However, some subgroups are more likely to be diagnosed late than their UK counterparts (e.g., 15-24 years old). Regarding AIDS and mortality, LAMs are less likely to be diagnosed with AIDS (aOR: 0.50; 95%CI: 0.35–0.71) or die by any cause (aOR: 0.29; 95%CI: 0.16–0.52) than UK residents. Finally, the number of new HIV diagnoses among LAMs increased in those ten years, but the number of late diagnoses remained nearly constant. Conclusions: Although the current HIV epidemiological situation of LAMs living in the UK is not troublesome, the expansion of the LAM population and their increasing number of new HIV diagnoses could become a public health challenge in the coming years. Therefore, to accomplish the 2030 zero HIV transmission goal, it is necessary to integrate the migrant community into future public policies and categorise them as the ‘sixth’ HIV key population in the UK.

Resumen: La investigación nace del proceso actual de reconstrucción (postconflicto) de la sociedad colombiana, profundamente dividida por el conflicto armado y se detiene en una práctica de comunicación comunitaria popular y alternativa: el colectivo de comunicación comunitaria Alharaca por la paz, para comprender la participación de niños, niñas y adolescentes de 8 a 12 años de la región del piedemonte amazónico ubicada en el departamento de Caquetá - Colombia en acciones de cambio social. A través de la pregunta: ¿Cómo el colectivo de comunicación Alharaca por la paz promueve acciones de cambio social dentro de una comunidad afectada por el conflicto armado? Se describe cómo los y las niñas son agentes de cambio en sus comunidades a través de la producción de cortometrajes y estrategias de comunicación comunitaria, local y participativa. Abstract: The research stems from the current process of reconstruction (post-conflict) of Colombian society, deeply divided by the armed conflict, and focuses on a popular and alternative community communication practice: the community communication group Alharaca por la paz, to understand the participation of children and adolescents from 8 to 12 years of age from the Amazonian piedmont region located in the department of Caquetá - Colombia in actions of social change. Through the question: How does the communication group Alharaca por la paz promote actions of social change within a community affected by the armed conflict? It describes how boys and girls are agents of change in their communities through the production of short films and community, local and participatory communication strategies.