This paper will present two cases that deal with the constitutionality of assisted suicide, Washington v. Glucksberg 521 U.S. 702 (1997) of the Supreme Court of the United States and the judgment C – 239/1997 of the Constitutional Court of Colombia. The main purpose is to examine the understanding that each court presents about the rights to liberty and life, how they balance them and the arguments that each one wield to arrive to different decisions. Also, the paper underlines what considers inconsistences in both judgments. To achieve that goal, the paper will present a brief description of the reasoning and holding of each judgment, then, it will discuss the rights at stake, the balancing done by the courts, the need of regulation on the issue, the role of the legislature on this regard, and physicians´ dilemmas. Lastly, it will provide some conclusions. Este documento presentará dos sentencias ques estudian la constitucionalidad del suicidio asistido, Washington v. Glucksberg 521 U.S. 702 (1997) de la Corte Suprema de los Estados Unidos y la sentencia C - 239/1997 de la Corte Constitucional de Colombia. El objetivo principal es examinar el análisis que cada tribunal presenta sobre los derechos a la libertad y la vida, cómo los pondera y los argumentos que cada uno maneja para llegar a decisiones diferentes. Además, el artículo subraya qué considera incoherente en cada decisión. Para lograr ese objetivo, el documento presentará una breve descripción del razonamiento y los argumentos de cada sentencia, luego, discutirá los derechos en tensión, la ponderación hecha por los tribunales, la necesidad de regulación sobre el tema, el papel del legislador en este sentido, y los dilemas de los médicos. Por último, proporcionará algunas conclusiones.

Este capítulo presenta el trabajo desarrollado también en el marco del proyecto ECOKNOWS. El trabajo permite responder a la pregunta de cómo medir el riesgo asociado a una estrategia de pesca que incorpore el efecto del medio ambiente, desde un enfoque inspirado en la gestión del sector agrícola. Aquí se compara una estrategia que tiene en cuenta el medio ambiente con otra que lo ignora en diversos escenarios, usando un patrón de medida que facilita la comunicación de resultados a los gestores del recurso. Texto tomado y adaptado de la “Introducción general” de esta tesis.

Abstract Can we assess currencies of distributive justice based on whether they are sustainable or not? I believe the answer to this question is yes. In this thesis I discuss that it is possible and necessary to assess whether different currencies of distributive justice are sustainable. Sustainability as a desideratum of a theory of distributive justice can sometimes help decide what currency we should accept. I will also argue this applies to the case of two widely discussed currency approaches of distributive justice: primary goods, discussed by John Rawls, and capabilities, discussed by Amartya Sen. I will conclude that, when sustainability is considered, capabilities are a better currency of distributive justice. Resumen ¿Podemos evaluar distintos bienes de la justicia con relación a si estos son o no sostenibles? Creo firmemente que la respuesta a esta pregunta es sí. En esta tesis discuto que es posible y necesario evaluar si distintos bienes de la justicia distributiva son sostenibles. La sostenibilidad como desiderata de una teoría de la justicia distributiva puede en algunas ocasiones ayudarnos a decidir cuáles bienes debemos aceptar. Argumentaré que esto aplica para el caso de dos tipos de bienes de la justicia distributiva: los bienes primarios, de John Rawls, y las capacidades, de Amartya Sen. Concluiré afirmando que, cuando se considera la sostenibilidad, las capacidades son un bien superior de la justicia.

In many cultures palms offer a vast number of products, especially Non-Timber-Forest Products (NTFPs), which have been traditionally used by indigenous and mestizo groups in Latin America. Some species have gone beyond the domestic use and their commercialization has reached local, national and international markets. Among the palm products that are widely commercialized in South America are palm heart (Euterpe oleracea), extracted from the young unfolded spear leaves of the palms, and the handicraft woven from fibers (Astrocaryum chambira, A. malybo and A. standleyanum), all extracted from the leaflets. In Colombia, these four palm species are economically important for the harvesting communities as well as for wholesalers and retailers. However, commercialization has been based on the extraction of raw material from wild palm stands up to the point that several palm species are threatened by developing markets for their products, and the need of income for the harvest communities and industry. The general objective of this thesis is to describe the value chains of palm products from E. oleracea, A. chambira, A. malybo and A. standleyanum in different Colombian regional markets, as well as national and international markets, and to analyze the economic importance, potentials and implications of this trade. Data on the four value chains was gathered through interviewing all actors of the value chain and revising the literature about the commercialization of these palm products. This study assesses the main actors or organizations in the commercialization chains, their specific activities, different routes to trade products, and how well the chains currently work by conducting a qualitative and quantitative value chain analysis.Major results involve particular dynamics and distributions of the profits along each value chain, as well as common aspects: the value chains are short, simple, the commercialization channels need to be strengthened, the scarcity of the raw material is a crucial constraint for the commercialization of the products. Unsustainable harvest practices are common. Moreover, the marketing potential of each group of palm products as well as promised target markets are characterized. The principal contribution of this thesis consists in shedding light on the current status of the value chains of these four palm species in Colombia, and proposing possible routes of development to strive for sustainability in each of the value chains analysed. Moreover, this study provides information about the economic importance of the palm products to the local communities and the need to upgrade the commercialization channels, products and communal incentives to assign equitable incomes along the chain.

In earlier decades, a number of authors have been looking at how commuters value the usefulness of travel time and at which point it is still considered to be a disutility to minimize. This document presents the results of a survey which was carried out on different transportation modes in Northern California. The results of this study show how the utility of travel time may change from one person to another, unveiling the latent relationship between several factors (i.e. Attitudinal factors, primary mode of transportation, age, gender, etc.) and what we consider the usefulness of travel time. This study included several considerations made from different approaches, including linear regression analysis and ordered probit models. The dependent variable was always considered to be the usefulness of travel time represented in the final survey by an ordinal variable. Moreover, the study comprised data segmentation (i.e. primary mode of transportation) which explained some conceptual differences between a pooled model and “active-passive” models. Finally, the outcome of this study shows how active travel modes (i.e. Car driving) are usually the most unattractive, for the reason that the possibility of engaging in different activities while traveling is very limited. Similarly, how the activity itself may change the perception of travel from a disutility to minimize to a transition or mostly useful time.

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.

This dissertation explains in detail how Albrecher et al. (2008) developed three different model independent lower bounds and one upper comonotonic bound for European Asian call option prices. The main characteristic of these bounds is that Albrecher et al. (2008) only use the observable plain vanilla option prices in the market to calculate them whichallows for the _nding of static hedging portfolios. The concepts behind the bounds are basically Jensen's inequality and some properties of comonotonicity of random vectors. This document will also explain how to implement these bounds when the market has a finite number of options available, moreover, how to do it when these bounds do not involve strikes found in the market. Two facts will be used: the call option price function is convex with respect to strike, and the lower and upper bounds for a call option suggested by Bertsimas and Popescu (2002). Finally, as an example, one application of these bounds in the Colombian FX option market will be presented.

The aim of this paper was to measure the effect of different credit-related events on the option implied volatility of several companies that belong to the Dow Jones Euro Stoxx 50 index list. Measuring the effect of credit events on volatility will augment on the already important body of literature that investigates the volatility-related phenomena; in particular those who research the effect of news on volatility. I find that, over the entire window around the credit events, there was a decrease in the implied volatility but that only the negative events have a statistically significant effect, which reflects the stronger information content of negative credit events researched by previous papers. I also found that this negative effect is mainly due to a strong “reversal” effect in the post-event 10-day period, where the negative effect is stronger and more statistically significant (particularly for the negative events). Furthermore, during the pre-event period there is not much evidence that supports any type of foresight of the market. My results also suggest that there is a difference between the behavior of the implied volatility when the events are outlook changes and credit reviews, and when the event is a rating change (downgrade/upgrade).

This paper presents the first ecological economic model of tropical dry forest on Bonaire Island. The model projects the economic benefits of the ecosystem services provided by the forest under two management alternatives: The baseline scenario assumes that the current short-term extractive practices continue for the following thirty years while the alternative scenarios includes the implementation of a birdwatching program, enhancement of agriculture, goat eradication and husbandry and reforestation program. The study reveals that the alternative scenario brings about $8.5 million more than the baseline scenario. Higher benefits could be obtained depending on the combination of the implemented programs though the implementation of the goat eradication and husbandry program together with the reforestation program is the most cost-efficient combination. The sensitivity analysis showed that doubling tourism doubles the economic benefits while reducing it in a half increases four times the economic benefits. In the other hand, the analysis showed that grazing by goats and other roamers costs about $4 million to the island; it is necessary to reduce the grazing to 70% of the current state in order to have benefits and goats at the same time. The research also estimates the value of seed dispersal and pollination on the Bonairean forest in $ 17 million.