Abstract: The purpose of this thesis is to analyse the Dutch-Colombian development cooperation projects in capacity building for higher education during the last five years. The implications, benefits and challenges of Colombia’s transition from recipient to a partner country for the Netherlands will be explored. The Netherlands has been a traditional donor country for Colombia since the 1960s, with a focus on water management, environment, food security, gender, good governance, and human priority sectors of bilateral collaboration programs. However, due to changing patterns of the Dutch foreign public policy for development cooperation since 2010 and also from the Colombian government since 2011, different sectors affirm that there is a shift in the way of doing partnerships with Latin American countries, especially with Colombia. There is a big debate between those who assume that capacity building programs for development in tertiary education are going to be replaced by business alliances and others who affirm that it will be a win-win partnership model between Colombia and the Netherlands. For this reason, in times of transformation development patterns questions arise such as how does the transition ‘from aid to trade’ between North-South countries, affects development effectiveness in Capacity Building programmes for tertiary education? What are the implications of the transition phase of the Dutch-Colombian partnership in the capacity building framework for Higher Education? Through semi-structured interviews with the main actors of 6 case studies from the Dutch-Colombian cooperation for capacity development in higher education (2010-2015) and a literature review of policy papers, institutional studies, reports, lectures and meetings, the present analysis will give a qualitative perspective to complement the existing literature and enrich the debate about upcoming challenges facing all the actors involved. Resumen: El propósito de la presente tesis es analizar los proyectos de cooperación al desarrollo Colombo-Holandesa en el fortalecimiento de capacidades en Educación Superior durante los últimos cinco años. Se examinarán las implicaciones, beneficios y desafíos de la transición de Colombia de ser un país receptor de ayuda a un país aliado para los Países Bajos. Tradicionalmente los Países Bajos han sido donantes de cooperación bilateral al desarrollo para Colombia desde la década de 1960, centrándose en la gestión del agua, el medio ambiente, la seguridad alimentaria, el género, la buena gobernanza y los derechos humanos. Sin embargo, debido a cambios en materia de política exterior holandesa para la cooperación al desarrollo desde 2010 y a su vez los cambios de política exterior del gobierno colombiano desde 2011, diferentes sectores afirman que hay un cambio en la forma de hacer alianzas con países latinoamericanos, especialmente con Colombia. Hay un gran debate entre los que asumen que los programas de desarrollo de capacidades en educación terciaria van a ser reemplazados por alianzas comerciales y otros que afirman que será un modelo de asociación gana-gana entre Colombia y los Países Bajos. Por esta razón, en tiempos de transformación se plantean cuestionamientos tales ¿ Cómo la transición "de la ayuda al comercio" entre los países Norte-Sur, afecta la eficacia de los programas de fortalecimiento de capacidades para la educación terciaria?¿Cuáles son las implicaciones de la transición de la cooperación Colombo-Holandesa en el marco de fortalecimiento de capacidades en Educación Superior? A través de entrevistas semi-estructuradas con los principales actores de 6 casos de estudio de la cooperación Colombo-holandesa para el desarrollo de capacidades en educación superior (2010-2015) y una revisión de literatura comprendida por documentos de políticas públicas, estudios institucionales, informes, conferencias y reuniones, el presente análisis brinda una perspectiva cualitativa para complementar la literatura existente y enriquecer el debate sobre los próximos desafíos que enfrentan todos los actores involucrados.

Resumo: Este trabalho apresenta um modelo de análise ambiental implementado em SIG, que utiliza uma metodologia de análise multicritério para avaliação de áreas para E&P de gás de folhelho (shale gas) com técnicas de fraturamento hidráulico. O modelo utiliza diferentes métodos de análise multicritério, como AHP, OWA e LCPA, para diminuir a subjetividade das avaliações meramente qualitativas. Foram selecionados os parâmetros ambientais relacionados com os potenciais impactos estratégicos deste tipo de atividade. O modelo foi montado no software ArcGIS e foram estabelecidos os valores padrão e opções de configuração para avaliação de cenários. O modelo foi aplicado no caso específico da Bacia do Rio Piquirí, no Estado do Paraná, Brasil. Os dados espaciais foram coletados a partir de fontes públicas e pré-processados. A pesquisa propôs as análises dos blocos oferecidos e concedidos na 12ª Rodada de Licitações de Petróleo e Gás do Brasil. Os resultados da avaliação mostraram que a vocação ambiental para E&P de gás de folhelho dos blocos oferecidos é muito baixa, classificando tais áreas como não adequadas para esta atividade. Finalmente, foi proposta a localização de um bloco de área equivalente aos concedidos de menor complexidade ambiental para este tipo de atividades. Resumen: Este trabajo presenta un modelo de análisis ambiental implementado en SIG. Éste utiliza una metodología de análisis multicritério para evaluación de áreas para E&P de shale gas con técnicas de fracturamiento hidráulico. El modelo utiliza diferentes métodos de análisis multicritério como AHP, OWA y LCPA para disminuir la subjetividad de las evaluaciones meramente cualitativas. Fueron seleccionados las parámetros ambientales relacionados con os impactos estratégicos potenciales de este tipo de actividad. El modelo fue montado en el software ArcGIS y fueron establecidos los valores por defecto e las opciones de configuración para evaluación de escenarios. Éste fue aplicado al caso específico de la Cuenca del Río Piquirí, en el Estado de Paraná, Brasil. Los datos espaciales fueron obtenidos de instituciones públicas y pre-procesados. La investigación propone el análisis de los bloques ofrecidos y concesionados en la 12ª Rodada de licitaciones de Petróleo y Gas de Brasil. Los resultados de la evaluación muestran que la vocación ambiental para E&P de shale gas de los bloques ofrecidos es muy baja, así son clasificadas como no aptas para esta actividad. Finalmente, fue propuesta la localización de un bloque de exploración de área equivalente a los bloques concesionados con una menor complejidad ambiental para estas actividades.

The importance of child’s health relies on its economic significance, given that is a key indicator of the quality of life in developing countries and a measure of their economic development. Its main role is to help policy makers take into account the importance of education as a relevant factor of productivity and intergenerational mobility. Child health is not only related with adult health, educational attainment, productivity, and income, but is also a development indicator all by itself. Among the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) established in 2000 by the United Nations (UN) and adopted by the 193 members and 23 international organizations, at least four are directly related to child health or nutritional status. Many papers have been written about the relationship between child’s health and mother’s education; however, so far only one study has aimed to evaluate the importance of such factor in Colombia3. By using different estimation methods, this investigation will attempt to establish the importance of mother’s education on child’s health by analyzing a sample of 15,038 women with children between 0 and 35/59 months in Colombia. A positive association has important policy implications. For instance, if more educated mothers do in fact tend to have healthier boys/girls, then policy makers should focus on better education policies (such as school and class size, school selection, privatizing education, advanced teacher training and teaching methods, graduation requirements, and investing in infrastructure development, amongst others) to improve the health level of the next generation.

Abstract: Background: Allergic rhinitis may affect up to 50% of children. Treatment options include allergen avoidance, pharmacotherapy, immunotherapy and multimodal therapies. Nasal saline douching is well established in the treatment of allergic rhinitis in adults, and has recently gained more acceptability in children as the evidence builds for its effectiveness in this age group. To date, however, there is limited data regarding the acceptability and tolerability of nasal saline douching in children with allergic rhinitis. Methods: A search was conducted using Medline and Embase databases from January 1946 until June 2015 on the use of nasal douching in children aged 4 to 12 with allergic rhinitis. All publications identified that assessed the beneficial effects, acceptability and tolerability were included. The evaluation focused on primary (proportion of patients who adopted nasal douching routinely, symptom and quality of life scores) and secondary outcome measures (effects related to delivered method, dose, technique, and frequency of administration). Results: 35 studies were analyzed. Data varied considerably in terms of saline solutions used, modality of application, participant numbers, study design, follow up and outcomes. Factors that appear to influence the acceptability and tolerability of nasal saline douching are parental and health professionals’ preconceptions, and characteristics of the solution. Overall nasal saline irrigation appears to have a positive impact on quality of life, being accepted and tolerated in the majority of children (78-100%). Conclusions: Nasal saline douching has a significant positive impact on the quality of life in children aged 4 to 12 with allergic rhinitis. Among the principal factors that influence acceptability and tolerability of this therapy are the child´s age, delivery system and method, and tonicity. Encouragement and reinforcement is vital to successful compliance. Saline nasal douching provides an accessible, low cost, low morbidity, easy to use treatment that could be standardized as part of allergic rhinitis management in children. Resumen: Antecedentes: La rinitis alérgica puede afectar hasta el 50% de los niños. Las opciones de tratamiento incluyen evitar el alergeno, la farmacoterapia, la inmunoterapia y las terapias multimodales. La aplicación de la solución salina nasal hace parte del tratamiento de la rinitis alérgica en adultos, y recientemente ha ganado más aceptación en los niños a medida que la evidencia demuestra su eficacia en este grupo etario. Hasta la fecha, sin embargo, hay datos limitados en cuanto a la aceptabilidad y la tolerabilidad de la solución salina nasal en niños con rinitis alérgica. Métodos: Se realizó una búsqueda a través de Medline y EMBASE desde enero de 1946 hasta junio de 2015 sobre el uso de solución salina nasal en niños de 4 a 12 años con rinitis alérgica. Todas las publicaciones identificadas que evaluaron los efectos beneficiosos, la aceptabilidad y la tolerabilidad, fueron incluidas. La evaluación se centró en resultados primarios (proporción de pacientes que adoptaron las duchas nasales de forma rutinaria, los síntomas y la calidad de vida de las puntuaciones) y resultados secundarios (efectos relacionados con el método de entrega, la dosis, la técnica y la frecuencia de administración). Resultados: Se analizaron 35 estudios. Los datos variaron considerablemente en términos de soluciones salinas utilizadas, modalidad de aplicación, el número de participantes, el diseño del estudio, el seguimiento y resultados. Los factores que parecen influir en la aceptabilidad y la tolerabilidad de la solución salina nasal son las ideas preconcebidas de los padres y profesionales de la salud, y las características de la solución. En general, la irrigación salina nasal parece tener un impacto positivo en la calidad de vida, siendo aceptado y tolerado en la mayoría de los niños (78-100%). Conclusiones: La solución salina nasal tiene un impacto significativamente positivo en la calidad de vida en niños de 4 a 12 años con rinitis alérgica. Entre los principales factores que influyen en la aceptabilidad y la tolerabilidad de esta terapia son la edad del niño, el sistema de entrega y su forma, así como la tonicidad de la solución. El estímulo y refuerzo de este hábito como parte de la terapia, es vital para su adherencia. La solución salina nasal proporciona una terapia de bajo costo, accesible, de baja morbilidad, y fácil de usar que podría ser estandarizada como parte del tratamiento de la rinitis alérgica en niños.

Why if 20% of over 50 million people who visit New York City yearly, and disburse half of total touristic spending, about $20 billion per year, The Metropolitan Opera is not currently addressing them to come to the house? Goals: 1. To demonstrate that The Metropolitan Opera has not yet a clear strategy addressing the visitors crowd coming to New York City. 2. To propose a strategy to achieve it. Methods: First, collecting information at the Metropolitan Opera house concerning visitors’ origins. Then, reviewing tourism trends and data in NYC, to finally search for correlations between the Met Opera marketing strategies and the tourists’ approaches in the city. Results: Visitors are coming to The Met by their own interests to get to know the house and get the live experience. They revealed that one of their main drives to attend a performance at The Met was having been exposed to Met Productions through the HD Live program in their hometowns. Nonetheless, Met staffers proved that visitors have not been yet a priority for the organization. Conclusion: The financial situation at The Met Opera is unsound, when an audience and resources are timidly coming to the door; there’s an urge to suitably address this crowd to improve the unstable finances of one of the greatest performing arts organizations in the world.

Este proyecto presenta el desarrollo de una metodología para la síntesis automática de sistemas difusos tipo-2 de intervalo en procesadores de señales digitales. De igual manera, basados en la metodología propuesta se desarrolló una herramienta para la síntesis automática de esta clase de sistemas difusos, adaptados a las arquitecturas de los DSP. Esta idea de trabajo surgió de la necesidad evidente de desarrollar sistemas difusos sobre plataformas hardware y del hecho de que no se ha establecido un proceso metodológico para el desarrollo de este tipo de sistemas en la actualidad. Pudiendo así pasar de una formulación teórica a la implementación de aplicaciones de interés. Los sistemas difusos tipo-2 de intervalo son un campo de investigación naciente y con el desarrollo de ésta metodología para la síntesis automática en DSP se facilita la implementación hardware. Además, se incrementa el espectro de aplicaciones y se reduce el número de expertos requeridos y los tiempos de desarrollo de los mismos. De esta forma se convierte en una realidad la generación de aplicaciones que requieran tamaño reducido, alto costo computacional y bajo consumo de potencia en este tipo de plataformas hardware. Una vez realizada la revisión teórica de los sistemas difusos tipo-1 y tipo-2, se procedió a conocer la arquitectura interna de los DSP, esto con el fin de que el modelo computacional seleccionado del sistema difuso tipo-2 de intervalo a implementar cumpla con los requerimientos de la aplicación en términos de recursos físicos y velocidad de procesamiento. Una vez se tuvo claridad conceptual sobre los sistemas difusos tipo-2 de intervalo y las arquitecturas de los procesadores de señales digitales, se definieron los aspectos metodológicos para la implementación de cada una de las secciones del sistema difuso y el flujo metodológico que permite la implementación del mismo. Posteriormente, se presenta la herramienta que permite realizar la síntesis automática de los sistemas difusos tipo-2 de intervalo, la cual genera el código en lenguaje de programación ANSI-C a partir de una especificación del mismo en una herramienta software de alto nivel. Finalmente, se presentó la validación y pruebas de la metodología desarrollada sobre una plataforma DSP particular. Se realizaron las síntesis automáticas, considerando las diferentes combinaciones del modelo computacional permitidas por la herramienta. Las pruebas se realizaron sobre: los tiempos promedios en el que la herramienta DSP-C realiza la síntesis automática de los IT2-FLS, los tiempos promedio de procesamiento de cada una de las etapas del modelo computacional (fusificador, motor de inferencia y procesamiento de salida), los tiempos promedio de la inferencia difusa tipo-2, la carga computacional por etapa y número de inferencias difusas tipo-2 por segundo. Por último se calcularon los Errores Cuadráticos Medio (ECM) y Errores Absolutos Medios (EAM) de los IT2-FLS implementados y se realizaron las discusiones de los resultados obtenidos.

This investigation seeks to compare the legal frameworks developed in the 1990-2010 period in Colombia, Peru and Mexico to prevent and tackle informal artisanal/small scale mining. It does so by assessing the impact on the levels of informality of: (i) the incentives provided to miners to operate within legality; and (ii) the mechanisms devised to compensate such miners’ disadvantageous position vis-à-vis large scale mining companies. For such assessment a thorough examination of the countries’ mining codes is carried out. Concurrently, information extracted from semi-structured interviews with experts and triangulated with secondary sources is used to evaluate the codes’ impact on informality. The analysis supports the hypothesis that simple inexpensive mine title acquisition procedures, granting long lasting property rights, as well as guaranteeing technical and financial assistance, are key drivers of formalization. The impact of such incentives is, however, more complex: firstly, as the Mexican case illustrates, the absence of incentives combined with strong police persecution, can reduce informal mining by rendering it an unattractive activity with no prospective of future formalization. Secondly, the Colombian and Peruvian case exemplify how entry barriers also encourage miners to create associations which, in turn, are able to better access information, can comply with formal requirements more easily and can play an important role in influencing policy design. Furthermore, considering the incentives of large scale companies also proved crucial to reduce informality, given that a significant share of mining areas are already under concession. This means that the number of mine titles informal miners could potentially obtain is limited. Therefore, as the Colombian and Peruvian case exemplify, formalizing is to a large degree dependent on the willingness of these companies to voluntarily engage in associative contracts with informal miners. However, so far none of the observed countries has managed to prompt strong alliances between small and large scale miners to fruitfully implement such collaborative models. With regard to the compensation mechanisms, this study supports the hypothesis that granting political voice to small scale miners is of utmost importance to guarantee that differentiated costs, procedures and requirements are contemplated in the law. All in all, such policies have been innocuous and even counterproductive when not accompanied by measures that enhance access to information as well as local bureaucratic competences. In a context of scarce local bureaucratic resources, promissory formalization schemes generate a demand for mine titles that surpasses mining authorities’ capacity and, thereby, potentially incites more informality and social unrest. As observed in Peru, in such cases formalization processes can, paradoxically, induce higher levels of informal mining. In light of these findings, the study recommends the partner institution -Transparency International- to: (i) support the implementation of informational campaigns that explain the benefits of operating in formality and of doing so by means of associating; (ii) encourage policy dialogue spaces in order to prompt mutual monitoring and align the different stakeholders’ incentives; (iii) support capacity building programs targeting local mining authorities; (iv) support monitoring mechanisms in the mine title distribution and contracting processes.

Real Estate Industry is a strategic element in urban competitiveness, economic growth and development, as it facilitates the articulation between economic activities, local assets and flows of capital. Furthermore, even tough the perception is that it is a local business, with the globalization many of the largest developers and consumers of corporate real estate have become global (Bardhan & Kroll 2007). The foregoing has made the industry acquire a cross-border dynamic and makes the attraction of foreign investment into real estate development a key approach for improving the position of countries and cities in the global economic network. This work aims to explore the geographical structure and trends of the international Real Estate cluster, and then recognize the correlation of the Foreign Real Estate Investments –FREI– inward flows with competitiveness and real estate market factors of host countries and cities. The analysis shows that despite the globalization influence, FREI holds the concept of real estate as “local” business in a broader scale: 62% of the links happen within countries of the same region, evidencing that there are opportunities of complement with the surrounding economies. Likewise, the research demonstrates that the cluster involves primarily economies in second and third stage of development, exposing that the market is still reliant on low-risk assets in a stable environment and that there has not been established an active industry in developing countries. Additionally, the instability experienced over the last seven years in the sector is evidenced. The 2007 international financial crisis had a deep impact on Foreign Real Estate Investments, corroborating the interdependence between financial market and real estate.  This study demonstrates that location factors related to market size, labor market, financial market and connectivity are essential for attracting inward investments. The results of the model show that a variety of forces rule FREI, evidencing the need of having a comprehensive approach that surpasses the notion of real estate as property and involves other clusters. To conclude, the country and city analyses showed the diverse drivers for MNC at different territorial scales. Without neglecting the usual national purview of the policy framework for attracting FDI, it is important to acknowledge the relevance of local and urban scale in the broader picture of globalization. Beyond the macroeconomic and institutional determinants, the position of the urban nodes in the global networks matters for captivating FREI.

This thesis considers the most current knowledge of the importance of investing in early childhood education and care (ECEC) programs with a focus on the economic benefits: higher rate of returns to education, higher productivity, lower crime rates, higher government savings and breaking up intergenerational poverty. Although the evidence suggests significant short-term effects in terms of educational benefits (e.g. lower repetition rates and special education), the empirical evidence for the economic benefits is still not as significant as it is desirable for their generalization. Therefore, it shows the need for more reliable information to construct a stronger argument leading governments to decide ipso facto increasing the educational expenditures in early childhood education programs.