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.

Oriente Antioqueño is an important region within Antioquia. There, the production of vegetables represents an important element of the economy, with approximately 12,000 farmers cultivating vegetables in four municipalities. There, farmers have inadequate training in agricultural practices, they lack adequate instruction on how to use fertilizers and pesticides, and also they do not have the appropriate instruments, among many other technological pitfalls. This situation leads to high levels of crops losses, higher costs of production, and sometimes, noncompliance with phytosanitary standards and environmental damage. In order to solve the problem this thesis analysis the outcome from central policies and covers the analysis of two international cases (in Brazil and Nicaragua) looking for new strategies to foster competitiveness in the production of vegetables.I identified four policy options: (1) maintaining the status quo, (2) increasing municipal revenues and restructuring UMATAs, (3) upgrading Law 811, and (4) implementing a cluster development program. The first alternative assesses the implications of letting the market operate under current conditions. Policy alternatives 2 and 3 evaluate the benefits from restructuring agricultural extension offices and the agreements of competitiveness. Finally, implementing a cluster development program explores the gains from creating a local strategy to generate an enabling environment in the production of vegetables. After evaluating the policy options using the criteria of political feasibility, administrative feasibility, effectiveness, efficiency, and equity, I recommend implementing a cluster development program. This option is likely to generate higher benefits as it counteracts problems in the supply and the demand side of the vegetables supply chain. Moreover, as a program implemented at the local level by local institutions, it promises better results.

The capture of CO2 from a flue gas stream using chemical absorption was studied using two different aqueous amine solvents: the conventional 30% wt. monoethanolamine (MEA) and the novel 40% wt. piperazine (PZ), using a conventional absorption/stripping flowsheet and different combinations of advanced flowsheet variations including absorber intercooling (AIC), stripper interheating (SIH) and adiabatic lean flashing (ALF), amounting for a total of twelve flowsheet alternatives. Additionally, the conventional flowsheet was also studied using 30% wt. 2-amino 2-methyl 1-propanol (AMP). The simulations were performed in Aspen Plus® v.2006.5 using the latest thermodynamic frameworks published by AspenTech [2010] for each solvent, which include regressed interaction parameters for the ENRTL activity coefficient model, adjusted physical properties and kinetic parameters. The absorption and stripping operations were simulated using the rate-based model built in Aspen Plus®. The conventional MEA flowsheet was found to have a minimum specific reboiler duty around 3.854 GJ/ton CO2 and a minimum total equivalent work around 308 kWh/ton CO2, correspondent to a lean solvent load of 0.24 mol CO2/mol MEA. The limited PZ solubility restricts the correspondent to 0.25 mol CO2/mol PZ, giving a of 3.232 GJ/ton CO2 and a of 286.8 kWh/ton CO2 for the conventional PZ flowsheet. The best technical performance was predicted for the AIC + SIH flowsheet using PZ, obtaining a of 2.463 GJ/ton CO2 and a of 239.5 kWh/ton CO2, representing reductions of 36.1% and 22.4% respectively, when compared to the baseline conventional MEA flowsheet. A simplified economic assessment was performed to account for the different solvents, equipment types and steam quality requirements of the evaluated flowsheets, using the annualised cost of purchased equipment and the utilities cost, obtaining the same preference for the PZ based AIC + SIH flowsheet with 17.7% less cost than the conventional MEA flowsheet.

Developing countries have widely adopted data exclusivity for pharmaceutical test data protection although this is not mandated by TRIPS. Moreover at the bilateral level, developed countries have pushed towards stringent IP packages, among them, data exclusivity. The dissertation explores the challenges of data exclusivity in developing countries and argues that the alleged benefits of innovation and dissemination of technology do not exceed the social costs this IP regime poses. Therefore, the research goes on to examine legal alternatives in compliance with Article 39.3, TRIPS, and suggest other legal frameworks for pharmaceutical test data protection. The study finds that developing countries have underestimated TRIPS flexibilities and have ignored safeguard measures for addressing their public health concerns. The discussion concludes that developing countries are in strong legal position to persuade changes on this field and argues for implementing measures according to the country´s level of development.

The thesis work deals with the techno-economical assessment of the reactor network for methanol synthesis and direct dimethyl ether synthesis from the energy-process integration viewpoint. The reactor network is composed by a water-cooled reactor; a gas-cooled reactor used to preheat the syngas fed to the network; a separation section and a recycle loop. This general configuration is often reduced to the study of the sole water-cooled reactor in literature works. Although such reactor is the key-element of the overall system, the other parts of the process cannot be anymore neglected when the techno-economical assessment is the target of reactor design. Therefore, the so-called systematic staging design methodology proposed by Hillestad, 2010 is adopted to redefine the optimal ratio between the different stages of methanol synthesis reactor network. To do so, the phenomenological mathematical model of the overall system is required together with the solution of the resulting set of ordinary differential equations coupled with algebraic constraints and initial and boundary conditions as well. It means that beyond the cumbersome issues of mathematical modeling to properly characterize the heterogeneous reactors for methanol and dimethyl ether synthesis, a boundary value problem has to be solved iteratively within an optimization procedure. According to what has been described, the model is then implemented into a multivariable, nonlinear optimization routine in order to maximize not only the methanol and/or dimethyl ether production but also the steam generation. It is demonstrated that a revision of the traditional design based on the systematic staging design for the integrated optimization of energy and process yield can increase the net operating margin of a medium size methanol synthesis plant by about 2 M€/y.

Abstract: Regarding regulative changes in Latin America, the literature has highlighted a decisive role played by International Financial Institutions (hereafter, IFI's), suggesting a direct influence in determining reforms on policies and particular norms. The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and, in the Latin American region, the Inter-American Development Bank, are seen as having a central role in inducing structural and concrete reforms and, more specifically, changes in land regulation. Research on the topic has shown that those transformations occur when there is a conjunction of factors such as economic difficulties in the recipient country (crisis), sympathetic technocrats sharing a common mindset with those of the IFI's and a proper political environment willingly to facilitate the reforms. The changes seem to depend on the country's characteristics and its interaction with international agents, making more complex the process of legal change, rather than on impositions from IFI's based upon their bargaining power. This research tries to answer whether the Colombian land regulation has been determined by IFI's, by focusing on the last legal change introduced in the country: Law 1776/2016, also known as ZIDRES law. It is argued that in the Colombian case the regulative change embodied in ZIDRES law was the outcome of a confluence among interests from local elites, big national and international agro-industrial companies and the general land policy of the country, instead of a direct determination from IFI's. Moreover, it is suggested that the developmentalist discourse played a central role in providing the ideological and rhetoric toolbox for supporting the regulative change. Resumen: En relación con los cambios regulativos en América Latina la literatura ha destacado el rol decisivo jugado por las Instituciones Financieras Internacionales (IFI), para sugerir una influencia directa en la determinación de reformas sobre políticas publicas generales y normas concretas. El Banco Mundial, el Fondo Monetario Internacional y, en América Latina, el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo, son vistos como actores centrales en la inducción de reformas de diverso nivel y, concretamente, en cambios en la regulación sobre tierras. Investigaciones relacionadas han mostrado que dichas transformaciones ocurren cuando confluyen factores como el surgimiento de dificultades económicas en los países que implementan las reformas (crisis), la participación de tecnócratas locales que simpatizan con los puntos de vista de las IFI y la existencia de un ambiente político dispuesto a facilitar las reformas. Los cambios regulativos parecen depender de las características internas de los países y de su interacción con agentes internacionales, lo que hace más complejo el proceso de cambio regulativo, en lugar de las imposiciones que puedan venir de las IFI con base en su poder de negociación. Esta investigación se cuestiona si la regulación colombiana sobre tierras ha sido determinada por IFI, lo cual se explora teniendo como foco de atención el último cambio regulativo sobre tierras introducido en el país: la Ley 1776 de 2016, también conocida como Ley ZIDRES. Se argumenta que en el caso colombiano el cambio regulativo encarnado en la Ley ZIDRES fue el resultado de una confluencia de los intereses de élites locales, grandes empresas agroindustriales nacionales e internacionales y la política pública de tierras del país, en lugar de ser una determinación directa de IFI. Adicionalmente, se sugiere que el discurso desarrollista jugó un papel central al proveer de las herramientas ideológicas y discursivas para facilitar el cambio regulativo.

Among the Tukano an indigenous peoples there is a ritual that reflects refined ecological management: ""The March of the Manikins"". By understanding this and similar cultural practices, we could attempt the re-definition of ""sustainability"" concept. A fundamental part of the process for the appropriation of a new meta-language that could set up new patterns for environmental management practices and policy delivering.

Recent studies have highlighted the environmental benefits of the vernacular, focusing on the qualities of buildings; however, they do not sufficiently deal with the role of human agency in the production of the vernacular in practice. This study aims to demonstrate that by improving our understanding of the human and social aspects, it will be possible to define methods of supporting sustainable development. Understanding ‘the vernacular’ as a type of knowledge, four components are explored: transmission, use, motivations, and benefits. Based on the case of the Mexican Vault technique, the investigation offers insights into the various components of vernacular knowledge, suggesting the study of vernacular architecture from a perspective that elevates the relevance of the social and human dynamics in relation to the built object. It concludes that moving beyond environmental issues towards the building of tangible and intangible assets is a key challenge for vernacular architecture today.

The use of stories in research helps us better understand the world of teaching and learning since teachers and learners, like any other human being, are storytellers who engage in narrative acts to make sense of their and others’ knowledge and experiences. Even so, narrative research is a path not widely walked in the Colombian language teaching and learning context. This article is therefore an attempt to review some of the epistemological and methodological underpinnings underlying this approach to qualitative research so as to add to the local knowledge of our ELT community. It discusses the role of the researcher, the different orientations narrative studies can take, and the processes involved in narrative analysis. Some of the challenges narrative researchers face in their work, as well as the contributions of this method of inquiry to both the general education and TESOL fields are also considered.

"The dissertation is an analytical review of the available literature on marine protected areas (MPAs) to propose some governance, and spatial management mechanisms in the Colombian Caribbean Sea, particularly in the Seaflower MPA. The Seaflower MPA is facing several challenges regarding political issues of boundary disputes and also adverse impacts on the marine environment from the increase in shipping activities. This is largely due to the expansion of the Panama Canal and the possible Nicaragua Canal, which is increasing the maritime traffic of international shipping to almost double that of today. In addition, the increase in seabed activities is also a threat to the ecosystems within it. This research describes the Colombian framework of MPAs, and it also shows the issues that face the Seaflower MPA today. The aim is to propose and to recommend some governance and management measures based on the ecosystem-based approach to establish a transboundary agreement keeping the integrity of the MPA and giving regional relevance for the protection of the unique ecosystems. Furthermore, to address the issues of negative impacts from shipping, some protective measures have to be taken to protect the ecosystems and safe navigation guaranteeing long-term sustainable development. "