Abstract: In this study, a model assisted strategy is developed to control the distribution of colloids in porous media in the framework of nanoremediation, an innovative environmental nanotechnology aimed at reclaiming contaminated aquifers. This approach is exemplified by the delivery of humic acid-stabilized iron oxide nanoparticles (FeOx), a typical reagent for in situ immobilization of heavy metals. By tuned sequential injections of FeOx suspensions and of solutions containing a destabilizing agent (i.e. calcium or magnesium), the two fronts, which advance at different rates, overlap at the target location (i.e., the central portion) of the porous systems. Here, the particles deposit and accumulate irreversibly, creating a reactive zone. An analytical expression predicting the position of the clustering zone in 1D systems is derived from first principles of advective-dispersive transport. Through this equation, the sequence and duration of the injection of the different solutions in the medium is assessed. The model robustness is demonstrated by its successful application to various systems, comprising the use of different sands or immobilizing cations, both in 1D and 2D geometries. The method represents an advancement in the control of nanomaterial fate in the environment, and could enhance nanoremediation making it an effective alternative to more conventional techniques. Resumen: En este estudio, una estrategia modelística es desarrollada con el fin de controlar la distribución de coloides en medios porosos en el marco de la nanorremediación, una nanotecnología ambiental enfocada a la recuperación de acuíferos contaminados. En el presente análisis, se usan de nanopartículas de óxido de hierro estabilizadas con ácido húmico (FeOx), un reactivo típico para la inmovilización in situ de metales pesados. Mediante aplicaciones secuenciales controladas de suspensiones de FeOx y soluciones que contienen un agente desestabilizador (calcio o magnesio), los dos frentes, que avanzan a diferentes velocidades, se superponen en la ubicación deseada (en este caso en el centro) del medio porosos. Aquí, las partículas se depositan y acumulan de forma irreversible, creando una zona reactiva. Una expresión analítica que predice la posición de la zona de deposición en sistemas unidimensionales (1D) se deriva de los primeros principios del transporte advectivo-dispersivo. A través de esta ecuación se evalúa la secuencia y duración de la inyección de las diferentes soluciones en el medio poroso. La robustez del modelo se demuestra con la exitosa aplicación en diversos sistemas, que comprenden el uso de diferentes tamaños de grano o cationes inmovilizadores, tanto en geometrías 1D como 2D. El método representa un avance en el control del destino final de los nanomateriales en el medio ambiente y podría mejorar la nanorremediación, convirtiéndolo en una alternativa eficaz a las técnicas convencionales actuales.

Resumen: Un acercamiento y comparación de los métodos usados para la evaluación y participación de comunidades afectadas por la ejecución de obras de infraestructura de interés nacional respecto de los métodos o reglamentos alemanes vigentes a la fecha en los dos países. Como producto de esta tesis se generó un borrador de reglamento que integra los métodos colombianos con los alemanes en los casos de éxito.

Abstract: This thesis explores how interventions based on changing social norms can transform the behaviour of people and contribute to tackle social and policy challenges in real-world contexts. Specifically, it focuses on how a policy experience that had important and enduring effects in a large city (the civic culture interventions of Antanas Mockus in Bogotá, Colombia), could inform the application of more effective and sustainable than those that are typically applied in the academic literature. To do this, three studies were conducted to explore: (i) the intervention strategies and mechanisms that social norm interventions apply to achieve behavioural change (through a systematic review of over 90 field studies), (ii) the narratives through which different policy actors interpret and disseminate intervention messages (through narratives from citizens, the press and designers about Mockus’ most iconic intervention), and (iii) the way in which interventions that leverage social norms can reconfigure the physical, psychological and social layers of local installations (through two long-term experimental interventions to change driving behaviours among truck drivers). While typical social norm interventions in the academic literature tend to use easy-toimplement one-size-fits-all mechanisms (based mostly on giving group summary information to students remotely), our results illustrate the need and the potential of applying social norm interventions that: - Use strategically a wider range of intervention mechanisms that are closer to where behaviour actually happens and leverage social interactions. - Reconfigure the local physical, psychological, and social determinants of behaviour in a way that is tailored to the target contexts and behaviours, creating collective selfreflections on participants and giving them tools for social regulation and change. - Create engaging narratives around the behaviours and social expectations that must change, reframing social challenges and the agency of different actors around them. Our findings offer indications of a valuable and cost-effective approach to behavioural and social norm change that promotes collective reflection, engagement and action (rather than boring instructions, prohibitions, punishments or automatic nudging), and that thus has a higher potential of achieving enduring large-scale transformations in complex challenges than other approaches that are common in policy and organizational settings. By offering insights into the orientation and practical techniques of these interventions, as well as discussing implications for both researchers and practitioners, we hope to inform more effective and sustainable interventions to tackle social challenges in the real world. Resumen: Esta tesis explora cómo las intervenciones basadas en el cambio de normas sociales pueden transformar el comportamiento de las personas y contribuir a enfrentar retos sociales y de política en contextos reales. En concreto, se centra en cómo una experiencia de política que tuvo efectos importantes y duraderos en una ciudad grande (las intervenciones de cultura ciudadana de Antanas Mockus en Bogotá, Colombia), pueden informar la aplicación de intervenciones más efectivas y sostenibles que las que se suelen aplicar en la literatura académica. Para ello, se llevaron a cabo tres estudios para explorar: (i) las estrategias y mecanismos de intervención que se aplican en las intervenciones de normas sociales para transformar comportamientos (a través de una revisión sistemática de más de 90 estudios de campo), (ii) las narrativas a través de las cuales los diferentes actores de política interpretan y difunden mensajes sobre la intervención (a través de las narrativas de los ciudadanos, la prensa y los diseñadores de la intervención más emblemática de Mockus), y (iii) el modo en que las intervenciones de normas sociales pueden reconfigurar las capas físicas, psicológicas y sociales de las instalaciones locales (a través de dos intervenciones experimentales para cambiar comportamientos de conducción entre conductores de carga). Mientras que las intervenciones típicas de normas sociales en la literatura académica tienden a utilizar mecanismos simples y estandarizados (basados sobre todo en dar información a distancia con un resumen de las opiniones de un grupo de estudiantes), nuestros resultados ilustran la necesidad y el potencial de aplicar intervenciones sobre normas sociales que: - Utilicen estratégicamente un conjunto más amplio de mecanismos de intervención que de acerquen mas a donde se producen realmente los comportamientos y que aprovechen las interacciones sociales. - Reconfiguren los determinantes físicos, psicológicos y sociales de los comportamientos de una manera que se adapte a los contextos y comportamientos objetivo, creando autorreflexiones colectivas en los participantes y dándoles herramientas para la regulación y el cambio social. - Creen narrativas atractivas en torno a los comportamientos y las expectativas sociales que deben cambiar. Nuestros hallazgos ofrecen indicios de un enfoque valioso y costo-efectivo para el cambio de comportamientos y normas sociales que promueve la reflexión, el compromiso y la acción colectiva (en lugar de instrucciones aburridas, prohibiciones, castigos o "nudges" automáticos), y que, por tanto, tiene un mayor potencial de lograr transformaciones duraderas a gran escala para retos complejos comparado con otros enfoques que ordinariamente se utilizan en los entornos política y en las organizaciones. Al ofrecer información sobre el enfoque y las técnicas prácticas de estas intervenciones, así como debatir las implicaciones para investigadores y profesionales, esperamos informar intervenciones más eficaces y sostenibles para enfrentar los retos sociales en contextos reales.

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder associated with significant morbidity and mortality that may affect over 5% of children and approximately 2.8% of adults worldwide. Pharmacological and behavioral therapies for ADHD exist, but critical symptoms such as dysexecutive deficits remain unaffected. In a randomized, sham-controlled, double-blind, crossover mechanistic study, we assessed the cognitive and physiological effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in 40 adult patients with ADHD in order to identify diagnostic (cross-sectional) and treatment biomarkers (targets). METHODS: Patients performed three experimental sessions in which they received 30 minutes of 2 mA anodal tDCS targeting the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, 30 minutes of 2 mA anodal tDCS targeting the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and 30 minutes of sham. Before and after each session, half the patients completed the Eriksen flanker task and the other half completed the stop signal task while we assessed behavior (reaction time, accuracy) and neurophysiology (event-related potentials). RESULTS: Anodal tDCS to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex modulated cognitive (reaction time) and physiological (P300 amplitude) measures in the Eriksen flanker task in a state-dependent manner, but no effects were found in the stop signal reaction time of the stop signal task. CONCLUSIONS: These findings show procognitive effects in ADHD associated with the modulation of event-related potential signatures of cognitive control, linking target engagement with cognitive benefit, proving the value of eventrelated potentials as cross-sectional biomarkers of executive performance, and mechanistically supporting the statedependent nature of tDCS. We interpret these results as an improvement in cognitive control but not action cancellation, supporting the existence of different impulsivity constructs with overlapping but distinct anatomical substrates, and highlighting the implications for the development of individualized therapeutics.

Abstract: Bill, around 30, is an African American lower middle class living in Los Angeles. Bill is deeply in love with his girlfriend Claudia,30, a Mexican immigrant who has illegal visa status in the United States. Bill really wants to know her family and her hometown Guanajuato but that is difficult because she sacrificed a lot of things to get into the United States and she can’t simply go back for a while. After she suddenly dies, Bill experiences a reflexive and introspective moment, he feels deep loneliness and is totally breaking down and empty. One night his friend Kevin comes to visit and Bill shares all the difficulties he went through after she died. Because he was the only responsible, he had to manage all the cremation process and his inability to speak Spanish complicated giving the tragic news to her family. After finally getting a random translator in the street that can explain all to her family. His melancholia is giving him a very bad time trying to sleep and he decides to take with small urns to Mexico for her family.

Abstract: This dissertation studies the historical dimension that underpins the literary works of renowned Colombian writer and Nobel Prize winner, Gabriel García Márquez (1927-2014). In particular, I analyse the Macondo Cycle, comprised by the following novels and short stories: La hojarasca (1955), El coronel no tiene quien le escriba (1961), La mala hora (1962), ‘Los funerales de la Mamá Grande’ (1962), ‘Un día después del sábado’ (1962), ‘La viuda de Montiel’ (1962), ‘La siesta del martes’ (1962), ‘En este pueblo no hay ladrones’ (1962), Cien años de soledad (1967), and ‘Monólogo de Isabel viendo llover en Macondo’ (1968). Drifting away from Magical Realism, this thesis looks into the recurring historical references in García-Márquez’s Macondo cycle, the purpose behind them, and the reflection on Colombian history they convey. Throughout its four sections, I demonstrate that García Márquez's Macondo-set fictions embody a crítical attitude and constitute a literary response to traditional national histories written during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries through a reassessment of historical events and characters. These range from critical allusions towards historians and traditional histories on nineteenth-century civil wars, the silences surrounding official accounts of the Massacre at the banana plantations in Ciénaga, as well as its reception by contemporary historians. Overall, I seek to unveil the problems and limitations that García-Márquez attributes to traditional historiography, as well as the arguments and literary strategies he uses to do so. Resumen: En esta tesis analizo la dimensión histórica que contiene la obra literaria del conocido escritor colombiano y premio Nobel, Gabriel García Márquez 1927-2014. En especial, estudio el ciclo Macondo compuesto por las siguientes novelas y cuentos: La hojarasca (1955), El coronel no tiene quien le escriba (1961), La mala hora (1962), ‘Los funerales de la Mamá Grande’ (1962), ‘Un día después del sábado’ (1962), ‘La viuda de Montiel’ (1962), ‘La siesta del martes’ (1962), ‘En este pueblo no hay ladrones’ (1962), Cien años de soledad (1967), and ‘Monólogo de Isabel viendo llover en Macondo’ (1968). Esta tesis, toma distancia del Realismo Mágico por el que es reconocida su obra y se centra en el estudio de las alusiones históricas que aparecen de manera recurrente en el ciclo Macondo del autor, su propósito y la reflexión histórica a la que invitan. A partir de la reinterpretación literaria que hace García Márquez de personajes y eventos históricos demuestro que su ciclo Macondiano se erige como una respuesta crítica a la interpretación histórica fijada por historias tradicionales escritas durante el siglo XIX y principios del XX. En cuatro secciones analizo alusiones históricas directas e indirectas dirigidas a historiadores e historias de las guerras civiles decimonónicas, a los silencios evidentes en la versiones oficiales de la matanza de las bananeras en Ciénaga, y la recepción crítica que ha tenido su obra en círculos historiadores contemporáneos. Así pues, me propongo exponer las limitaciones y problemas que García Márquez percibe en la historiografía, y los argumentos y estrategias literarias que usa para enfatizarlos.

Abstract: What some practitioners coyly called Industrial Revolution 4.0 some years ago is now a reality, and it is drastically changing the way businesses are done in many industries worldwide. The European Union is no exception. Despite being a powerful region, but with conservative, traditional industries, many of these have found it necessary to implement changes in their business models to survive the digital changes. Therefore, the European Commission has prioritized the digital development of the region and the growth of all industries leveraged on the information technologies that can have the most significant impact. As the literature indicates, business models and competitive advantage are complex systems that require essential elements to function synchronously and thus generate value. Hence, cutting-edge technologies play a unique role because they become elements that transform markets and complement the current capabilities of industries and take them to a new stage of development. Therefore, it is essential to know how the adoption of different technologies is related to the economic growth of industries, which technologies generate the most value, and what is needed to drive this growth. This study makes a theoretical review of the impact of ICTs on the European economy, the actions that the European Commission has taken to promote the digital transformation. Finally, it exposes which technologies indeed positively correlate with industries' added value.

Abstract: The effort of universities, companies, and the state in Colombia to face home-made AP landmines has generated useful solutions and studies for many projects developed in the last decade, including demining processes in Colombia. Antipersonnel mines have changed in the last 15 years, due to the intermittent nature of our internal conflict. For example, as Descontamina Colombia mentions on its website, non-state armed groups cut the detonator containing the primary explosive to decrease the metal in the mine. This paper shows the aspects of the conflict that have affected humanitarian demining in Colombia, which help in the design and construction of technological devices. This article does not attempt to describe each of the typical technologies in humanitarian demining processes, but rather to show the characteristics considered in the design of two detection devices aimed at detecting home-made AP landmines.

Resumen: La tesis busca indagar acerca de la implementación de medidas no pecuniarias en el ámbito del derecho de la responsabilidad civil extracontractual, como parte del derecho privado. En ese orden, se enfoca en proveer una justificación ante lo que puede ser su aplicación después de causado el daño y antes. Así, el trabajo analiza las medidas consistentes en la restitución, rehabilitación, satisfacción y las garantías de no repetición, y ofrece una interpretación de ellas que permita su implementación en el derecho privado. Así mismo, en la segunda parte se analizan las medidas preventivas que se pueden implementar antes del daño y se presenta una posible justificación de ellas en el ámbito de la responsabilidad civil. Abstract: The thesis seeks to inquire about the implementation of non-pecuniary measures in the field of tort law, as part of private law. In that order, it focuses on providing a justification for what its application may be after causing the harm and before. Thus, the work analyzes the measures consisting of restitution, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of nonrepetition, and offers an interpretation of them that allows their implementation in private law. Likewise, in the second part, the preventive measures that can be implemented before the harm occurs are analyzed and a possible justification for them in the field of civil liability is exposed.

Abstract: Purpose: The aim of this study is to understand the role performed and the challenges faced by emergent groups and spontaneous volunteers during the response of Covid-19 emergency. Moreover, this study seeks to examine if structural social capital wealth is related or no with spontaneous volunteerism during Covid-19 outbreak. To be able to assess and compare if the variation between bonding, bridging and linking social networks from place to place impact volunteers´ management the study will be conducted in United Kingdom and Colombia. Design/methodology/approach: This study comprises of qualitative and quantitative methodological approaches. A comprehensive literature review was undertaken alongside an online survey with volunteers in Colombia and United Kingdom and online interview. Analyze survey results: Descriptive statistics, t-test and data visualization and qualitative data analysis were implemented to. Findings: Spontaneous volunteerism during Covid-19 was not relate with structural social capital wealth. A centralized management and communication sharing can improve emergency response and volunteers' performance. The more common volunteering activity was food distribution and the biggest challenge was fear of contagion. Practical implications: The author provide insights to improve spontaneous emergency response in the future. In addition, present the excellent opportunity that official organizations are facing to formally work and train spontaneous volunteers. Originality/value: The author introduces a different of social capital and volunteering relationship. Additionally, offer suggestions to improve volunteers´ management from the strengthening of structural social capital.