In the Colombian context, which ideally will now start a post-conflict period, it is necessary for the government to pursue strategies to prevent the causes of the conflict. This study considers the hypothesis that one possible cause for future conflict is the problems that emanate from coexistence of social housing neighbours. In Colombia, social housing programmes focus on providing shelter, in the sense that it is understood as something only physical. The problem is that this notion ignores the need of people to generate community integration. This study takes a conceptual approach to the issue by addressing the debates around citizenship as an identity and active citizenship. It also analyses concepts such as social capital, state-society-synergy and finally community and social housing. The study focuses on the case of Colombia, analysing the context and the challenges of social housing. It evaluates the housing policy and community integration programs of different institutions of the national government. Finally, it concludes with the suggestion that the government should have a participatory approach to building social housing that will help with arraigo (attachment) and to form the social fabric to achieve community integration, accomplishing better conviviality and housing conditions.

A technological and environmental alternative has been studied for about a decade to reduce the consumption of coal. It consists of substitute one part of the coal by biomass (neutral generated of CO2) in a co-_ring process. The co-_ring process consists of the controlled combustion of two or more fuels in the same burner. According to research performed in the US and Europe this process has economic and technical viability. And depending on the characteristics of the fuel, this process can contribute reducing the greenhouse gases (GHG). This thesis presents a methodological proposal to analyze and evaluate a thermoelectric power plant from the exergoenviromental point of view, operating in co-_ring process and using coal and biomass. The boundary of the problem is composed by the power plant and the technological paths to obtain and manipulate the fuels. Exergy is used in the thermodynamic analysis and the life cycle assessment method is proposed to quantify the environmental impact. The climate change category was used following the global warming potential index. Two scenarios were evaluated: scenario A corresponds to the power plant operating with 100% coal and scenario B corresponds to the power plant operating in co-_ring with 90% of coal and 10% of biomass. The technological route used for the coal is established between the southern mineral region of the state of Santa Catarina and the Jorge Lacerda thermoelectric power plant complex, which is located at Capivari de Baixo. The information utilized for the biomass path was obtained from the research performed in the thermoelectric power plant complex. The purpose of this task was to use the biomass from the rice farms as fuel. The analysis showed that the power plant is largely responsible for exergy destruction. Moreover it has the largest generated impact associated with the analyzed category. From these results, an exergoenvironmental analysis for the representative thermodynamic cycle was performed. The results showed that the boiler constitutes the equipment with the largest potential of improvement.  Finally, an exergoenvironmental global index was proposed to compare the exergoenvironmental impact of the thermoelectric generation process for both scenarios, which were compared with Carnot cycle scenario. The exergoenvironmental global index showed that 11% improvement is possible for the scenario B when compared with scenario A without taking in account the biomass microbial decomposition and up to the 35% when the decomposition was considered.

A review of the main issues that affect the livelihoods of non timber forest products (NTFP) focusing on the commercialisation issues of gatherers/producers and traders, was made for Colombia. It aimed to investigate broadly which are some of the cultural, economic, social, environmental, marketing and legislative issues that affect the outcomes for NTFP livelihoods. The sustainable rural livelihood framework was used to understand the main issues affecting NTFP livelihoods and to propose alternatives to improve the constraints found in NTFP development and commercialisation. The study identify the great importance of NTFP local and regional markets for rural development, and some data was given for international markets in order to understand the magnitude of the commerce and the possibilities that might arise for some promissory products. The review of some institutional and organisation incentives influencing NTFP production and commercialisation was undertaken by reviewing the forestry policies and some of its instruments. The study used secondary data of reports made mainly in Latin-America. The report concludes that the policies and norms that influence NTFP, such as the forestry policy and plans do not consider the importance of NTFP for social and environmental objectives. For NTFP research, the analysis of the commercialisation process is strongly co-related to social networks, ecology, cultural taboos, norms for management of NTFP and effectiveness of support organisations. NTFP livelihoods can be seriously affected by government organisations and NGO’s if they are treated as traditional commodities because of the fragility and uniqueness of their ecology, economy and social structures. The report gives some recommendations to government agencies and researchers that wish to mend the constraints found for NTFP successful development.

Globalization has led legal systems to influence each other throughout history and legal transplants have not been immune to that process either. Nowadays we do not just see examples of legal transplants but come across cases of 'cross-fertilization' of case law. An emergence of unstudied trends that have spread around the world in a voluntary and involuntary way across legal cultures can also be witnessed. However it seems that legal transplants have been largely misunderstood and have been condemned as mere copy-paste exercises due to their history. This paper studies the different theories of legal transplants in comparative law and also analyses some particular cases that have eventually ‘worked’ efficiently both in the country of origin and in the country where those laws were adopted. We can no longer say that legal transplants are impossible; they are a reality we cannot run away from. Amongst the many challenges faced by this phenomenon, the primary one is to overcome all the obstacles imposed by a ‘legal globalization’ that is threatening developing countries by focusing more on the liberalization of markets, rather than on policies supporting social welfare. Despite this fact, there is still hope for a new concept of ‘legal globalization’, one that includes executing a serious study of the trends that not only developing countries are in need of, but also is a need of the developed countries, which is the adoption of policies towards social welfare, one of the biggest challenges that face modern legal comparatists today.

The study analyzes the causal link between the FTA and certain economic effects, which include changes in trade and investment flows, levels of output and employment, and commodities prices. The findings of this study indicate that while the said changes may prove largely beneficial to efficient producers in certain exporting sectors, some import-competing sectors are affected adversely. The consequent emergence of winners and losers in the economic context may trigger social impacts which are beneficial for certain groups on one hand, and crippling for others. The said social impacts are associated with the living standards of the population, food security, and community life. Additionally, the economic shifts may also lead to changes in the use of natural resources that emerge as both threats and opportunities for the environment.

La implementación de acciones exitosas de conservación y desarrollo de las comunidades está muy ligada a la equidad de género y la participación es una herramienta fundamental para el desarrollo de estos procesos. Esta investigación analizó la participación de las comunidades, desde un enfoque de género, en los procesos de manejo y toma de decisiones a nivel local y regional en dos Áreas Silvestres Protegidas (ASP) de Costa Rica y relacionó esta participación con los beneficios obtenidos por las comunidades como resultado de dichos procesos. En el desarrollo de la investigación se utilizaron herramientas metodológicas que permitieron triangular información cualitativa y cuantitativa. Se seleccionaron tres grupos de actores a trabajar. El primero, los y las funcionarias de las ASP y Áreas de Conservación seleccionadas, a los cuales se les realizó entrevistas semi – estructuradas. El segundo grupo conformado por los integrantes de los espacios de participación que están formalmente establecidos por la Ley de Biodiversidad, tanto a nivel regional como local de las dos áreas seleccionadas, en estos espacios se utilizó la metodología de la observación participante y entrevistas semi – estructuradas. Por último, se seleccionaron tres comunidades por ASP en donde mediante encuestas realizadas a familias, se analizaron los capitales de cada una de las comunidades y los beneficios que reciben por ser circunvecinos a los Parque Nacionales. Asimismo, cómo la participación de hombres y mujeres, de forma equitativa, potencia dichos beneficios. Se resalta que a nivel institucional existen lineamientos para la vinculación de la sociedad civil en los procesos de toma de decisiones en el manejo de las ASP, pero que estos procesos a nivel local son incipientes y que los espacios establecidos a nivel regional son los que influyen directamente en la toma de decisiones. El tema de género a nivel institucional aunque es nombrado en varios de los lineamientos del Sistema Nacional de Áreas de Conservación (SINAC), no se trabaja. Aunque los actores evidencian la importancia de las mujeres en los procesos participativos y de manejo de los recursos naturales. De forma general las comunidades no reconocen beneficios que se generen por habitar cerca a las ASP y eso determina su participación en los espacios establecidos. La representación de mujeres de las comunidades en espacios de toma de decisiones es baja y está condicionada por características de las comunidades como la ocupación, el tipo, composición y número de organizaciones de la comunidad, los conflictos existentes entre el ASP y la comunidad, el desconocimiento de los espacios de participación y la capacitación en temas ambientales. Hay diferencias evidentes entre los intereses de hombres y mujeres que los llevan a la participación en temas relacionados con el manejo de los recursos naturales. Los hombres basan su interés en temas económicos y políticos, mientras las mujeres en temas de educación y generación de conciencia ambiental. Finalmente se reafirma que es fundamental promover la participación de las mujeres en los espacios de toma de decisiones relacionados con el manejo de las ASP, debido a que brindan otra visión en las discusiones, relacionados con la sostenibilidad de los procesos, reconociendo valores no económicos de los recursos naturales y aportando compromiso con los procesos de participación.

La aparición de Frutos de mi tierra de Tomás Carrasquilla, la primera novela en Antioquia en 1896 y la aparición de varias revistas culturales en las dos últimas décadas del siglo XIX son el punto de partida de esta investigación. ¿Qué razones explican la proliferación repentina de revistas culturales, tertulias literarias y la aparición de la novela? ¿Qué fuerzas estimulan el debate y el pensamiento crítico en una región en la cual la publicidad –entendida como el conjunto de textos públicos o Öffentlichkeit de Habermas— no pasaba de ser oficial o se restringía a la lucha partidista? ¿Qué condiciones políticas, antropológicas y estéticas, no existían hasta esta fecha y empiezan a aparecer? Para responder estas preguntas, la investigación indaga por los hitos históricos que fueron perfilando a la sociedad “paisa”: la implantación de las políticas borbonas con el oidor Mon y Velarde a finales del siglo XVIII que definieron el discurso de la región: conservador en el ámbito religioso y liberal en el económico; la expedición de la Constitución del Estado de Antioquia en 1812 y la llegada de la imprenta el mismo año, la cohesión social interna en las primeras seis décadas de vida republicana y la defensa a ultranza del Estado confesional que llevó a la región a varias guerras durante el siglo XIX. Una de ellas, la 1876 tendría una incidencia definitiva en el discurso regional: tras vivir la derrota, el discurso religioso y auto adulatorio comenzaría a enervarse. Lo anterior, sumado a Estado central que se impuso con la Constitución de 1886 desde Bogotá, generaría las condiciones para que los “paisas” comenzaran a preguntarse críticamente por su identidad cultural y a compararla, lo cual daría origen a estos nuevos espacios de sociabilidad y a la novela como uno de los productos culturales fundacionales que surgirían de este ambiente deliberativo y crítico.

China is a successful destination for companies that are looking to receive a good return on their investment and make part of the most outstanding economy in the world. The adverse condition promoted by the state, impact directly the performance of multinational companies, one of these consequences is the Trapped Cash caused by the regulated environment in which the corporation is developing the business. The specific problem of the trapped cash will be analyzed in three different levels; the first one is China in order to familiarize corporations with the environment, generating greater understanding of the basic concepts and concerns that the organization would face. Second, the current theoretical solutions to the problem that will offer and a handful of solutions; third and finally, the case of Alcatel Lucent, a multinational company that has a long background in the Chinese environment, and is struggling because of the trapped cash in China, however, is implementing a solution to solve the liquidity problems of the organization. Concluding the study is possible to highlight the various approaches to increase the liquidity of the company by improving the management practices for the trapped cash situations. Nonetheless, while the roots of the trapped cash remain, a significant amount of cash will be freed.

In this thesis two different studies are presented separately because each study has a different purpose even though the two studies are complementary. For the first study an available dataset for BCI is used. This dataset is consistent with the aim of the first study because it allows the implementation and development of the proposed technique for BCI based on imaginary limb movement with a small amount of electrodes. The technique I implemented trough this study is a reliable option to be used for a BCI-based on imaginary movements. In the second study a different dataset is used because the requirements for the technique to be implemented are different. Training and testing dataset are necessary to describe a practical computational technique that is applied for a single trial classification based on a Common Spatial Pattern and complemented with a linear discriminator. The training data is used to build a classifier and the testing data allows measuring the performance of the classifier implemented. After testing the classifier the good performance obtained makes this technique of great interest for any imaginary movement based-BCI.

If we know how to apply a good communication and understand the roll of technology in our society, we can help elders become more useful and feel active helping them prevent depressions and applying their time to the new media technologies being also part of what’s going on and how fast technology changes and society has to evolve with it and take it part of their lives. The elderly have lots to offer, experience, education, wisdom and even money; we can´t leave all these on a side we need to act and change our perception of older people in our society. Kids should benefit from all of this that in one way or another is going to be useful for their learning. Some kids believe in what their grandpa´s says, in what their parents teach them and off course in what they learn in school. Kids are more capable to adapt to new environments and new languages but still its very fast and too much things that are happening at the same time and each time kids meets technology faster and younger that you get impressed of how fast they learn with this new media, or this new opportunity, if we could see it like that. What we need to understand is even if kids learn faster doesn't mean that adults and especially senior’s can’t learn. You just have to always have in mind that you’re never too old to learn. We need virtual connections to bring people, families together that for one reason life has separate them. Technology can add an enormous value to human relationships and permit or let you express your emotions beyond others even not having them present or standing towards or beside you. It can also help to have a better communication and improve your relationship getting closer. Communication progress, new technologies and a better living, leads to more and more new solutions in the field of design. The increasing diversity between developed end developing countries give designers a very important role today. Design and technology is a powerful medium to reach and to give new possibilities not only to people with easy access to Internet and digital devices. It is necessary to provide new opportunities for next generation in poorer countries, because only in this way they have a chance for a better future. Service design is made for people. The social reality is created as a result of the sum of all individual actions and communication between each other.