This study presents an analysis on data from multiple power meters across Monash University in Australia. Special emphasis is made on the methodology to fill the missing values and fix the wrong data. Different techniques were used to analyse the data: visual analytics, k-means clustering and principal component analysis. Este estudio presenta un analisis de datos provenientes de multiples medidores de consumo eletrico en la Universidad Monash en Australia. Se hace especial enfasis en la metodologia para llenar los datos faltantes y depurar los existentes. Ademas de “visual analytics” se usaron diversas tecnicas, entre ellas: “principal component analysis” y “k-means clustering”.

The building sector plays a significant role regarding CO2 generation in the UK, accounting for 37%. Efforts have been oriented to lower the energy consumption by increasing the efficiency of conditioning systems and by integrating smart designs that lower the energy requirements. The newest storage facility from NMS was designed to use energy efficiently to provide the necessary environmental conditions to approximately 10 million items with specific climate conditions. However, the designers are interested to know how the building is performing and how the energy usage could be lowered. In this report, an assessment of this distinctive building with a dual nature of a storage facility coexisting with a research workplace is conducted. Initially, it was unforeseen how much energy had been used by each piece of equipment; given the type of data recorded, the assessment is performed in a detailed fashion to provide the figures that could help to make decisions to modify the energy usage. Additionally, even though the building was designed using efficient equipment, with air-tightness that was classified as better than typical and a good isolated envelop, opportunities were still found to improve even more its operative functions and hence to reduce the annual cost of energy and the CO2 emissions generation. The results show how to reduce the energy consumption at practically zero cost by making more flexible the temperature settings and by modifying the control strategy, resulting mainly in savings up to 35% in gas consumption. Another potential solution is provided by calculating the energy that a PV array could harvest. Two other recommendations that cannot be implemented are assessed. More elaborated strategies can be analysed and implemented when environmental-friendly buildings are designed. 

The protracted nature of the Colombian conflict has allowed the emergence of numerous attempts for its resolution (intense military offensives and different models of negotiation). Regarding the attempts of negotiation, some of them have resulted in durable peace agreements while others have failed during the process. For example, in 1991, the government negotiated the reincorporation into the political life of the guerrillas M-19 and EPL, and recently in 2002-2007, the government held a peace process with the AUC paramilitary group, which produced the demobilization of approximately 40.000 rebels. However, the scenery of resolution with two remaining guerrillas (FARC and ELN) is different, after more than 26 years of failed negotiations and tough military offensives; it has not been possible to settle the conflict with them. What explains the different results in the peace processes with the armed groups? I suggest that in order to identify opportunities for negotiations and more effective peace processes, states and third parties, should regard more seriously the character of the different armed groups (motivation, leadership, strategies, social composition, organizational structure, etc). Therefore, by doing a comparative analysis of the AUC and FARC peace processes. I found out that: 1. the type of violence and financial sources are not determinant factors to reach a negotiated settlement with rebel groups. It is false that is more difficult to negotiate with armed groups pursuing high benefits from war, at least not in Colombia. 2. That the degree of task cohesion, the group cohesiveness, and social support are extremely relevant to the state engage and manage possible crisis and setbacks during the negotiations. Armed groups are different and those differences have positive and negative impacts when negotiating with them.

In this paper, I examine the case of Angosturas, a large-scale gold mining project by the Canadian-based company GreyStar in the sensitive high wetland páramo of Santurbán in the northeast of the Colombian Andes. Angosturas is the closest large-scale gold mining project to the phase of extraction in the country, and constitutes a referent for other ongoing cases. In 2011, the Ministry of the Environment, Housing, and Territorial Development (hereafter: Ministry of the Environment) denied the environmental license to the company to start extraction operations. Despite this government’s recent ruling, GreyStar (which renamed itself ‘Eco Oro’ after the 2011 decision) and other mining companies have continued their quest to gain permission to begin extraction in the area. I explore why these continued attempts to change government policy regarding extraction licensing is possible within the existing juridical framework. In particular, I ask how Sustainable Development allows for the classification of large-scale mining as a public utility activity. This paper is a criticism of Sustainable Development and the limitations it places on hearing certain kinds of languages and discourses that resist the commodification of nature. The case study allows me to address a gap in the existing literature, and outline the distinctive situation of non-legally recognized ethnic minorities (e.g. peasant farmers, small-scale miners, and the urban population).

Resumen: El tema de la seguridad energética, se define como la capacidad de un país para satisfacer la demanda nacional de energía con suficiencia, oportunidad, sustentabilidad y precios adecuados, en el presente y hacia un futuro. La problemática de la seguridad energética constituye en la actualidad uno de los temas centrales mundiales que afectan de forma esencial a las economías y la política de seguridad de los Estados. Precisamente el interés estratégico asociado a la seguridad energética de las naciones, constituye la motivación para abordar un trabajo de investigación que permita identificar y evaluar las amenazas a la seguridad energética, las cuales necesiten ser analizadas por cualquier nación. En este trabajo se realiza la identificación, análisis y evaluación los riesgos del suministro energético en un país. Se destaca el enfoque de algunas herramientas para la toma de decisiones y más concretamente su aplicación en el ámbito de la identificación y evaluación de amenazas al suministro energético. Adicionalmente se revisa y se actualiza el estado del arte del tema de aseguramiento del suministro energético, desde el punto de conceptual en países de la OCDE, y específicamente, de acuerdo con la directiva 2008/114/CE de la U.E. (sobre la identificación y designación de infraestructuras críticas europeas) y la NIPP de EE.UU (National Infrastructure Protection Plan) al tiempo que se revisa la situación de los países europeos, se identifican sus vulnerabilidades y las acciones propuestas para el aseguramiento del suministro energético. La revisión y actualización del estado del arte en el aseguramiento energético, se acompaña de una revisión en el panorama de los países europeos, con mayor énfasis en el caso español. De esta manera, se realiza una identificación de las vulnerabilidades, así como las acciones propuestas, las cuales se evalúan a través de una metodología de Administración del Riesgo, ajustándose a la normativa actualmente implementada por empresas del sector energético. Los capítulos que conforman este trabajo, así como los respectivos anexos, se complementan con información referida a las metodologías de apoyo a la toma de decisiones y simulación de sistemas, que pueden ser empleadas en futuras investigaciones relacionadas con aplicaciones en distintos ámbitos para la priorización de decisiones. De esta manera se puede realizar la comparación de algunas técnicas de apoyo a la toma de decisiones para su aplicación en un caso de estudio de identificación y evaluación de amenazas a los sistemas de suministro energético de un país. Igualmente, se presenta información relevante con la situación geopolítica, la economía de la energía, la escasez de recursos y la vulnerabilidad de las infraestructuras energéticas y los recursos claves, que hacen parte del concepto de “seguridad energética”. De esta manera, se efectúa un aporte desde el punto de vista metodológico, dada la recopilación y análisis estructurado de la información, que puede tomarse como un documento técnico y científico en el área del “aseguramiento energético”. Abstract: The issue of energy security is defined as the ability of a country to meet domestic demand for energy sufficiency, opportunity, sustainability and appropriate pricing, both in the present and in the future. This issue of energy security is now one of the key topics that affect the world's essential to the economies and security policy of states.Precisely the strategic interest associated with the energy security of any nation is the motivation to tackle a research project to identify and assess threats to energy security, which need to be analyzed by any nation. In this work we make the identification, risk analysis and assessment of energy supply in a country. It highlights the approach of some tools for making decisions and more specifically its application in the field of identification and evaluation of energy supply threats.Furthermore, we make a review and update of the state of art in the subject of supply security, from the conceptual point of OECD countries, and specifically, in accordance with EU directive 2008/114/CE (On the identification and designation of European critical infrastructures) and the U.S. NIPP (National Infrastructure Protection Plan) at the same time as reviewing the situation of European countries, identifying their vulnerabilities and the proposing some actions in the concept of energy supply. This review and update of the state of the art in energy supply security, is associated with an outlook description for European countries, emphasizing on the Spanish case. This way, we make an identification of vulnerabilities and we propose actions, which are assessed through a Risk Management methodology, which is also aligned to the regulations currently being implemented by companies in the energy sector.Both chapters and amendments of this work are supplemented with information concerning the methodologies to support decision making and system simulation, which can be used in future researches related to applications in variousfields for prioritizing decisions. In this way it is possible to make the comparison among some techniques in order to support decision making for application in a case study of identification and assessment of threats to energy supply systems of a country. We also provide information relevant to geopolitics, energy economics, scarcity of resources and the vulnerability of energy infrastructure and key resources, which are part of the concept of energy security. Thus, a contribution is made from a methodological point of view, given the structured collection and analysis of information that can be taken as a technical and scientific document in the area of “energy security”.

En este trabajo se presenta un estudio sobre la soldadura y caracterización de uniones de ductos de acero API 5L-X80 con diferentes alambres tubulares. Tales procesos son evaluados bajo la influencia de la temperatura de precalentamiento mientras el aporte de calor de la soldadura es mantenido constante. Las soldaduras fueron realizadas en la posición plana 1G, con la pistola fija y el ducto girando. Se soldaron tubos de 762 mm de diámetro externo y 16 mm de espesor. Fueron utilizados alambres con propiedades mecánicas diferentes de las del metal base, usándose en la condición undermatched. El proceso de soldadura por arco eléctrico con alambre tubular fue usado en dos variantes, autoprotegido (FCAW-S) y con protección auxiliar de gas (FCAW-G), cada uno de ellos aplicados por medio de seis pases sobre una unión de tope y bisel en “V”, con la utilización de tres niveles de temperatura de precalentamiento (ambiente, 100 y 160 °C). Estas temperaturas fueron mantenidas entre pases. La caracterización de las uniones es presentada en función de los ensayos mecanicos realizados: resistencia a la tracción, dureza y tenacidad. Para la ejecución de estos ensayos se tomó como referencia las normas API 1104, AWS y ASTM. Como criterios de aceptación fueron utilizadas las normas API 1104 y API 5L. A partir de los resultados obtenidos fue posible observar que es viable la soldadura de ductos API 5L-X80 con este tipo de alambres tubulares, cumpliendo con los requisitos de las normas de referencia, sin ser necesario el uso de temperatura de precalentamiento.

Quantum simulation describes a great variety of process observed in laboratories and daily life, however, as soon as the computer programs involve more particles, time and storage turn out to be critical issues that constraint the execution of larger simulations. Tensor Contraction Schemes for 2D Problems in Quantum Simulation is based on the ideas of Huckle and Waldherr and is a courageous attempt to describe many-body systems accurately without the intrinsic dimensional problems. To achieve this goal, two well-established techniques are applied to represent large vectors implicitly and, through a variational-based numerical method, minimise the related optimisation problem. Remarkably, the contraction schemes demand linear storage and time resources only. As result, the proposed scheme was able to produce solutions up to the first significant digit for 12-particle system, taking no more than few iteration.Finally, there are still open issues regarding the accuracy in the vector representation and the local optimality of the iterative method that must to be addressed in future investigations.

Good quality of legislation is one of the main concerns of the European Union. Given that the EU system is not a single structure but coexists with the legislative systems of the Member States, there is a need to have a Community legislation system which is adaptable to the particular conditions of its Member States and which contributes to the consolidation of the Internal Market. With the purpose of achieving this goal in a sustainable way, in 2011 the European Commission issued its White Paper on European Governance. It stated the necessity of a better and simpler regulatory system involving the participations of all the relevant actors -central governments, regions, cities and civil society. It also declared that ""to improve the quality of its policies, the Union must first asses whether action is needed and, if it is, whether it should be at Union level. Where Union action is required, it should consider the combination of different policy tools. When legislatin, the Union needs to find ways of speeding up the legislative process. It must find the right mix between imposing a uniform approach when and where it is needed and allowing greater flexibility in the way that rules are implemented on the ground. It must boost confidence in the way expert advice influences policy decisions.

Sierra Leone’s war is known for the high prevalence of child soldiers actively engaged during its lengthy civil war. 70% of the combatants were underage when recruited, with most of them joining the irregular armies voluntarily. In spite of the superficial causes that may differ from case to case, economic, educational and socio-political factors have been the most recognized driving forces that influence the decision of children and youngsters to join the armed forces, and were definitely the driving forces for young combatants in Sierra Leone. The crisis of youth originated by the socioeconomic conditions in Sierra Leone and made worse by the Structural Adjustment Program in the 80s, was a key factor for children and youngsters to join the irregular forces. Even though choosing to become soldiers may appear as a conscious decision that involves agency, the structure of the individuals cannot be detached and judged independently. Whether these children volunteered or were coerced, most of them were uneducated and hungry; therefore it is misleading to consider this type of recruitment as voluntary.

La tesis de maestría cuestiona los siguientes dos supuestos comunes en el tema de las drogas y las relaciones políticas internacionales: primero, que siempre se pueden esperar conflictos diplomáticos como resultado del fracaso de los intentos por reducir el tráfico de drogas ilegales, y Segundo, que el conflicto predomina entre países si tienen que tratar el tema de las drogas. El objetivo de la tesis es explicar por qué surge la crisis diplomática entre Estados Unidos y Colombia en 1995-1997 y no antes si se tiene en cuenta la similitud de las condiciones materiales, en términos de la gravedad del problema del narcotráfico y su grado de penetración en las instituciones colombianas, entre la administración Samper (1994-1998) y otras administraciones anteriores. Uno de los resultados importantes de la tesis es hallar la existencia de cooperación anti-drogas a nivel operativo al tiempo que se fractura la relación diplomática.