The purpose of this research is to present an analysis about the psychology of the luxury fashion consumer, to understand the different kinds of motivations that influence behaviour towards the purchase of luxury items. Through the exploration of theoretical approaches from both, the consumer psychology and the social culture theory, it will be explained how consumers face different kinds of needs and how they try to satisfy them in the luxury marketplace. Some of these needs will have an origin in intrinsic desires, while others will respond to affiliation needs for fitting into a certain social environment. Among the study of the cultural motivations, it will be shown how advertising plays a fundamental role of perception of luxury fashion. A selection of two case of studies of two of the most important luxury brands in the world, will illustrate how the industry uses the media communicate to the consumer the values of luxury brands, while associates to cultural representations of social success.

In this paper the subject of documentary in digital times is studied in three chapters that aim to explore these main different angles: 1. The angle of documentary production, with the revision of some study cases; 2. The angle of the main supporting and funding agencies – European centred- that allow creators to fund their projects and; 3. The angle of the exhibition and distribution system, that´s been transformed today by the multiple online distribution platforms. The first chapter develops an overview of the film industry and the documentary box office in the UK and then takes a look on the access to audio-visual technology and the way this influences professional creators and amateurs today. The attempt is to link the ease of use of technology with contents that make the documentaries meaningful in current times, by using some examples that relate documentary to activism, art, politics and education. The second chapter focuses on the revision of three main funding sources –MEDIA at the European level and the British Film Institute and BRITDOC at the British level- which influence the dynamics of documentary filmmaking today enabling resources to be delivered under specific frameworks and supporting the development of connections with stakeholders that become partners and allies of the documentaries with common grounds of work, particular contexts and themes. The third chapter takes a closer look on the exhibition and distribution business structure and platforms to find a universe of possibilities where the future of audio-visual narratives still to be defined, but where certainly documentary has found a way to reach audiences and stand as a powerful medium of transformation.

A literature review disclosed that even under very strict caries preventive control, in young Swedish people many initial approximal lesions slowly progress. A study was performed to investigate if the same trend could be seen in young Danish adults. In 1996 a group of Danish military conscripts were investigated clinically and radiographically. Based on the radiographs, one lesion with radiolucency up to one third in the dentine was randomly selected from each conscript. Contact was established with these former conscripts in 2002 and radiographs taken around 2002 were used to investigate the state of the selected lesions in terms of regression, stabilization or progression. It was observed that about 60% of the selected lesions had progressed during the 5 to 6 year period. Therefore there was a need to look for other preventive measures than those traditionally used in a Danish context, such as instructions in flossing and local application of fluoride. Looking through the literature, it was realized that sealing of occlusal lesions was highly effective but this procedure was not used on approximal surfaces. The next step was to investigate if it was technically possible to seal approximal lesions and if so what material should be used. A laboratory study was conducted in which 6 dental materials were compared in relation to: their handling, presence at the surface of the lesion, and ability to penetrate into a lesion. Based on that study Gluma One Bond® (Heraeus Kulzer) was selected to be used in further studies. The final step was an 18-month clinical investigation to evaluate the effect of sealing approximal lesions. About 80 young adults from Denmark and Colombia participated in this investigation; each had at least 2 initial approximal lesions. One lesion was selected for sealing; the other one acted as control. Baseline radiographs were taken by means of special equipment so new radiographs could be taken in the same position after 18 months. The sealing procedure was performed in accordance with the guideline designed in the laboratory study. The patient was instructed to floss all sealed and non-sealed approximal lesions. Radiographs were used to assess caries progression in the test and control lesions in three ways: by comparing baseline with final scoring of the lesions on the individual conventional radiographs, by reading the conventional radiographs as pairs and finally using subtraction radiography of digitized images. The examiner was blind to lesion type (test or control) for all comparisons and also blind to whether radiographs were baseline or follow up in the case of examinations of the single radiographs and paired comparison. Repeat assessment of the radiographs was conducted on 20% of the radiographs and the subtraction images. For the paired comparison of radiographs and subtraction radiography assessment significantly more control lesions progressed (47.2%; 85%) than test lesions (22.2%; 43%) (P-values<0.05). For the independent examination of the radiographs a similar pattern was seen but the difference between the two groups was not statistically significant (P=0.06). In conclusion, many approximal lesions seemed to progress on young adults irrespective of the preventive regime they were advised to take. This study has developed and investigated a technique for sealing early approximal lesions which seems to be more effective at preventing lesion progression than conventional interventions such as brushing and flossing. There is a need however, for defining more precisely criteria at selecting lesions to be sealed; for developing better materials in terms of better penetration skill and that they stay there, and for clinical investigations which evaluate the long term effect of sealing the approximal lesions.

This work constitutes an inquiry into the field of memory studies. Through the presentation and the analysis of a particular case study I will provide an insight to some approaches to address the field. To begin with a general background of the case study will be presented to fully understand its social, historical and cultural connotation, and then I introduce the dynamic of how this work will be developed from this point. Finally this research concludes with some recommendations about the concepts previously developed.

Contrary to the conventional orthodoxy of the World Bank, lack of formalized or secured property rights is not the main reason why titles do not become loans in Colombia. My research shows that the institutional barriers that prevent poor people from leveraging their assets are rooted in the Colombian constitution, and in the lack of private financial institutions willing to lend to the poor. Low and middle income populations cannot use their houses as collateral to obtain loans aimed to finance business because the Colombian constitution mandates families to secure a share of their assets as Family Wealth. As a result, families have to protect their estate from being impounded by lenders. When the law allows the use of the house as collateral— for financing the purchase, improvement or enlargement of housing — there are few formal financial institutions lending to the poor. Despite of the importance of this for land-titling programs, it passed unnoticed by the World Bank, who approved a US$100 million loan for the Bogotá Urban Service Project in 2003. This thesis reveals the assumptions made by the Bank regarding the importance of property formalization as a mechanism to create massive equity out of the improved real estate in the informal sector. It contrasts the Bank’s assumptions with the actual process of upgrading in Bogotá. Leveraging poor people’s assets would be critical to the well-functioning of upgrading program, but these policies should rely on a mechanism other than the willingness of formal institutions to lend to the poor.

Customer life time value (CLV) and delinquency behavior are two of the most important firm key performance indicators at the banking industry, and at any other business scenario in which customers are granted credits or loans. Coordination in decisions regarding these two important variables is essential to achieve overall firm performance. We develop a dynamic method that allows simultaneous coordination between CLV and credit risk management decisions while taking into account their time varying behavior, the observed and unobserved customer heterogeneity, and the panel data structure inherent to the CLV-credit risk context. The method, which is a combination of the extended Kalman filter for exponential family of distributions and a fixed effects model has not been illustrated and/or implemented before. Therefore, we show its validity form a theoretical and computational point of view, and how its results can be interpreted to make the desired decision coordination task using synthetic data.

Esta investigación aborda el tema de las significaciones imaginarias sociales en los espacios públicos, específicamente en el servicio de transporte colectivo de pasajeros en la ciudad de Bogotá (Colombia). Realiza articulaciones entre los procesos socio-históricos, las significaciones, las ciudadanías y las subjetividades. Se ancla teóricamente en la propuesta de campos de problemas de la subjetividad desarrollada por Ana María Fernández y equipo, al igual que su apuesta metodológica: la problematización recursiva. Sus principales hallazgos se centran en las insistencias de sentido relacionadas con estrategias de supervivencia de los grupos desigualados a través de pactos de complicidad; una desinstitucionalización, degradación y homogenización de lo público y pocas condiciones para la construcción de ciudadanías. En las prácticas se encontró una forma vincular bimodal.

Within a competitive environment, where entrepreneurs need to obtain funds, there is a need to understand the factors that could make the difference. Entrepreneurs in the technology sector In the South West of the UK and in Colombia were analyzed.  The first criteria must be to have access to sources of funds and approach the one that better fits the ventures characteristics. The study shows that equity and grants are the most suitable sources for ventures in the early stages. The multi-method quantitative approach selected included giving surveys to tech-entrepreneurs, 29 in the UK and 35 in Colombia; 2 structured interviews with investors and 16 structured observations of investment panels. The main characteristics identified could be grouped into three categories: the entrepreneur, the product and the market. Those should be supported by an appropriate network, business plan and advisers. However, with all the investment proposals revised by investors, the proposals finally selected are the ones that have a good balance among all the elements. And the experience of the investor, his knowledge and the negotiation with the entrepreneur are what define the value of the venture. Finally, it was shown that there is a need for advisers in Colombia to prepare current entrepreneurs and make them aware of the critical factors. Given the results, it could be said that the vast knowledge and results of previous studies could be applied to advise entrepreneurs in Colombia.

Understanding and solving transportation issues is a pressing need for governments in Latin America and the Caribbean region. An increasing number of private vehicles, chronically deficient public transport systems, and a lack of infrastructure that guarantees the safety of non-motorized transport users characterize most of the major urban centers in this region, including Bogotá. – capital of Colombia –, the city in which the present study is focused. As a result, there is the emergence of economic, social and environmental problems including congestion, loss of time, informality, inequality, growing greenhouse gas emissions and pollution, public health problems, etc. An approach that can greatly contribute to solving Bogot.’s dire transport situation is the combination of bicycle and public transport use. This approach can have a substantial impact in people’s mobility, motivate a shift in mindset that can potentially lead to a car-free lifestyle, and improve the overall system’s sustainability. These outcomes have been evidenced not only in developed cities like Munich but also in other cities within Colombia like Medellín.  The overarching goal of the present study is to reveal the attitude of Bogot. residents towards cycle-transit integration, gather insights from existing cycle-transit users, and formulate strategies to address the system’s structural deficiencies.The study includes an extensive review of existing literature on accessibility to public transport and the concept of cycle-transit integration, commonly known as bike-and-ride, as well as a description of the current mobility situation in Bogotá. This is combined with face-to-face and online surveys to determine cycle-transit users’ demographic profile and trip characteristics, understand their perception of the current system’s performance and issues, and identify how they prioritize measures aimed at improving the whole cycle-transit integration. The combination of a deep-dive in cycle-transit integration theory and first-hand verification and understanding of the reality faced by cycle-?transit users in Bogot. leads to the development of a set of specific recommendations organized in a three-step course of action: i) incentives ii) soft measures iii) physical infrastructure enhancements. The study finalizes with an outline of the actions that should follow this thesis.

The current political context in Colombia with an ongoing peace process requires to implement measures to rectify past political repression and to create adequate conditions for exercising political opposition. The physical elimination and social stigmatization of a political opposition group, as it happened with the Unión Patriótica, are weak foundations for a post-conflict situation. I will suggest that a collective reparation for UP victims which recognises not just the damage produced individually, but the harm suffered as a collective, could serve to foster trust between the parties on the negotiations table. I claim that a reparation strategy centered in the concept of dignity would respond more efficiently to the harm caused to this collective. I state that, contrary to the common practice, it is possible to conceptualise a collective reparation for groups with no ethnic, cultural or religious bonds.