This dissertation analyzes health human capital issues in developing countries. The first two essays examine the production of human capital at the household level, and the third essay analyzes supply of health care services. The first essay tests for noncooperative behavior using the Mexican Family Life Survey (MXFLS), a nationally representative longitudinal survey of households that identifies and keeps track of local and international migrants. Migration introduces asymmetries of information that might trigger noncooperative behavior of spouses left behind. I use the MXFLS to study noncooperative behavior in Mexican households and the way this behavior and effects children's human capital.I find that migration causes noncooperative behavior in the spouse left behind, namely spouses reduce the time in doing chores and do not change their labor supply. At the same time, boys do more agricultural work and girls have to spend more time in taking care of other members. Migration positively affects school enrollment, but nonlinear e effects suggest younger children are bearing most of the negative effect because, as the literature suggests, lower school enrollment at early ages means lower cognitive achievement later on. In the second essay I analyze production of health in Chinese children. Modernization and subsequent changes in lifestyle have caused a dramatic increase in prevalence of obesity in China.Since obesity is one of the main forces driving noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), increases in prevalence of obesity in children lead to higher incidence of NCDs and reduction in health human capital. Intervention in public policy must be based on an understanding of how health is produced in the household. I use the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) to carry out structural estimation of the health production function for children in China. Results suggest that calorie intake is the most important input in the production of excessive weight with an impact on weight three times larger than sedentary activities and six times larger than physical activities.Calorie intake also has a more than proportional effect on unhealthy extra weight. These results suggest that public health policies must focus on reducing excessive calorie intake. The third essay studies subsidies for public hospitals in Colombia. Health services in Colombia are provided by public and private hospitals that, by law, must compete with one another in a perfectly competitive environment. However, by constitutional mandate, public hospitals must guarantee health care for all - even in municipalities where market conditions cannot sustain a hospital and government subsidization is required.The subsidy should provide the hospital enough solvencies to operate as well as incentives to be efficient. I propose a method to estimate subsidies for public hospitals. The method combines measures of efficiency derived from cost frontiers and production frontiers. Estimations for 2008 suggest an aggregate subsidy of $4869.2 MM Colombian pesos. Also, the proportion of costs that must be subsidized is lower for hospitals that offer more complex health services.

The relationship between the perception of security and governance in Colombia was studied. The thesis explores the reasons behind the disparity between data about Colombia’s security conditions and the evolution of Colombians perception of their own subjective security.The analysis of public opinion surveys and official data, when contrasted, make evident the interconnected relationship between the incumbent presidents and the levels of governance. Implications for the country’s future political stability are discussed as well as the international consequences caused by Colombia’s instability.

Miguel Angel Rojas es uno de los artistas colombianos contemporáneos más prolíficos. Sus inicios como dibujante hiperrealista, su incursión en la pintura neoexpresionista de la siguiente década, sus obras indigenistas – interculturales de los años 90 y sus más recientes obras políticas referidas al narcotráfico son en conjunto, manifestaciones de un espíritu creativo, curioso y autoexigente.Sin embargo su obra fue poco conocida y divulgada hasta fechas recientes. Su actitud estética, profusa, ecléctica y abierta a los cambios, refleja el temperamento del mejor arte colombiano, aquel que le ha permitido entrar y salir con éxito y desprejuicidamente de las impredecibles y siempre cambiantes corrientes y contracorrientes del arte contemporáneo sin perder de vista su realidad local.Esta investigación intenta realizar por primera vez una revisión de la obra total del artista, cubriendo tres décadas de trabajo. Se da a conocer su obra y la interesante producción colombiana actual.

Los medios de comunicación, y en el caso específico de la prensa mexicana generalista, se han sumado a la creciente tendencia mundial de generar contenidos para los diferentes dispositivos móviles (teléfonos inteligentes, tabletas, e-readers, etc.) de acuerdo a las diversas plataformas o sistemas operativos móviles que corren en ellos (iOS, Android, BlackBerry, etc.), ya sea, entre otros, como forma de explorar nuevos canales de distribución de información noticiosa y nuevos modelos de pago. La investigación presenta un breve recorrido sobre bibliografía previa en el ámbito del periodismo móvil, enfatizando en la perspectiva que atañe, los móviles como un nuevo soporte para la adaptación, distribución y venta de contenido noticioso generado por las industrias periodísticas, en este caso la prensa.A partir de esto la construcción de un marco teórico que abarca la explicación sobre qué es lo móvil (redes móviles, dispositivos móviles, plataformas móviles e internet móvil); para luego aterrizar en el periodismo móvil (su definición, contenidos periodísticos en móviles, la prensa en los móviles, qué deben tener en cuenta los periódicos a la hora de incursionar en móviles, y modelo de negocio).  La investigación de carácter exploratorio y descriptivo, implementó el método de observación directa no participante estructurada y dividió el estudio en dos etapas.Una primera donde se realizó una observación general a la prensa mexicana generalista en plataformas móviles, y una segunda que consistió en la observación específica, como casos de estudio, a El Universal (diario generalista nacional) y El Norte (diario generalista regional) en las plataformas móviles que registraron mayor adopción, iOS (iPhone, iPod Touch y iPad) y el e-reader Kindle. Más adelante se presentan los hallazgos “en duro”, tanto la observación general como la observación específica, desglosándose los mismos por cada una de las categorías que se establecieron para la investigación.En la interpretación de los hallazgos se destacan aspectos como la preferencia de la prensa mexicana generalista por el desarrollo de aplicaciones para iOS de Apple (tableta iPad, teléfono inteligente iPhone, reproductor multimedia portátil iPod Touch) por encima de cualquier otra plataforma, el desarrollo de otras aplicaciones de productos informativos y noticiosos propios de la casa editorial, la escasa presencia en e-readers (sólo en el Kindle de Amazon), el cambio de roles (el propietario de la plataforma / dispositivo móvil es el nuevo intermediario, y los medios de comunicación, entre ellos la prensa, pasan a ser uno más de los proveedores de contenido, en este caso noticioso), los medios de comunicación, entre ellos la prensa, deben adaptarse a las políticas y reglamentaciones que exigan los propietarios de las plataformas / dispostivos si quieren hacer presencia en ellos, así entre otros aspectos.Por otro lado, se encontró que la aplicación de El Norte para iOS (iPhone / iPod Touch) era rica en contenido y estable, la de El Universal para iOS (iPhone / iPod Touch) rica en contenido pero con prolemas de estabilidad y de arquitectura informativa; la de El Norte para iOS (iPad) rica en contenido pero con problemas de estabilidad y limitada en funciones; la de El Universal para iOS (iPad) limitada en contenido, escasas funciones, lenta y extremadamente inestable; y El Universal en Kindle que respondía a lo solicitado por Amazon para este tipo de publicaciones. Vale mencionar que la investigación es pionera en su temática, ya que hasta donde la bibliografía consultada lo permitió determinar, no se encontraron otros estudios de similarescaracterísticas desarrollados en algún país latinoamericano de habla hispana.

Bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) is an important pathogen of cattle that has been frequently associated with in vitro produced (IVP) embryos. The zona pellucida (ZP) of IVP embryos shows higher affinity for BVDV than the ZP of in vivo produced embryos and treatments that can eliminate BVDV from in vivo produced embryos are unsuccessful in the case of the IVP embryos. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether different culture conditions change the affinity of the ZP of day-7 IVP bovine embryos to BVDV. Morula and blastocysts were produced under four different culture systems: 1) in vitro culture in Menezo's B2 media and coculture with bovine oviductal epithelial cells (B2-BOEC culture); 2) in vitro culture in modified synthetic oviductai fluid with aminoacids (mSOFaa culture); 3) in vivo culture in ligated oviducts of synchronized sheep; and 4) in vivo produced embryos flushed from superovulated cows seven days after breeding. The embryos were exposed to BVDV for 24 hours, and washed 10 times and treated with trypsin, according to the recommendations of the international Embryo Transfer Society. After pooling the embryos in groups of five, the samples were homogenized and tested for the presence of BVDV by indirect immimoperoxidase assay (IIP) or reverse transcription-polymerase chah reaction (RT-PCR). No significant differences were found between the two detection systems but the IIP assay tended to detect a higher number of positive sarnples.According to the IIP assay, the mSOFaa group had a significantliy higher number of positive findings (78.6%) followed by the B2-BOEC group (32.1%), and the oviductal culture group (7.1%). None of the in vivo embryos tested positive for BVDV. These results show that different culture conditions in which embryos develop alter the way the ZP interacts with pathogens. The oviductal culture of in vitro produced zygotes seems to be beneficial in reducing the affinity of the ZP to BVDV and the washes and trypsin treatments applied to these embryos after culture appear to be more effective than in embryos completely produced in vitro.

El Estado colombiano ha tenido un conflicto armado desde la década del 60 del siglo XX, cuyas raíces se remontan a décadas pasadas a ésta. En éste han participado distintos grupos de izquierda y de derecha que reclutaron de manera indiscriminada niños, niñas y adolescentes. Durante años, se realizaron diferentes esfuerzos para obtener la desmovilización de los grupos armados y alcanzar la paz. Estos esfuerzos se enmarcaron, en mayor o menor medida, en las herramientas de la justicia transicional.En ese marco, las políticas de juzgamiento desarrolladas buscaban en los últimos tiempos sancionar a las personas que cometieron graves crímenes con ocasión de su participación en el grupo armado. Estas políticas, sin embargo, se realizaron a partir de un imaginario fuertemente arraigado según el cual los grupos armados estaban compuestos solo por adultos.Sin embargo, a los adolescentes reclutados ilícitamente y desvinculados de los grupos armados se les aplicó un régimen penal ordinario, distinto al de los adultos, que generó prácticas discriminatorias según la forma de desvinculación del grupo y respecto del grupo que provenían. Pero además, el trato jurídico brindado no fue menos gravoso que el establecido para los adultos que los reclutaron, entre otras cosas, porque las políticas de juzgamiento diseñadas para los desmovilizados no tuvieron perspectiva de infancia.

There is a great need of expanding horizons for modelling and prediction on cycling planning. This Research evaluates prediction of cyclists’ movement through an urban street environment, by using the theory of “Natural Movement” (Space Syntax), due to the positive explanation of pedestrian movement on similar environments. By relating spatial patterns to movement, Munich Urban area was chosen and a Geographic Information System model of the Real Street and cycling network was defined and refined.A series of locations were selected to test their correlation to real cycling traffic counts and with a GIS based transport model. Building this model from Open Source Data and Empirical Traffic Counts leaded to a series of recommendations regarding higher quality for experimental data and how cycling infrastructure should be modelled, considering a different approach on how to model network elements and embracing further factors that influence the route choice for cyclists.

Colombia presents an elevated vulnerability to climate change with the highest recurrence of extreme weather events and increasing emergencies on the continent (Ideam et al, 2010). The Colombian government has been developing The Colombian Strategy for Low Carbon Development, seeking to mitigate climate change impacts in the country (Ideam et al, 2010); however, it is currently at designing stage and no actions have been implemented so far.The United Kingdom (UK) has been a global pioneer in low carbon development, with applied strategies at national and local scale that have involved the wider community. In addition, other non-governmental initiatives have promoted low carbon development from a community perspective, looking for a more localised and resilient community, through local projects implementation on food, energy production and Housing (Hopkins, 2008).As a result, UK case studies have provided a solid panorama since community initiatives have shown significant key learnings (Hopkins, 2011) providing an opportunity for achieving a climate-resilient growth in Colombia. Consequently, the present research aimed study to what extent, United Kingdom low carbon communities case studies, with particular reference in Transition Leicester, can be applied within the Colombian climate change scheme. The low carbon measures implemented and different stakeholders involve in UK low carbon communities were identified in order to obtain an insight scheme in Colombia, where opportunities and constrictions of its applicability were subsequently analysed, since socioeconomic conditions in Colombia vary considerably from the UK scheme, with a constant social conflict scenarios, large regional inequalities and an increasingly affected biodiversity (Côté et al, 2010; Ideam et al, 2010). Given the masters connotation of the study, further research is recommended.

Wind power is one of the key players in the European Union target of 20% share of energy from renewable sources in 2020 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on energy supply. In order to accomplish such target, some European countries are placing the wind farms further from the coast to exploit the higher wind speeds at open sea. However the traditional transmission system for offshore wind farms based on High Voltage Alternate Current (HVAC) is not appropriate for long distances. Hence, this research work was carried out to examine and determine the most suitable transmission system for offshore wind farms in terms of technical, environmental and economic costs.The methodological approach employed in the investigations was arranged in two parts. First, a quantitative and qualitative method of literature review involving critical examination of documented information and experiences of the two commercially available transmission systems: HVAC and HVDC (High Voltage Direct Current); second, a quantitative method that investigates and analyzes an adequate transmission system for a propose an offshore wind cluster in terms of economic and environmental costs.From the analysis, HVDC based on Voltage Source Converters (VSC) exhibited technical superiority over HVAC for long distance submarine transmission, control of active and reactive power, grid support and connection of asynchronous grids. Furthermore, in the proposed offshore wind farm cluster of 1 GW of installed capacity located at 150 km from the point of connection, after a distance of 90 km HVDC becomes more economic due to reduced system losses, and after a distance of 125 km HVDC presents lower environmental impacts associated with the raw materials used in the transmission system. At such point, particular to each transmission project, VSC-HVDC surpasses HVAC in technical, environmental and economic terms.

The paper examines the way in which several private firms in Colombia have deployed Corporate Social Responsibility programmes via peacebuilding initiatives, as in a gift-exchange scheme. These initiatives often have taken place in different regions of the country regardless of the geopolitical influence armed groups have on them. Whereas the Colombian government and FARC guerrillas have started peace-talks since 2012, many areas are still vulnerable to the reproduction of violence. The national –however non-state– campaign ""Soy Capaz"" led by 120 big companies, reveal a deep interest from within the private sector to engage in peacebuilding as part of its corporate strategy. The objective of this paper is to describe how peace initiatives by the private sector could be interpreted as a gift-giving relationship between corporate firms and government officials, institutions, and the Colombian society as a whole.Higher corporate expansion and regional consolidation, national and international positive reputation, increased leverage in government decision-making and policy-making, and a greater consumption of goods and services, are possible outcomes among other benefits that could be expected in exchange for these peace initiatives led from and by the private sector. However, the question Mauss already posited in his search for “a rule of legality and self-interest”, a “power residing in the object” (2002, p. 4), suggests a possible underlying and even deeper interest behind these initiatives. The very nature of this gift –its embedded asymmetry for reciprocation, its morality and its spirituality– creates affect within a population desirous of peace and reconciliation. However, the seriousness and scope of such venture coming from the Colombian private sector are still an issue to be clarified.