Interspecific competition among secondary cavity nesters can involve physical conflicts between individuals, which may lead to serious injuries or death. Here we report a case of aggression by a pair of Chilean Swallows (Tachycineta meyeni) towards a nestling of the Thorn-tailed Rayadito (Aphrastura spinicauda) in the sub-Antarctic forests of Chile. This aggression caused the displacement of the breeding rayaditos from an occupied nest box and it appears, nestling mortality. Since levels of aggression among cavity nesters depend on the synchrony of their breeding phenologies, further research is needed to study the prevalence of nest usurpation by Chilean Swallows and its relation to the degree of breeding synchrony with other cavity nesters inhabiting the sub-Antarctic forests.

Abstract: Social connections and interdependencies have increased today to levels never previously imagined. Traditionally, operating under the modernist rational model, decision-makers focused on the search for solutions that could be applied to all times and places, regardless of unique social, political and economic contexts. Along these lines, Latin American nations adopted foreign practices in the shaping of their cities and policies. But today, research has brought into question the universality of policies and plans, arguing that local realities are unique in many ways and policies and practices from other latitudes do not necessarily fit, at least not in ways they did elsewhere. This dissertation examines one policy implemented in Bogotá, Colombia, which has become a major inspiration for cities both in the North and the South. In particular, it studies what happens as policy moves from one place to another. This is a case study of policy mobilities, understood as the processes of moving ideas, people and resources from one location to another; this dissertation sheds light on the processes and transformations taking place along the way by examining the implementation of a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system in Bogotá, following the policy´s trajectory to the national scene, and then by analyzing its arrival to Bucaramanga. The dissertation pays special attention to strategies that are reshaping the role of public and private actors in the urban planning and policy arena in Colombia. In other words, this work examines urban planning and policy transformations resulting from national BRT policy mobilities as multiple actors, processes, institutional arrangements and local conditions are impacted by the adoption of the policies. Resumen: Las conexiones sociales y las interdependencias han aumentado hoy a niveles nunca antes imaginados. Tradicionalmente, operando bajo el modelo racional modernista, los tomadores de decisiones se enfocaban en la búsqueda de soluciones que pudieran aplicarse a todos los tiempos y lugares, independientemente de contextos sociales, políticos y económicos únicos. En este orden de ideas, las naciones latinoamericanas adoptaron prácticas extranjeras en la configuración de sus ciudades y políticas. Pero hoy, la investigación ha puesto en tela de juicio la universalidad de las políticas y los planes, argumentando que las realidades locales son únicas en muchos sentidos y que las políticas y prácticas de otras latitudes no necesariamente encajan, al menos no de la manera en que lo hicieron en otros lugares. Esta disertación examina una política implementada en Bogotá, Colombia, que se ha convertido en una gran inspiración para las ciudades tanto del Norte como del Sur. En particular, estudia qué ocurre cuando la política se mueve de un lugar a otro. Este es un estudio de caso de las movilidades de políticas, entendido como los procesos de trasladar ideas, personas y recursos de un lugar a otro; Esta disertación arroja luces sobre los procesos y las transformaciones que tienen lugar en el camino al examinar la implementación de un sistema de transporte basado en buses rápidos en Bogotá, siguiendo la trayectoria de la política hacia la escena nacional, y luego analizando su llegada a Bucaramanga. La disertación presta especial atención a las estrategias que están redefiniendo el papel de los actores públicos y privados en el ámbito de la planificación y la política urbanas en Colombia. En otras palabras, este trabajo examina la planificación urbana y las transformaciones de políticas resultantes de las movilidades nacionales de políticas de BRT ya que múltiples actores, procesos, arreglos institucionales y condiciones locales se ven afectados por la adopción de las políticas.

On average, 44% of total water abstraction in Europe is used in agriculture. Evidence of water scarcity in Europe is borne out by research that shows increasing strain on water resources in 30% of EU member states. Current research seems to validate the view that wastewater treatment and reuse is a technical opportunity to address the imbalances between agricultural water demand and European water resources in the long term. Currently, just 2.4% of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents are reused, and thus the water reuse potential in Europe remains high. This document reports on and analyses the performance of a prototype-scale plant installed to treat real wastewater in rural Spain using a Treat & Reuse Membrane Bioreactor (T&R MBR). It shows that the T&R MBR is an improvement on MBR operations due to the fact that it produced a solids-free, nutrient rich and high-quality permeate in which Escherichia Coli was removed to values < 1 ufc/100ml. Furthermore, Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD5), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Turbidity and Suspended Solids (SS) were typically lowered to concentrations below the legal limit established in countries such as France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Cyprus and Portugal. Additionally, the system was able to extract nutrients from the wastewater inflow and to retain them in the permeate at 80% and 60% of the Nitrogen (once transformed to Nitrates) and Phosphorous, respectively. These results, combined with the continuing reduction of capital and operating costs for the T&R MBRs, suggest that they are an increasingly cost-effective technology for producing treated effluents suitable for water reuse in agriculture. This study also suggests possible limitations regarding the fate of micro-pollutants during treatment. Nevertheless, the system works efficiently so long as the wastewater input meets the typical composition of raw municipal wastewater with minor contributions of industrial wastewater. This would imply low concentration of trace organic contaminants (TrOCs) and Heavy Metals, as well as slight to moderate salinity (i.e. 0.7-3.0 dS/m). In spite of the fact that the T&R MBR technology can reduce the fresh water and fertilizer consumption of the agriculture sector, this system cannot be implemented in countries where the legislation restricts the reuse of effluents with significant concentrations of Nitrates and Phosphorous (e.g., Germany). Therefore, the present document suggests a set of technical criteria addressing the European challenges regarding water reuse in agriculture.

Passive seismic interferometry takes advantage of natural ambient seismic noise generated by the wind, the storms and the human activities (e.g. cars, trains and hereafter pumps) to recover the slight variations of the seismic wave velocity induced by changes in the groundwater level. Here we compare the seismic measurements with actual piezometric data acquired on the Crépieux-Charmy (Lyon, France) groundwater exploitation field. We show the excellent correspondance between variations in the groundwater level and seismic velocity variations. We present hereafter the time and space monitoring of an hydraulic dome formed to prevent biological and chemical pollutions to enter the exploitation field. The vertical resolution of seismic measurement corresponds to a 20 cm change of waterlevel; the horizontal resolution is solely limited by the number of seismic stations used, and is about 30 m in the present study. This study confirms the possibility of groundwater monitoring in an industrial context with ambient seismic noise.

As it has been proved in several researches carried out by different authors, riverine floods and the scour induced by these are one of the main causes of bridge collapse. More specifically, local scour causes a loss in the lateral resistance of bridge foundation, thus potentially increasing the seismic vulnerability of a bridge system. The present study assesses the combination of scour and earthquake effects for a bridge located in a road network crossing valleys in the Pyrenees Mountain range (France). The bridge spans over a river stream of trapezoidal cross-section, which is more able to capture actual physical behaviours than the rectangular section generally used for similar studies. The bridge consists in a continuous RC deck supported by two multi-column piers. Making use of the OpenSees software, a 3D finite-element model of the bridge is built and subjected to a suite of 312 ground motions (i.e., non-linear time history analyses). Fragility curves are developed for this multi-hazard case study, considering specific levels of damage that might be of interest, as well a comparison between fragility characteristics obtained in the absence and presence of scour. In order to fully study the potentially detrimental effects of scour on the dynamic behavior of the considered bridge, it is considered different scour combinations in the non-linear time-history analyses, such as: • Equal scour depth in all columns. • Same scour depth in the columns of the same pier. • Same scour depth in columns of different piers. • Scour depth concentrated in just one column of the bridge This study demonstrates the ability of a given numerical model to account for various hazard loadings and failure mechanisms, thus providing support to decision making regarding bridge management and monitoring.

Drawing on the legitimacy theory framework, this study introduces an alternative means to spot “fuzzy reporting” signals as a way to detect greenwashing at the firm level. Its approach is based on the way the sustainability reporting process can mislead stakeholders after critical incidents take place. In order to do so, a single environmental incident, which took place in Colombia, is analyzed in light of what happened before, during and afterwards, with special emphasis on the corporate disclosure process performed by the company involved. Results obtained give support to the assumption that fuzzy reporting can be objectively detected not only through the analysis of annual sustainability reports, but also by tracking other forms of corporate messages when a specific concern is carefully followed. This study’s contribution is two-fold. First, it builds on the theoretical notions of greenwashing and fuzzy reporting by illustrating a practical and objective way to identify some deceiving corporate practices. Second, it empirically evaluates this approach in a sensitive context in order to obtain better illustration and prepare the groundwork for further studies.

The purpose of this study is to identify factors that determine computer and security expertise in end users. They can be significant determinants of human behaviour and interactions in the security and privacy context. Standardized, externally valid instruments for measuring end-user security expertise are non-existent. A questionnaire encompassing skills and knowledge-based questions was developed to identify critical factors that constitute expertise in end users. Exploratory factor analysis was applied on the results from 898 participants from a wide range of populations. Cluster analysis was applied to characterize the relationship between computer and security expertise. Ordered logistic regression models were applied to measure efficacy of the proposed security and computing factors in predicting user comprehension of security concepts: phishing and certificates. There are levels to peoples’ computer and security expertise that could be reasonably measured and operationalized. Four factors that constitute computer security-related skills and knowledge are, namely, basic computer skills, advanced computer skills, security knowledge and advanced security skills, and these are identified as determinants of computer expertise. Findings from this work can be used to guide the design of security interfaces such that it caters to people with different expertise levels and does not force users to exercise more cognitive processes than required.

Kinesiology tape is commonly applied to enhance muscle functioning. The targeted improvement could be influenced by the neuromuscular stimulation acquired within the muscle and modulated by the mechanoreceptor after its application. The importance of the muscular facilitation effect that K-TAPE may produce within the muscle lies on the direct impact of this property on athletes’ performance, health promotion, injury- prevention and rehabilitations programs. This study seeks to investigate if the application of K-TAPE, from origin to insertion of the RF, significantly increase the motor unit firing within the muscle, after performing a MVC. More precisely, this study examines whether this application leads to a better muscle functioning or conversely, no significant differences on the electrical stimulation within the rectus femuris muscle when using K-TAPE after MVC. Based on an EMG experimental study and using pre-test/post-test designs, twenty healthy subjects were randomly allocated into experiment and control groups. Using regression analysis to compare pre-test and post-test EMG outputs, findings of this study confirm a significant improvement on the neuromuscular facilitation of the rectus femuris of 7% on average. This result is statistically significant at 5% confidence level. Additional tests show that the difference can be as high as 25% after the application of the K-tape. Further analysis on the control group could not reject the theory proved on the experiment group. The contribution made in this study proves that Kinesiology tape can be used to enhance the muscular functioning.

Según la OMS, la enfermedad coronaria es la primera causa de muerte a nivel mundial, asociándose a la influencia de una cada vez mayor expectativa de vida y una alta prevalencia de comorbilidades como la diabetes y la HTA. La definición cada vez más precisa de los roles terapéuticos entre el Intervencionismo Coronario Percutáneo y la Cirugía de Revascularización Miocárdica para el abordaje de las lesiones complejas del árbol coronario en donde se preconiza el tratamiento quirúrgico, y el hecho que entre un 7–15% de los injertos realizados se ocluyen antes del alta hospitalaria alcanzando al año cifras de hasta un 30% en relación principalmente con la calidad técnica, ha motivado el desarrollo de diferentes métodos para la evaluación intraoperatoria de los hemoductos. El objetivo de esta investigación es, por medio de una revisión de la literatura actual, dilucidar cuál es el más idóneo, inocuo, costo efectivo y reproducible de los disponibles, concluyéndose que a pesar de ser la angiografía intraoperatoria convencional el goldstandar, no se adapta a las necesidades descritas, imposibilitando su uso generalizado. La Flujometría por Tiempo de Transito es un método sencillo de realizar y económico, que permite la valoración objetiva de la calidad de los injertos con una especificidad de hasta el 98.4%, una sensibilidad que oscila entre el 25%-96%,considerado como una herramienta intraoperatoria de evaluación adecuada, siendo así el método que más se acopla a las características del sistema de salud cubano teniendo mayores opciones de ser generalizado en las instituciones que presten el servicio de cirugía cardiovascular.

Abstract: Ludwig Wittgenstein, austrian-born philosopher, wrote that “the limits of my language mean the limits of my world. All I know is what I have words for”. We tend to think so highly of our language because we think so highly about ourselves. Yet imagine being able to communicate emotions without words. Words can’t express the visceral nature of our emotions. Words aren’t enough. How can we experience our emotional world, and others, in a more visceral, primitive way? This project proposes the creation of a new sense, using embodied technology, to allow human beings to have a different experience of each other’s emotions, through the study of the long distance relationship scenario. In this human augmentation scenario, design, and specially speculative design have an inherent power to create discussion, awareness and bring attention to how the new developed technologies could affect our existence. This project is meant to ask questions rather than find a solution. It is meant for everyone who is ready to think about the future of human beings and our evolution as a species. This document presents an overview of the five (5) months project while detailing the extension of the work and exploration of the product proposed for emotional human augmentation. Resumen: Ludwig Wittgenstein, filósofo nacido en Austria, escribió ""los límites de mi lenguaje son los límites de mi mundo"". Todo lo que sé es aquello para lo que tengo palabras "". Tenemos tan buena opinión de nuestro idioma, porque tenemos una alta opinión de nosotros mismos. Sin embargo, imagine poder comunicar emociones sin palabras. Las palabras no pueden expresar la naturaleza visceral de nuestras emociones. Las palabras no son suficientes. ¿Cómo podemos experimentar nuestro mundo emocional, y otros, de una manera más visceral y primitiva? Este proyecto propone la creación de un nuevo sentido, utilizando tecnología incorporada al cuerpo humano, para permitir a los seres humanos tener una experiencia diferente de las emociones de los demás, a través del estudio del escenario de una relación a larga distancia. En este escenario de aumento humano, el diseño y especialmente el diseño especulativo tienen un poder inherente para crear debate, conciencia y llamar la atención sobre cómo las nuevas tecnologías en desarrollo actual podrían afectar nuestra existencia. Este proyecto pretende hacer preguntas en lugar de encontrar una solución. Está dirigido a todos los que estén dispuestos a pensar sobre el futuro de los seres humanos y nuestra evolución como especie. Este documento presenta una visión general del proyecto de cinco (5) meses al tiempo que detalla la extensión del trabajo y la exploración del producto propuesto para el aumento humano emocional.