What Happened to Participation? Urban Development and Authoritarian Upgrading in Cairo's Informal Neighbourhoods

Participation appeared in development discourses for the first time in the 1970s, as a generic call for the involvement of the poor in development initiatives. Over the last three decades, the initial perspectives on participation intended as a project method for poverty reduction have evolved into a coherent and articulated theoretical elaboration, in which participation figures among the paraphernalia of good governance promotion: participation has acquired the status of “new orthodoxy”. Nevertheless, the experience of the implementation of participatory approaches in development projects seemed to be in the majority of cases rather disappointing, since the transformative potential of ‘participation in development’ depends on a series of factors in which every project can actually differ from others: the ultimate aim of the approach promoted, its forms and contents and, last but not least, the socio-political context in which the participatory initiative is embedded. In Egypt, the signature of a project agreement between the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Federal Republic of Germany, in 1998, inaugurated a Participatory Urban Management Programme (PUMP) to be implemented in Greater Cairo by the German Technical Cooperation (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit, GTZ) and the Ministry of Planning (now Ministry of Local Development) and the Governorates of Giza and Cairo as the main counterparts. Now, ten years after the beginning of the PUMP/PDP and close to its end (December 2010), it is possible to draw some conclusions about the scope, the significance and the effects of the participatory approach adopted by GTZ and appropriated by the Egyptian counterparts in dealing with the issue of informal areas and, more generally, of urban development. Our analysis follows three sets of questions: the first set regards the way ‘participation’ has been interpreted and concretised by PUMP and PDP. The second is about the emancipating potential of the ‘participatory approach’ and its ability to ‘empower’ the ‘marginalised’. The third focuses on one hand on the efficacy of GTZ strategy to lead to an improvement of the delivery service in informal areas (especially in terms of planning and policies), and on the other hand on the potential of GTZ development intervention to trigger an incremental process of ‘democratisation’ from below.

Expanding Women's Worlds?: Development, Gender, and Environment in Rural Morocco

This honors thesis is an anthropological exploration of women's cooperatives in two regions of rural Morocco. Specifically, I am interested in how contemporary development projects such as the cooperative are understood by the peoples of these regions. By conducting first-hand ethnographic research among women's cooperatives in two drastically different environments of rural Morocco, I gain further insight into the roles that culture and geography play in determining the 'success' of cooperatives inlocal communities. In using the term 'success,' I will compare notions of success as used by both Western development organizations as well as local people in Morocco. I examine and analyze the very delicate and complex interaction that occurs between largely Western development agencies and local cultures particularly through the lens of gender. I will also convey the importance of an exchange of cultural practices through development projects rather than the imposition of one cultural system on another. In writing this thesis, I hope to contribute to the growing field of the anthropologyof development, a subset of cultural anthropology that examines international development practices and the economic, social, and political factors that have an impact on the local culture. I examine cooperatives from the perspectives of both the people whoparticipate in them through personal interviews as well as development institutions through an ongoing body of published literature. Focusing on gender implications that such development initiatives have on the rural cultures of Morocco, I argue that gender identities are crucial aspects of local cultures that must be addressed within development practices. On a broader scale, I argue that a deeper knowledge of local cultures is essential if development agencies are to be 'successful' in non-Western cultures.

Industrial Restructuring in the Budapest agglomeration

The major 'motor' of the recent Hungarian industrial development has been foreign direct investment, particularly by multinational companies. This has stimulated the development process, as shown by the dynamism of production, exports and profitability of industry in Budapest. On the other hand, this has also led to a split of the industrial sphere into its foreign and domestic sections, or into foreign-owned companies and domestic SMEs. The major question asked in this project is where is Hungarian industry heading and will the gap between the contracting domestic part and the foreign multinationals continue to widen or will they be joined in a much more favourable scenario. Barta sees this as a question of whether Hungary can avoid the 'dead-end street' of South Asian industrialising countries, and instead move towards a new Eastern European or Hungarian model. He concludes that Budapest industry does not follow any given model and indeed its development probably cannot be seen as a 'model' proper in itself, but is, or will be, a mixture of different elements. This would be a welcome fusion of Hungary's rich human resources of accumulated knowledge with foreign direct investment. Budapest would play an exceptional role in such a process, as the gateway for foreign output to the rest of the country. The share of industry in the Budapest economy will continue to decrease, but it will become a more modern and profitable sector. It will also fulfil a technological transfer role between the developed world and the Hungarian countryside (or even a larger region of central and eastern Europe). Barta predicts that Budapest industry will develop a special structure, with a large subcontractor network supporting the large foreign enterprises, and alongside this industrial districts formed by SMEs.

Success in Offshoring of Application Development – Does Culture Matter?

Recently, offshoring of information systems (IS) services to external vendors has seen considerable growth. Outsourcing to vendors in foreign countries brings about unique challenges which need to be understood and managed effectively. This paper explores cultural differences in IS offshoring arrangements involving German client organizations that outsource application development activities to Indian vendors. For this purpose, a research framework is developed based on both theoretical considerations and specific empirical observations from multiple case studies. The goal is to (1) explore the nature of cultural differences in offshoring arrangements in depth and to (2) analyze the relationship between those cultural differences and offshoring success. Based on the case findings, implications and practices for the management of offshore development projects are outlined.

Dynamics of governance and control in inter-organizational software development

In recent years, development of information systems (IS) has rapidly changed towards increasing division of labor between firms. Two trends are emerging. First, client companies increasingly outsource software development to external service providers. Second, the formerly oligopolistic enterprise application software industry has started to disintegrate into focal partnership networks – so called platform ecosystems. Despite the increasing prominence of IS outsourcing and platform ecosystems, many of these inter-organizational partnerships fail to achieve expected benefits. Ineffective governance and control frequently plays a pivotal role in producing these failures. While designing effective governance and control mechanisms is always challenging, inter-organizational software development projects are often business-critical and exhibit additional dynamics and uncertainty. As a consequence governance and control have to be adapted over time. The three research projects included in this book provide a better understanding of how and why governance and control can be effectively adapted over time. The implications for successful management of inter-organizational software development projects are highly relevant for theory and practice.

Local environmental knowledge: a key input for the sustainable development of Andean mountain communities

Local knowledge is crucial to both human development and environmental conservation. This is especially the case in mountain regions, where a combination of remoteness, harsh climatic conditions, rich cultural heritage, and high biological diversity has led to the development of complex local environmental knowledge systems. In the Andes for instance, rural populations mainly rely on their own environmental knowledge to ensure their food security and health. Recent studies conducted within Quechua communities in Peru and Bolivia showed that this knowledge was both persistent and dynamic, and that it responded to socio-economic and environmental changes through cultural resistance and adaptation. As this paper argues, combining local knowledge and so-called scientific knowledge – especially in development projects – can lead to innovative solutions to the socio-environmental challenges facing mountain communities in our globalized world. Based on experiences from the Andes, this paper will provide concrete recommendations to policymakers and practitioners for integrating local knowledge into development and natural resource management initiatives.

The Garment Industry in Cambodia: Its Role in Poverty Reduction through Export-Oriented Development

Cambodia's export-oriented garment industry has contributed greatly to poverty reduction in the country through employment of the poor. This paper provides a statistical verification of this contribution based on firm-level data from 164 sampled companies collected in 2003. Its main conclusions confirm the substantial impact that employment in the garment industry has had on poverty reduction in Cambodia. Firstly, entry-level workers receive wages far above the poverty line. Secondly, females make up the predominant share of the main category jobs in the industry. Thirdly, barriers to employment and to promotions up to certain job categories are not high in terms of education and experience. Another important finding is that a typical sample firm exhibited high profitability, although there was wide variation in profitability among firms. This average of high profitability could be a good predictor of Cambodia's viability in the intensified competition since the phase out of the Multi-Fiber Arrangement (MFA) at the beginning of 2005. A point of note is that Cambodia's pattern of industrial development led by a labor-intensive industry is similar to that of neighboring countries in East Asia which earlier went through the initial stage of industrial development, except that Cambodia has lacked a strong government industrial promotion policy which characterized the earlier group.

The Iron and Steel Industry in Asia: Development and Restructuring

The paper examines the development and restructuring of the iron and steel industry in Asian countries. Studying countries that have integrated steelworks with large blast furnaces (South Korea, Taiwan, China and India) and countries without (Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia), the paper shows the difference in the development processes across the countries and across time, and points to the diversity of the development experience of these countries. The paper argues that significant differences in steel production technologies in terms of initial investment and minimum-efficient scale, the changing role of the state, and shifting demand structures in the domestic steel markets of each country have been the important factors that led to the differences in the development path of the steel industry in each country.

Chapter 3 Industrial Location in Cambodia: Industrial Policies and Economic Statistics

Cambodia has experienced high economic growth in the last decade. Because most of its industries were destroyed during the Pol Pot regime and civil war, in the last 20 years the country has been working hard to liberalize its economy to attract foreign investors With its efforts to join the regional and international community and with changes in the international trade environment, Cambodia started to grow its economy in the late 1990s. Now, in the early 21st century, the Cambodian economy seems to be prepared to take off. We can observe a kind of industrial agglomeration occurring, even though still at a small scale. In this paper, first, I will review the history of Cambodia’s economic development since the late 1980s. Second, I will examine the economic policies, laws, rules, and other environmental factors which have influenced industrial development and industrial location in Cambodia. Third, I will introduce industrial location in the late 2000s. Lastly, I will introduce some statistical data for the future analysis of industrial location in Cambodia.

Development of an adequate model for verification of design safety-margins of the HTTR nuclear test facility

This work is based on the prototype High Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) of the Japan Agency of Energy Atomic (JAEA). Its objective is to describe an adequate deterministic model to be used in the assessment of its design safety margins via damage domains. The concept of damage domain is defined and it is shown its relevance in the ongoing effort to apply dynamic risk assessment methods and tools based on the Theory of Stimulated Dynamics (TSD). To illustrate, we present results of an abnormal control rod (CR) withdrawal during subcritical condition and its comparison with results obtained by JAEA. No attempt is made yet to actually assess the detailed scenarios, rather to show how the approach may handle events of its kind

Integration of socioeconomic and genetic aspects involved in the conservation of animal genetic resources = Integración de aspectos socioeconómicos y genéticos involucrados en la conservación de recursos genéticos animales

El sector ganadero está siendo gradualmente dominado por sistemas intensivos y especializados en los que los factores de producción están controlados y en los que los caracteres productivos son los criterios principales para la selección de especies y razas. Entretanto, muchos de los bienes y servicios que tradicionalmente suministraba el ganado, tales como los fertilizantes, la tracción animal o materias primas para la elaboración vestimenta y calzado están siendo reemplazados por productos industriales. Como consecuencia de ambos cambios, las razas seleccionadas intensivamente, las cuales están estrechamente ligadas a sistemas agrícolas de alta producción y altos insumos, han desplazado a muchas razas autóctonas, en las que la selección prácticamente ha cesado o es muy poco intensa. Actualmente existe una mayor conciencia social sobre la situación de las razas autóctonas y muchas funciones del ganado que previamente habían sido ignoradas están siendo reconocidas. Desde hace algunas décadas, se ha aceptado internacionalmente que las razas de ganado cumplen funciones económicas, socio-culturales, medioambientales y de seguridad alimentaria. Por ello, diferentes organismos internacionales han reconocido que la disminución de los recursos genéticos de animales domésticos (RGADs) es un problema grave y han recomendado su conservación. Aun así, la conservación de RGADs es un tema controvertido por la dificultad de valorar las funciones del ganado. Esta valoración es compleja debido que los RGADs tiene una doble naturaleza privada - pública. Como algunos economistas han subrayado, el ganado es un bien privado, sin embargo debido a algunas de sus funciones, también es un bien público. De esta forma, el aumento del conocimiento sobre valor de cada una de sus funciones facilitaría la toma de decisiones en relación a su conservación y desarrollo. Sin embargo, esta valoración es controvertida puesto que la importancia relativa de las funciones del ganado varía en función del momento, del lugar, de las especies y de las razas. El sector ganadero, debido a sus múltiples funciones, está influenciado por factores técnicos, medioambientales, sociales, culturales y políticos que están interrelacionados y que engloban a una enorme variedad de actores y procesos. Al igual que las funciones del ganado, los factores que afectan a su conservación y desarrollo están fuertemente condicionados por localización geográfica. Asimismo, estos factores pueden ser muy heterogéneos incluso dentro de una misma raza. Por otro lado, es razonable pensar que el ganadero es el actor principal de la conservación de razas locales. Actualmente, las razas locales están siendo Integration of socioeconomic and genetic aspects involved in the conservation of animal genetic resources 5 explotadas por ganaderos muy diversos bajo sistemas de producción también muy diferentes. Por todo ello, es de vital importancia comprender y evaluar el impacto que tienen las motivaciones, y el proceso de toma de decisiones de los ganaderos en la estructura genética de las razas. En esta tesis doctoral exploramos diferentes aspectos sociales, económicos y genéticos involucrados en la conservación de razas locales de ganado vacuno en Europa, como ejemplo de RGADs, esperando contribuir al entendimiento científico de este complejo tema. Nuestro objetivo es conseguir una visión global de los procesos subyacentes en la conservación y desarrollo de estas razas. Pretendemos ilustrar como se pueden utilizar métodos cuantitativos en el diseño y establecimiento de estrategias de conservación y desarrollo de RGADs objetivas y adecuadas. En primer lugar, exploramos el valor económico total (VET) del ganado analizando sus componentes públicos fuera de mercado usando como caso de estudio la raza vacuna Alistana-Sanabresa (AS). El VET de cualquier bien está formado por componentes de uso y de no-uso. Estos últimos incluyen el valor de opción, el valor de herencia y el valor de existencia. En el caso del ganado local, el valor de uso directo proviene de sus productos. Los valores de uso indirecto están relacionados con el papel que cumple las razas en el mantenimiento de los paisajes y cultura rural. El valor de opción se refiere a su futuro uso potencial y el valor de herencia al uso potencial de las generaciones venideras. Finalmente, el valor de existencia está relacionado con el bienestar que produce a la gente saber que existe un recurso específico. Nuestro objetivo fue determinar la importancia relativa que tienen los componentes fuera de mercado sobre el VET de la raza AS. Para ello evaluamos la voluntad de la gente a pagar por la conservación de la AS mediante experimentos de elección (EEs) a través de encuestas. Estos experimentos permiten valorar individualmente los distintos componentes del VET de cualquier bien. Los resultados los analizamos mediante de uso de modelos aleatorios logit. Encontramos que las funciones públicas de la raza AS tienen un valor significativo. Sus valores más importantes son el valor de uso indirecto como elemento cultural Zamorano y el valor de existencia (ambos representaron el 80% de VET). Además observamos que el valor que gente da a las funciones públicas de la razas de ganado dependen de sus características socioeconómicas. Los factores que condicionaron la voluntad a pagar para la conservación de la raza AS fueron el lugar de residencia (ciudad o pueblo), el haber visto animales de la raza o haber consumido sus productos y la actitud de los encuestados ante los conflictos entre el desarrollo económico y el medioambiente. Por otro lado, encontramos que no todo el mundo tiene una visión completa e integrada de todas las funciones públicas de la raza AS. Por este motivo, los programas o actividades de concienciación sobre su estado deberían hacer hincapié en este aspecto. La existencia de valores públicos de la raza AS implica que los ganaderos deberían recibir compensaciones económicas como pago por las funciones públicas que cumple su raza local. Las compensaciones asegurarían un tamaño de población que permitiría que la raza AS siga realizando estas funciones. Un mecanismo para ello podría ser el desarrollo del turismo rural relacionado con la raza. Esto aumentaría el valor de uso privado mientras que supondría un elemento añadido a las estrategias de conservación y desarrollo. No obstante, los ganaderos deben analizar cómo aprovechar los nichos de mercado existentes, así como mejorar la calidad de los productos de la raza prestando especial atención al etiquetado de los mismos. Una vez evaluada la importancia de las funciones públicas de las razas locales de ganado, analizamos la diversidad de factores técnicos, económicos y sociales de la producción de razas locales de ganado vacuno existente en Europa. Con este fin analizamos el caso de quince razas locales de ocho países en el contexto de un proyecto de colaboración internacional. Investigamos las diferencias entre los países para determinar los factores comunes clave que afectan a la viabilidad de las razas locales. Para ello entrevistamos mediante cuestionarios a un total de 355 ganaderos en las quince razas. Como indicador de viabilidad usamos los planes de los ganaderos de variación del tamaño de las ganaderías. Los cuestionarios incluían diferentes aspectos económicos, técnicos y sociales con potencial influencia en las dinámicas demográficas de las razas locales. Los datos recogidos los analizamos mediante distintas técnicas estadísticas multivariantes como el análisis discriminante y la regresión logística. Encontramos que los factores que afectan a la viabilidad de las razas locales en Europa son muy heterogéneos. Un resultado reseñable fue que los ganaderos de algunos países no consideran que la explotación de su raza tenga un alto valor social. Este hecho vuelve a poner de manifiesto la importancia de desarrollar programas Europeos de concienciación sobre la importancia de las funciones que cumplen las razas locales. Además los países analizados presentaron una alta variabilidad en cuanto a la importancia de los mercados locales en la distribución de los productos y en cuanto al porcentaje en propiedad del total de los pastos usados en las explotaciones. Este estudio reflejó la variabilidad de los sistemas y medios de producción (en el sentido socioeconómico, técnico y ecológico) que existe en Europa. Por ello hay que ser cautos en la implementación de las políticas comunes en los diferentes países. También encontramos que la variabilidad dentro de los países puede ser elevada debido a las diferencias entre razas, lo que implica que las políticas nacionales deber ser suficientemente flexibles para adaptarse a las peculiaridades de cada una de las razas. Por otro lado, encontramos una serie de factores comunes a la viabilidad de las razas en los distintos países; la edad de los ganaderos, la colaboración entre ellos y la apreciación social de las funciones culturales, medioambientales y sociales del ganado local. El envejecimiento de los ganaderos de razas locales no es solo un problema de falta de transferencia generacional, sino que también puede suponer una actitud más negativa hacia la inversión en las actividades ganaderas y en una menor capacidad de adaptación a los cambios del sector. La capacidad de adaptación de los ganaderos es un factor crucial en la viabilidad de las razas locales. Las estrategias y políticas de conservación comunes deben incluir las variables comunes a la viabilidad de las razas manteniendo flexibilidad suficiente para adaptarse a las especificidades nacionales. Estas estrategias y políticas deberían ir más allá de compensación económica a los ganaderos de razas locales por la menor productividad de sus razas. Las herramientas para la toma de decisiones ayudan a generar una visión amplia de la conservación y desarrollo de las razas locales. Estas herramientas abordan el diseño de estrategias de conservación y desarrollo de forma sistemática y estructurada. En la tercera parte de la tesis usamos una de estas herramientas, el análisis DAFO (Debilidades, Amenazas, Fortalezas y Oportunidades), con este propósito, reconociendo que la conservación de RGADs depende de los ganaderos. Desarrollamos un análisis DAFO cuantitativo y lo aplicamos a trece razas locales de ganado vacuno de seis países europeos en el contexto del proyecto de colaboración mencionado anteriormente. El método tiene cuatro pasos: 1) la definición del sistema; 2) la identificación y agrupación de los factores influyentes; 3) la cuantificación de la importancia de dichos factores y 4) la identificación y priorización de estrategias. Identificamos los factores utilizando multitud de agentes (multi-stakeholder appproach). Una vez determinados los factores se agruparon en una estructura de tres niveles. La importancia relativa de los cada uno de los factores para cada raza fue determinada por grupos de expertos en RGADs de los países integrados en el citado proyecto. Finalmente, desarrollamos un proceso de cuantificación para identificar y priorizar estrategias. La estructura de agrupación de factores permitió analizar el problema de la conservación desde el nivel general hasta el concreto. La unión de análisis específicos de cada una de las razas en un análisis DAFO común permitió evaluar la adecuación de las estrategias a cada caso concreto. Identificamos un total de 99 factores. El análisis reveló que mientras los factores menos importantes son muy consistentes entre razas, los factores y estrategias más relevantes son muy heterogéneos. La idoneidad de las estrategias fue mayor a medida que estas se hacían más generales. A pesar de dicha heterogeneidad, los factores influyentes y estrategias más importantes estaban ligados a aspectos positivos (fortalezas y oportunidades) lo que implica que el futuro de estas razas es prometedor. Los resultados de nuestro análisis también confirmaron la gran relevancia del valor cultural de estas razas. Las factores internos (fortalezas y debilidades) más importantes estaban relacionadas con los sistemas de producción y los ganaderos. Las oportunidades más relevantes estaban relacionadas con el desarrollo y marketing de nuevos productos mientras que las amenazas más importantes se encontraron a la hora de vender los productos actuales. Este resultado implica que sería fructífero trabajar en la motivación y colaboración entre ganaderos así como, en la mejora de sus capacidades. Concluimos que las políticas comunes europeas deberían centrarse en aspectos generales y ser los suficientemente flexibles para adaptarse a las singularidades de los países y las razas. Como ya se ha mencionado, los ganaderos juegan un papel esencial en la conservación y desarrollo de las razas autóctonas. Por ello es relevante entender que implicación puede tener la heterogeneidad de los mismos en la viabilidad de una raza. En la cuarta parte de la tesis hemos identificado tipos de ganaderos con el fin de entender cómo la relación entre la variabilidad de sus características socioeconómicas, los perfiles de las ganaderías y las dinámicas de las mismas. El análisis se ha realizado en un contexto sociológico, aplicando los conceptos de capital cultural y económico. Las tipologías se han determinado en función de factores socioeconómicos y culturales indicadores del capital cultural y capital económico de un individuo. Nuestro objetivo era estudiar si la tipología socioeconómica de los ganaderos afecta al perfil de su ganadería y a las decisiones que toman. Entrevistamos a 85 ganaderos de la raza Avileña-Negra Ibérica (ANI) y utilizamos los resultados de dichas entrevistas para ilustrar y testar el proceso. Definimos los tipos de ganaderos utilizando un análisis de clúster jerarquizado con un grupo de variables canónicas que se obtuvieron en función de cinco factores socioeconómicos: el nivel de educación del ganadero, el año en que empezó a ser ganadero de ANI, el porcentaje de los ingresos familiares que aporta la ganadería, el porcentaje de propiedad de la tierra de la explotación y la edad del ganadero. La tipología de los ganaderos de ANI resultó ser más compleja que en el pasado. Los resultados indicaron que los tipos de ganaderos variaban en muchos aspectos socioeconómicos y en los perfiles de sus Integration of socioeconomic and genetic aspects involved in the conservation of animal genetic resources 9 ganaderías. Los tipos de ganaderos determinados toman diferentes decisiones en relación a la modificación del tamaño de su ganadería y a sus objetivos de selección. Por otro lado, reaccionaron de forma diferente ante un hipotético escenario de reducción de las compensaciones económicas que les planteamos. En este estudio hemos visto que el capital cultural y el económico interactúan y hemos explicado como lo hacen en los distintos tipos de ganaderos. Por ejemplo, los ganaderos que poseían un mayor capital económico, capital cultural formal y capital cultural adquirido sobre la raza, eran los ganaderos cuyos animales tenían una mayor demanda por parte de otros ganaderos, lo cual podría responder a su mayor prestigio social dentro de la raza. Uno de los elementos claves para el futuro de la raza es si este prestigio responde a una superioridad genética de las animales. Esto ocurriría si los ganaderos utilizaran las herramientas que tienen a su disposición a la hora de seleccionar animales. Los tipos de ganaderos identificados mostraron también claras diferencias en sus formas de colaboración y en su reacción a una hipotética variación de las compensaciones económicas. Aunque algunos tipos de ganaderos mostraron un bajo nivel de dependencia a estas compensaciones, la mayoría se manifestaron altamente dependientes. Por ello cualquier cambio drástico en la política de ayudas puede comprometer el desarrollo de las razas autóctonas. La adaptación las políticas de compensaciones económicas a la heterogeneidad de los ganaderos podría aumentar la eficacia de las mismas por lo que sería interesante explorar posibilidades a este respecto. Concluimos destacando la necesidad de desarrollar políticas que tengan en cuenta la heterogeneidad de los ganaderos. Finalmente abordamos el estudio de la estructura genética de poblaciones ganaderas. Las decisiones de los ganaderos en relación a la selección de sementales y su número de descendientes configuran la estructura demográfica y genética de las razas. En la actualidad existe un interés renovado por estudiar las estructuras poblacionales debido a la influencia potencial de su estratificación sobre la predicción de valores genómicos y/o los análisis de asociación a genoma completo. Utilizamos dos métodos distintos, un algoritmo de clústeres basados en teoría de grafos (GCA) y un algoritmo de clustering bayesiano (STRUCTURE) para estudiar la estructura genética de la raza ANI. Prestamos especial atención al efecto de la presencia de parientes cercanos en la población y de la diferenciación genética entre subpoblaciones sobre el análisis de la estructura de la población. En primer lugar evaluamos el comportamiento de los dos algoritmos en poblaciones simuladas para posteriormente analizar los genotipos para 17 microsatélites de 13343 animales de 57 ganaderías distintas de raza ANI. La ANI es un ejemplo de raza con relaciones complejas. Por otro lado, utilizamos el archivo de pedigrí de la raza para estudiar el flujo de genes, calculando, entre otras cosas, la contribución de cada ganadería a la constitución genética de la raza. En el caso de las poblaciones simuladas, cuando el FST entre subpoblaciones fue suficientemente alto, ambos algoritmos, GCA y STRUCTURE, identificaron la misma estructura genética independientemente de que existieran o no relaciones familiares. Por el contrario, cuando el grado de diferenciación entre poblaciones fue bajo, el STRUCTURE identificó la estructura familiar mientras que GCA no permitió obtener ningún resultado concluyente. El GCA resultó ser un algoritmo más rápido y eficiente para de inferir la estructura genética en poblaciones con relaciones complejas. Este algoritmo también puede ser usado para reducir el número de clústeres a testar con el STRUTURE. En cuanto al análisis de la población de ANI, ambos algoritmos describieron la misma estructura, lo cual sugiere que los resultados son robustos. Se identificaron tres subpoblaciones diferenciadas que pudieran corresponderse con tres linajes distintos. Estos linajes estarían directamente relacionados con las ganaderías que han tenido una mayor contribución a la constitución genética de la raza. Por otro lado, hay un conjunto muy numeroso de individuos con una mezcla de orígenes. La información molecular describe una estructura estratificada de la población que se corresponde con la evolución demográfica de la raza. Es esencial analizar en mayor profundidad la composición de este último grupo de animales para determinar cómo afecta a la variabilidad genética de la población de ANI. SUMMARY Summary Livestock sector is gradually dominated by intensive and specialized systems where the production environment is controlled and the production traits are the main criteria for the selection of species and breeds. In the meantime, the traditional use of domestic animals for draught work, clothes and manure has been replaced by industrial products. As a consequence of both these changes, the intensively selected breeds closely linked with high-input highoutput production systems have displaced many native breeds where the selection has practically ceased or been very mild. People are now more aware of the state of endangerment among the native breeds and the previously ignored values of livestock are gaining recognition. For some decades now, the economic, socio-cultural, environmental and food security function of livestock breeds have been accepted worldwide and their loss has been recognized as a major problem. Therefore, the conservation of farm animal genetic resources (FAnGR) has been recommended. The conservation of FAnGR is controversial due to the complexity of the evaluation of its functions. This evaluation is difficult due to the nature of FAnGR both as private and public good. As some economists have highlighted, livestock animals are private goods, however, they are also public goods by their functions. Therefore, there is a need to increase the knowledge about the value of all livestock functions since to support the decision-making for the sustainable conservation and breeding of livestock. This is not straightforward since the relative importance of livestock functions depends on time, place, species and breed. Since livestock play a variety of roles, their production is driven by interrelated and everchanging economic, technical, environmental, social, cultural and political elements involving an enormous range of stakeholders. Not only FAnGR functions but also the importance of factors affecting the development and conservation of FAnGR can be very different across geographical areas. Furthermore, heterogeneity can be found even within breeds. Local breeds are nowadays raised by highly diverse farmers in equally diverse farms. It is quite reasonable to think that farmer is the major actor in the in situ conservation of livestock breeds. Thus, there is a need to understand the farmers’ motivations, decision making processes and the impact of their decisions on the genetic structure of breeds. In this PhD thesis we explore different social, economic and genetic aspects involved in the conservation of local cattle breeds, i.e. FAnGR, in Europe seeking to contribute to the scientific understanding of this complex issue. We aim to achieve a comprehensive view of the processes involved in the conservation and development of local cattle breeds and have made special efforts in discussing the implications of the research results in this respect. The final outcome of the thesis is to illustrate how quantitative methods can be exploited in designing and establishing sound strategies and programmes for the conservation and development of local livestock breeds. Firstly we explored the public non-market attributes of the total economic value (TEV) of livestock, using the Spanish Alistana-Sanabresa (AS) cattle breed as a case study. Total economic value of any good comprises both use and non-use components, where the latter include option, bequest and existence values. For livestock, the direct use values are mainly stemming from production outputs. Indirect use values relate to the role of livestock as a maintainer of rural culture and landscape. The option value is related to the potential use of livestock, the bequest values relate to the value associated with the inheritance of the resources to future generation and the existence values relate to the utility perceived by people from knowing that specific resources exist. We aimed to determine the relative importance of the non-market components of the TEV of the AS breed, the socio-economic variables that influence how people value the different components of TEV and to assess the implications of the Spanish national conservation strategy for the AS breed. To do so, we used a choice experiment (CE) approach and applied the technique to assess people’s willingness to pay (WTP) for the conservation of AS breed. The use of CE allows the valuation of the individual components of TEV for a given good. We analysed the choice data using a random parameter logit (RPL) model. AS breed was found to have a significant public good value. Its most important values were related to the indirect use value due to the maintenance of Zamorian culture and the existence value (both represent over 80% of its TEV). There were several socioeconomic variables influencing people’s valuation of the public service of the breed. In the case of AS breed, the place of living (city or rural area), having seen animals of the breed, having eaten breed products and the respondents’ attitude towards economic development – environment conflicts do influence people’s WTP for AS conservation. We also found that people do not have a complete picture of all the functions and roles that AS breed as AnGR. Therefore, the actions for increasing awareness of AS should go to that direction. The farmers will need incentives to exploit some of the public goods values and maintain the breed population size at socially desirable levels. One such mechanism could be related to the development of agritourism, which would enhance the private good value and provide an important addition to the conservation and utilisation strategy. However, the farmers need a serious evaluation on how to invest in niche product development or how to improve product quality and brand recognition. Using the understanding on the importance of the public function of local cattle we tried to depict the current diversity regarding technical, economic and social factors found in local cattle farming across Europe. To do so we focused in an international collaborative project on the case of fifteen local cattle breeds in eight European countries. We investigated the variation among the countries to detect the common key elements, which affect the viability of local breeds. We surveyed with interviews a total of 355 farms across the fifteen breeds. We used the planned herd size changes by the farmer as an indicator of breed viability. The questionnaire included several economic, technical and social aspects with potential influence on breeds’ demographic trends. We analysed the data using multivariate statistical techniques, such as discriminat analysis and logistic regression. The factors affecting a local breed’s viability were highly heterogeneous across Europe. In some countries, farmers did not recognise any high social value attached to keeping a local cattle breed. Hence there is a need to develop communication programmes across EU countries making people aware about the diversity and importance of values associated to raising local breeds. The countries were also very variable regarding the importance of local markets and the percentage of farm land owned by the farmers. Despite the country specificities, there were also common factors affecting the breed viability across Europe. The factors were from different grounds, from social, such as the age of the farmer and the social appreciation of their work, to technicalorganizational, such as the farmers’ attitude to collaborating with each other. The heterogeneity found reflects the variation in breeding systems and production environment (in the socioeconomic, technical and ecological sense) present in Europe. Therefore, caution should be taken in implementing common policies at the country level. Variability could also be rather high within countries due to breed specificities. Therefore, the national policies should be flexible to adapt to the specificities. The variables significantly associated with breed viability should be positively incorporated in the conservation strategies, and considered in developing common and/or national policies. The strategy preparation and policy planning should go beyond the provision of a general economic support to compensate farmers for the lower profitability of local breeds. Of particular interest is the observation that the opportunity for farmer collaboration and the appreciation by the society of the cultural, environmental and social role of local cattle farming were positively associated with the breed survival. In addition, farmer's high age is not only a problem of poor generation transfer but it is also a problem because it might lead to a lower attitude to investing in farming activities and to a lower ability to adapt to environment changes. The farmers’ adaptation capability may be a key point for the viability of local breeds. Decision making tools can help to get a comprehensive view on the conservation and development of local breeds. It allows us to use a systematic and structured approach for identifying and prioritizing conservation and development strategies. We used SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats) analysis for this purpose and recognized that many conservation and development projects rely on farmers. We developed a quantified SWOT method and applied it in the aforementioned collaborative research to a set of thirteen cattle breeds in six European countries. The method has four steps: definition of the system, identification and grouping of the driving factors, quantification of the importance of driving factors and identification and prioritization of the strategies. The factors were determined following a multi-stakeholder approach and grouped with a three level structure. FAnGR expert groups ranked the factors and a quantification process was implemented to identify and prioritize strategies. The structure of the SWOT analysis allowed analyzing the conservation problem from general down to specific perspectives. Joining breed specific analyses into a common SWOT analysis permitted comparison of breed cases across countries. We identified 99 driving factors across breeds. The across breed analysis revealed that irrelevant factors were consistent. There was high heterogeneity among the most relevant factors and strategies. The strategies increased eligibility as they lost specificity. Although the situation was very heterogeneous, the most promising factors and strategies were linked to the positive aspects (Strengths and Opportunities). Therefore, the future of the studied local breed is promising. The results of our analysis also confirmed the high relevance of the cultural value of the breeds. The most important internal factors (strengths and weaknesses) were related farmers and production systems. The most important opportunities were found in developing and marketing new products, while the most relevant threats were found in selling the current conventional products. In this regard, it should be fruitful to work on farmers’ motivation, collaboration, and capacity building. We conclude that European policies should focus on general aspects and be flexible enough to be adapted to the country and breed specificities. As mentioned, farmers have a key role in the conservation and development of a local cattle breed. Therefore, it is very relevant to understand the implications of farmer heterogeneity within a breed for its viability. In the fourth part of the thesis, we developed a general farmer typology to help analyzing the relations between farmer features and farm profiles, herd dynamics and farmers’ decision making. In the analysis we applied and used the sociological framework of economic and cultural capital and studied how the determined farmer types were linked to farm profiles and breeding decisions, among others. The typology was based on measurable socioeconomic factors indicating the economic and cultural capital of farmers. A group of 85 farmers raising the Spanish Avileña-Negra Ibérica (ANI) local cattle breed was used to illustrate and test the procedure. The farmer types were defined by a hierarchical cluster analysis with a set of canonical variables derived from the following five the socioeconomic factors: the formal educational level of the farmer, the year the farmer started keeping the ANI breed, the percentage of the total family income covered by the farm, the percentage of the total farm land owned by the farmer and the farmer’s age. The present ANI farmer types were much more complex than what they were in the past. We found that the farmer types differed in many socioeconomic aspects and in the farms profile. Furthermore, the types also differentiate farmers with respect to decisions about changing the farm size, breeding aims and stated reactions towards hypothetical subsidy variation. We have verified that economic and cultural capitals are not independent and further showed how they are interacting in the different farmer types. The farmers related to the types with high economic, institutionalized and embodied cultural capitals had a higher demand of breeding animals from others farmers of the breed, which may be related to the higher social prestige within the breed. One of the key implications of this finding for the future of the breed is whether or not the prestige of farmers is related to genetic superiority of their animals, what is to say, that it is related with a sound use of tools that farmers have available to make selection decisions. The farmer types differed in the form of collaboration and in the reactions to the hypothetical variation in subsidies. There were farmers with low dependency on subsidies, while most of them are highly dependent on subsidies. Therefore, any drastic change in the subsidy programme might have influence on the development of local breeds. The adaptation of these programme to the farmers’ heterogeneity might increase its efficacy, thus it would be interesting to explore ways of doing it. We conclude highlighting the need to have a variety of policies, which take into account the heterogeneity among the farmers. To finish we dealt with the genetic structure of livestock populations. Farmers’ decisions on the breeding animals and their progeny numbers shape the demographic and genetic structure of the breeds. Nowadays there is a renovated interest in studying the population structure since it can bias the prediction of genomic breeding values and genome wide association studies. We determined the genetic structure of ANI breed using two different methods, a graphical clustering algorithm (GCA) and a Bayesian clustering algorithm (STRUCTURE) were used. We paid particular attention to the influence that the presence of closely related individuals and the genetic differentiation of subpopulations may have on the inferences about the population structure. We first evaluated the performance of the algorithms in simulated populations. Then we inferred the genetic structure of the Spanish cattle breed ANI analysing a data set of 13343 animals (genotyped for 17 microsatellites) from 57 herds. ANI breed is an example of a population with complex relationships. We used the herdbook to study the gene flow, estimation among other things, the contribution of different herds to the genetic composition of the ANI breed. For the simulated scenarios, when FST among subpopulations was sufficiently high, both algorithms consistently inferred the correct structure regardless of the presence of related individuals. However, when the genetic differentiation among subpopulations was low, STRUCTURE identified the family based structure while GCA did not provide any consistent picture. The GCA was a fast and efficient method to infer genetic structure to determine the hidden core structure of a population with complex history and relationships. GCA could also be used to narrow down the number of clusters to be tested by STRUCTURE. Both, STRUCTURE and GCA describe a similar structure for the ANI breed suggesting that the results are robust. ANI population was found to have three genetically differentiated clusters that could correspond to three genetic lineages. These are directly related to the herds with a major contribution to the breed. In addition, ANI breed has also a large pool made of individuals with an admixture of origins. The genetic structure of ANI, assessed by molecular information, shows a stratification that corresponds to the demographic evolution of the breed. It will be of great importance to learn more about the composition of the pool and study how it is related to the existing genetic variability of the breed.

La barrera del análisis estructural y la representación gráfica en el desarrollo de los proyectos arquitectónicos: el caso de la Ópera de Sidney

En numerosas ocasiones a lo largo de la historia la imaginación de los creadores ha ido por delante de las posibilidades técnicas de cada momento. Así, muchas de estas nuevas ideas han requerido largos periodos de tiempo para materializarse como realidad construida, hasta que el desarrollo tecnológico e industrial hubo alcanzado un grado de madurez suficiente. En el campo de la arquitectura, estas limitaciones técnicas se han ido acotando paulatinamente hasta desembocar en la situación actual en la que cualquier planteamiento formal puede ser representado gráficamente y analizado desde un punto de vista estructural, superádose de este modo la barrera existente históricamente en el tratamiento de las formas. A lo largo del presente tesis doctoral se analiza cómo la formulación del Método de los Elementos Finitos en la década de los cincuenta y las curvas de Bézier en la década de los sesenta del siglo pasado y la posterior generalización de los ordenadores personales y de los programas informáticos asociados (C.A.D. y F.E.M. principalmente) en los estudios de arquitectura e ingeniería a partir de la década de los noventa, posibilitó el desarrollo de cualquier propuesta arquitectónica, por compleja que ésta fuese, provocando una verdadera revolución a nivel formal en el mundo de la arquitectura, especialmente en el campo de la edificación singular o icónica. Se estudia este proceso a través de ocho edificios; cuatro anteriores y otros tantos posteriores a la desaparición de la barrera anteriormente referida, establecida de forma simbólica en la década de los años ochenta del siglo XX: Frontón de Recoletos en Madrid, Edificio Seagram en Nueva York, Habitat ’67 en Montreal, Ópera de Sídney, museo Guggenheim de Bilbao, ampliación del Victoria & Albert Museum en Londres, tanatorio “Meiso no Mori” en Gifu y nueva sede de la CCTV en Pekín. De entre ellos, la Ópera de Sídney, obra del arquitecto danés Jørn Utzon, condensa gran parte de los aspectos relevantes investigados en relación a la influencia que los métodos de representación y análisis estructural ejercen en la concepción y construcción de las obras de arquitectura. Por este motivo y por considerarse un hito de la arquitectura a nivel global se toma como caso de estudio. La idea general del edificio, que data de 1956, se enmarca en una época inmediatamente anterior a la del desarrollo científico y tecnológico anteriormente referido. Esta ausencia de herramientas de diseño disponibles acordes a la complejidad formal de la propuesta planteada condicionó enormente la marcha del proyecto, dilatándose dramáticamente en el tiempo y disparándose su coste hasta el punto de que el propio arquitecto danés fue separado de las obras antes de su conclusión. Además, la solución estructural finalmente construida de las cubiertas dista mucho de la prevista por Utzon inicialmente. Donde él había imaginado unas finas láminas de hormigón flotando sobre el paisaje se materializó una estructura más pesada, formada por costillas pretensadas de hormigón con unas secciones notablemente mayores. La forma también debió ser modificada de modo ostensible respecto a la propuesta inicial. Si este edificio se pretendiese construir en la actualidad, con toda seguridad el curso de los acontecimientos se desarrollaría por senderos muy diferentes. Ante este supuesto, se plantean las siguientes cuestiones: ¿sería posible realizar un análisis estructural de la cubierta laminar planteada por Utzon inicialmente en el concurso con las herramientas disponibles en la actualidad?; ¿sería dicha propuesta viable estructuralmente?. A lo largo de las siguientes páginas se pretende dar respuesta a estas cuestiones, poniendo de relieve el impacto que los ordenadores personales y los programas informáticos asociados han tenido en la manera de concebir y construir edificios. También se han analizado variantes a la solución laminar planteada en la fase de concurso, a través de las cuales, tratando en la medida de lo posible de ajustarse a las sugerencias que Ove Arup y su equipo realizaron a Jørn Utzon a lo largo del dilatado proceso de proyecto, mejorar el comportamiento general de la estructura del edificio. Por último, se ha pretendido partir de cero y plantear, desde una perspectiva contemporánea, posibles enfoques metodológicos aplicables a la búsqueda de soluciones estructurales compatibles con la forma propuesta originalmente por Utzon para las cubiertas de la Ópera de Sídney y que nunca llegó a ser construida (ni analizada), considerando para ello los medios tecnológicos, científicos e industriales disponibles en la actualidad. Abstract On numerous occasions throughout history the imagination of creators has gone well beyond of the technical possibilities of their time. Many new ideas have required a long period to materialize, until the technological and industrial development had time to catch up. In the architecture field, these technical limitations have gradually tightened leading to the current situation in which any formal approach can be represented and analyzed from a structural point of view, thus concluding that the structural analysis and the graphical representation’s barrier in the development of architectural projects has dissappeared. Throughout the following pages it is examined how the development of the Finite Element Method in the fifties and the Bezier curves in the sixties of the last century and the subsequent spread of personal computers and specialized software in the architectural and engineering offices from the nineties, enabled the development of any architectural proposal independently of its complexity. This has caused a revolution at a formal level in architecture, especially in the field of iconic building. This process is analyzed through eight buildings, four of them before and another four after the disappearance of the above mentioned barrier, roughly established in the eighties of the last century: Fronton Recoletos in Madrid, Seagram Building in New York Habitat '67 in Montreal, Sydney Opera House, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Victoria & Albert Museum extension in London, Crematorium “Meiso no Mori” in Gifu and the new CCTV headquarters in Beijing. Among them, the Sydney Opera House, designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, condenses many of the main aspects previously investigated regarding the impact of representation methods and structural analysis on the design and construction of architectural projects. For this reason and also because it is considered a global architecture milestone, it is selected as a case study. The building’s general idea, which dates from 1956, is framed at a time immediately preceding the above mentioned scientific and technological development. This lack of available design tools in accordance with the proposal’s formal complexity conditioned enormously the project’s progress, leading to a dramatic delay and multiplying the final budget disproportionately to the point that the Danish architect himself was separated from the works before completion. Furthermore, the built structure differs dramatically from the architect’s initial vision. Where Utzon saw a thin concrete shell floating over the landscape a heavier structure was built, consisting of prestressed concrete ribs with a significantly greater size. The geometry also had to be modified. If this building were to built today, the course of events surely would walk very different paths. Given this assumption, a number of questions could then be formulated: Would it be possible to perform a structural analysis of Utzon’s initially proposed competition-free-ways roof’s geometry with the tools available nowadays?; Would this proposal be structurally feasable?. Throughout the following pages it is intended to clarify this issues, highlighting personal computers and associated software’s impact in building design and construction procedures, especially in the field of iconic building. Variants have also been analyzed for the laminar solution proposed in the competition phase, through which, trying as far as possible to comply with the suggestions that Ove Arup and his team did to Jørn Utzon along the lengthy process project, improving the overall performance of the building structure. Finally, we have started from scratch and analyzed, from a contemporary perspective, possible structural solutions compatible with Utzon’s Opera House’s original geometry and vision –proposal that was never built (nor even analyzed)-, taking into consideration the technological, scientific and industrial means currently available.

Development of a novel autonomous robot for navigation and inspect in oil wells

This paper proposes a novel robotic system that is able to move along the outside of the oil pipelines used in Electric Submersible Pumps (ESP) and Progressive Cavity Pumps (PCP) applications. This novel design, called RETOV, proposes a light weight structure robot that can be equipped with sensors to measure environmental variables avoiding damage in pumps and wells. In this paper, the main considerations and methodology of design and implementation are discussed. Finally, the first experimental results that show RETOV moving in vertical pipelines are analyzed.

Integration of cooperation for development in Survey Engineering curricula at the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) framework

Survey Engineering curricula involves the integration of many formal disciplines at a high level of proficiency. The Escuela de Ingenieros en Topografía, Cartografía y Geodesia at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Survey Engineering) has developed an intense and deep teaching on so-called Applied Land Sciences and Technologies or Land Engineering. However, new approaches are encouraged by the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). This fact requires a review of traditional teaching and methods. Furthermore, the new globalization and international approach gives new ways to this discipline to teach and learn about how to bridge gap between cultures and regions. This work is based in two main needs. On one hand, it is based on integration of basic knowledge and disciplines involved in typical Survey Engineering within Land Management. On the other, there is an urgent need to consider territory on a social and ethical basis, as far as a part of the society, culture, idiosyncrasy or economy. The integration of appropriate knowledge of the Land Management is typically dominated by civil engineers and urban planners. It would be very possible to integrate Survey Engineering and Cooperation for Development in the framework of Land Management disciplines. Cooperation for Development is a concept that has changed since beginning of its use until now. Development projects leave an impact on society in response to their beneficiaries and are directed towards self-sustainability. Furthermore, it is the true bridge to reduce gap between societies when differences are immeasurable. The concept of development has also been changing and nowadays it is not a purely economic concept. Education, science and technology are increasingly taking a larger role in what is meant by development. Moreover, it is commonly accepted that Universities should transfer knowledge to society, and the transfer of knowledge should be open to countries most in need for developing. If the importance of the country development is given by education, science and technology, knowledge transfer would be one of the most clear of ways of Cooperation for Development. Therefore, university cooperation is one of the most powerful tools to achieve it, placing universities as agents of development. In Spain, the role of universities as agents of development and cooperation has been largely strengthened. All about this work deals to how to implement both Cooperation for Development and Land Management within Survey Engineering at the EHEA framework.

Scheduling Ontology Engineering Projects Using gOntt

In order to manage properly ontology development projects in complex settings and to apply correctly the NeOn Methodology, it is crucial to have knowledge of the entire ontology development life cycle before starting the development projects. The ontology project plan and scheduling helps the ontology development team to have this knowledge and to monitor the project execution. To facilitate the planning and scheduling of ontology development projects, the NeOn Toolkit plugin called gOntt has been developed. gOntt is a tool that supports the scheduling of ontology network development projects and helps to execute them. In addition, prescriptive methodological guidelines for scheduling ontology development projects using gOntt are provided.