Los cambios del sistema político colombiano en virtud de los preceptos de Arend Lijphart y sus efectos en la oposición durante el periodo 2006 – 2013

El interés principal de esta monografía es demostrar, cómo dentro del marco institucional colombiano, cambió el tipo de Democracia en dos periodos de gobierno, y cómo dicho cambio afectó negativamente al sistema de partidos y específicamente a los partidos de oposición. Esto será analizado desde la teoría de Arend Lijphart sobre Democracia mayoritaria y Democracia consensual, incluyendo dentro del análisis, el marco institucional donde se desenvuelve el sistema político colombiano. Para un mayor entendimiento de la temática, se realiza un recuento de la institucionalidad de los partidos políticos en Colombia desde su formación hasta el día de hoy, prestando principal interés a los periodos de Gobierno comprendidos entre 2006 y 2013.

Aproximaciones a mindfulness en la psicología contemporánea

Este trabajo es una revisión de literatura que abarca una selección de artículos disponibles en bases de datos especializadas y publicados en el periodo comprendido entre los años 2006 a 2016 para artículos científicos y entre los años 2000 a 2016 para libros. En total se revisaron: 1 tesis doctoral, 1 tesis magistral, 111 artículos y 9 libros o capítulos de libros. Se presentan diversas definiciones de mindfulness y formas de conceptualizarla, sus mecanismos de acción, sus enfoques psicoterapéuticos predominantes, los efectos de su práctica estable, sus principales campos de acción y la importancia de la formación de los docentes que imparten la práctica. Finalmente se presentan algunas conclusiones acerca del diálogo entre la literatura psicológica sobre mindfulness y algunas de las concepciones de la tradición budista en torno a la meditación.

The Evolution of Norms in Trade and Financial Networks in the First Global Age: the case of Simon Ruiz's network

In the 16th century, merchants and bankers gained a social influence and political relevance, due to their capacity of ‘faire travailler l’argent des autres’ (Benassar 1972:50). For the success of their activity, they built evolving networks with cooperative partners. These networks were much more than the sum of all partners. In the case study of the Castilian merchant Simon Ruiz, the network functioned in an unique way and independent from any formal institutional control. Its functioning varied in how different partners were associated and the particular characteristics and contents of these social ties. Being a self-organized network, since the formal institutions of trade regulation and the Crown control didn’t influence the network functioning, the Simon Ruiz network was deeply embedded in the economic and financial performance of the Hispanic Empires, in two different ways. The first, purely commercial. The monopolistic regime which was applied by the two crowns in the trade of certain colonial goods was insufficient to the costs of imperial maintenance. In such manner, particulars tried to rent a contract of exploration of trade, paying an annual sum to the crown, as in the Portuguese trade. Some of these agents also moved along Simon Ruiz’s network. But others were involved in relations with the imperial crowns on a second way, the finance. Maintaining Empires implied a lot of human, technical but also financial means, and most of the times Kings were forced to recur to these merchants, as we will demonstrate. What were the implications of these collaborative relations in both parts? The main goal of this paper is to comprehend the evolution of informal norms within Simon Ruiz’s network and how they influenced cooperative behavior of the agents, particularly analyzing mechanisms of sanctioning, control, punishment and reward, as well as their consequences in different dimensions: future interactions, social repercussions and in agent’s economic health and activity. The research is based in the bills of exchange and commercial correspondence of the private archive of Simon Ruiz, located in the Provincial Archive of Valladollid, Spain.

Obras para clarinete solo produzidas por compositores portugueses em 2014 e 2015

O objeto de estudo do presente trabalho é o repertório para clarinete solo produzido por compositores portugueses. Por ser um campo vastíssimo, tornou-se necessário definir um espaço temporal mais reduzido, surgindo, assim, os anos 2014 e 2015. Este trabalho pretende contribuir para uma interpretação informada, através do estudo e análise das obras escolhidas e divulgar a música portuguesa recente, não só, o repertório existente, mas, também, com a estreia de obras. Como metodologia, foram realizados: uma pesquisa bibliográfica sobre o instrumento, um levantamento de obras, uma análise e estudo de três obras dos compositores Costa, Pascoal e Ceitil. O trabalho inicia-se com uma breve contextualização do instrumento, dando especial atenção às técnicas estendidas. Após o estudo das obras, e da reflexão do mesmo, confirma-se que de facto existe uma enorme vantagem em trabalhar as obras com os compositores e que este trabalho se reflete no ato performativo; WORKS FOR SOLO CLARINET PRODUCED BY PORTUGUESE COMPOSERES IN 2014 AND 2015 ABSTRACT: This report studies the repertoire for solo clarinet produced by portuguese composers. Giving the vastness of the subject, only a smaller time frame could be analyzed and it was the years of 2014 and 2015. The goals of this report are to create an informed interpretation, through the study and analysis of the chosen repertoire and to disclose modern portuguese music, not only existent works but also with the premiere of repertoire. The methodology was: a literature search, a survey of works, analysis and study of three works by composers Costa, Pascoal and Ceitil. This report begins with a brief background of the clarinet, paying special attention to the extended techniques. After the study of the selected works, and the reflection of it, it's confirmed that in fact there is a huge advantage in working the repertoire with composers and that this work is reflected in the performative act.

Pedagogical Mediation for the Autonomy of Future Professionals in Teacher Training

This article studies the importance of pedagogical mediation in helping first-year students in the Teacher Training area to advance from intellectual heteronomy to intellectual autonomy. It explains some strategies and experiences implemented by the authors. It focuses on the need of paying attention to students in order to understand their expectations, opinions and previous experiences as a basis for developing different topics and concepts, to favor an actual free participation in the pedagogical mediation dynamics and, consequently, opportunities for students to express themselves with autonomy. The aforementioned strategies allow for the transition from a pedagogy centered on teaching to a pedagogy centered on learning, in such a way that the future educator becomes a protagonist in his/her formation and constructs his/her own intellectual identity, based on the concept of action-reflection-action. The authors of this article consider that the first year in higher education is a privileged opportunity to develop the autonomy of future teachers, and, as stated by Freire (2004), the respect for autonomy is an ethical imperative.

The Determinants of Individual Performance: Empirical Essays on the Importance of Soft Skills and Monetary Incentives

This dissertation consists of three papers. The first paper "Managing the Workload: an Experiment on Individual Decision Making and Performance" experimentally investigates how decision-making in workload management affects individual performance. I designed a laboratory experiment in order to exogenously manipulate the schedule of work faced by each subject and to identify its impact on final performance. Through the mouse click-tracking technique, I also collected interesting behavioral measures on organizational skills. I found that a non-negligible share of individuals performs better under externally imposed schedules than in the unconstrained case. However, such constraints are detrimental for those good in self-organizing. The second chapter, "On the allocation of effort with multiple tasks and piecewise monotonic hazard function", tests the optimality of a scheduling model, proposed in a different literature, for the decisional problem faced in the experiment. Under specific assumptions, I find that such model identifies what would be the optimal scheduling of the tasks in the Admission Test. The third paper "The Effects of Scholarships and Tuition Fees Discounts on Students' Performances: Which Monetary Incentives work Better?" explores how different levels of monetary incentives affect the achievement of students in tertiary education. I used a Regression Discontinuity Design to exploit the assignment of different monetary incentives, to study the effects of such liquidity provision on performance outcomes, ceteris paribus. The results show that a monetary increase in the scholarships generates no effect on performance since the achievements of the recipients are all centered near the requirements for non-returning the benefit. Secondly, students, who are actually paying some share of the total cost of college attendance, surprisingly, perform better than those whose cost is completely subsidized. A lower benefit, relatively to a higher aid, it motivates students to finish early and not to suffer the extra cost of a delayed graduation.

Iconografia musicale nella Ferrara di Alfonso I d'Este

Questa tesi coniuga metodologie tradizionali e nuove tecnologie per far luce sulla straordinaria proliferazione di immagini musicali che caratterizza il ducato di Alfonso I d’Este (1505-1534) e offrire la possibilità di esplorare in modo nuovo uno degli ambienti più significativi del Rinascimento: il Camerino delle Pitture, studiolo del Duca. Il lavoro svolto ha portato all’individuazione di 60 opere finora mai analizzate da un punto di vista iconografico-musicale, ad eccezione di pochissimi casi, e alla creazione del primo catalogo iconografico-musicale sulla Ferrara di Alfonso I (vol. II). Il vol. I della tesi espone gli approfondimenti critici. Il corpus raccolto nel catalogo è inquadrato nel particolare contesto culturale di ricercata sinergia tra le arti, alla luce della dimensione cortese del consumo musicale ma soprattutto del valore identitario che Alfonso stesso attribuiva alla musica. Le immagini musicali sono quindi analizzate nella duplice veste di testimonianze storiche (sui contesti esecutivi, sulle sonorità degli ensembles, sulla diffusione e l’interesse per alcuni strumenti e sul loro valore di emblemi dell’elegante ed armonica vita cortese) e di omaggio verso il Duca, i suoi gusti artistici e le sue vedute culturali. Ad Alfonso e alle sue identificazioni mitologiche è dedicata la seconda parte. Un accurato profilo caratteriale prelude all’analisi di alcune delle opere più significative della committenza alfonsina con particolare attenzione ai capolavori provenienti dai suoi studioli, lo Studio dei Marmi e il Camerino delle Pitture. Quest’ultimo è al centro anche della terza ed ultima parte della tesi che ne propone, in conclusione, un’originale elaborazione 3D in cui è possibile avere informazioni storico-critiche sulle opere e, soprattutto, ascoltare una registrazione inedita del canone di Adrian Willaert raffigurato nel Baccanale degli Andrii di Tiziano, autentico manifesto identitario e culturale di Alfonso.

Better Regulation in Latin American Countries: A tool for accountability?

In the last few years, a steadily increasing number of Latin American countries have been adopting policy assessment instruments and new governance structures for them, as part of their policymaking process. Even though the literature argues that these instruments serve, among other things, as tools for accountability, for this to be so, it is necessary to take into account the legal system, decision-making process, and regulatory relationships that exist in the adopting countries. This Thesis researches the policy assessment arrangements adopted and implemented in the Latin American region to understand why are these countries adopting and implementing tools for policy evaluation? Can this contribute towards regulatory accountability, and if so, in which conditions? The Thesis first analyzes the rationales that these countries might have to adopt these regulatory policy arrangements. It then studies the various tools used for policy assessment, paying attention to the scope of the assessments, the times and the stages on which regulations are assessed, referred to as the Policy Evaluation Cycle (PEC), as well as to the governance of these processes. The Thesis develops a framework where each of these components are organized and classified based on which goals or rationales they serve. This can assist countries on deciding how to implement their policy evaluation arrangements, to serve their own goals. Since all of the studied countries have presidential systems, this Thesis studies how regulations are made in this system, and the multiple needed delegations for policymaking, which results in various regulatory relationships. Thus, the desired accountability of policymakers towards their different forums makes relevant the adoption this agenda for regulatory accountability reasons. Bringing to together the literatures on public law, accountability and policy evaluation, this Thesis builds a framework for assessing the contribution towards accountability that each stage of the PEC might have in a specific regulatory relationship. The framework shows to which degree the stages, and the cycle as a whole, contribute towards accountability in specific relationships of a presidential constitutional system. The results evidence that even when a policy assessment structure might contribute towards accountability, this contribution is not absolute as it only operates in specific regulatory relationships, and even more, only in some stages of the PEC contributing at different degrees. This framework can be used by governments or regulatory agencies as an instrument to assess the contribution to accountability of their existing or potential regulatory policy structures in order to improve it.

La reducción de las donaciones inoficiosas en el Derecho español. Una contribución al estudio de la sucesión necesaria.

La llamada sucesión necesaria plantea una serie de problemas que atienden a la tutela del legitimario, en cuyo ámbito la reducción de las disposiciones inoficiosas y, en particular la que atiende a los actos inter vivos del causante, adquiere una gran importancia. Importancia que es particularmente relevante en el ordenamiento jurídico español, en el que la acción de reducción, si bien prevista por el Derecho positivo, no está completamente regulada en la norma, subsistiendo, por ello, múltiples cuestiones sin resolver. La presente investigación busca profundizar en el régimen jurídico de la donación inoficiosa tal y como lo recoge el Código civil español, enriqueciéndolo con las aportaciones de la doctrina italiana, cuya solidez interpretativa puede servir de referencia para una eventual reforma del Derecho castellano. Con este objetivo, la presente investigación se centra, entre otros puntos, sobre la configuración histórica de la acción de reducción; el concepto de donación inoficiosa; las operaciones de cálculo de la legítima; la naturaleza jurídica de la acción de reducción y la valoración del bien donado a los efectos de reducción. Finalmente, estudia la validez de las “cláusulas de reducción in valorem”, por medio del as cuales el donante puede autorizar al donatario para que conserve el bien objeto de la donación, entregando al legitimario una cantidad de dinero. En conclusión, la presente tesis permite individuar las características del acto impugnable mediante la acción de reducción de donaciones y las líneas esenciales de la reducción como categoría de ineficacia, lo que a su vez favorecer la resolución de algunos problemas de aplicación de la reducción de donaciones que se encuentran en el ordenamiento español. La investigación, además, permite formular algunas propuestas “de lege ferenda” a fin de agilizar la práctica de la reducción y reducir la litigiosidad, salvaguardando los intereses de legitimario y donatario.

Modelling of ORC components and systems for low-medium temperature heat recovery applications with reduced environmental impact

Although its great potential as low to medium temperature waste heat recovery (WHR) solution, the ORC technology presents open challenges that still prevent its diffusion in the market, which are different depending on the application and the size at stake. Focusing on the micro range power size and low temperature heat sources, the ORC technology is still not mature due to the lack of appropriate machines and working fluids. Considering instead the medium to large size, the technology is already available but the investment is still risky. The intention of this thesis is to address some of the topical themes in the ORC field, paying special attention in the development of reliable models based on realistic data and accounting for the off-design performance of the ORC system and of each of its components. Concerning the “Micro-generation” application, this work: i) explores the modelling methodology, the performance and the optimal parameters of reciprocating piston expanders; ii) investigates the performance of such expander and of the whole micro-ORC system when using Hydrofluorocarbons as working fluid or their new low GWP alternatives and mixtures; iii) analyzes the innovative ORC reversible architecture (conceived for the energy storage), its optimal regulation strategy and its potential when inserted in typical small industrial frameworks. Regarding the “Industrial WHR” sector, this thesis examines the WHR opportunity of ORCs, with a focus on the natural gas compressor stations application. This work provides information about all the possible parameters that can influence the optimal sizing, the performance and thus the feasibility of installing an ORC system. New WHR configurations are explored: i) a first one, relying on the replacement of a compressor prime mover with an ORC; ii) a second one, which consists in the use of a supercritical CO2 cycle as heat recovery system.

Big Code Applications and Approaches

The availability of a huge amount of source code from code archives and open-source projects opens up the possibility to merge machine learning, programming languages, and software engineering research fields. This area is often referred to as Big Code where programming languages are treated instead of natural languages while different features and patterns of code can be exploited to perform many useful tasks and build supportive tools. Among all the possible applications which can be developed within the area of Big Code, the work presented in this research thesis mainly focuses on two particular tasks: the Programming Language Identification (PLI) and the Software Defect Prediction (SDP) for source codes. Programming language identification is commonly needed in program comprehension and it is usually performed directly by developers. However, when it comes at big scales, such as in widely used archives (GitHub, Software Heritage), automation of this task is desirable. To accomplish this aim, the problem is analyzed from different points of view (text and image-based learning approaches) and different models are created paying particular attention to their scalability. Software defect prediction is a fundamental step in software development for improving quality and assuring the reliability of software products. In the past, defects were searched by manual inspection or using automatic static and dynamic analyzers. Now, the automation of this task can be tackled using learning approaches that can speed up and improve related procedures. Here, two models have been built and analyzed to detect some of the commonest bugs and errors at different code granularity levels (file and method levels). Exploited data and models’ architectures are analyzed and described in detail. Quantitative and qualitative results are reported for both PLI and SDP tasks while differences and similarities concerning other related works are discussed.

Motion Control of an Advanced Electric Implement for Agricultural Autonomous Vehicles

Nowadays, the development of intelligent and autonomous vehicles used to perform agricultural activities is essential to improve quantity and quality of agricultural productions. Moreover, with automation techniques it is possible to reduce the usage of agrochemicals and minimize the pollution. The University of Bologna is developing an innovative system for orchard management called ORTO (Orchard Rapid Transportation System). This system involves an autonomous electric vehicle capable to perform agricultural activities inside an orchard structure. The vehicle is equipped with an implement capable to perform different tasks. The purpose of this thesis project is to control the vehicle and the implement to perform an inter-row grass mowing. This kind of task requires a synchronized motion between the traction motors and the implement motors. A motion control system has been developed to generate trajectories and manage their synchronization. Two main trajectories type have been used: a five order polynomial trajectory and a trapezoidal trajectory. These two kinds of trajectories have been chosen in order to perform a uniform grass mowing, paying a particular attention to the constrains of the system. To synchronize the motions, the electronic cams approach has been adopted. A master profile has been generated and all the trajectories have been linked to the master motion. Moreover, a safety system has been developed. The aim of this system is firstly to improve the safety during the motion, furthermore it allows to manage obstacle detection and avoidance. Using some particular techniques obstacles can be detected and recovery action can be performed to overcome the problem. Once the measured force reaches the predefined force threshold, then the vehicle stops immediately its motion. The whole project has been developed by employing Matlab and Simulink. Eventually, the software has been translated into C code and executed on the TI Lauchpad XL board.