Memoria (para optar al grado de magíster mención derecho de la informática y de las telecomunicaciones) / Los procesos que realiza la Administración para brindar servicios se fundamentan hoy día en información, la que se genera a partir de los datos que almacena en sus bases informáticas cada entidad. En gran cantidad de servicios, para que el ciudadano logre el resultado esperado con su solicitud, esto depende de datos que en algunos casos la instancia responsable no posee, pero que si constan en los bancos de datos de otra dependencia pública. En este estudio se analiza desde la perspectiva jurídica, los aspectos que posibilitan que dicha información sea intercambiada electrónicamente en lugar de su impresión -encargada al ciudadano para que ejerza de mensajero del Estado y sus Instituciones-; logrando así la interoperabilidad entre sistemas y procesos administrativos, e integrando los servicios públicos electrónicos que ofrece la Administración Pública.

Ingeniero Civil / El trabajo de título realizado consiste en analizar el comportamiento de la modelación numérica 3D de canales supercríticos, mediante la simulación numérica del rápido de descarga de la Central Hidroeléctrica Chucás de Costa Rica, utilizando el software ANSYS CFX. El análisis se divide principalmente en dos: simulación del modelo físico y análisis de los métodos o criterios de diseño existentes para contracciones en canales supercríticos. El software trabaja resolviendo las ecuaciones promediadas de Reynolds para la turbulencia (modelos RANS) en tres dimensiones, junto con la ecuación de conservación de masa, mediante el método de volúmenes finitos. Para lograr la simulación es necesaria la creación de un dominio espacial, realizar al discretización de este dominio y aplicar las condiciones de borde que gobiernan el fenómeno a simular. La modelación numérica fue ejecutada con éxito para un perfil de tipo Ogee de ancho unitario, en el sentido que los errores con respecto a datos experimentales del USACE son menores a un 1,3 % en la altura de escurrimiento. Sin embargo, la simulación del modelo físico no fue efectiva, obteniendo errores promedio en la altura de escurrimiento de 21,6 % para el caudal de diseño de la obra. No obstante, las mediciones de alturas de escurrimientos podrían no estar del todo correctas ya que los resultados simulados de la presión sobre el vertedero logran un excelente ajuste para las mayores presiones ubicadas en el cuenco de lanzamiento del salto de esquí. No así el caso de las presiones sobre el umbral, que aunque siguen un comportamiento similar con los datos experimentales, la magnitud de estas difiere en mayor medida que las presiones sobre el cuenco de lanzamiento. En la modelación de contracciones en canales supercríticos, la simulación numérica presenta resultados concordantes con datos experimentales, imponiéndose como mejor alternativa que el uso de los métodos existentes para flujos con números de Froude mayores a 6.

Rescate y análisis en conjunto de las primeras novelas históricas escritas por mujeres en los diferentes países centroamericanos hasta 1950.

<p>This study monitored daily and seasonal locations of juvenile green turtles in three coastal bays of northwest Costa Rica, determining their home ranges and assessing their habitat use. My objective was to produce insights which might help future Pacific Ocean green turtle conservation efforts.</p> <p>I tracked 14 juvenile green turtles for 51-629 days using acoustic transmitters (VECOM v16) and 12 acoustic receivers (VECOM VR2Tx and VR2W) in 5 study area habitats: sandy areas, reef patches, macroalgae, rocky reefs, and mangroves. I divided these 14 turtles into large (equal to or larger than 65 cm CCL) and small (smaller than 65 cm CCL) size classes so I could highlight any changes as they grew toward adulthood. </p> <p>Both the large and small size turtles used habitats differently during the dry and rainy seasons. During the dry season, the large juveniles had a High Detection Rate (HDR) of 40% in the macroalgae area. During the rainy season, their HDR was 33% in the reef patch area. The small juveniles had their HDR in the reef patch area during both seasons: 33% in the dry season and 43% in the rainy season. The mean home range for the 14 turtles was 1.96 km²; their core use area was 0.19 km2. I saw no connection between body size and home range. The HDR findings suggest that juvenile green turtles preferred reef patches, rocky reefs, and macroalgae habitat types. The large juveniles prefer vegetation areas more as they grew; similar to that of adult green turtles. Some turtles moved between Matapalito Bay and Santa Elena Bay and along the coast to small bays east of Matapalito Bay. Travel speed varied between 0.23 km/h and 12.90 km/h with a mean of 1.57 km/h.  </p> <p>My findings highlight certain habitat areas preferred by Pacific juvenile green turtles. This can guide conservationists in identifying and protecting similar habitats in other inshore Pacific bays in Central America. By protecting habitat areas that are important for juvenile green turtles, this can help rebuild the green turtle population in the Pacific Ocean. </p>

Lateral spread is a seismic hazard associated with soil liquefaction in which permanent deformations are developed within the soil profile due to cyclic mobility. Lateral spread has historically been one of the largest causes of earthquake-related damage to infrastructure. One of the infrastructure components most at risk from lateral spread is that of deep foundations. Because performance-based engineering is increasingly becoming adopted in earthquake engineering practice, it would be beneficial for engineers and researchers to have a performance-based methodology for computing pile performance during a lateral spread event. This study utilizes the probabilistic performance-based framework developed by the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center to develop a methodology for computing probabilistic estimates of kinematic pile response. The methodology combines procedures familiar to most practicing engineers such as probabilistic seismic hazard analysis, empirical compution of lateral spread displacement, and kinematic pile response using p-y soil spring models (i.e. LPILE). The performance-based kinematic pile response model is applied to a series of lateral spread case histories from the earthquake that struck the Limon province of Costa Rica on April 22, 1991. The M7.6 earthquake killed 53 people, injured another 193 people, and disrupted an estimated 30-percent of the highway pavement and railways in the region due to fissures, scarps, and soil settlements resulting from liquefaction. Significant lateral spread was observed at bridge sites throughout the eastern part of Costa Rica near Limon, and the observed structural damage ranged from moderate to severe. This study identified five such bridges where damage due to lateral spread was observed following the earthquake. A geotechnical investigation is performed at each of these five bridges in an attempt to back-analyze the soil conditions leading to the liquefaction and lateral spread observed during the 1991 earthquake, and each of the five resulting case histories is developed and summarized. The results of this study should make a valuable contribution to the field of earthquake hazard reduction because they will introduce a procedure which will allow engineers and owners to objectively evaluate the performance of their deep foundation systems exposed to kinematic lateral spread loads corresponding to a given level of risk.

Kommersiell Sexuell Exploatering av Barn (KSEB) är ett ökande globalt problem,vilket är särskilt tydligt utvecklingsländer med en växande turistnäring. CostaRica har gjort omfattande insatser i det förebyggande arbetet mot dessa brott, menstudier visar att dessa ansträngningar är otillräckliga, särskilt rörande hjälpinsatsertill offer. KSEB har fått betydande uppmärksamhet under de senaste åren ochfrivilligorganisationer har anslutit sig till kampen mot dessa brott. Syftet meddenna studie är att förstå de nuvarande utmaningarna som frivilligorganisationeroch Costa Ricas regering står inför, i kampen att hjälpa offren och bekämpaKSEB, samt att undersöka samarbetet mellan Costa Ricas regering ochfrivilligorganisationer som arbetar för att förhindra dessa brott. Dessa frågor harbesvarats genom kvalitativa intervjuer med frivilligorganisationer och statligaorganisationer under en fältstudie i Costa Rica. Resultaten visar att det störstahindret i kampen mot KSEB är bristen på medvetenhet om förekomsten av dessabrott tillsammans med finansiella hinder i det förebyggande arbetet. Resultatrörande hindren av hjälp till offer visar att diskrepanser på hur hjälpen skaförmedlas är det allvarligaste problemet. Utöver detta saknas det fungerandeåteranpassningsprogram. När det gäller samarbete, visar resultaten attkommunikationen och samarbetet totalt sett är tillfredsställande. Det finns dock entydlig brist på organisatorisk samordning och resultaten visar att regeringen ärovetande om de frivilligorganisationer i landet som arbetar med att förhindradessa brott, vilket utpekades som ett stort hinder för samarbetet. / Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) is an increasing global issue, which is especially evident in developing countries with growing tourist industries. Costa Rica has made extensive efforts in the prevention work against these crimes, however, there is evidence that these efforts are insufficient, especially in terms of assisting victims. CSEC has received substantial attention over the last few years and Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) has joined the fight against these crimes. The aim of this study is to understand the current challenges NGOs and the government is facing in helping victims and combatCSEC, as well as to investigate the collaboration between the Costa Ricangovernment and NGOs who work within counter-trafficking departments. Byusing a qualitative approach during a field study in Costa Rica, the questions ofissue has been answered by interviewing NGOs and government officials abouttheir experiences. The results show that the largest obstacle in combating CSEC isthe lack of awareness about the prevalence of these crimes along with financialstruggles in the prevention work. Moreover, the results regarding challenges inhelping victims was embedded in discrepancies on how to assist the victims,along with a lack of reintegration programs. Regarding collaboration, the resultsshow that the communications and collaboration is overall satisfying. However,there is a clear lack of organizational coordination and counter-trafficking NGOsare not known to the government, which is pointed out as major challenges interms of collaboration.

Latin America is a region that has deep roots in Spanish colonialism. Since its independence, many countries in the region have heavily depended on agriculture exports to industrialized states to support their economies. This has led to political theorists to label Latin America as an area full of "periphery" countries that are exploited for resources by "core countries. Costa Rica, Panama, and Nicaragua were not the exception. In recent years, however, a noticeable difference between the economies of the countries has helped Costa Rica and Panama become more successful than Nicaragua, on the basis of GDP, GNI, and other similar measures. This thesis attempts to explain this economic difference by analyzing what type of relationship the three countries have had with the United States (which has acted as a regional hegemon) and analyzing how each country has handled economic dependence on agriculture. Through this comparative case study, the thesis tries to add to development and dependency theory literature.

This research examines the influence of tourism on migrants’ decisions to move to La Fortuna, Costa Rica, located in the buffer zone of Arenal National Park. Tourism is integral to Costa Rica’s economy and is closely connected to its national parks. Ecotourism is proposed as a non-extractive way for local people to benefit from natural resources, thus contributing to economic development and supporting conservation initiatives. However, if employment opportunities related to tourism encourage high rates of migration to edges of parks, then the resulting population growth could be detrimental to biodiversity conservation goals. Forty participants were interviewed for this project, which used cultural consensus analysis and semi-structured interviews to examine participants’ own behavior as well as shared cultural knowledge of factors that influence migration decisions. Results show that while employment opportunity was influential, other factors such as social stability and tranquility were equally important in participants’ motivations for relocating.

The objective of this essay is to examine which democratization factors that have contributed to the success of the democratization process in Costa Rica but not in Venezuela between 2000 and 2010. The theoretical framework is based on Juan Linz and Alfred Stepans five interactive arenas for a consolidated democracy. The methodology of this essay is composed of a comparative case study, which includes a most similar systems-design method. The choice of Costa Rica and Venezuela is based on their similarities in both history, culture, language and geographical location, but which have nevertheless led to such different successes in democratization between the years 2000-2010. The results show that all the five arenas have been contributing factors, while actors have played a major role in the countries various democratic developments. Costa Rica meets the requirements for all the selected democratization factors while Venezuela does not fully meet the requirements for any of them.

Wage rate disparities between industrialized and underdeveloped countries have increased competition in labor intensive industries. To remain cost competitive, U.S. firms have developed alternative production strategies such as relocating labor intensive processes in countries with lower wages and labor costs. This type of manufacturing is known as production sharing. Item 807.0 of the United States Tariff Schedule provides an incentive for U.S. firms to utilize the coproduction process because it offers reduced tariff costs on imported products assembled with U.S. components. The duty paid is lower because it applies only to the value added in the foreign country. Highly labor intensive products, such as apparel, are ideally suited to take advantage of the savings offered under Item 807.0. The U.S. textile and apparel industry faces stiff import competition from low wage countries, and over the last fifteen years the volume of Item 807.0 apparel imports from the Caribbean has increased substantially. examines Item 807.0 and its effect of reducing This thesis the tariff base on an imported article such as apparel. Costa Rica, one of the leading Item 807.0 apparel suppliers, is used to study the relationship between Item 807.0 and the increased level of Caribbean sourcing of apparel production. The conclusion is that the tariff reductions of Item 807.0 should increase U.S. imports of Costa Rican apparel products made with U.S. components. However, Item 807.0 must be combined with low cost labor and competitive U.S. fabrics to be economically feasible. / M.A.