El arte público abre sin lugar a dudas un amplio panorama en cuanto a la construcción de la ciudad y su imagen. Si leemos la forma en que se disponen dichos espacios y las obras que lo conforman, se pueden identificar los diversos momentos y cambios que ha sufrido la ciudad y la complejidad de la misma. En el espacio público confluyen una serie de elementos que hablan más allá de su materialidad, de la sociedad y la cultura que habita y dinamiza dichos escenarios. La ciudad de Barcelona ha sido pionera en la implementación de estrategias y políticas públicas orientadas a la organización del espacio público involucrando el arte y conviven en ella una serie de espacios que hablan de la historia de la ciudad así como de las decisiones, ideas y planes que han estado detrás de su creación. Esta situación se debe en gran parte al papel central que el espacio público ha jugado en la reconstrucción de la ciudad tras la dictadura franquista; que produjo una experiencia social y urbana que dejó una serie de cicatrices en la ciudad. Dicho panorama de crisis socio-política, económica y cultural fue el punto de partida de una serie de ideas, movimientos y políticas que recondujeron las intervenciones en la ciudad. Este trabajo busca, a partir de la selección y el estudio de unas obras de Arte público definidas y enmarcadas dentro de unas etapas específicas que expresan unas ideas e imaginarios de ciudad, entender las relaciones físicas que existen entre la obra y su contexto , así como el papel de éstas dentro del proyecto de construcción de la ciudad.

En este trabajo se presenta un estudio sobre la soldadura y caracterización de uniones de ductos de acero API 5L-X80 con diferentes alambres tubulares. Tales procesos son evaluados bajo la influencia de la temperatura de precalentamiento mientras el aporte de calor de la soldadura es mantenido constante. Las soldaduras fueron realizadas en la posición plana 1G, con la pistola fija y el ducto girando. Se soldaron tubos de 762 mm de diámetro externo y 16 mm de espesor. Fueron utilizados alambres con propiedades mecánicas diferentes de las del metal base, usándose en la condición undermatched. El proceso de soldadura por arco eléctrico con alambre tubular fue usado en dos variantes, autoprotegido (FCAW-S) y con protección auxiliar de gas (FCAW-G), cada uno de ellos aplicados por medio de seis pases sobre una unión de tope y bisel en “V”, con la utilización de tres niveles de temperatura de precalentamiento (ambiente, 100 y 160 °C). Estas temperaturas fueron mantenidas entre pases. La caracterización de las uniones es presentada en función de los ensayos mecanicos realizados: resistencia a la tracción, dureza y tenacidad. Para la ejecución de estos ensayos se tomó como referencia las normas API 1104, AWS y ASTM. Como criterios de aceptación fueron utilizadas las normas API 1104 y API 5L. A partir de los resultados obtenidos fue posible observar que es viable la soldadura de ductos API 5L-X80 con este tipo de alambres tubulares, cumpliendo con los requisitos de las normas de referencia, sin ser necesario el uso de temperatura de precalentamiento.

El rock es un género musical surgido a finales de 1950 en los Estados Unidos y en Gran Bretaña. Tiene sus raíces en el rock 'n' roll, el rhythm and blues, country, así como de folk y jazz. Pero el rock no es sólo un movimiento musical desde mediados de los años 1950. Él todavía está vivo, y está presente en la industria durante más de seis décadas. Poco a poco ha influido en la cultura, por ejemplo en la moda, el cine, la pintura, en la literatura. Pero ¿el rock que está en la actualidad influye en los elementos que constituyen la identidad cultural de las sociedades? Para ello, he elegido las ciudades de Londres y París, dos ciudades que son muy diferentes en lo que respecta a la identidad cultural y también en lo que respecta al rock. De esta manera mi tesis se divide en cuatro capítulos, el primer capítulo está dedicado a recordar la definición y el contexto en el que voy a usar la cultura, la identidad cultural y el rock. En el capítulo segundo y tercer lugar, me referiré a la ciudad de París y la ciudad de Londres para hacer una comparación entre los dos en términos de su situación histórica y de los elementos del rock y de su identidad cultural. El cuarto y último capítulo se responde a la pregunta inicial de si existe influencia del rock en la identidad cultural de París y Londres, de acuerdo con el análisis realizado en el segundo y tercer capítulo.

In this project, the aim is the experimentation and further development of a new composite material made out of plywood, fiber glass and resin. It proposes a fabrication logic to design large continuous double skin, self structural and performative surfaces. The project introduces a step forward in the manipulation of plywood panels, pre-stressing them in a form finding process to achieve curvatures; thus, developing large structures. Through a reinforcing construction process necessity of big mandrels is avoided. Digital simulations and physical experiments were implemented in the research in order to achieve real possible geometries, to reduce weight and to simplify the structure. THE OBSESSION WITH A SURFACE The project gets the interest of producing one continuous surface based on the material behavior just as Dieste explored deeply in his research where he recognized that the surface offered a realm formal exploration that in turn, could solve structural problems. The surface is the result of environmental, structural and architectural necessities. Its efficiency responds to the optimization process. Therefore form and expression, fabrication and structural efficiency led the development of a new language of building. The optimization process determines the final shape. The shells are the material with certain thickness, but the shape is still more fundamental as it contains the space and the quality of itself.

When complying with anti-money laundering (AML) regulation, financial institutions faced some problems reflected in the form of risks and costs. In some cases, those problems have legal solutions but, in other cases, place banks in the position to decide between two risks – one being less harmful than the other. The aim of this dissertation is to provide an analysis of such risks and costs handled by financial entities, presenting some solutions provided by courts, but also identifying the gap between regulation and reality. Chapter I includes a general overview of money laundering; it makes reference to Financial Action Task recommendations in this matter and at the end the regulatory context of the crime in United Kingdom (UK). In Chapter II, each subsection refers to the risks banks may have when complying with money laundering regulations; the duality between the risk of being involved in a money laundering offence against the risk of being sued as a constructive trustee, the problem between reporting suspicious transactions against the tipping off offence, the dilemma of whether compliance with AML requirements and breaching contractual duties with customers, and an analysis of how legislation has partially solved the dilemma regarding confidentiality duty. Then, I shall discuss the costs that banks have to assume in implementing the AML system and the perception of the bankers regarding AML regulation.

Since the creation of the Old Age Pension scheme (Algemene Ouderdomswet, henceforth; AOW) in 1957 some important changes in its regulation have taken place. The purpose of this study is to analyse the redistribution of income for different individuals in the AOW taking into account these changes in regulation and different groups of individuals according to their gender, civil status and income. This comparison is made by using the Generational Accounts approach, initially presented by Auerbach (1991), in which the Net Present Value of the pension benefits received by every individual from the system is subtracted from the Net Present Value of the contributions paid to the system. In this study the database IPO, Documentatierapport Inkomenspanelonderzoek from CBS, Statistics Netherlands, has been used for some specific years after 1977. For the data of 2008 onwards the future contributions and benefits of the individuals will be projected according to the forecasts of the wage increases and pension benefits. A sensitivity analysis is also performed in order to check the changes in the Generational Accounts of the individuals with different discount rates and including the effects of the New Pension Contract.

Over the last decade, the Latin American Cross-Border M&A activity experienced a significant increase in terms of volume, value, and complexity. Between 2002 and 2011, 1483 M&A announcements involving Latin American bidders were found in this study. From this sample 344 were targeting companies in a foreign country. With the purpose of measuring to what extent CB-M&A can be a catalyst of value creation or destruction for the bidder in the short-term, the event study methodology was employed in a sample of 47 observations. I found that on average, the market reaction is positive after the announcement, leading to the short-term value creation for the Latin American acquirers. Regarding the allocation of investments in terms of geographies, the outcome shows that bidders tend to favor countries with similar cultural values and geographically close. The Hofstede’s cultural dimensions along with additional factors such as language, legal origins, and religion were analyzed in order to evaluate to what degree cultural differences affect cross-border acquisitions. However much the results are not statistically significant, it appears that cultural differences tend to have a negative effect on the bidder’s short-term performance.

In order to receive the title of Master of Science in Industrial Engineering and Management, the author Juan Pablo Rolón Paz, developed the current Master Thesis, which by the hand of the Dutch company ASML Holding, identified, described and analysed strategies to service generations of machines developed by ASML, now referred as platforms, during the decline stage and post Product Life Cycle (PLC). ASML is a company that designs, develops, integrates, markets and services machines to create chips that power electronic, communications, and information technology products. The services provided by ASML include spare parts, tooling and labour. ASML is characterised to offer perpetual support for their products. They service their recently released equipment, to the ones developed over the life of the company. In this light, ASML wants to identify strategies to service their platforms during the decline stage of product life cycle. This means, strategies to service their aged platforms. ASML is interested in identifying the criteria for deciding whether to stop offering their service products or not, and in the situation they agree to stop offering their service products, what approaches to take regarding post PLC.  To identify strategies to service platforms in the decline stage and post PLC, we decided to do a literature and benchmarking study, to get the best practices in service management, service parts management and service parts logistics for aged products. We met with people within ASML, and people of other companies in The Netherlands, and the United States of America. The results were triangulated with the information gathered through the literature research, meetings with experts on product life cycle and spare parts management, and having feedback from managerial people of ASML. In the next chapter, we define the research, developing the research statement, objectives, questions, scope, delineation, deliverables, method and structure.

The thesis focuses the topic of squatter settlements located along borders in twin cities on the Amazon context. The study claims that Twin Cities are integrated by informality, in this case by squatter settlements along borders. In addition to the integration, these squatter settlements are transforming the border from a limit towards a social spatial construction of their territory. Based on that, the study looks for a cross border approach which can be developed by local governments of twin cities in order to manage squatter settlements along borders as a shared and common problem. In order to develop the research, the study has been done in the case of Leticia (Colombia) and Tabatinga (Brazil) twin cities in the Amazon. The thesis is focused in a natural space which has been the border between these twin cities the San Antonio ravine. Along this “natural” limit between Colombia and Brazil has been taken place an occupation of squatter settlements that has transformed the international limit into an “informal” urban space. The thesis developed two approaches in order to study the mentioned case of squatter settlements located along borders in twin cities. First, the study developed a bottom up approach analysing socioeconomic and physical characteristics of squatter settlements inhabitants and comparing both squatter settlements based on fieldwork findings. The comparative study looks for symmetric and asymmetric issues between both squatter settlements which are a key output towards a cross border approach between the twin cities based on needs and characteristics of squatter settlements inhabitants in the Amazon context. On the other hand, the study developed a review of urban policies of Colombia and Brazil looking for aspects that can be taking into account for local government of Leticia and Tabatinga in their local policies for managing squatter settlements on flood prone lands located on the border’s fringe. In addition, the study made a review of the current frontiers policies of both countries in order to find key elements that can used by local government for developing a cross border cooperation for managing squatter settlements in a cooperation and integration framework.Finally, the study looks for a short and long term appropriate approach for managing these two squatter settlements located along the border between the Leticia and Tabatinga twin cities. The recommendations for both terms can be useful input for future housing policies, and urban planning and management instruments in the twin cities based on Amazon characteristics. Moreover, the research methodology developed in the study can be an appropriate research procedure for further urban studies in Leticia and Tabatinga twin cities, especially on squatter settlements along border’s fringe.

This research aims to find relationships through a comprehensive set of themes between four art museum spaces designed in four different cities, in four different years, by four different architects. The relationships highlight the complexities of museum architecture, its multiple constituents, and its permanent shaping by the varying cultural conditions of a certain time. This paper uses the four architecture projects not as the ultimate object of analysis; rather they are instruments to exemplify broader topics extracted from the literature review. These are: the relationship of the museum with its urban settings, the interactions between architectural form, artistic practices and exhibition space, and the varying models of visitor experience they each create. In addition to systematically collecting, reading, and analysing books and articles published during the last two decades and the review of current information on the museums’ online sites, this dissertation relies on four case studies: The Museum of Unlimited Growth (1939), The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (1959), The Centre Georges Pompidou (1977), and Tate Modern (2000). Although it relies heavily on the literature, it hopes to raise a critical viewpoint and contribute to the efforts towards understanding what shapes the architecture of the museum as well as the thoughtful responsibilities of those involved in this significant scenario; from museum directors, curators, and artists, to architects, policy makers, and visitors.