El trabajo presenta el diseño e implementación de un pie de tres dedos para robots bípedos. El sistema es capaz de medir el centro de presión sobre superficies planas e irregulares. El modelo ha sido creado para ser usado en robots bípedos, suministrando información sobre el centro de presión y el punto de momento cero. Dicha información es usada como entrada para un sistema de control, que asegurará la estabilidad del robot durante su caminata por diferentes superficies.

The study was designed to explore how work-family enrichment is perceived by German managers and how it is acknowledged within the context of career success. This was developed throughout the qualitative content analysis of in-depth interviews conducted to both male and female German managers, which included the coding and categorization of the data obtained with the software for professional text analysis and content analysis MAXQDA PLUS®. The study intended additionally to explore German managers´ notions on career success, schemes and strategies used by them in order to benefit the most from the work and family combined environment. Differences between the past and current notions on work-family enrichment before and after reaching the managerial position as well as gender dissimilarities on the topics were also part of the aim of the study and will be briefly discussed. German managers do experience bi-directional work-family enrichment through a conception of role accumulation that promotes positive effects of one domain on the other. Career success is perceived by German managers through many subjective and objective discernments in which it is definitely included work-family enrichment as a success factor. Especially for female German managers.

Many multinational corporations find themselves frequently in the dichotomous question of whether to make or buy a given component; but when those companies are operating with a global purchasing strategy, oriented to high levels of centralization and  dealing simultaneously with the implications of purchasing and producing the same item, the approach to take the decision becomes difficult to find, even with the current literature and practitioners knowledge. This master thesis addresses in a comprehensive proposal the way to undertake this kind of make-or-buy decisions. Through the literature review done, regarding global purchasing strategy, purchasing models, supplier selection methods and make-or-buy frameworks; it was found a convenient model to merge those concepts with the empirical experiences of a single case study in the Italcementi Group, one of the largest Cement producers in the world. The model proposed considers both strategic and economic elements and is designed as an iterative algorithm that evaluates several alternatives in order to arrive to the best make-or-buy approach. The methodologies selected and combined to solve the problem are mostly quantitative, but keeping the importance of qualitative elements within the analysis. The outcome of the thesis is a contribution to academicians and practitioners aiming to turn the existing knowledge about make-or-buy decisions into practical solutions for business management.

The paper is a critical revision of the sufficiency of sustainability reporting frameworks to represent sustainability performance. The paper sustains that while frameworks facilitate recording, classifying, and summarizing sustainability data (i.e. economic, social and environmental), they are insufficient to represent organizational sustainability performance. Using Systems Theory and systems proprieties the thesis illustrates how sustainability reporting frameworks fail to sufficiently represent sustainability performance as an organizational management tool.

Organic semiconductors are used in many fields of photonics. Displays fabricated using organic light emitting diodes (OLED) can be found in modern smartphones and tablets, whereas organic solar cells (OPV - organic photovoltaics) are emerging with demonstrated efficiencies above 10%. Organic photodetectors (OPD) are another very interesting domain, with ultrathin active layers (order of tens of nanometers) providing performance comparable to bulk inorganic devices. Thanks to a multitude of possible compounds, parameters such as response spectrum, cut-off wavelength etc. can be easily tuned. Because of very high absorption coefficient and low refractive index, issues such as crosstalk or reflection can be minimized. Another exciting feature is the low processing temperature and thus feasibility of using a flexible foil as substrate, leading to rollable or curved photodetector arrays.The performance of organic based photodetectors has grown considerably in the recent years in terms of high speed, high frequency response and detectivity so as to match the required custom specifications for practical applications such as imaging. However, further attention needs to go towards the understanding of the effects of scaling during miniaturization of these devices, while looking for the preservation and/or optimization of their opto-electrical properties. Therefore, in this thesis, emphasis is given on the photodetectors based on organic conjugated polymer materials for imaging applications. These organic photodetector devices normally suffer from a perimeter-to-area dark current density scaling, hence, special attention is on the understanding of this scaling effect as well as optimization of the fabrication process in order to get low leakage (dark) current, and therefore, large dynamic range of the OPDs. Photodetectors with different geometries and sizes from 0.08 cm2 down to 1.95E ?5 cm2 were fabricated, using two types of edge cover layer. Isolated islands of two different organic films were patterned with photolithography in order to study the dark current mechanisms. Electrical, optical and morphological properties were characterized for both patterned and non-patterned devices. The patterning process used to fabricate the isolated devices does not affect the optoelectrical and morphological characteristics of the photodetectors, and therefore their performance. Moreover, it does not induce or accelerate degradation of the organic films. The dark current density further decreases after full patterning is performed, while preserving all device characteristics. It is proposed to replace the semitransparent edge cover layer by the opaque, if thicker films can be achieved, as it might be possible to decrease the contribution of the perimeter leakage. Once the patterning process is performed, it is possible to implement these isolated devices as photodetectors arrays for imaging applications with an Ion/Ioff ratio of 6 orders of magnitude. It is proposed to perform a theoretical study of the dark current mechanism at the interface between the polymer and the metallic contact edges to model and simulate the perimeter recombination at reverse bias conditions. Moreover, further measurements such as electroluminescent and spectroscopy might aid to characterize the carrier transport in the OPDs. The project was aimed within the R&D department of large area electronics. Moreover, all the fabrication and characterization were performed in the facilities of IMEC.

Ritualization entails the deployment of strategies that will qualitatively differentiate certain activities from others that might be thought of as “more quotidian” compared to the transcendent and sacred (Bell, 1992: 74). In the Tibetan culture some examples of ritualized possession are more visible and easily classified than others. When analysing these practices, certain similarities and differences can be noticed. These should not be essentialised, otherwise, we are at risk of reifying a phenomena that is in itself flexible (Bell, 1992: 204).

El teatro en televisión ha sido injustamente tratado (en el mejor de los casos) o francamente olvidado. Cuando aparecen imágenes teatrales en la pantalla chica, éstas son terriblemente aburridas, faltas de diseño, faltas de originalidad, y divorciadas de cualquier consideración de lo que el “entretenimiento televisivo” implica (alejándonos, claro, de la trivialización y vulgarización que hace la televisión a diario, y refiriéndonos mejor a las potencialidades del espectáculo televisivo cultural). El teatro es un mundo complejo, diverso, concreto y dinámico. Y como tal, es susceptible de ser tratado con imaginación, originalidad, creatividad y gracia en televisión, tal como ha sucedido con otras artes similares, como la música, para no ir más lejos. La tesis se pregunta por las estrategias teóricas, técnicas y de producción que el realizador debería esgrimir para llevar cualquier tipo de espectáculo escénico a la televisión, respetando la naturaleza de los dos medios, considerando la realidad de la producción en televisión, aludiendo a una traducción de lenguajes, y pensando siempre en la creación de un objeto audiovisual de importancia estética, plástica y televisual. 

A research was carried out with the purpose to find the symbolism and preferences of the use of the car in Bogota; since it is believed that one of the crucial factors for a more rational use of the car is linked with the symbolism-affective motives that the car represents. It was applied 44 semi-structured interviews to a sample of subjects between 18 and 60 years that live in different sectors of the city of Bogota and that are economically able to have a private car. The results suggest that there is a gap between public transport and car use; motivating car users to prefer its own car. Security, comfort and social status highlighted as the main points to analyse in order to promote alternative modes of transportation such as carpool and public bicycle.

Vectoring is a novel technology created to expand the capacity boundaries of Veryhigh- bit-rate DSL 2 (VDSL2) systems. It mitigates the reduction of data rate and reach in VDSL2 systems caused by the crosstalk interference that appears when multiple services share the telephone network’s infrastructure. However, the implementation of vectoring on real systems faces numerous challenges that limit its potential to enhance the data rate and reach of VDSL2 systems. Therefore, evaluating its performance in close-to-real scenarios considering different technological aspects has turned into an interesting field of research that also helps in the development of new and faster technologies. This thesis evaluates quantitatively the performance of vectoring on VDSL2 systems. It proposes the extension and parametrization of performance indicators to compare and measure the impact of six different aspects on vectoring systems: network topology, binder occupancy, background noise, channel estimation errors, complexity constraints, and precoding and canceling schemes. Their evaluation requires numerical results that are obtained through a simulation tool, which is designed and implemented as part of this thesis. The obtained results and the conducted analyses give concluding guidelines for the vectoring technology and can be taken into account by manufactures and service providers for the deployment of real systems. In addition, and as a result of the objective of providing an accurate evaluation that represents well the real systems’ performance, this thesis contributes with the statistical characterization of the Far-end Crosstalk (FEXT) in a 50-pair cable binder commonly used in Germany (DTAG-40) and constructs its stochastic model. The model and the results are verified through real systems measurements, reference documents of the Broadband Forum and existing literature. Thus, the simulation tool and the characterized channel model constitute a contribution for the evaluation of DSL systems that can be used in future works.

Abstract: The paper presents a theoretical critical revision of the four mainstream sustainability information encoding processes by arguing that they are insufficiently capable of intelligibly recording, classifying, and summarizing sustainability data for economic prosperity, environmental integrity and social equity decision making (i.e. sustainable development). Utilizing the postulates of General Systems Theory and systems proprieties the problem of information complexity presented by sustainability data is addressed. Resumen: El siguiente trabajo presenta una revisión teórico crítica de los cuatro procesos de codificación de información desde los cuales se reporta actualmente en sostenibilidad. El trabajo sostiene que cada uno de ellos es insuficientemente capaz de registrar, clasificar y resumir información de forma inteligible para la toma de decisiones sobre desarrollo sostenible, es decir, respecto a decisiones sobre prosperidad económica, integridad medioambiental y equidad social. La revisión crítica está basada en los postulados de la Teoría General de Sistemas y en las propiedades sistémicas que permiten abordar el problema de la complejidad en información que presenta la información en sostenibilidad.