Today we live in a globalized world. In this interconnected world, the competition for wealth among states has become a synonym for market share. To ensure access to international markets, governments have resorted to the corporate marketing tool of branding. Country branding, as it is called, creates a series of narratives using a country’s identity. Such narratives encompass a symbolic system which is molded for the unique purpose of creating and promoting a positive image of the country branded. However, to be successful, this tool requires nationals to behave as ambassadors and embody the narratives presented. Thus, the brand indirectly defines the features that a ‘true national’ must have. It is argued that by placing nationals in a position where their membership in the community of the nation is evaluated, country branding can become an alternative method for countering the rhetoric used by terrorist and insurgents for achieving support. The analysis is conducted using constructivism as theoretical background, and the Colombian brand ‘Colombia es Pasión’ as study case. The conclusion achieved is that there are some theoretical and empirical elements that suggest that country branding could be used for counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency, yet further research is encouraged.

Mixing sound in headphones has always been a very attractive idea. They are portable, allow for surgical listening and are very affordable when compared to the cost of an adequately treated mixing room equipped with high-fidelity loudspeakers. The approach in this project was to design a workflow permitting to mix in surround format while monitoring through headphones. By reproducing the filtering responsible for accurate localization of sounds that occurs in the human auditory system using Binaural technology, a portable “virtual mixing studio” was designed and employed in the creation of three surround soundtracks for film material. Chapter 1 of this paper gives a description of the 5.1 surround system features and Binaural technology. Chapter 2 outlines the tools used to design a workflow allowing to produce and render a mix in 5.1 format. Chapter 3 describes the process of creating a 5.1 mix while monitoring through headphones. Chapter 4 provides a description of a listening experiment: aims, method, result, and discussion.

This investigation explores the dynamic relation between transaction activity and price appreciation in an effort to determine if the UK property market displays a return chasing behaviour or a price pressure effect. Using quarterly data from 2001 to 2013, this article explores a topic that has limited coverage for the private property market and it’s considered a relatively unexplored field among researchers. The dynamic is tested at an aggregate level, by property type and by type of investor. Using a bivariate Vector Autoregressive (VAR) model, this investigation uses two measures of transaction activity (flows and purchases) to test for the relation between these and returns. Results show that at an aggregate UK level, there is evidence of return chasing behaviour. This implies that returns are predictive of future flows. The result is consistent for the industrial, retail, and office property types for at least one measure of transaction activity. By type of investor, results show that there is a price pressure effect for overseas investors, and a return chasing behaviour for institutional investors, quoted property companies, private property companies, and occupiers. No evidence of any interaction was found for private individuals and financial institutions. Moreover, lagged returns were found to be economic and statistically significant in explaining subsequent returns, reinforcing the appraisal bias property data has.

Zusammenfassung: Boomer & Laver (1968: 4) definieren einen Versprecher als “an involuntary deviation in performance from the speaker’s current phonological, grammatical or lexical intention”. Aus diesem Begriff lassen sich drei Standpunkte folgern: Erstens, dass der Sprecher in der Regel ein phonologisches, grammatisches und/oder lexikalisches Intendiertes am Sprechen hat; zweitens, dass er sein Intendiertes mit der möglichst geringsten Anzahl von Unklarheiten zu äußern versucht; und drittens, dass der Sprecher immer unter dem Risiko steht, von seinem Intendierten abzuweichen. Beim Sprechen läuft der Sprecher die fast unvermeidbare Gefahr, Sprachproduktionsfehler bei seinen Gesprächsbeiträgen und in seinen Äußerungen zu begehen. Die Versprecher können auf verschiedenen Ebenen der Sprache auftauchen, bspw. auf der morphologischen, auf der syntaktischen oder auf der phonologischen Ebene. Mehrere Sprachwissenschaftler, unter anderen Meringer & Mayer (1978), del Viso (2002) und Wiedenmann (1992) haben sich mit den Versprechern verschiedener Sprachen beschäftigt. Diese Autoren berücksichtigten bei ihren Forschungen spontane, erzeugte, vollständige, unvollständige, in Korpora registrierte Versprecher, u.a. (vgl. Meringer & Mayer 1978; del Viso 2002; Wiedenmann 1992; Baars, Motley et al. 1975). Gleichwohl ist der Vergleich zwischen Versprechern im Deutschen und im Spanischen noch nicht näher untersucht worden. Die vorliegende Arbeit befasst sich mit einer linguistischen und psycholinguistischen Analyse von Sprachproduktionsfehlern in der deutschen und spanischen Sprache. Da das linguistische Feld der Versprecher aus zahlreichen Ansichten verschiedener Autoren analysiert worden ist, wird mit diesem Sprachvergleich versucht, die Versprecher in beiden Sprachen unter einer besonderen, ähnlich gestalteten kommunikativen Situation zu erforschen. Es wird außerdem versucht grob zu erkunden, inwiefern sich die Lapsus Linguae in einer bestimmten kommunikativen Praktik in den beiden Sprachen unterscheiden kann. Die in dieser Arbeit analysierten Sprechfehler werden aus einer Videoreihe gesammelt, in der es sich um spontane Befragungen von Passanten auf der Straße handelt (siehe Punkte 2.1. und 2.2.). Im ersten Teil wird der theoretische Hintergrund dargelegt. In diesem Teil werden zuerst die Versprecher als ein Phänomen der gesprochenen Sprache erläutert. Danach versucht man die Grenze zwischen den Lapsus Linguae, den Formulierungsproblemen und anderen Phänomenen der prototypischen Mündlichkeit festzustellen. Dann wird ein Überblick über den Begriff Versprecher im linguistischen Bereich vorgestellt. Der theoretische Hintergrund wird mit der Klassifizierung von Versprechern abgeschlossen. Im zweiten Teil wird eine empirische Untersuchung zu den Versprechern in der deutschen und in der spanischen Sprache durchgeführt. Dabei wird das Material beschrieben, aus welchem die Sprechfehler gesammelt werden. Weiterhin wird eine Erklärung der Vorgehensweise für die auf diesem Material basierende Studie dargelegt. Im letzten Teil werden die Ergebnisse und eine Analyse zu diesen präsentiert. Schließlich werden die Schlussfolgerungen der vorliegenden Arbeit dargelegt. Resumen: Los errores de habla han sido estudiados por numerosos autores en diferentes idiomas, como por ejemplo Nora Wiedenmann en alemán (1992), Susana del Viso en español (2002), Merrill Garrett (1992) en inglés, entre otros. Estos errores conocidos también como Lapsus Linguæ han sido investigados desde sus diferentes categorías, a saber ‘errores espontáneos, provocados, completos, incompletos, registrados en corpus’, etc. Sin embargo, hasta ahora no se han realizado análisis detallados de comparación de los errores de producción del lenguaje en las lenguas española y alemana. Este es, pues, el objetivo de este trabajo, en el que se presenta un análisis lingüístico y psicolingüístico de los errores de producción del lenguaje en ambos idiomas. Debido a que el campo lingüístico de los Lapsus Linguæ puede ser tratado desde numerosos puntos de vista y es un campo aún en constante investigación, se realiza en el presente trabajo una recopilación de dichos errores a partir de una situación comunicativa específica, la cual ha sido producida de forma similar para ambas lenguas. Esta situación consiste en encuestas o mini entrevistas pertenecientes a un proyecto lingüístico originado por estudiantes alemanes en el año 2006. Como siguiente objetivo se busca indagar si existen diferencias a nivel subléxico, léxico y supraléxico entre ambas lenguas en los errores de habla en prácticas comunicativas específicas. El presente análisis psicolingüístico está basado en aspectos morfosintácticos de los Lapsus Linguæ e incluye tanto el análisis teórico de dichos errores, en el que se presentan teorías de varios autores respecto a los errores de habla, como un análisis empírico en el que se recolectan 299 nuevos errores en alemán y español antes no estudiados.

Recently, Latin American countries have experienced a series of upgrades in their sovereign credit ratings that are reflecting the region’s appeal for sovereign portfolio managers around the globe. Paradoxically, Latin American economies have shown strong economic fundamentals during the whole last decade and did not experienced any significant local common shock during 2009 - 2012, years in which credit agencies started upgrading the ratings of the region. Given these facts a valid question that springs up is which circumstances triggered the change in perception over the region’s creditworthiness during the last years. In this document I intend to explore a possible explanation to this change in risk perception, which consists in a positive wake–up-call contagion generated after the 2009 Greek debt crisis. The thesis will follow the methodology proposed in Giordano, Pericolli and Tomassino (2012), in which an analysis of contagion was conducted exclusively over developed European countries. Estimations show robust evidence of positive wake – up – call contagion towards the Latin American region. This outcome confirms that pricing of Latin American sovereign bonds in international financial markets is finally acknowledging the efforts of Latin American economies in correcting fiscal imbalances, implementing inflation targeting regimes and creating capital buffers to counter the effects of new coming local and international crises.

This dissertation ‘Citadels in Conflict’ wants to show how the conceptual process of photography goes from reality to representation by models, but also how representations of these models acquire a new significance, the reality of virtualism and illusion. To use installations or interact with models is to invent imaginaries –or to call memories–that could be placed on a tangible base… and later photographed. I want to reflect on imaginary cities and the utopia of war and displacement, picturing each photo as a citadel. The constructed models accompanying this text are understood as citadels, for they include –sometimes randomly– all social, cultural and physical variables that cities have, or as ‘imitations of life’. A metaphor of the varied and ironic glances a desplazado could get when arriving in cities or any other urban places. Therefore, the unexpected citizen dwells inside a citadel in conflict. The phenomena of war and forced displacement are mapping new cities in Colombia in sad and iconic ways as satirised in these sixteen images.

Risk aversion in the satellite industry has fostered long development cycles and low rates of innovation in the past. Emerging trends in propulsion technology development and spacecraft architecture design could lead to increased adoption of small satellites as well as more open, flexible and useful space systems. Two particular developments can be used to map the future of the industry. First, the development of MEMS thrusters for launch vehicles could enable dedicated launches for small satellites. This could substantially bring down the cost of satellite deployment. Second, the successful completion of the DARPA System F6 project could demonstrate the value of spacecraft fragmentation. This in turn could shift the focus of the industry from certain attributes that result in long development cycles, thereby opening the doors for open systems and greater innovation. Emerging trends in the satellite industry may result in paradigm shifts that would dramatically decrease satellite costs and increase innovation. This may ultimately result in a structural change in the satellite industry.

En este trabajo se investigan las fórmulas rutinas en el marco de la fraseología contrastiva del alemán y el español, en su variante colombiana. El análisis fraseolingüístico aquí propuesto se basa en un corpus contrastivo, construido a partir de la subtitulación alemana de la película colombiana “La Estrategia del Caracol” y su versión original. Adicionalmente, se analizan algunos componentes no verbales de la situación en donde tiene lugar la fórmula rutinaria, tales como los gestos. El resultado de este análisis constituye la base de estrategias didácticas para aprendices del alemán en Colombia. Teniendo en cuenta esa importancia, se aprovecha el potencial de los medios audiovisuales para la transmisión de unidades lingüísticas.

This thesis analyzes the possible influence of social capital on the levels of fear of crime perceived by residents of Bogotá. The thesis focuses on the potential role of social networks and the individual perception of collective efficacy of neighborhoods in the metropolitan area of the Colombian capital. According to current theoretical developments, people who belong to social networks and actively participate in them expect reciprocity from their peers in case of a criminal event. Thus, they will benefit from an inhibiting effect on their individual levels of fear of crime. Following the statistics, the security situation in the city of Bogotá has improved during the last years. For example, the homicide rates have ostensibly dropped in the last 20 years and other crimes, such as robberies and burglaries, have stabilized within normal occurrence rates compared to the historical average. Nevertheless, citizens of Bogotá feel more insecure and perceive higher risks of being a victim of crime than 10 years ago. This seemingly paradoxical situation suggests a gap between the subjective feelings of citizens and objective criminal rates registered by different authorities. As most of the theoretical and empirical research has focused on the study of facilitators of fear of crime, using quantitative methodologies, this thesis will focus on the study of inhibitors of fear. To understand levels of fear of crime in neighborhoods of Bogotá it adopts a qualitative methodology. In addition, it inquires for the most relevant factors that produce fear of crime and suggests policy recommendations to make people feel safer in the city. The results show that the role of social networks in inhibiting individual levels of fear of crime depends on the quantity and quality of pooled resources that a community has. Neighborhoods with more social, economic and institutional resources provide environments and milieus where people feel safer. This perception of collective efficacy to advance communal goals plays a pivotal role in the inhibition of fear of crime and is stronger in more cohesive and organized neighborhoods. Finally, high levels of fear of crime lead to less participation in neighborhoods where illegal armed groups exert de facto control of the territory, hampering the already low levels of social capital in these communities.

Energy Union (En Un) is a program released by the European Commission intended to create a single energy market between the European Union in order to have secure, affordable and sustainable energy. This way the imports will be reduced and the final price should be lower (theoretically) increasing the energy security for all the countries. The first communication was in February 2015 and is a very new topic for all the energy stakeholders in the EU. This is why a dissertation for the implications of this policy in UK was developed as part of the Master in Energy, Environmental Technology & Technology from City University London. UK is currently catalogued as an Energy Island (less than 10% of cross-border interconnection), with 30% of the generation based in coal, 30% in gas and 20% renewable, a liberalised market that varies with changes in gas or wind availability and the third highest kWh price from the EU. More than 20 energy policies and Conservative government with a constraint view against renewables’ subsidies. The implication for the UK and the En Un are divided into three: Infrastructural, Political and Economical. In the middle a map of the new cross-border grids proposed by this policy some of the findings are. The Energy Union in the UK will happen even if there’s no political wiliness or if they decide to not be part of the EU, mainly because the new infrastructure is already being developed (UK-Belgium) additional to the four current cross-border interconnectors. The wholesale market in UK is already liberalized and some cross border trades are being done with clean and cheap electricity from France and Holland; the key development is UK-Ireland, because UK, instead of being a 100% exporter to Ireland, will flip the coin with an import-export relationship with 8 interconnectors, electricity generated in Euros and close distance. Now it will not really matter if you generate electricity from Fossil Fuels, Nuclear or Renewable; the country will purchase from where is cheapest and available, independently from the source. Shale Gas, Nuclear, Gas and coal with CCS will be the important investment in the next years, not only in PPP (private public partnership) schemes but with R&D. New Universities courses will be develop (energy traders / brokers, cross border trade supervisors, etc) and more women should get involved. The £/ kWh for domestic and small companies will not be significantly reduced (albeit the low cost of it), those companies more engaged with the market will have very good deals and low £/ kWh.