Mediation incomplete information bargaining with filtered communication

We analyze a continuous-time bilateral double auction in the presence of two-sided incomplete information and a smallest money unit. A distinguishing feature of our model is that intermediate concessions are not observable by the adversary: they are only communicated to a passive auctioneer. An alternative interpretation is that of mediated bargaining. We show that an equilibrium using only the extreme agreements always exists and display the necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of (perfect Bayesian) equilibra which yield intermediate agreements. For the symmetric case with uniform type distribution we numerically calculate the equilibria. We find that the equilibrium which does not use compromise agreements is the least efficient, however, the rest of the equilibria yield the lower social welfare the higher number of compromise agreements are used.

Organisational structure, communication and group ethics

This paper investigates experimentally how organisational decision processes affect the moral motivations of actors inside a firm that must forego profits to reduce harming a third party. In a "vertical" treatment, one insider unilaterally sets the harm-reduction strategy; the other can only accept or quit. In a "horizontal" treatment, the insiders decide by consensus. Our 2-by-2 design also controls for communication effects. In our data, communication makes vertical firms more ethical; voice appears to mitigate "responsibility-alleviation" in that subordinates with voice feel responsible for what their firms do. Vertical firms are then more ethical than the horizontal firms for which our bargaining data reveal a dynamic form of responsibility-alleviation and our chat data indicate a strong "insider-outsider" effect.

Communication, cultural identities and the Olympic Games: the Barcelona’92 experience

This document includes the results of the research undertaken by the author on the media planning and coverage of the Barcelona'92 and its cultural implications.

Olympic cities and communication

Article published in Greek in the special issue "The Olympic Games: the mega sports and media event" of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens journal Communication Issues (2004, no.1), discussing the need for establishing a communication model for city-games relations.

A right to a national space of communication? : on Stateless nations, their right to a space of communication of their own

Hem establert les bases metodològiques i teòriques per investigar la pregunta “Tenen les nacions sense estat el dret de controlar el seu propi espai de comunicació?”. La investigació ajusta el concepte d’espai de comunicació a la teoria política, cercant els seus límits en els drets individuals i, des de la perspectiva del liberalisme 2, aportant la justificació del seu control en quant que plataforma que incideix en la conservació i supervivència d’una cultura nacional. El primer article i fase de la tesi és l’adaptació i definició del concepte espai de comunicació. Fins ara, la recerca ha proposat diferents models d’espai de comunicació entenent si es tracta d’una visió emfatitzant la distribució i la producció de material marcat amb els símbols de la identitat nacional de la societat emissora, o bé si emfatitza la idea d’un espai de circulació de fluxos comunicatiu ajustat a un territori tradicionalment vinculat a una identitat nacional o nació sense estat. Igualment, es distingeix la dimensió d’emissió –sortir del territori al món- i la de recepció –fluxos informatius rebuts des del món al territori, concretament, al ciutadà; el paper d’intervenció de les institucions democràtiques és diferent en una dimensió o una altra i, per tant, també són diferents els drets afectats i les teories o principis que neguen o justifiquen el control de l’espai de comunicació. També s’ha indagat en les teories sobre els efectes cognitius dels mitjans de comunicació per relacionar-los amb la construcció nacional com a cohesió simbòlica i cultural. Si bé els mitjans no poden fer canviar de pensament immediatament, sí que poden conformar a llarg termini una percepció nacional general. Una comunitat és imaginada, donada la distància física dels seus components, i la comunicació social és, juntament amb l’educació, el principal factor de construcció nacional, avui en dia.

Laboratori Assistit per Ordinador mitjançant eines ofimàtiques convencionals

El projecte "Laboratori Asssit per Ordinador Mitjançant Eines Ofimàtiques Convencionals" ha estat realitzat en la facultat de Física de la Universitat de Barcelona durant els anys 2007 i 2008 (projecte biennal). El principal objectiu d’aquest projecte és demostrar la possibilitat d’utilitzar les eines informàtiques més habituals en la realització d’experiències de laboratori assistit per ordinador (LAO). En particular, es proposa la utilització del Excel © juntament amb les seves macros (Visual Basic para Aplicacions, VBA) en pràctiques de laboratori d’assignatures en l’àrea de Física Aplicada. Excel és un full de càlcul molt conegut i usat tant per professors com pels estudiants. En aquest treball mostrem exemples concrets que abasten les diferents tècniques de control i adquisició de dades: programació del port sèrie (RS- 232) i paral·lel, i interfase GPIB. La implementació d’aquestes tècniques es realitza mitjançant macros VBA de Excel. La resta de programació de l’aplicació LAO, la representació gràfica i el tractament de les dades, es realitza de forma molt simple a partir del maneig habitual d’un full de càlcul. La realització del projecte ha demostrat la conveniència d’aquesta metodologia. Actualment pràcticament la totalitat de les pràctiques LAO de les quals és responsable el Departament de Física Aplicada utilitzen la programació a través del full de càlcul. La resposta dels estudiants ha estat molt positiva. La combinació de les característiques d’aquesta eina juntament amb la programació VBA té un enorme potencial i representa, probablement, una forma senzilla d’introduir tant a l’alumne com al professor en el món de la programació.

The Strategic Adaptation of Party Organizations to New Information and Communication Technologies : A Study of Catalan and Spanish Parties

Aquest document se centra en els casos dels dos principals partits espanyols (PP i PSOE) i catalans (PSC i CDC) en el període immediatament després de les eleccions generals espanyoles de maig de 2008, quan aquests celebraren els seus congressos. En general, es poden distingir tres tipus d'actors: en primer lloc, els ciberactivistes que tracten d'obtenir el reconeixement formal de la seva activitat en els seus partits. Així com, els líders del partit que poden intentar promoure la presència del partit en el ciberespai, però que també poden romandre indecisos perquè no és clar l'impacte electoral a la xarxa del ciberactivisme. Finalment, alguns militants tradicionals (off-line) solen ser reticents al reconeixement del ciberactivisme perquè amenaça les recompenses previstes dins del partit. Aquest article mostra com els nostres partits varen respondre al desafiament del ciberactivisme i arriba a la conclusió que la seva situació electoral, mediada per la seva ideologia, estructura organitzativa i el tipus de militància, poden ajudar-nos a comprendre el grau diferent d'institucionalització en l'organització del partit.

Estudio para la ampliación de un sistema ERP SAP/R3 en una empresa pública responsable del ciclo integral del agua

Partiendo de un sistema SAP R/3 implantado en las áreas de financiera, comercial y recursos humanos de una empresa modelo llamada Aguama, se plantea su ampliación a las áreas de explotación, proyectos y planificación.

Let's talk: how communication affects contract design

We study experimentally how the ability to communicate affects the frequency and effectiveness of flexible and inflexible contracts in a bilateral trade context where sellers can adjust trade quality after observing a post-contractual cost shock and a discretionary buyer transfer. In the absence of communication, we find that rigid contracts are more frequent and lead to higher earnings for both buyer and seller. By contrast, in the presence of communication, flexible contracts are much more frequent and considerably more productive, both for buyers and sellers. Also, both buyer and seller earn considerably more from flexible with communication than rigid without communication. Our results show quite strongly that communication, a normal feature in contracting, can remove the potential cost of flexibility (disagreements caused by conflicting perceptions). We offer an explanation based on social norms.

Information technologies and communication between parents and children

This is an exploratory study that aims, on the one hand, to examine in more detail how children between 12 and 16 years of age use different audiovisual technologies, what they feel and think when using them, and whom they like to speak to about such experiences. On the other hand, we look more deeply into the interactions between adults and children, particularly between parents and their children, in relation to these technologies when children use them at home or in other places. We analysed responses to questionnaires with several common items, administered separately to parents and children. Children’s responses reflect an important level of dissatisfaction when talking with different adults about media activities. Our findings support the thesis that more and more children socialise through new information and communication technologies with little or no recourse to adult criteria, giving rise to the emergence of specific children’s cultures. Crossing of the responses of parents and those of their own children shows us which aspects of media reality adults overestimate or underestimate in comparison to children, and to what degree certain judgements coincide and differ between generations. The results can be applied to the improvement of relations between adults and adolescents, taking advantage of adolescents’ strong motivation to engage in activities using audiovisual media

Interplay of spectral efficiency, power and doppler spectrum for reference-signal-assisted wireless communication

Expressions relating spectral efficiency, power, and Doppler spectrum, are derived for Rayleigh-faded wireless channels with Gaussian signal transmission. No side information on the state of the channel is assumed at the receiver. Rather, periodic reference signals are postulated in accordance with the functioning of most wireless systems. The analysis relies on a well-established lower bound, generally tight and asymptotically exact at low SNR. In contrast with most previous studies, which relied on block-fading channel models, a continuous-fading model is adopted. This embeds the Doppler spectrum directly in the derived expressions, imbuing them with practical significance. Closed-form relationships are obtained for the popular Clarke-Jakes spectrum and informative expansions, valid for arbitrary spectra, are found for the low- and high-power regimes. While the paper focuses on scalar channels, the extension to multiantenna settings is also discussed.

High-SNR power offset in multiantenna communication

The analysis of the multiantenna capacity in the high-SNR regime has hitherto focused on the high-SNR slope (or maximum multiplexing gain), which quantifies the multiplicative increase as function of the number of antennas. This traditional characterization is unable to assess the impact of prominent channel features since, for a majority of channels, the slope equals the minimum of the number of transmit and receive antennas. Furthermore, a characterization based solely on the slope captures only the scaling but it has no notion of the power required for a certain capacity. This paper advocates a more refined characterization whereby, as function of SNRjdB, the high-SNR capacity is expanded as an affine function where the impact of channel features such as antenna correlation, unfaded components, etc, resides in the zero-order term or power offset. The power offset, for which we find insightful closed-form expressions, is shown to play a chief role for SNR levels of practical interest.

The role of the Teaching Quality and Innovation Support Unit in the ICT Engineering Studies at Universitat Pompeu Fabra

One of the strategies of Universitat Pompeu Fabra to support Quality Learning has been the creation of Units for the Support of Teaching Quality and Innovation within each faculty. In the seminar we will present the role and activities of the Polytechnic School Unit in charge or coordinating the efforts towards quality learning in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Engineering Studies. We will also discuss how these activities are informed to relevant academic stakeholders.

Introduction to University and the ICT Sector

The innovative subject “Introduction to ICT” combines a general Introductory Course to the University with elements around the Information and Communication Technologies sector (including the ICT engineer competence profile, market aspects, etc.)This new course has been developed and implemented in three degree programmes offered by the Polytechnic School at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. The course team consists of thirteen teachers,including business professionals, librarians, computer technicians, institutional representatives as well as an educationalist responsible for advising on methodology and study techniques. The subject was designed for a high number of students (260). At the end of the course, we collected quantitative and qualitativeinformation about the students’ satisfaction. The findings show the positive vision that they had about the topics worked during the subject. This paper describes the course, its implementation and evaluation and, of course, the details of the findings that we collected about students' satisfaction.