Business. Book 2. Level 3. BTEC National.

El programa BTEC es un programa de estudios que permite obtener una cualificación profesional o laboral. Este recurso está preparado para ayudar al alumno en el curso BTEC National, nivel 3, sector profesional de negocios. El contenido se divide en ocho unidades que tratan de: gestión de recursos humanos en la empresa; gestión de un acontecimiento de negocios; aspectos del contrato y el derecho en los negocios; salud y seguridad en el trabajo empresarial; comprender la venta al por menor; iniciar una pequeña empresa; la ética empresarial y negocio y entorno económico. Incluye actividades de evaluación en cada unidad que cubren todos los criterios de ésta para ofrecer a los estudiantes la oportunidad de practicar sus tareas y profundizar en el conocimiento y la comprensión de la materia.

Rum-Rum el explorador : hacia una pedagogía más activa y la revalorización del juego.

Resumen basado en el de la publicación

Empires, Religion & Trade

The Indian Ocean became the meeting point of two emerging empires in the early 16th century: the Mughal and the Portuguese empires, both different in their nature and objectives. While the Mughals were the dominant land power in the Indian subcontinent, the Portuguese dominated the coastal waters and the sea lanes They influenced each other’s fortunes, and of the region as a whole.

Apropiación del espacio público: intervenciones escénicas en los buses de transporte urbano de la ciudad de Quito

El presente trabajo investigativo se concentra en analizar la propuesta escénica de tres grupos artísticos de la capital, quienes pensaron que subirse a un bus era la mejor apuesta contra la rutina y el espacio preciso para dar rienda suelta a la creatividad sin pagar pasaje. Se plantea, entonces, una reflexión acerca de su narrativa y apuesta estética en un espacio privado que usa las vías públicas y en el que se genera varias tensiones, pero que se disipan mientras los actores se bajan por la puerta de atrás. El presente estudio permite reflexionar sobre el espacio público, el espacio privado, sobre la ciudad y el arte que se apropia ‐sin permiso‐ de las calles, esquinas, plazas y parques. Vivir la ciudad, habitar sus lugares, demandan una serie de actos que transgredan la cotidianidad de la gente, con el fin de sacarlos de su confort citadino. Vale preguntarse, entonces, ¿cuáles son las alternativas para apropiarse del espacio público y proponer alternativas de socialización que no sean impuestas? El trabajo de estos grupos nos da una pauta por donde transitan las ideas sin el visto bueno de los burócratas de ocasión. El bus rueda en el imaginario de los quiteños como un verdugo al que se lo necesita por obligación. Por lo tanto, esta investigación nos llevará por distintas “paradas” que el chofer que escribe debe respetar: contando, sistematizando y dialogando con autores y artistas que hagan del viaje de ida una aventura reflexiva y placentera. Pasajes a la mano.

Enchufe TV: estéticas de la cotidianidad y marcas del humor

Las redes sociales virtuales se han convertido en una parte indispensable de la vida cotidiana, especialmente de los jóvenes. Estas redes son la plataforma ideal para que personas del mundo entero se mantengan comunicadas, compartan ideas, gustos, pasatiempos, conocimientos, etc. Contenidos científicos, artísticos, familiares llegan a ser conocidos por inmensas cantidades de personas a través de las redes virtuales. Gracias a ellas es posible crear comunidades virtuales entre quienes comparten los mismos intereses. Enchufe TV vio en estas características de las redes sociales el mejor espacio para dar a conocer sus trabajos; desde su primera aparición, en noviembre del 2011, sus videos cortos de estilo cómico han alcanzado gran popularidad, no sólo en Ecuador sino en toda América Latina, ganando miles de seguidores y logrando millones de visualizaciones. Los videos de Enchufe TV narran situaciones que jóvenes ecuatorianos viven diariamente: un viaje en bus para rendir un examen; hacer la tesis; ir al gimnasio; sus relaciones amorosas y filiales; todas abordadas desde el humor. Mediante la exageración, la repetición, la sorpresa y otros recursos, las situaciones cotidianas son convertidas en escenas cómicas y burlescas. En esta tesis se analiza el discurso creado por Enchufe TV sobre el mundo juvenil y el ser joven en contraposición con el mundo adulto. Los sentidos creados –convertidos en referentes para muchos jóvenes ecuatorianos- se sustentan en estereotipos que -como se demostrará en este trabajo-, provienen principalmente del mundo adulto al que pretenden cuestionar.

Diseño de un modelo de gestión del capital intangible en empresas del sector turístico Caso: Quindetour

La presente tesis investigativa: “Diseño de un Modelo de Gestión del Capital Intangible en Empresas del Sector Turístico. Caso: Quindetour” se encuentra compuesta de tres capítulos: 1.- El capital intangible, 2.- El modelo de negocio y su relación con el capital intangible y 3.- Diseño del modelo de gestión del capital intangible. El primer capítulo contiene el marco teórico, donde se realiza una descripción y análisis de los principales conceptos sobre el capital intangible en las empresas, sus diferentes dimensiones y métodos de evaluación. En el segundo capítulo se presenta un estudio sobre el modelo de gestión y la estrategia del negocio y su relación con el capital intangible. Por último, en el tercer capítulo se detalla el diseño del modelo de gestión del capital intangible para la empresa Quindetour. El método de investigación es de tipo exploratorio y descriptivo; se identifica y analiza el capital humano, el capital estructural y el capital relacional. Se determinan las acciones que debe implementar la empresa Quindetour en su modelo actual de gestión del capital intangible. Quindetour Cía. Ltda., se constituyó en el año 2011 como una empresa operadora turística del “Quito Tour Bus”. Su operación se realiza mediante el sistema “Hop On – Hop Off” lo que le permite al pasajero subir y bajar en 12 paradas establecidas a lo largo de la ciudad de Quito y recibir información sobre los atractivos turísticos del lugar.

Factors required for the uridylylation of the foot-and-mouth disease virus 3B1, 3B2, and 3B3 peptides by the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (3D(pol)) in vitro

The 5' terminus of picornavirus genomic RNA is covalently linked to the virus-encoded peptide 313 (VTg). Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) is unique in encoding and using 3 distinct forms of this peptide. These peptides each act as primers for RNA synthesis by the virus-encoded RNA polymerase 3D(pol). To act as the primer for positive-strand RNA synthesis, the 3B peptides have to be uridylylated to form VPgpU(pU). For certain picornaviruses, it has been shown that this reaction is achieved by the 3D(pol) in the presence of the 3CD precursor plus an internal RNA sequence termed a cis-acting replication element (cre). The FMDV ere has been identified previously to be within the 5' untranslated region, whereas all other picornavirus cre structures are within the viral coding region. The requirements for the in vitro uridylylation of each of the FMDV 313 peptides has now been determined, and the role of the FMDV ere (also known as the 3B-uridylylation site, or bus) in this reaction has been analyzed. The poly(A) tail does not act as a significant template for FMDV 3B uridylylation.

A dual QPSK soft-demapper for ECMA-368 exploiting time-domain spreading and guard interval diversity

When considering the relative fast processing speed and low power requirements for Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN) and Wireless Universal Serial Bus (USB) consumer based products, then the efficiency and cost effectiveness of these products become paramount. This paper presents an improved soft-output QPSK demapper suitable for the products above that not only exploits time diversity and guard carrier diversity, but also merges the demapping and symbol combining functions together to minimize CPU cycles, or memory access dependant upon the chosen implementation architecture. The proposed demapper is presented in the context of Multiband OFDM version of UWB (ECMA-368) as the chosen physical implementation for high-rate Wireless USB.

A dual QPSK soft-demapper for multiband OFDM exploiting time-domain spreading and guard interval diversity

When considering the relative fast processing speeds and low power requirements for Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN) including Wireless Universal Serial Bus (WUSB) consumer based products, then the efficiency and cost effectiveness of these products become paramount. This paper presents an improved soft-output QPSK demapper suitable for the products above that not only exploits time diversity and guard carrier diversity, but also merges the demapping and symbol combining functions together to minimize CPU cycles, or memory access dependant upon the chosen implementation architecture. The proposed demapper is presented in the context of Multiband OFDM version of Ultra Wideband (UWB) (ECMA-368) as the chosen physical implementation for high-rate Wireless US8(1).

Microprocessor systems: an introduction

The aim of this book is to provide and introduction to microprocessor systems, their operation and design. It covers those topics needed by engineers and computer scientists who are interested in applying microprocessors in practical situations, namely computer hardware including logic and interfacing, software, in particular high level and assembly language programming, and the design and testing of such systems. The fundamental principles of micrprocessor systems are described and these are illustrated with reference to two microprocessors, the 32-bit MC68020 from Motorola and a single chip microcomputer, the 8051 from Intel; and in addition, interfacing to the general purpose STE bus is described. The details of the processors and the bus are concentrated in three chapters, thus allowing the presentation of the material to be independent of the microprocessors if that is desired, and permitting the specific details to be found easily.

Performance analysis of data transmissions in MPLS and non-MPLS networks

Basic Network transactions specifies that datagram from source to destination is routed through numerous routers and paths depending on the available free and uncongested paths which results in the transmission route being too long, thus incurring greater delay, jitter, congestion and reduced throughput. One of the major problems of packet switched networks is the cell delay variation or jitter. This cell delay variation is due to the queuing delay depending on the applied loading conditions. The effect of delay, jitter accumulation due to the number of nodes along transmission routes and dropped packets adds further complexity to multimedia traffic because there is no guarantee that each traffic stream will be delivered according to its own jitter constraints therefore there is the need to analyze the effects of jitter. IP routers enable a single path for the transmission of all packets. On the other hand, Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) allows separation of packet forwarding and routing characteristics to enable packets to use the appropriate routes and also optimize and control the behavior of transmission paths. Thus correcting some of the shortfalls associated with IP routing. Therefore MPLS has been utilized in the analysis for effective transmission through the various networks. This paper analyzes the effect of delay, congestion, interference, jitter and packet loss in the transmission of signals from source to destination. In effect the impact of link failures, repair paths in the various physical topologies namely bus, star, mesh and hybrid topologies are all analyzed based on standard network conditions.

Multi-vehicle planning using RRT-connect

The problem of planning multiple vehicles deals with the design of an effective algorithm that can cause multiple autonomous vehicles on the road to communicate and generate a collaborative optimal travel plan. Our modelling of the problem considers vehicles to vary greatly in terms of both size and speed, which makes it suboptimal to have a faster vehicle follow a slower vehicle or for vehicles to drive with predefined speed lanes. It is essential to have a fast planning algorithm whilst still being probabilistically complete. The Rapidly Exploring Random Trees (RRT) algorithm developed and reported on here uses a problem specific coordination axis, a local optimization algorithm, priority based coordination, and a module for deciding travel speeds. Vehicles are assumed to remain in their current relative position laterally on the road unless otherwise instructed. Experimental results presented here show regular driving behaviours, namely vehicle following, overtaking, and complex obstacle avoidance. The ability to showcase complex behaviours in the absence of speed lanes is characteristic of the solution developed.

Multi-level planning for semi-autonomous vehicles in traffic scenarios based on separation maximization

The planning of semi-autonomous vehicles in traffic scenarios is a relatively new problem that contributes towards the goal of making road travel by vehicles free of human drivers. An algorithm needs to ensure optimal real time planning of multiple vehicles (moving in either direction along a road), in the presence of a complex obstacle network. Unlike other approaches, here we assume that speed lanes are not present and that different lanes do not need to be maintained for inbound and outbound traffic. Our basic hypothesis is to carry forward the planning task to ensure that a sufficient distance is maintained by each vehicle from all other vehicles, obstacles and road boundaries. We present here a 4-layer planning algorithm that consists of road selection (for selecting the individual roads of traversal to reach the goal), pathway selection (a strategy to avoid and/or overtake obstacles, road diversions and other blockages), pathway distribution (to select the position of a vehicle at every instance of time in a pathway), and trajectory generation (for generating a curve, smooth enough, to allow for the maximum possible speed). Cooperation between vehicles is handled separately at the different levels, the aim being to maximize the separation between vehicles. Simulated results exhibit behaviours of smooth, efficient and safe driving of vehicles in multiple scenarios; along with typical vehicle behaviours including following and overtaking.

C-slow retimed parallel histogram architectures for consumer imaging devices

A parallel pipelined array of cells suitable for real-time computation of histograms is proposed. The cell architecture builds on previous work obtained via C-slow retiming techniques and can be clocked at 65 percent faster frequency than previous arrays. The new arrays can be exploited for higher throughput particularly when dual data rate sampling techniques are used to operate on single streams of data from image sensors. In this way, the new cell operates on a p-bit data bus which is more convenient for interfacing to camera sensors or to microprocessors in consumer digital cameras.

Enhanced three-factor security protocol for consumer USB mass storage devices

The Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an extremely popular interface standard for computer peripheral connections and is widely used in consumer Mass Storage Devices (MSDs). While current consumer USB MSDs provide relatively high transmission speed and are convenient to carry, the use of USB MSDs has been prohibited in many commercial and everyday environments primarily due to security concerns. Security protocols have been previously proposed and a recent approach for the USB MSDs is to utilize multi-factor authentication. This paper proposes significant enhancements to the three-factor control protocol that now makes it secure under many types of attacks including the password guessing attack, the denial-of-service attack, and the replay attack. The proposed solution is presented with a rigorous security analysis and practical computational cost analysis to demonstrate the usefulness of this new security protocol for consumer USB MSDs.