Hubert Bonin y Jean François Eck (eds.), Les banques et les mutations des entreprises. Le cas de Lille-Roubaix-Tourcoing aux XIXe et XXe siècle, Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, Villeneuve d’Ascq, 2012, 326 pp.

Con el impuls

Psicología y gente

Rafael Castro Sánchez (biografía): Nació en Santiago, República Dominicana. Se licenció en psicología en la Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (UASD) e hizo una maestría en ciencias políticas en la Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña (UNPHU). Ha publicado tres libros de ensayo: "Las implicaciones ideológicas y políticas de la psicología", "Psicología, mujer y sociedad" e "Intuiciones Sociopsicológicas". Ejerció la docencia en esta Universidad APEC.En "Psicología y gente", el autor trata brevemente dos temas fundamentales en la crianza de los niños: la necesidad que tienen de disfrutar de su niñez y su tendencia a manipular a los padres. En el primer acápite, se advierte a lo padres que deben dejar tiempo para que sus vástagos no hagan nada, para que simplemente descansen. Atiborrarlos de actividades extracurriculares solo para que se encuentren ocupados en todo momento, para que no molesten o no se involucren en actividades malsanas equivale a impedir que se entreguen a la fantasía, a las ensoñaciones, a la aventura de ser niños, lo que a la larga coarta su capacidad de inventiva y su creatividad. En el segundo acápite, se recomienda a los padres no dejarse utilizar por sus hijos. No deben reforzar las acciones negativas (lloros y pataleos) con los que estos intentan obtener el cumplimiento de sus deseos, pues ello solamente conduce a que los pequeños, inmaduros como son, tomen el control de la relación paternofilial. Si esto sucede, graves problemas familiares se generan y la constitución de la personalidad de los infantes se ve perjudicada

Historia de una reconversión silenciosa. El capital francés en España, c. 1800-1936

Este artículo trata de reconstruir la trayectoria de la inversión francesa en España desde principios del siglo XIX hasta los albores de la Guerra Civil. Para ello, se describen la implantación y apogeo del modelo de inversión francés durante buena parte del siglo XIX; así como su agotamiento y posterior reestructuración a partir del cambio de siglo y, en especial, en el periodo de entreguerras. El papel del capital francés en España se toma como estudio de caso para examinar la dinámica de la inversión extranjera en un país periférico y analizar cómo cruza fronteras y cómo se adapta a los cambios del anfitrión . El examen se realiza a 3 niveles: las interacciones del capital francés con el poder establecido y con sus socios españoles; los sectores tocados y su evolución; y el legado empresarial y cultural de la inversión francesa en España.Este artículo trata de reconstruir la trayectoria de la inversión francesa en España desde principios del siglo XIX hasta los albores de la Guerra Civil. Para ello, se describen la implantación y apogeo del modelo de inversión francés durante buena parte del siglo XIX; así como su agotamiento y posterior reestructuración a partir del cambio de siglo y, en especial, en el periodo de entreguerras. El papel del capital francés en España se toma como estudio de caso para examinar la dinámica de la inversión extranjera en un país periférico y analizar cómo cruza fronteras y cómo se adapta a los cambios del anfitrión . El examen se realiza a 3 niveles: las interacciones del capital francés con el poder establecido y con sus socios españoles; los sectores tocados y su evolución; y el legado empresarial y cultural de la inversión francesa en España

When Tone Is Not Everything: Joe Biden and Latin America

Joe Biden's election has raised many expectations. However, due to long-established legacies and predominant bipartisan consensus around the United States' Western Hemisphere policy, changes will be in tone rather than in substance. Four topics will shape the agenda. Post-COVID-19 reconstruction: With the pandemic raging across the region, a return to a "business as usual" approach will not meet the Latin American people's urgent economic, political, and social needs. COVID-19 has further brought to light the region's structural problems, including but not limited to poverty, inequality, and insecurity. Migration: Biden has promised to boost the resources sent to Central American countries by USD 4 billion in the hope of reducing immigration to the US. The president wants to carry out a so-far-abstract and light migration reform as well. However, there is no discernible strategy to deal with the rest of the hemisphere's challenges (e.g. the Venezuelan crisis). Democracy: Not every president is happy with the election's result. From Mexico to Brazil, passing through Central America, some governments identified with Donald Trump's confrontational rhetoric and profited from his disregard for their internal affairs. Among them, far-right leaders fear the end of the "free pass" granted to their heavy-handed and anti-democratic words and deeds. Regional and global scenario: in the context of China's increasing economic and diplomatic presence in the region, Biden's appeal to restore US "hemispheric leadership" appears hollow. Trump's actions and the political cleavages he helped deepen have turned the US into a less reliable partner. As a consequence, Latin America will have to find its own answers, and new strategic partners to implement them. The region is essentially alone in weathering the COVID-19 and the structural problems the crisis exacerbates. In this context, Latin America and the European Union will need to undertake more relevant, autonomous joint strategic initiatives or resign themselves to being bystanders in others' commercial, technological, and geopolitical endeavours

A Reuse-based framework for the design of analog and mixed-signal ICs

Despite the spectacular breakthroughs of the semiconductor industry, the ability to design integrated circuits (ICs) under stringent time-to-market (TTM) requirements is lagging behind integration capacity, so far keeping pace with still valid Moore's Law. The resulting gap is threatening with slowing down such a phenomenal growth. The design community believes that it is only by means of powerful CAD tools and design methodologies -and, possibly, a design paradigm shift-that this design gap can be bridged. In this sense, reuse-based design is seen as a promising solution, and concepts such as IP Block, Virtual Component, and Design Reuse have become commonplace thanks to the significant advances in the digital arena. Unfortunately, the very nature of analog and mixed-signal (AMS) design has hindered a similar level of consensus and development. This paper presents a framework for the reuse-based design of AMS circuits. The framework is founded on three key elements: (1) a CAD-supported hierarchical design flow that facilitates the incorporation of AMS reusable blocks, reduces the overall design time, and expedites the management of increasing AMS design complexity; (2) a complete, clear definition of the AMS reusable block, structured into three separate facets or views: the behavioral, structural, and layout facets, the two first for top-down electrical synthesis and bottom-up verification, the latter used during bottom-up physical synthesis; (3) the design for reusability set of tools, methods, and guidelines that, relying on intensive parameterization as well as on design knowledge capture and encapsulation, allows to produce fully reusable AMS blocks. A case study and a functional silicon prototype demonstrate the validity of the paper's proposals.Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia TEC2004-0175

Geometrically-constrained, parasitic-aware synthesis of analog ICs

In order to speed up the design process of analog ICs, iterations between different design stages should be avoided as much as possible. More specifically, spins between electrical and physical synthesis should be reduced for this is a very time-consuming task: if circuit performance including layout-induced degradations proves unacceptable, a re-design cycle must be entered, and electrical, physical, or both synthesis processes, would have to be repeated. It is also worth noting that if geometric optimization (e.g., area minimization) is undertaken after electrical synthesis, it may add up as another source of unexpected degradation of the circuit performance due to the impact of the geometric variables (e.g., transistor folds) on the device and the routing parasitic values. This awkward scenario is caused by the complete separation of said electrical and physical synthesis, a design practice commonly followed so far. Parasitic-aware synthesis, consisting in including parasitic estimates to the circuit netlist directly during electrical synthesis, has been proposed as solution. While most of the reported contributions either tackle parasitic-aware synthesis without paying special attention to geometric optimization or approach both issues only partially, this paper addresses the problem in a unified way. In what has been called layout-aware electrical synthesis, a simulation-based optimization algorithm explores the design space with geometric variables constrained to meet certain user-defined goals, which provides reliable estimates of layout-induced parasitics at each iteration, and, thereby, accurate evaluation of the circuit ultimate performance. This technique, demonstrated here through several design examples, requires knowing layout details beforehand; to facilitate this, procedural layout generation is used as physical synthesis approach due to its rapidness and ability to capture analog layout know-how.Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia TEC2004-0175