Abstract
This is a case study on leadership, a topic which has been much debated in the literature, as solutions for many diverse situations are still lacking and seem to escape us. The case describes how an entrepreneurial wood veneer factory operates, in the USA, with images included of a number of operations. The manager-owner took us on a guided tour from raw material (logs) to finished product (veneer wood). Waste is minimized at the factory in a very stream-lined operation which has a minimal amount of managers in place. Each worker is responsible for his or her job, done to perfection, as one task rolls on to the next, without stopping. The attitude of the innovative servant-type leadership in place is that "win-win" situations are better for all, and there is enough profit to go around. Servant-leadership-type leaders exist to serve employees and exercise minimal management control. At this firm there are no self-serving managers. Rather, mature and great working relationships are developed. Being greedy would mean that unions would have to be brought in. At this firm that was not necessary, by request of the employees themselves. Hispanic workers are very good and are cherished at this firm, in the heart of the USA. As leadership is dependent on culture, the discussion also includes references to cultural aspects relevant to management. The story is thus of a positive firm with positive leadership and subordinates. We conclude that employees who have emigrated from poorer countries in search of a better lifestyle may indeed make excellent workers, despite what some political leaders have announced in the media. We have found evidence that Spanish-speaking individuals do not only work well under autocratic leadership, as portrayed by the literature. Our study is thus revealing of a new cultural-type involving workers working outside their home countries. Under different leaders, in different countries and environments, certain workers are prepared to go the "extra mile" and behave in a completely different way as to what is expected from them in their home countries. This is surprising and may have important implications for multinational firms worldwide.

Abstract
Area coverage is an inherent and important topic when dealing with wireless visual sensor networks, since it may be desired when addressing availability and fault tolerance in critical applications. This problem arises because more than one visual sensor may cover the same area, generating overlapped regions that can be exploited for different kinds of optimization and quality enhancement approaches. Actually, some methods to compute the resulted covered area by a set of sensors have been proposed, and they are initial steps to compute availability metrics that are necessary for many monitoring scenarios. Particularly, approximate approaches are promising when computing area coverage, potentially achieving good results, although such methods lack proper evaluation and analysis about complexity, performance and precision. In this context, we perform an evaluation of a recent algorithm based on approximation for area coverage computing, comparing it with a precise algorithm developed in this work for this purpose. Doing so, it is desired to assess performance and accuracy of both algorithms, indicating the most appropriate approach when addressing availability in visual sensor networks.

Abstract
Transversal and transferable skills are the single most important skill gap identified by employers of engineering graduates. This gap can be a very effective chasm in the early careers of otherwise competent graduates. In this paper we address the end-toend implementation of a transversal and transferable skills training programme in an European public engineering school. The training addresses master and doctoral candidates. The needs assessment, the programme design, delivery and assessment are presented. Relevant stakeholders are involved throughout. They include employers, master and doctoral candidates, faculty, graduate course directors and teaching staff directly involved in the programme. The programme includes methodologies of self-evaluation and course evolution. It is found that the programme is perceived as very important by the trainees and that there is an increasing number of enrolled trainees. The challenges of a sustained delivery of such a growing programme are shortly addressed.

Abstract

Abstract
In this work, the thermo-optic coefficient (TOC) of ethanol-water mixtures, through refractive index and temperature measurements are determined using an etched optical fiber tip based on a multimode interferometer. The proposed probe is fabricated by fusion-splicing a 5.2 mm long coreless fiber section to a single mode fiber. To reduce the sensor dimensions and improve its sensitivity towards external medium variations, the fiber tip is subjected to wet chemical etching using a solution of 40% hydrofluoric acid, presenting a final diameter of 24.4 mu m. The TOC of each solution is estimated and, in the case of deionized water and pure ethanol, its value is of -1.128 x 10(-4) degrees C-1 and -3.117 x 10(-4) degrees C-1, respectively.

Abstract
High penetration of renewable energy sources, especially weather-dependent sources, has increased the power systems uncertainties. For any analysis in power systems such as planning and operation, it is essential to confront the stochastic nature of these sources in order to get much more precise results. Since operators need proper strategies and methods to decline negative effects of the stochastic behaviour of renewable power generators, such as total operation cost growth, this paper provides a review of different state-of-the-art approaches from the operator's viewpoint for handling the stochastic behaviour of renewable sources. Hence, in this paper, three different strategies are categorized for stochastic analysis of these sources. The first strategy is mathematical modelling including stochastic dependency and independency, multi-dimensional dependence, forecast and scenarios. Afterwards, demand side management, which is one of the other approaches for dealing with these uncertainties, is investigated and different demand response programs and some methods to model them are presented. Finally, the effect of different electricity market schemes and relevant optimization methods to mitigate the variations of renewable energy sources are discussed. The study demonstrates that an operator should choose one or a combination of these three approaches based on its requirements.