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The purpose of this paper is to present a new low‐cost system based on a spherical robot for performing moisture monitoring in precision agriculture.

The work arose from the necessity of providing farmers with alternative methods for crop monitoring. Thus, after analysing the main requirements, a spherical robot was chosen as a tentative approach. The presented work summarizes the work carried out in selecting the basics to apply in the robot, as well as its mechanical and electronic design. After designing and constructing the robot, several tests have been performed, in order to validate the robot for performing monitoring task and moving on different types of soil.

The performed tests reveal that spherical robot is a suitable solution for performing the task.

Some improvements in control should be applied in order to reach a fully autonomous navigation in very slippery soils. Nevertheless, the performance of the robot in teleoperated mode allows validating of the system.

The robot turned out to be friendly and harmless in its use for this application. The cost of final series will be affordable in comparison with the cost of other methods. Endurance of the robot can be considered as fair.

The paper presents a new tool for farming based on non‐common robot.

This paper aims to present a system that is fully capable of addressing the issue of detection, tracking and following pedestrians, which is a very challenging task, especially when it is considered for using in large outdoors infrastructures. Three modules, detection, tracking and following, are integrated and tested over long distances in semi-structured scenarios, where static or dynamic obstacles, including other pedestrians, can be found.

The detection is based on the probabilistic fusion of a laser scanner and a camera. The tracking module pairs observations with previously detected targets by using Kalman Filters and a Mahalanobis-distance. The following module allows to safely pursue the target by using a well-defined navigation scheme.

The system can track pedestrians from static position to 3.46 m/s (running). It handles occlusions, crossings or miss-detections, keeping track of the position even if the pedestrian is only detected in 55/per cent of the observations. Moreover, it autonomously selects and follows a target at a maximum speed of 1.46 m/s.

The main novelty of this study is the integration of the three algorithms in a fully operational system, tested in real outdoor scenarios. Furthermore, the addition of labelling to the detection algorithm allows using the full range of a single sensor while preserving the high performance of a combined detection. False-positives’ rate is reduced by handling the uncertainty level when pairing observations. The inclusion of pedestrian speed in the model speeds up and simplifies tracking process. Finally, the most suitable target is automatically selected by a scoring system.

Earthquakes can produce important damage in civil infrastructure, including buildings and bridges, representing an important impact on the economy of many countries. The damage is particularly severe when the dominant frequency of the quake approaches one of the resonant frequencies of the structure. One typical failure occurs through the weakening of some beam‐column joints, generally along with the presence of cracking. The standard procedure for repairing this is by reinforcing the damaged zone with steel plates, sleeves or by means of a new section of reinforced concrete covering the old one. These arrangements change the mechanical stiffness and the mass of the structure itself. Accordingly, this work aims to study these mass and stiffness changes of structures through a non‐linear optimization of the modal analysis of the structure.

The paper analyzes the potential shifts in natural frequencies of the structure and thus proposes the best conditions under which a damaged bridge could be repaired efficiently.

In the cases analyzed a similar tendency was observed, namely, that the natural frequencies increase (i.e. diminish their period) with the increase of mass of the bottom columns and with the reduction of the uppers ones. The increase of frequencies by increasing the bottom sections seems to be a viable solution. It is observed that by carrying out the presented procedure it is possible to include more variables, in particular to consider not only the first frequency, but also higher orders.

A purely theoretical approach has been taken in this study.

If confirmed by experimentation this study would have considerable interest to engineers undertaking repair works on earthquake damaged structures.

Customer identification leads to behaviors that are beneficial for firms. This paper aims to analyze the effect of firm identification and community identification on content creation, which indirectly may affect offline word of mouth and online word of mouth.

This paper proposes a research model that is tested using data from 491 users of online travel agencies. To do so, partial least squares method is used.

The results show a positive relationship between firm identification and community identification. Moreover, both variables exert a positive effect on content creation. Furthermore, content creation positively influences offline and online word of mouth. This influence is moderated by self-enhancement in the case of online word of mouth.

Firm managers must enhance customer identification, as it can turn in behaviors that are beneficial for the company. Moreover, firms that own online communities must apply segmentation strategies based on identification and self-enhancement to encourage positive behaviors from customers.

This research tests the relationship between firm identification and community identification. Additionally, this study jointly analyzes the impact of these variables on several beneficial behaviors.

La identificación del consumidor genera comportamientos que son beneficiosos para las empresas. Esta investigación analiza el efecto directo de la identificación con la compañía y la identificación con la comunidad sobre la creación de contenido, así como el efecto indirecto de estas variables de identificación sobre el boca- oído offline y online.

Esta investigación propone un modelo teórico, el cual es estimado mediante Partial Least Squares a partir de información procedente de 491 usuarios de agencias de viajes online.

Los resultados muestran una relación positiva entre la identificación con la firma y la identificación con la comunidad. Además, ambas variables ejercen un efecto positivo en la creación de contenido. Asimismo, la creación de contenido influye positivamente sobre el boca-oído offline y online. Esta influencia es moderada por la necesidad de reconocimiento de los consumidores.

Los resultados del trabajo recomiendan potenciar la identificación del cliente con la empresa, dado esta identificación conlleva comportamientos beneficiosos para la compañía. Además, las compañías que poseen comunidades online deberían aplicar estrategias de segmentación basadas en la identificación y la necesidad de reconocimiento de cara a potenciar que sus clientes llevan a cabo comportamientos positivos para la empresa.

Esta investigación examina la relación entre la identificación con la compañía y la identificación con la comunidad. Adicionalmente, este estudio analiza conjuntamente el impacto de estas variables en comportamientos que son beneficiosos para la empresa

Trabajo de investigación

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relations and processes by which creativity is assembled, and how this mode of creativity responds to tensions and difficulties in activities concerning “arts education” and “creativity” in a community arts organisation in Mexico City. It shows how ethnographic research can provide qualitative understanding about “creativity” on the ground, i.e. through people’s participation in ordinary activities and projects in arts organisations.

The methodological approach was ethnographic in data collection and analysis. Participant observation was conducted for 11 months (November 2011/October 2012), as well as archival research and photographs.

The findings of this research highlight how, in the face of personal difficulties and tensions people respond creatively through collaboration. The former refers to people’s difficulties to gain control over their lives, e.g., finding a stable job. The latter refers to people’s tensions to produce an artistic project, where they negotiate with institutional expectations about the project and their own experiences and reflections.

While there is an increasing interest of policy makers for fostering “arts education” and “creativity” in an instrumental way, this paper shows how creativity emerges through the intensity of their personal ideas, experiences and solidarity.

Purpose – This chapter examines the expectation that because the developmental trajectories of cultural frontiers are often seen as being tied to that of their more complexly developed neighbors, increases in interregional interaction provide frontier communities with previously unavailable political-economic opportunities that promote social change.

Design/methodology/approach – This expectation is examined using data from archaeological excavations at the site of El Dornajo in southwestern Ecuador. Models based on external conditions like interregional interaction are considered alongside those based on internal conditions like environmental perturbations.

Findings – The results suggest that increased interregional interaction promoted the emergence of a regional prestige economy that symbolically legitimated (and perhaps made possible) the co-option of traditional risk buffering strategies during a time when the availability of subsistence resources had changed due to local conditions.

Practical implications – This chapter supports the notion that the emergence of institutionalized inequality requires control over both internal and external relationships. Furthermore, it suggests that examining models based on both internal and external conditions of change may help to explain the timing and pace of that change.

Originality/value – Much of the archaeological literature is dichotomized between models based on internal conditions and those based on external conditions. Few archaeologists would take exception to the notion that both conditions matter, but equally few archaeologists are looking at both kinds of conditions in the same case study.

This paper aims to explore how Andean knowledge and culture have shaped mountain ecosystems by building cultural landscapes where agrobiodiversity is created and recreated, water is domesticated (seeded and harvested), and where a harmonious relationship with the Earth and the Universe is kept.

Through the use of primary and secondary sources, the information is then organized detailing a synthesis of thoughts and joint research studies conducted by various authors regarding the valuable contributions made by the Andean culture.

This paper finds that strategies for facing the ecological crisis affecting planet Earth are being developed: the Pleiades and the Andean Cross continue to be observed in order to predict the weather and climate and make decisions related to traditional agricultural systems; cultural landscapes are being created and maintained; and water continues to be domesticated.

The tropical Andes of Peru would be in the third country most affected by global climate change worldwide. The severe impacts of the global phenomenon on mountain ecosystems and cultural landscapes are many, all of which are affecting food security of large human groups and traditional lifestyles of communities and farmers.