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The purpose of this paper is to describe the design and prototype implementation of a miniature climbing robot with magnetic adhesion, developed for the inspection of gas turbines and other environments that require vertical mobility along curved steel surfaces, but only offer very narrow access holes – in the case of turbines only Ø15 mm.

After a detailed description and analysis of the industrial environment where the robot is supposed to be used (inspection of gas turbines, housing not opened), the paper describes the basic mechanical concept which is based on two traction units on magnetic wheels and a folding mechanism which allows the robot for changing between two configurations – one for passing through the narrow access holes and one for climbing with 2D mobility on curved surfaces. A special focus is put on how the most difficult design challenges were solved – torque transmission at this very small size and the design of the folding mechanism.

The feasibility of the concept is proven with a prototype implementation and successful test results.

Discussions with field service engineers at ALSTOM showed that gas turbines are relatively easy to open thus do not require access through the narrow bore‐scope‐holes.

However, in the field of boiler drum inspection, there is a need for such robots. The final industrial version of this robot, which is currently under development at ALSTOM Inspection Robotics, is optimized for this type of environments (more space but higher requirements regarding the robustness against shocks).

The robot concept presented here allows for accessing environments with very narrow access holes and afterwards climb with 2D mobility – an ability which opens several new applications for compact mobile climbing robots, especially in the field of power plant inspection.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the design and prototype implementation of a compact climbing robot with magnetic adhesion, which is only 8 mm high and allows for moving in any direction on the stators or rotors of power generators.

After a brief description of the industrial environment where it is supposed to be used (inspection of generator stators with the rotor still installed), this paper describes the basic mechanical concept, pointing to the core innovation and the advantages towards previous designs. The paper concludes with a prototype implementation and some test results; and provides an outlook on future extensions in the final industrial version.

Thanks to a new locomotion system based on flexible magnetic rollers (= magnetic wheels fixed on motorized flexible shafts; patented technology), the robot is able to span over gaps and non‐magnetic zones, both in axial and circumferential direction, while still being flexible enough for adapting to the large curvature of the rotor/stator (∼0.5 m‐2 m).

With this new design, it is now possible, for the first time, to access all types of large power generators (>100 MW) with only one device – while still keeping the mechanical complexity at a level which allows for realizing the robot in a robust way and at reasonable cost.

Farmers' markets have provided new alternatives for small producers to obtain direct distribution to consumers over the past few years. The growth has been spectacular in several countries and this paper aims to understand this growth and how value might be created by looking at participation and cooperation amongst the traders at these markets.

A survey of farmers' market members was undertaken and findings are reported with descriptive statistics and exploratory analysis to profile aspects of cooperation amongst stallholders.

Over 80 per cent of the traders at the markets were involved in some form of cooperative activity, reinforcing the idea of markets as community‐based activities with high levels of interdependence amongst participants. Cooperation could be identified in different categories and increased over the length of time trading at the market but could not be directly related to performance or the reasons traders offered for doing business at the market.

The research was designed as an exploratory study and provides potential issues for further research as opposed to testing particular hypotheses.

The categorisation of cooperation methods offers traders ways in which they might seek to more formally organise joint efforts. Monitoring the degree of cooperation between traders and linking to performance would also provide the organisers of markets with a potential way of managing aspects of competitive advantage against competing food retailers.

This is the first paper to examine value creation and cooperation in this context and it provides a potential base for working towards sustainable competitive advantage for farmers' markets.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the design and prototype implementation of the “Cable Crawler”, a mobile teleoperated robot for the inspection of high‐voltage power lines which rides on the topmost ground cable. By not being limited to just moving from mast to mast, it implements an innovative mechanism that allows for crossing a set of mast tops as well as smaller obstacles autonomously.

After a brief overview of the state‐of‐the‐art for this application, the basic concept of the robot is presented – which basically consists of a chassis and six motorized rubber‐coated rollers, two in a horizontal position to take the weight and four vertical ones. The four vertical rollers are pressed onto the wire by springs, which guarantees slip‐less propulsion in difficult situations. The detailed design of the most challenging components is presented, as well as the successful tests with the prototype.

The feasibility of the concept is proven with a prototype implementation and successful test results.

With a mass of 58 kg and only six drives, it consequently follows the industry's wish to have a robust, easy to maintain and rather cheap solution. Regarding the fields examined by the robot, the project concentrated on the detection of trees growing into proximity of the wires. Future work will mainly stress in further reducing the robot's mass and in facilitating its transport to the mast by the workers.

The presented prototype allows for moving on the topmost ground cable of high‐voltage power‐lines and to passively roll over mast tops and smaller obstacles. With these properties, it is able to inspect long distances of cables in an autonomous way and by using a relatively low‐cost and robust robot.

The purpose of this paper is to present a design of climbing robot with magnetic wheels which can move on the surface of steel bridge. The locomotion concept is based on adapted lightweight magnetic wheel units with relatively high attractive force and friction force.

The robot has the main advantages of being compact (352 × – 215 × – 155 mm), lightweight (2.3 kg without battery) and simple mechanical structure. It is not only able to climb vertical walls and follow circumferential paths, but also able to pass complex obstacles such as bolts, steps, convex and concave corners with almost any inclination regarding gravity. By using a servo as a compliant joint, the wheel base can be changed to enable the robot to overcome convex corners.

The experiment results show that the climbing robot has a good performance on locomotion, and it is successful in negotiating the complex obstacles. On the other hand, the limitations in locomotion of the robot are also presented.

Compared with the past researches, the robot shows good performance on overcoming complex obstacles such as concave corners, convex corners, bolts and steps on the steel bridge. Magnetic wheel with the characterization of compact size and lightweight is able to provide bigger adhesion force and friction coefficient.

Former socialist economies, as they are trying to engage in a process of transition from state socialism towards forms of a market economy, and as they are trying to open themselves up to international trade, find that extreme social tensions accompany this process which go right to the heart of national identity. This is being discussed with the example of Hungary in mind.

The study of shame has a long tradition in intra- and inter-personal psychology. This paper aims to investigate whether consumers can experience brand shame after self-relevant consumption incidents. Specifically, this research proposes that consumers follow a complex shame-inducing process in the aftermath of unpleasant experiences involving their favorite brand. The moderating role of relational tie strength between consumers and their favorite brand existing prior to symbolic failures is examined.

A scenario-based, online survey (n = 660) among consumers who have recently experienced a self-relevant failure with their favorite brand was conducted. Confirmatory factor analysis ensured the reliability and validity of the measurement model. For testing the conceptual model, data was analyzed by means of a moderated mediation analysis. The proposed model was tested against, among others, common method bias and alternative models. The findings were cross-validated with a scenario-based online experiment (n = 1,616).

Results show that brand shame is a key mediator between customer dissatisfaction and brand anger when self-relevant, symbolic failures happen. Moreover, strong consumer-brand identification triggers brand-detrimental effects. It is shown to influence the connection between consumers’ inward- (i.e. brand shame) and resulting outward-directed (i.e. brand anger) negative emotions on brands, which lead to consumer vengeance.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to introduce the concept of situational brand shame to the literature on favorite brands. Furthermore, it shows that consumer-brand identification moderates the direct and indirect (via brand shame) unfavorable effects of failure-induced dissatisfaction on brand anger. This research adds insights to the investigation of the “love-becomes-hate” effect arising after self-relevant failures involving consumers’ most preferred brand.

Statistical indicators, such as human health, are important for designing government policies, as well as for influencing the functioning of economic markets. However, there is often a discrepancy between statistical measures and the citizens’ prevalent feelings. In order to produce more relevant indicators of social progress, governments are currently shifting their measurement emphasis from objective to subjective measures. While the philosophical tradition of hedonic psychology views individuals as the best judges of their own conditions, little empirical evidence shows that individually reported health scores provide accurate information about a population’s health status. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate if subjective health questions contain genuine information about the status of human health, and are meaningful at an aggregated level.

Subjective health data are extracted from the 2012/2013 European Social Survey (28 European countries plus Israel, n=54,427). Objective health data are based on the 2012 World Bank statistics for life expectancy at birth. The author check if aggregated subjective health correlates with life expectancy at country level, and can reliably be compared across countries.

The findings support the idea of including subjective data into country statistics of social progress. Because of substantial between-country differences, social development programs should be devised individually for each country.

By showing that subjective health measures can reliably contribute to the quantification of social progress, the author offer a bridge between objective neoclassical economics and subjective hedonic psychology.

Discusses collection building of contemporary German belles‐lettres and introduces 20 contemporary German‐language writers of the younger generation, presenting their bio‐bibliographies. Librarians who are not already collecting these authors might consider expanding their German literature collections by adding some of the works listed.