ESTRUTURA DE MERCADO DE PRODUTOS LÃCTEOS NO MUNICÃPIO DE LAVRAS, MG

This study was carried out with the objective of characterizing the market structure and the commercialization of dairy products in the district of Lavras, MG, Brazil. For such study, agents were identified, their market conduct, and the prices paid and received were analyzed, as well as the volume of sales in the different market segments. It was verified that the products demanding greater technological resources, such as milk “longa vida†( “long-life†or UHT milk ) and milk sweets are the ones that feature the largest commercialization margins. In the retail segment, supermarkets feature, in average, the lowest margins in relation to their competitors, especially “longa vida†milk. In the consumer market of milk, the sterilized product is the most demanded kind with 36% of the total consumption, informal milk (without inspection) with 31% and milk “longa vida†with 28%. The consumers prefer the informal type because they believe it features better quality, price, distribution and payment services. By the Gini Index methodology, it was verified that there is a concentration in the distribution of milk in the wholesale and retail markets, especially in retail stores.Market structure, commercialization, dairy products.,

Exploring the meaning of social innovation: a categorisation scheme based on the level of policy intervention, profit orientation and geographical scale

There has been a growing interest in academia regarding the term 'social innovation', including in disciplines such as sociology, administration, history, management, psychology, and economics. The literature highlights the lack of scientific clarity in the use of the term, and some scholars argue that the term is no more than a 'buzzword' or a 'fad'. This article focusses on the analysis of the conceptualizations of social innovation, contrasting sociological and economical approaches, and adopts an integrative approach to propose a categorization scheme of social innovation projects based on three distinct variables, namely the level of policy support, the profit orientation and the geographical scale. We argue that government support and the scalability of social innovations should be carefully pondered depending on the characteristics of the social innovation initiatives. We conclude that policy support should privilege social innovation initiatives that, while having the potential to deliver social good, are constrained by market failures. In addition, we also argue in favour of policy support for small bottom-up initiatives that have a profit-logic but are not sufficiently robust to survive on their own due to the liabilities of smallness and newness. Finally, we advise caution in public policies supporting scale-up strategies and highlighted the inherent challenges

Subjective Quality Evaluation of Point Clouds Using a Head Mounted Display

This paper reports on a subjective quality evaluation of static point clouds encoded with the MPEG codecs V-PCC and G-PCC, the deep learning-based codec RS-DLPCC, and the popular Draco codec. 18 subjects visualized 3D representations of distorted point clouds using a Head Mounted Display, which allowed for a direct comparison with their reference. The Mean Opinion Scores (MOS) obtained in this subjective evaluation were compared with the MOS from two previous studies, where the same content was visualized either on a 2D display or a 3D stereoscopic display, through the Pearson Correlation, Spearman Rank Order Correlation, Root Mean Square Error, and the Outlier Ratio. The results indicate that the three studies are highly correlated with one another. Moreover, a statistical analysis between all evaluations showed no significant differences between them

Field Tests with an Aerial-Ground Convoy System for Collaborative Tasks

This chapter presents the design, implementation and field experiments of a convoy between an aerial and a terrestrial robot. The convoy strategy proposed is indeed very simple and based in a PD control law. We introduce the robots Pinky and Gaia, robots which have been part of the FRACTAL fleet, the general system set up is also addressed, such as the ground station workloads and the middleware architecture. Finally, comprehensive experimental results shown herein, demonstrate the good performance and usability of the system in multi-robot behavioral research

On the acquisition of high-resolution maps with open source software and commercials off-the-shelf quad-rotors

Mosaics are high-resolution images obtained aerially and employed in several scientific research areas, such for example, in the field of environmental monitoring and precision agriculture. Although many high resolution maps are obtained by commercial demand, they can also be acquired with commercial aerial vehicles which provide more experimental autonomy and availability. For what regard to mosaicing-based aerial mission planners, there are not so many - if any - free of charge software. Therefore, in this paper is presented a framework designed with open source tools and libraries as an alternative to commercial tools to carry out mosaicing tasks

QuadLab: A Project-Based Learning Toolkit for Automation and Robotics Engineering Education

It is frequently claimed that the students must have an active role in building and transforming their own knowledge, and the teacher's labor is to provide the students the necessary tools in order to reach specific learning objectives, included in a course program. This paper presents an aerial robotic system as a toolkit, and proposes a series of activities focused on the learning in automation and robotics. These proposed activities have been designed based upon the project-based learning methodology, and they facilitate the achievement of the learning objectives presented by Spanish automation committee(CEA) in conjunction with The International Society of Automation (ISA) to satisfy the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) standard. The toolkit and the activities are oriented to impulse the practical teaching, giving the student additional motivation and, in consequence, improving his or her active role. Besides, the toolkit and the activities give the teacher a tool in which it is possible to assess the students learning process

Rotary-wing MAV Modeling & Control for indoor scenarios

This paper is about modeling and control of Miniature Aerial Vehicles ¿MAVs for indoor scenarios, specially using, micro coaxial and quadrotor systems. Mathematical models for simulation and control are introduced and subsequently applied to the commercial aircraft: the DraganFlyer quadrotor and the Micro-Mosquito coaxial flying vehicle. The MAVs have been hardware-modified in order to perform experimental autonomous flight. A novel approach for control based on Hybrid Backstepping and the Frenet-Serret theory is used for attitude stabilization (Backstepping+FST), introducing a desired attitude angle acceleration function dependent on aircraft velocity. Results of autonomous hovering and tracking are presented based on the scheme we propose for control and attitude stabilization when MAV is maneuvering at moderate speeds

Mini-quadrotor Attitude Control based on Hybrid Backstepping & Frenet-Serret Theory

This paper is about modeling and control of miniature quadrotors, with a special emphasis on attitude control. Mathematical models for simulation and nonlinear control approaches are introduced and subsequently applied to commercial aircraft: the DraganFlyer quadrotor, which has been hardware-modified in order to perform experimental autonomous flying. Hybrid Backstepping control and the Frenet-Serret theory is used for attitude stabilization, introducing a desired attitude angle acceleration function dependent on aircraft velocity. Finally, improvements on disturbance rejection and attitude tracking at moderate aircraft speeds are validated through various simulation scenarios (indoor navigation based on camera tracking), and flight experiments conducted on the DraganFlyer quadroto

Towards a ground navigation system based in visual feedback provided by a mini UAV

This paper addresses initial efforts to develop a navigation system for ground vehicles supported by visual feedback from a mini aerial vehicle. A visual-based algorithm computes the ground vehicle pose in the world frame, as well as possible obstacles within the ground vehicle pathway. Relying on that information, a navigation and obstacle avoidance system is used to re-plan the ground vehicle trajectory, ensuring an optimal detour. Finally, some experiments are presented employing a unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) and a low cost mini unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)