The industrial tourism in the cultural offer of the big cities through the visitors’ analysis: the case of Barcelona

En las grandes ciudades, el turismo industrial suele tener un seguimiento minoritario. Sin embargo, la puesta en valor del patrimonio industrial sirve para ampliar la oferta cultural del turismo urbano, con el objetivo de satisfacer las nuevas motivaciones artístico-culturales de unos visitantes con limitada disponibilidad de tiempo pero cada vez más ávidos de consumir cultura. En este artículo, con el objetivo de comprobar cual es el grado de evolución de este turismo en la ciudad de Barcelona, si ayuda o no a potenciar su imagen urbana o si meramente es una oferta cultural complementaria marginal, después de presentar el marco teórico del turismo industrial y de su situación actual en Catalunya, se detalla el caso de la capital catalana a partir de dos encuestas, una propia y otra externa, con el soporte de datos estadísticos, analizando el perfil, motivaciones y grado de satisfacción de los visitantes a sus dos elementos más emblemáticos, el Museo de la Cerámica y el Museo del Chocolate, dentro de la amplia oferta cultural que presenta una gran ciudad con múltiples atractivos turísticos. Como se podrá comprobar, en Barcelona el turismo industrial es una actividad cultural complementaria dentro del turismo urbano y que, aun creciendo su número de visitantes, presenta un alto grado de marginalidad y una orientación a un determinado perfil de público, a pesar de que, por su aspecto pedagógico y cultural, ayuda a sus visitantes a entender mejor el territorio, su historia y las relaciones socioculturales desarrolladas, reafirmando la imagen de la ciudad.In the big cities, the industrial tourism is in the habit of having a minority follow-up. Nevertheless, the putting in value of the industrial heritage serves to extend the cultural offer of the urban tourism, with the aim to satisfy the new artistic-cultural motivations of a visitors with limited availability of time but increasingly eager to consume culture. In this paper, with the aim to verify which is the degree of evolution of this tourism in the city of Barcelona, if it helps or not to promote his urban image or if merely it is a cultural complementary marginal offer, after presenting the theoretical frame of the industrial tourism and of his current situation in Catalonia, there is detailed the case of the Catalan capital from two surveys, internal and external, with the support of statistical information, analyzing the profile, motivations and degree of satisfaction of the visitors to his two more emblematic elements, the Museum of the Ceramics and the Museum of the Chocolate, inside the wide cultural offer that presents a great city with multiple tourist attractions. Since it will be possible verify, in Barcelona the industrial tourism is a cultural complementary activity inside the urban tourism and that, still growing his number of visitors, presents a high degree of marginality and an orientation to a public's certain profile, in spite of the fact that, for his pedagogic and cultural aspect, it helps his visitors to understand better the territory, his history and the sociocultural developed relations, reaffirming the image of the city

Put three and three together: Triangle-driven community detection

Community detection has arisen as one of the most relevant topics in the field of graph data mining due to its applications in many fields such as biology, social networks, or network traffic analysis. Although the existing metrics used to quantify the quality of a community work well in general, under some circumstances, they fail at correctly capturing such notion. The main reason is that these metrics consider the internal community edges as a set, but ignore how these actually connect the vertices of the community. We propose the Weighted Community Clustering (WCC), which is a new community metric that takes the triangle instead of the edge as the minimal structural motif indicating the presence of a strong relation in a graph. We theoretically analyse WCC in depth and formally prove, by means of a set of properties, that the maximization of WCC guarantees communities with cohesion and structure. In addition, we propose Scalable Community Detection (SCD), a community detection algorithm based on WCC, which is designed to be fast and scalable on SMP machines, showing experimentally that WCC correctly captures the concept of community in social networks using real datasets. Finally, using ground-truth data, we show that SCD provides better quality than the best disjoint community detection algorithms of the state of the art while performing faster.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Industrial heritage as a boost for the country: The case of eco-museum The Farinera, in Castelló d’Empúries (Catalunya)

Dins de l’actual entorn postfordista, el turisme industrial és una opció que s.està consolidant en el nostre país. Els ecomuseus en són una de les manifestacions principals, ja que engloben un conjunt d’elements (territori, patrimoni industrial, tasques i costums propis de la vida local), de manera que no només valoritzen el patrimoni, sinó que també difonen una nova cultura del desenvolupament sostenible del territori, on la memòria col·lectiva es converteix en el motor principal d’uns projectes desenvolupats amb la participació activa de la comunitat local com a element vertebrador, encara que amb importants dèficits econòmics. Aquest és el cas de l’ecomuseu La Farinera, de Castelló d’Empúries (Girona), que, situat en una zona amb molta afluència turística, la Costa Brava, actua com una petita oferta educativoturística, complementària, però que ajuda a reforçar el sentiment de pertinença a una comunitat i a revaloritzar-ne el patrimoni industrial, cultural i social.En el actual marco postfordista, el turismo industrial es una opción turística que se está consolidando en nuestro país. Los ecomuseos son una de sus manifestaciones principales y engloban a un conjunto de elementos (territorio, patrimonio industrial, tareas y costumbres propias de la vida local) que ayudan a recuperar el patrimonio industrial, a veces abandonado y destruido, valorizándolo turísticamente y difundiendo una nueva cultura del desarrollo de la identidad territorial. Así, la memoria colectiva se convierte en el principal motor de los proyectos desarrollados con la participación de la comunidad local, aunque a veces los ecomuseos presentan importantes dificultades económicas. Éste es el caso del ecomuseo La Farinera, de Castelló d’Empúries (Girona), que, situado en una zona de gran afluencia turística, la Costa Brava, actúa como pequeña oferta complementaria turísticoformativa y, además, ayuda a la comunidad, puesto que refuerza su identidad y revaloriza su patrimonio industrial, cultural y social.In the current post-fordist system, the industrial tourism is an option that is being consolidated in our country, sand the ecomuseums are one of its main manifestations, encompassing a set of elements (land, industrial heritage, duties and customs of local life), so that not only value the heritage, often abandoned and destroyed, but also spread a new culture of sustainable development of the territory, where the collective memory becomes the main driver of some projects developed with the active participation of the local community as the backbone. This is the case of eco-museum The Farinera, of Castelló d’Empúries (Girona), which, being located in an important touristic area, la Costa Brava, like as a small education-touristic offer, complementary, but it helps to reinforce the sense of belonging to a community and revitalize its industrial heritage, cultural and social

A geração de capital social ao redor do turismo industrial em destinos de Cataluña e Escócia

El turismo industrial es una actividad emergente que muchos destinos con un pasado industrial están desarrollando actualmente. Alrededor de este turismo se han creado redes sociales de turistas y agentes, cuyas relaciones han generado un capital social. En este trabajo, a partir del análisis cualitativo y cuantitativo de encuestas y cuestionarios, se analiza y mide el capital social generado por “todos los actores” en dos destinos con diferente grado de desarrollo de su turismo industrial, uno en Catalunya (en las comarcas del Bages y del Berguedà) y otro en Escocia (en el SouthLanarkshire), con el objetivo de confirmar si una mayor dinámica relacional de estas redes sociales se corresponde con un mayor grado de desarrollo de dicho turismo. El análisis realizado demuestra que existe una relación directa entre el capital social generado por las redes sociales involucradas con el turismo industrial y la cantidad de turistas de este tipo; y entre dicho capital y la dinámica relacional de estas redes.The industrial tourism is an emergent activity that many destinations with an industrial past are developing nowadays. About this tourism there have been created social networks of tourists and agents, whose relations have generated a social capital. In this workpaper, from the qualitative and quantitative analysis of surveys and questionnaires, one analyzes and measures the social capital generated by "all the actors" in two destinations with different degree of development of his industrial tourism, one in Catalonia (in the Bagues and Berguedà regions) and other one in Scotland (in the SouthLanarkshire), with the aim to confirm if a major relational dynamics of these social networks corresponds with a major degree of development of the above mentioned tourism. The realized analysis demonstrates that a direct relation exists between the social capital generated by the social networks involved with the industrial tourism and the tourists' quantity of this type; and between the above mentioned capital and the relational dynamics of these networks.O turismo industrial é uma actividade emergente que muitos destinos com um passado industrial estão a desenvolver actualmente. Ao redor deste turismo criaram-se redes sociais de turistas e agentes, cujas relações têm gerado um capital social. Neste trabalho, a partir da análise qualitativa e quantitativo de cuestionarios, analisa-se e mede o capital social gerado por “todos os actores” em dois destinos com diferente grau de desenvolvimento de seu turismo industrial, um em Cataluña (nas comarcas do Bages e do Berguedà) e outro em Escócia (no SouthLanarkshire), com o objectivo de confirmar se uma maior dinâmica relacional destas redes sociais se corresponde com um maior grau de desenvolvimento de dito turismo. A análise realizada demonstra que existe uma relação directa entre o capital social gerado pelas redes sociais envolvidas com o turismo industrial e a quantidade de turistas deste tipo; e entre dito capital e a dinâmica relacional destas redes

A review of lower-limb wearable exoskeletons for overground rehabilitation

Gait disorders are common among people with neuromuscular impairments –60% of the patients– and generally have a high impact on their quality of life . Lack of physical activity increases the risk of secondary health conditions such as respiratory and cardiovascular complications, bowel/bladder dysfunction, obesity, osteoporosis and ulcers; which can further diminish life expectancy. Therefore, walking recovery is one of the main rehabilitation priorities for patients with a neuromuscular impairment. Wearable exoskeletons are emerging as a revolutionary device for gait rehabilitation, mainly due to both the active participation required from the user promoting physical activity10 and the possibility to work as an assistive device in the community. In fact, the number of research studies during the past 10 years has shown a large increase following the general tendency of rehabilitation robotics . Although wearable exoskeletons are starting to be used in clinical practice, their efficacy is still not clear. This study provides a comprehensive overview on wearable powered exoskeletons for overground rehabilitation without body weight support in people with neuromuscular impairments.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Channel crosstalk in ultra-dense WDM PON using time-switched phase diversity optical homodyne reception

Experimental study of channel crosstalk effects in time-switched phase diversity optical homodyne reception is presented, precisely focused towards ultra-dense wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) passive optical networks (PON). This receiver achieves ultra-low channel spacing and feasible implementation.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Digital phase estimation method based on Karhunen-Loève series expansion for Coherent Phase Diversity Detection

A novel phase estimation method for coherent systems is presented and demonstrated. It outperforms 5.5 times the phase noise and spectral width tolerance respect to the other methods.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

INTERVENING IN COLLECTIVITIES USING PERSUASIVE ARGUMENTATION

Prior research claims that argumentative persuasion, or meaning-making, can be used to successfully intervene in organizational settings. However, it is not clear how persuasive narratives affect individuals and how meaning-making is operationalized. The present study uses linguistics and ethology research to explain how meaning is created and structured. These are alternative disciplines to the rhetoric, narrative and storytelling currently utilized in management. We explain how to reach human sensibility and how, therefore, to transform the original enquiry on focus on superficial argumentative persuasion to a focus on immanent structures of persuasion that are related to axiological choices. This shifted focus allows for the creation of potent narratives which are able to intervene in collectivities

The tourist revaluation of the Jewish heritage in Spain. His neighborhoods and his wine

Las comunidades judías tuvieron una importante presencia en la Península Ibérica, especialmente en la Edad Media. En la actualidad, ante las nuevas motivaciones y expectativas de los turistas y visitantes, el turismo cultural es una alternativa que está consolidada o en fase de consolidación, sobre todo en los territorios de interior. Por ello, desde la Red de Juderías de España se han diseñado unos productos turísticos que, por una parte, permiten conocer los barrios judíos de 24 ciudades, así como sus principales monumentos, su historia y su cultura. Por la otra, se pueden visitar las bodegas donde se elabora y comercializa el vino siguiendo el método Kosher. En este artículo se estudian cuáles son los factores que más inciden en la satisfacción de los turistas al hacer estas dobles visitas a partir del análisis de una serie de entrevistas personales realizadas.The Jewish communities had an important presence in the Iberian Peninsula, especially in the Middle Ages. Today, considering the new motivations and expectations of tourists and visitors, cultural tourism has been or is becoming consolidated, especially in the inland regions of the country. For this reason, the Network of Spanish Jewish Quarters has promoted the design of a series of tourist products that enable visitors to learn about the Jewish quarters of 24 cities, their principal monuments, history and culture. In addition, visitors can visit the wineries, where wine is made and marketed following the Kosher method. In this article, the factors that have the greatest impact on the satisfaction of tourists in these dual purpose visits are studied through personal interviews