Experimental Analysis of the Reputational Incentives in a Self Regulated Organization

Self regulation is a mechanism of quality vigilance that is frequently used in credence good industries. The providers in these markets generally form a Self Regulated Organization (SRO), composed by some members of the industry, whose main job is to convince consumers through an active surveillance of her members that they will receive goods or services with high standards of quality. The SRO main objective is to create confidence among consumers about the quality they are receiving from the market. Hence, consumers expects that an SRO: a) effectively watch her members, controlling their quality provision; and b) punish and publicly denounce those members found providing a bad quality service, as a credible signal of her level of surveillance and the quality the consumers may expect from other members. However, self regulation imply by definition a situation of regulatory capture, hence the following questions naturally appear: ¿Does the SRO has the correct incentives to do her job?, and ¿where do those incentives may come from?. The main objective of this work is to analyse in the lab how consumers interpret or learn to interpret the exposure that receive from an SRO, and given this interpretation if the SRO behaviour is consistent with the presence or absence of a reputational incentive to denounce. A full run of the experimental sessions is conducted from March to May 2004 at the University of ChileCredence Good, Self-Regulated Organization, Sender-Receiver Games, Reputational Incentives

Multi-mobile robot and avoidance obstacle to spatial mapping in indoor environment

The advancement of technology and techniques applied to robotics contributes to increasing the quality of life and safety of humanity. One of the most widespread applications of mobile robotics is related to monitoring indoor environments. However, due to factors such as the size of the environment impacting the monitoring response, battery autonomy, and autonomous navigation in environments with unknown obstacles, they are still significant challenges in the diffusion of mobile robotics in these areas. Strategy adopting multiple robots can overcome these challenges. This work presents an approach to use multi-robots in hazardous environments with gas leakage to perform spatial mapping of the gas concentration. Obstacles arranged in the environment are unknown to robots, then a fuzzy control approach is used to avoid the collision. As a result of this paper, spatial mapping of an indoor environment was carried out with multi-robots that reactively react to unknown obstacles considering a point gas leak with Gaussian dispersion.This work has been supported by FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UIDB/05757/2020. Additionally, this work was supported in part by the National Counsel of Technological and Scientific Development of Brazil (CNPq), in part by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Level People (CAPES).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Spatio-temporal dynamics of maize yield water constraints under climate change in Spain

Many studies have analyzed the impact of climate change on crop productivity, but comparing the performance of water management systems has rarely been explored. Because water supply and crop demand in agro-systems may be affected by global climate change in shaping the spatial patterns of agricultural production, we should evaluate how and where irrigation practices are effective in mitigating climate change effects. Here we have constructed simple, general models, based on biological mechanisms and a theoretical framework, which could be useful in explaining and predicting crop productivity dynamics. We have studied maize in irrigated and rain-fed systems at a provincial scale, from 1996 to 2009 in Spain, one of the most prominent >hot-spots> in future climate change projections. Our new approach allowed us to: (1) evaluate new structural properties such as the stability of crop yield dynamics, (2) detect nonlinear responses to climate change (thresholds and discontinuities), challenging the usual linear way of thinking, and (3) examine spatial patterns of yield losses due to water constraints and identify clusters of provinces that have been negatively affected by warming. We have reduced the uncertainty associated with climate change impacts on maize productivity by improving the understanding of the relative contributions of individual factors and providing a better spatial comprehension of the key processes. We have identified water stress and water management systems as being key causes of the yield gap, and detected vulnerable regions where efforts in research and policy should be prioritized in order to increase maize productivity.R. Ferrero gratefully acknowledges receipt of a grant from the Fundación Carolina. J. L. Gonzalez-Andujar and R. Ferrero were supported by FEDER (Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional) and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness funds (AGL2012-33736). R. Ferrero and M. Lima acknowledge financial support from Fondo Basal-CONICYT grant FB-0002. We are grateful to LINCGlobal (Laboratorio Internacional en Cambio Global) for their support.Peer Reviewe

Folded-cascode transimpedance amplifiers employing a CMOS inverter as input stage

This paper presents the design and comparison of two shunt feedback transimpedance amplifiers (TIAs) implemented in standard 350nm CMOS technology from Austria Microsystems. These transimpedance amplifiers are based on a folded cascode topology. The first one is a conventional folded-cascode (CFC-TIA) and the second is a modified version folded-cascod (MFC-TIA) employing a CMOS inverter at the input stage. The proposed MFC-TIA achieves a gain of 80dBΩ, 370MHz bandwidth and minimum input current noise of 1,6pA√Hz with 0.5pF total input capacitance. The achieved results show that MFC-TIAs can match the performance of CFC-TIAs with reduced implementation area, thus being a suitable solution for photo-detector array receivers

Development of a dynamic path for a toxic substances mapping mobile robot in industry environment

Some industries have critical areas (dangerous or hazardous) where the presence of a human must be reduced or avoided. In some cases, there are areas where humans should be replaced by robots. The present work uses a robot with differential drive to scan an environment with known and unknown obstacles, defined in 3D simulation. It is important that the robot be able to make the right decisions about its way without the need of an operator. A solution to this challenge will be presented in this paper. The control application and its communication module with a simulator or a real robot are proposed. The robot can perform the scan, passing through all the waypoints arranged in a grid. The results are presented, showcasing the robot’s capacity to perform a viable trajectory without human intervention.Project ”TEC4Growth - Pervasive Intelligence, Enhancers and Proofs of Concept with Industrial Impact/NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000020” is financed by the North Portugal Regional Operational. Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, and through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). This work is also financed by the ERDF European Regional Development Fund through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation - COMPETE 2020 Programme within project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006961, and by National Funds through the FCT Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) as part of project UID/EEA/50014/2013.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Hardware-in-the-loop simulation approach for the robot at factory lite competition proposal

Mobile robotic applications are increasing in several areas not only in industries but also service robots. The Industry 4.0 promoted even more the digitalization of factories that opened space for smart-factories implementation. Robotic competitions are a key to improve research and to motivate learning. This paper addresses a new competition proposal, the Robot@Factory Lite, in the scope of the Portuguese Robotics Open. Beyond the competition, a reference robot with all its components is proposed and a simulation environment is also provided. To minimize the gap between the simulation and the real implementation, an Hardware-in-the-loop technique is proposed that allows to control the simulation with a real Arduino board. Results show the same code, and hardware, can control both simulation model and real robot.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

El desarrollo del turismo industrial en la región minera de Santa Catarina/Brasil para fomentar la recuperación medioambiental

Desde su descubrimiento el carbón genera diversos impactos en las regiones mineras del sur del estado de Santa Catarina (Brasil), hecho que justifica la importancia de estudios científicos que evalúen los efectos provocados por su exploración, para buscar alternativas que reduzcan los impactos medioambientales y aceleren los procesos de recuperación de las áreas afectadas. En este sentido, este trabajo pretende demostrar cómo el turismo puede desempeñar un papel importante en la recuperación medioambiental y en el desarrollo socioeconómico de la región analizada, fomentando así la mejora de la calidad de vida de la población local. Para ello, el estudio señaliza herramientas que se pueden llevar a cabo para que esta actividad prospere en los municipios de la cuenca carbonífera de Santa Catarina, como son la planificación territorial, la creación de productos turísticos y la puesta en valor del legado cultural y medioambiental.Since coal its discovery various impacts generated in mining regions the south of Santa Catarina state (Brazil), this fact justifies the importance of scientific studies to evaluate the effects caused by your exploration , for looking for alternatives that reduce environmental impacts and accelerate recovery processes in the affected areas. In this sense, this work want demonstrate how the tourism can be an important role in environmental restoration and economic development in the study region, to improving quality of life of local people. For this, the study signals tools like as territorial planning, development tourist products and post in value the cultural heritage and environment, to make possible that this activity to flourish in the municipalities of Santa Catarina coal basin

Weed Diversity Affects Soybean and Maize Yield in a Long Term Experiment in Michigan, USA

Managing production environments in ways that promote weed community diversity may enhance both crop production and the development of a more sustainable agriculture. This study analyzed data of productivity of maize (corn) and soybean in plots in the Main Cropping System Experiment (MCSE) at the W. K. Kellogg Biological Station Long-Term Ecological Research (KBS-LTER) in Michigan, USA, from 1996 to 2011. We used models derived from population ecology to explore how weed diversity, temperature, and precipitation interact with crop yields. Using three types of models that considered internal and external (climate and weeds) factors, with additive or non-linear variants, we found that changes in weed diversity were associated with changes in rates of crop yield increase over time for both maize and soybeans. The intrinsic capacity for soybean yield increase in response to the environment was greater under more diverse weed communities. Soybean production risks were greatest in the least weed diverse systems, in which each weed species lost was associated with progressively greater crop yield losses. Managing for weed community diversity, while suppressing dominant, highly competitive weeds, may be a helpful strategy for supporting long term increases in soybean productivity. In maize, there was a negative and non-additive response of yields to the interaction between weed diversity and minimum air temperatures. When cold temperatures constrained potential maize productivity through limited resources, negative interactions with weed diversity became more pronounced. We suggest that: (1) maize was less competitive in cold years allowing higher weed diversity and the dominance of some weed species; or (2) that cold years resulted in increased weed richness and prevalence of competitive weeds, thus reducing crop yields. Therefore, we propose to control dominant weed species especially in the years of low yield and extreme minimum temperatures to improve maize yields. Results of our study indicate that through the proactive management of weed diversity, it may be possible to promote both high productivity of crops and environmental sustainability.RF gratefully acknowledges receipt of a grant from the Fundación Carolina. JG and RF were supported by FEDER (European Regional Development Funds) and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness funds (AGL2012-33736 and AGL2015-64130-R). RF and ML acknowledge financial support from Center of Applied Ecology & Sustainability (CAPES; CONICYT FB 0002-2014).Peer Reviewe

Localization and navigation of an omnidirectional mobile robot: the robot@factory case study

The Robot@Factory competition was recently included in Robotica, the main Portuguese Robotics Competition. This robot competition takes place in an emulated factory plant, where Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGVs) must cooperate to perform tasks. To accomplish their goals, the AGVs must deal with localization, navigation, scheduling and cooperation problems that must be solved autonomously. This robot competition can play an important role in education due to its inherent multidisciplinary approach, which can motivate students to bridge different technological areas. It can also play an important role in research and development, because it is expected that its outcomes will later be transferred to real-world problems in manufacturing or service robots. By presenting a scaled-down factory shop floor, this competition creates a benchmark that can be used to compare different approaches to the challenges that arise in this kind of environments. The ability to alter the environment, in some restricted areas, can usually promote the test and evaluation of different localization mechanisms, which is not possible in other competitions. This paper presents one of the possible approaches to build a robot capable of entering this competition. It can be used as a reference to current and new teams.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio