Desing and development of a robotic platform for the evaluation of search algorithms

Plant diseases represent a major economic and environmental problem in agriculture and forestry. Upon infection, a plant develops symptoms that affect different parts of the plant causing a significant agronomic impact. As many such diseases spread in time over the whole crop, a system for early disease detection can aid to mitigate the losses produced by the plant diseases and can further prevent their spread [1]. In recent years, several mathematical algorithms of search have been proposed [2,3] that could be used as a non-invasive, fast, reliable and cost-effective methods to localize in space infectious focus by detecting changes in the profile of volatile organic compounds. Tracking scents and locating odor sources is a major challenge in robotics, on one hand because odour plumes consists of non-uniform intermittent odour patches dispersed by the wind and on the other hand because of the lack of precise and reliable odour sensors. Notwithstanding, we have develop a simple robotic platform to study the robustness and effectiveness of different search algorithms [4], with respect to specific problems to be found in their further application in agriculture, namely errors committed in the motion and sensing and to the existence of spatial constraints due to land topology or the presence of obstacles.

Youth participation in development planning: case study of Sayausí (Rural Parish) Cuenca-Ecuador

Young people now represent the highest percentage of the world population. Soon, they will be seniors and they will take decisions for a more orderly and equitable world. For this reason, the participation of young people in development planning is very important and many countries are trying to promote it through various measures. This article analyzes the trajectory of youth participation in the Latin American region and specifically the profile of youth participation in Ecuador, country in which the Constitution recognizes the strategic role of youth in development. The case study of Sayausí rural parish in canton Cuenca is analyzed, through surveys, interviews and an Empowerment Evaluation workshop to young people and decentralized government. The results obtained allow to propose strategies to help improve the participation of youth in the community.

Implantación de metodologías de planificación estratégica en la universidad, identificación de indicadores y medición de activos intangibles

Después del largo camino recorrido esta última década en la implantación de los programas de calidad en el sistema universitario español, se mantiene cierta incertidumbre sobre el grado de influencia de dichos programas en la toma de decisiones. En ese contexto se ha diseñado un estudio prospectivo, mediante la aplicación de la técnica de investigación social Delphi, con objeto de evaluar el grado de implantación de la metodología del Cuadro de Mando Integral (Balanced Scorecard) en las universidades de la Comunidad de Madrid, así como averiguar la opinión del grupo de expertos sobre la posibilidad de condensación de los indicadores y sobre la medición de activos intangibles. En la comunicación propuesta se incluirá un análisis de las conclusiones obtenidas.