LA FIDELIDAD DE LOS CLIENTES SEGÚN LOS MAÎTRES EN EL SECTOR DE LA RESTAURACIÓN: ANÁLISIS SOCIOLÓGICO DEL DINESCAPE DE LA EXPERIENCIA ANTES Y DURANTE LA COVID-19

La fidelidad de los clientes según los maîtresen el sector de la restauración se analiza desde una perspectiva sociológica; considerando variables individuales, sociales y del entorno, incluida la pandemia de la Covid-19; a través de sesenta y ocho entrevistas semiestructuradas a una muestra de maîtres de restaurantes de Zaragoza (España). Tras el análisis, se identifican los factores determinantes de la fidelidad, descubriendo que la experiencia queda marcada por una percepción global (dinescape) que prescribirá el comportamiento futuro del comensal y/o turista gastronómico. Customer loyalty according to maîtres in the restaurant sector is analysed from a sociological perspective; considering individual, social and environmental variables, including the Covid-19 pandemic. Sixty-eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with a sample of maîtres from restaurants in Zaragoza (Spain). After the analysis, the determinants of loyalty are identified, discovering that the experience is marked by a global perception (dinescape) that will prescribe the future behaviour of the diner and/or gastronomic tourist.

A CRITICAL JUNCTURE? COVID-19 AND THE FATE OF THE U.S.–CHINA STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY

This article compares the United States’ and China's international efforts of responding to the current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and considers how the global public is receiving both to project how such measures would likely shape the international leadership competition. How do the international efforts of the United States and China on COVID-19 affect their respective soft power? How does the global public perception of the United States' and China's COVID-19 efforts affect their competitive advantage for global leadership? Based on the theory of soft power, I use Europe and Africa as cases with global perception data from the Pew Research Center (2017–2020) to argue that China would likely win some admiration for its COVID-19 efforts. However, it is unlikely to substantially shape positive global public perception of China to gain a competitive edge over the United States. This argument is based on the narrative China presents in the pandemic, its diplomatic style, and the ideational attachment the U.S. style has established. I utilize a phenomenological approach with narrative analysis.

Event-based Action Recognition Using Motion Information and Spiking Neural Networks

Event-based cameras have attracted increasing attention due to their advantages of biologically inspired paradigm and low power consumption. Since event-based cameras record the visual input as asynchronous discrete events, they are inherently suitable to cooperate with the spiking neural network (SNN). Existing works of SNNs for processing events mainly focus on the task of object recognition. However, events from the event-based camera are triggered by dynamic changes, which makes it an ideal choice to capture actions in the visual scene. Inspired by the dorsal stream in visual cortex, we propose a hierarchical SNN architecture for event-based action recognition using motion information. Motion features are extracted and utilized from events to local and finally to global perception for action recognition. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first attempt of SNN to apply motion information to event-based action recognition. We evaluate our proposed SNN on three event-based action recognition datasets, including our newly published DailyAction-DVS dataset comprising 12 actions collected under diverse recording conditions. Extensive experimental results show the effectiveness of motion information and our proposed SNN architecture for event-based action recognition.

EL IMPACTO DEL CAMINO DE SANTIAGO A ESCALA LOCAL: LA PERCEPCIÓN DE LOS RESIDENTES DE DOS MUNICIPIOS GALLEGOS

Este trabajo estudia la percepción de los residentes de dos municipios rurales sobre los impactos económicos, sociales, culturales y medioambientales del Camino de Santiago, a partir de la información cuantitativa obtenida en una encuesta de satisfacción. Los resultados revelan una percepción global positiva y descartan problemas de percepción de saturación vinculados al creciente número de peregrinos que recorren sus localidades. Además, lavaloración global no depende de la proximidad de la residencia al Camino, pero es más positiva para los individuos con ingresos vinculados a actividades turística y para los que tienen un contacto más frecuente con los peregrinos. This study explores the perception of residents from two rural municipalities on impacts deriving from the St James Way. The analysis is conducted on the basis of the quantitative information obtained from a satisfaction survey. The results reveal a positive overall perception, ruling out saturation perception problems linked to the increasing number of pilgrims walking along their communities. Moreover, global perception does not depend on the proximity of the individual's residence to the Way but is more positive for individuals deriving income from tourism activities and for those having more intensive contact with pilgrims.

Combining microorganisms in inoculants is agronomically important but industrially challenging: case study of a composite inoculant containing Bradyrhizobium and Azospirillum for the soybean crop

The increasing global perception of the importance of microbial inoculants to promote productivity and sustainability in agriculture prompts the adoption of bio-inputs by the farmers. The utilization of selected elite strains of nitrogen-fixing and other plant-growth promoting microorganisms in single inoculants creates a promising market for composite inoculants. However, combining microorganisms with different physiological and nutritional needs requires biotechnological development. We report the development of a composite inoculant containing Bradyrhizobium diazoefficiens and Azospirillum brasilense for the soybean crop. Evaluation of use of carbon sources indicates differences between the microbial species, with Bradyrhizobium growing better with mannitol and glycerol, and Azospirillum with malic acid and maleic acid, allowing the design of a formulation for co-culture. Species also differ in their growth rates, and the best performance of both microorganisms occurred when Azospirillum was inoculated on the third day of growth of Bradyrhizobium. The composite inoculant developed was evaluated in five field trials performed in Brazil, including areas without and with naturalized populations of Bradyrhizobium. The composite inoculant resulted in symbiotic performance comparable to the application of the two microorganisms separately. In comparison to the single inoculation with Bradyrhizobium, co-inoculation resulted in average increases of 14.7% in grain yield and 16.4% in total N accumulated in the grains. The performance of the composite inoculant was similar or greater than that of the non-inoculated control receiving a high dose of N-fertilizer, indicating the importance of the development and validation of inoculants carrying multiple beneficial microorganisms.