Influence of Adaptive Comfort Models in Execution Cost Improvements for Housing Thermal Environment in Concepción, Chile

Most of the operational energy needed by the housing sector is used to compensate energy losses or thermal gains through the building’s envelope. As a result, any improvement in the thermal behavior will provide important opportunities to reduce energy consumption. This research analyzes improvements in the thermal envelope in social housing in the Greater Concepción area in Chile using adaptive thermal comfort models and thermal insulation investments. The objective set out is to evaluate the economic reduction of thermal envelope improvement costs for dwellings, which entails using the adaptive thermal comfort model obtained through monitoring and the surveys applied to the users of social housing in Concepción (CAS), against the international adaptive thermal comfort models established by the EN 15251:2007 and ASHRAE 55-2017 standards. Finally, it is concluded that, on having applied the social housing adaptive thermal comfort model (CAS), execution costs are reduced by between 28.8% and 58.2%, reaching a time of comfort in free oscillation similar to that obtained from applying the models of the EN 15251:2007 (74.2%) and ASHRAE 55-2017 standards (59.9%)CONICYT FONDECYT 3160806VI PPIT-U

Rutting prediction of a granular material for base layers of low-traffic roads

[Abstract:] This paper analyses the permanent deformation performance of an unbound granular material for base layers of low-traffic roads. The material has been subjected to repeated triaxial loads. The shakedown theory was used to classify the structural response of the unbound granular material to the applications of load cycles. Three models were fitted to express the cumulative permanent strain as a function of the number of load cycles. In general, the predictions of two models previously studied by other researchers proved to be good but in the long-term, they tended to underestimate the measured values. In contrast, a third new model – the sum of two well known models – offered excellent predictions, which in the long-term did not tend to either underestimate or overestimate the measured values

Are Socially Responsible Behaviors Paid Off Equally? A Cross‐cultural Analysis

Based on the strong influence that national culture has on corporate social and responsibility (CSR) actions (institutional theory), it is necessary to study how the financial outcomes of CSR actions could be affected by these cultural characteristics. This fact is particularly interesting for managers whose companies operate in different cultures given that they have to deal with this aspect. The aim of this paper is to analyze the moderator role that national culture could have on the CSR and firm performance (CSR‐FP) relationship through a meta‐analysis, hence helping to clarify the debate existing about this relationship in the literature. The results show that this relationship is greatly affected by national culture. In this sense, countries with a high assertiveness and gender egalitarianism show a very negative relationship. Nevertheless, those with a higher future orientation, institutional collectivism, and a humane orientation reveal a positive correlation which reaches its maximum value in those countries with a high uncertainty avoidance

Corporate Social Responsibility and Financial Performance: A Cross-Cultural Analysis

Based on the geographic limitations of previous meta-analysis made about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Financial Performance (FP) and on the evidence found in previous work on the country's influence in this relationship, the aim of this paper is to analyze the relationship between these two variables studying the possible moderating effect that the country variable may have on it. By the use of the cultural dimensions of GLOBE (2004), we classify the countries, and test the hypothesis through the statistical technique of meta-analysis. The results show that the country where the companies are home-based moderates the relationship between CSR and FP. In particular from the results, we can conclude that while in Australia, Canada, USA and the United Kingdom the relationship is stronger and larger, in some countries, such as Japan, there is no relationship