Comportamiento ético de las empresas y corrupción en el sector público – un análisis de clústers de países a nivel mundial

In countries where corruption is high, there is less incentive for corporate organizations to behave ethically. Ethics, either in the private and public sectors, can be related to the level of economic development, economic freedom, and the quality of governance. The objective of this paper is to analyze the relationship between corporate ethics and corruption in the public sector, to group countries according to these indicators, and investigate the characteristics of these clusters. A hierarchical followed by a K-means cluster analysis was performed to group 127 countries. Non-parametric and post-hoc tests were used to examine the significant differences among clusters in some features. The correlation between the ethical behavior of firms and corruption in the public sector was strong and significant. The cluster analysis led to three significantly different clusters, one formed by countries with high levels of corporate ethics and low corruption and it is composed only by countries with high-income, another with medium levels and finally a group of countries with low levels of corporate ethics and high levels of corruption. The results also suggest significant differences among the clusters in several economic, institutional, and development indicators. Improving these indicators potentially lead to high standards of ethics in the private and public sectors.En los países donde la corrupción es elevada, hay menos incentivos para que las organizaciones empresariales se comporten éticamente. La ética, tanto en el sector privado como en el público, puede estar relacionada con el nivel de desarrollo económico, la libertad económica y la calidad de la gobernanza. El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar la relación entre la ética empresarial y la corrupción en el sector público, agrupar a los países según estos indicadores e investigar las características de estas clústers. Se realizó un análisis jerárquico seguido de un análisis de clústers de K-means para agrupar 127 países. Se utilizaron pruebas no paramétricas y post hoc para examinar las diferencias significativas entre clústers en algunas características. La correlación entre el comportamiento ético de las empresas y la corrupción en el sector público fue fuerte y significativa. El análisis de clústers dio lugar a tres clústers significativamente diferentes, uno formado por países con altos niveles de ética empresarial y baja corrupción y compuesto únicamente por países con altos rendimientos, otro con niveles medios y, por último, un grupo de países con bajos niveles de ética empresarial y altos niveles de corrupción. Los resultados también sugieren diferencias significativas entre los clústers en varios indicadores económicos, institucionales y de desarrollo. La mejora de estos indicadores puede conducir potencialmente a altos niveles de ética en los sectores público y privado.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Coping resiliente e saúde em pessoas idosas institucionalizadas e não institucionalizadas

A presente dissertação surge como requisito necessário para a obtenção do grau de Mestre (2ºciclo) em Psicologia Clínica e da Saúde pela Universidade da Beira Interior (UBI) e intitulase por “Coping resiliente e saúde em pessoas idosas institucionalizadas e não institucionalizadas”. Decorreu no âmbito de uma investigação alargada sobre “Saúde, Bemestar e Felicidade ao longo do ciclo de vida PT/BR”. Esta dissertação encontra-se dividida em três capítulos: no capítulo 1 será apresentada uma breve introdução ao documento; no capítulo 2 irá apresentar-se, em formato de artigo científico, a investigação realizada e, por fim, no capítulo 3 irá proceder-se a uma discussão geral do documento apresentado. Os principais objetivos desta dissertação são: (1) avaliar e comparar o coping resiliente e a saúde de pessoas idosas institucionalizadas e não institucionalizadas e (2) avaliar o coping resiliente como fator preditor da saúde em pessoas idosas. Os resultados indicam que os idosos não institucionalizados apresentam melhores níveis de coping resiliente e saúde relativamente aos idosos institucionalizados e ainda que, coping resiliente constitui um fator preditor de uma melhor saúde. Estes resultados sugerem a importância de se trabalhar o coping resiliente como estratégia de promoção da saúde na velhice.The following dissertation comes as a necessary requirement to achieve the Masters Degree in Clinical And Health Psychology in Universidade da Beira Interior (UBI) and has the name “Resilient coping and health in institutionalized and non-institutionalized elder people”. It occurred when a wide investigation about “Health, Well Being and Happiness during the cycle of life PT/BR”. This dissertation is divided in three chapters: in chapter 1 is present the introduction to the document; in chapter 2 will be presented, in scientific article form, the performed investigation and; chapter 3 contains the social discussion about the presented document. The main goals of this dissertation are: (1) evaluate and compare the resilient coping and health of institutionalized and non-institutionalized elder people and (2) evaluate the resilient coping as a heath predictor factor in elder people. The results indicate that non-institutionalized elder people present better levels of resilient coping and health rather than the institutionalized elder people and that resilient coping is a predictor factor of a better health. This results suggest that the importance of working the resilient coping as a promotion strategy for health in old age

Cyclic and Post-cyclic Shear Behaviour of a Granite Residual Soil - Geogrid Interface

The dynamic frictional properties of the soil-geosynthetic interface play an important role in the design and stability analysis of geosynthetic-reinforced soil structures under repeated loadings, such as those induced by compaction, traffic and earthquakes. This paper describes a laboratory study carried out using a large-scale direct shear test device, aiming to investigate the cyclic and post-cyclic behaviour of an interface between a granite residual soil and a biaxial woven geogrid. In the cyclic direct shear tests, the interface was subjected to 40 cycles of sinusoidal displacement, with semiamplitude and frequency ranging from 1-10 mm and 0.05-0.5 Hz, respectively. To evaluate the effect of the cyclic loading on the interface shear strength, monotonic direct shear tests were performed immediately following the cyclic tests. The results indicated that the loading frequency has little impact on the interface shear stiffness during the loading cycles. In contrast, the influence of the displacement semi-amplitude on the interface stiffness was found to be significant. The cyclic loading did not lead to the degradation of the post-cyclic interface shear strength. The post-cyclic peak shear strength tended to increase with the semi-amplitude of the shear displacement, which may be associated with an increase in soil density

Pullout Behavior of Different Geosynthetics-Influence of Soil Density and Moisture Content

Geosynthetics have increasingly been used as reinforcement in permanent earth structures, such as road and railway embankments, steep slopes, retaining walls, and bridge abutments. The understanding of soil-geosynthetic interaction is of primary importance for the safe design of geosynthetic-reinforced soil structures, such as those included in transportation infrastructure projects. In this study, the pullout behavior of three different geosynthetics (geogrid, geocomposite reinforcement, and geotextile) embedded in a locally available granite residual soil is assessed through a series of large-scale pullout tests involving different soil moisture and density conditions. Test results show that soil density is a key factor affecting the reinforcement pullout resistance and the failure mode at the interface, regardless of geosynthetic type or soil moisture content. The soil moisture condition may considerably influence the pullout response of the geosynthetics, particularly when the soil is in medium dense state. The geogrid exhibited higher peak pullout resistance than the remaining geosynthetics, which is associated with the significant contribution of the passive resistance mobilized against the geogrid transverse members to the overall pullout capacity of the reinforcement

HDPE geogrid-residual soil interaction under monotonic and cyclic pullout loading

The understanding of soil-geosynthetic interaction under cyclic loading conditions is essential for the safe design of geosynthetic-reinforced soil structures subjected to repeated loads, such as those induced by road and railway traffic and earthquakes. This paper describes a series of large-scale monotonic and multistage pullout tests carried out to investigate the behaviour of an HDPE uniaxial geogrid embedded in a locally available granite residual soil under monotonic and cyclic pullout loading. The effects of the pullout load level at the start of the cyclic stage, cyclic load frequency and amplitude, number of cycles and soil density on the load-strain-displacement response of the reinforcement are evaluated and discussed. Test results show that the cumulative displacements measured along the length of the geogrid during cyclic loading increased significantly with the precyclic pullout load level and the load amplitude. In contrast, the cumulative cyclic displacements were found to decrease with increasing frequency and soil density. In medium dense soil conditions, the geogrid post-cyclic pullout resistance decreased by up to 20%, with respect to the value obtained in the comparable monotonic test. However, for dense soil, the effect of cyclic loading on the peak pullout forces recorded during the tests was almost negligible

Articulação e sequencialidade nos agrupamentos de escolas

Mestrado em Ciências da Educação - Administração e Políticas EducativasO presente trabalho visa abordar a Articulação e a Sequencialidade, entre níveis e ciclos de ensino, como temáticas nucleares desenvolvidas em agrupamentos verticais de escolas, na óptica das equipas de avaliação externa (IGE). Faremos esta leitura a partir de um enquadramento baseado nos modelos organizacionais de escola como burocracia, por um lado, e escola como sistema debilmente articulado, por outro, por entendermos serem as lentes que melhor traduzem, na nossa óptica, a realidade nos agrupamentos de escolas, no período em estudo, tal como é descrita nos relatórios da avaliação externa. Foi opção metodológica a investigação qualitativa (análise de conteúdo), a partir dos relatórios de avaliação externa, em curso, usando um material público, actual e pertinente, capaz de nos transmitir uma dada visão sobre as práticas e conceitos de articulação e sequencialidade recolhidas em contexto escolar. Apresentamos como inferência que apesar de institucionalmente unidos, os docentes de um agrupamento de escolas desenvolvem baixas interacções, subdivididos em múltiplas estruturas marcadamente balcanizadas, não propiciadoras de articulação. O exercício da articulação e sequencialidade desenvolve-se numa dicotomia entre a estrutura burocrática centralizada e a organização débil, entre órgãos e estruturas educativas, em busca de respostas às necessidades imediatas e primárias.The aim of this essay is to make an approach about the Link and the Sequence/Continuity between the teaching levels and years, as essential topics developed in groups of schools, according to the teams of external evaluation. We will have in mind, on one hand, the organizational patterns of school as bureaucracy and, on the other hand, the school as a system indistinctly articulated/linked, as we understand that those are the best ways we have to indicate the reality in our groups of schools, in the period of time studied, as it is described in the reports of the external evaluation. As a methodological option we chose the qualitative investigation (the analysis of the contents), having as a starting point the reports from the external evaluation, and still occurring, using common material, actual and relevant, able to give us a certain point of view about the performances and ideas/opinions about the Link and Sequence obtained in a school context. We must state that, although the teachers from a group of schools work in the same place, they don’t interact much, as they are divided in several structures, strongly separated, which are not favourable to a linking between them. The Link and Sequence in practice develops itself in the dichotomy between the bureaucratic and central structure and the weak organization, between the staff and the educational structures, searching the answers for the basic and urgent needs

Pullout behaviour of geosynthetics in a recycled construction and demolition material - Effects of cyclic loading

In recent years, the use of construction and demolition (C&D) materials as alternative aggregates in geotechnical engineering applications, such as embankments, pavement subbase layers and geosynthetic-reinforced structures has raised increasing attention from researchers and practitioners worldwide. On the other hand, geosynthetics, particularly geogrids and high strength geotextiles, are used as a reinforcement material in some of those applications. When these infrastructures are subjected to repeated loadings (e.g. traffic, wave and seismic loads), the understanding of the interaction properties at the backfill-geosynthetic interfaces under cyclic loading conditions is of primary interest. This paper describes an experimental study carried out using a large-scale pullout test apparatus to assess the load-strain-displacement behaviour of two geosynthetics embedded in a recycled C&D material under cyclic and post-cyclic loading conditions. Test results show that cyclic loading can measurably reduce the post-cyclic pullout resistance of the geotextile (up to 15%), when compared to that obtained from the benchmark monotonic test. Conversely, the cyclic loading did not significantly influence the pullout resistance of the geogrid. The cumulative cyclic displacements over the length of the geosynthetics were found to increase with the load amplitude and the pre-cyclic pullout load level. Moreover, under identical test conditions, the accumulated cyclic deformations along the geotextile length consistently exceeded those for the geogrid, possibly due to the lower tensile stiffness of the geotextile at low strains

Pullout Behaviour of Geogrids Embedded in a Recycled Construction and Demolition Material. Effects of Specimen Size and Displacement Rate

In recent years, environmental concerns related to the overexploitation of natural resources and the need to manage large amounts of wastes arising from construction activities have intensified the pressure on the civil engineering industry to adopt sustainable waste recycling and valorisation measures. The use of recycled construction and demolition (C&D) wastes as alternative backfill for geosynthetic-reinforced structures may significantly contribute towards sustainable civil infrastructure development. This paper presents a laboratory study carried out to characterise the interaction between a fine-grained C&D material and two different geogrids (a polyester (PET) geogrid and an extruded uniaxial high-density polyethylene (HDPE) geogrid) through a series of large-scale pullout tests. The effects of the geogrid specimen size, displacement rate and vertical confining pressure on the pullout resistance of the geogrids are evaluated and discussed, aiming to assess whether they are in line with the current knowledge about the pullout resistance of geogrids embedded in soils. Test results have shown that the measured peak pullout resistance of the geogrid increases with the specimen size, imposed displacement rate and confining pressure. However, the pullout interaction coefficient has exhibited the opposite trend with the specimen size and confining pressure. The pullout interaction coefficients ranged from 0.79 and 1.57 and were generally greater than or equal to the values reported in the literature for soil-geogrid and recycled material-geogrid interfaces