Administração pública e terceirização: um estudo comparativo entre modelos de gerenciamento de frotas veiculares: Public administration and outsourcing: a comparative study between vehicle fleet management models

O objetivo deste artigo é investigar a viabilidade de distribuição de medicamentos de uma Secretaria de Estado da Saúde, com a utilização de um modelo misto de distribuição, o qual utiliza frota própria e frota terceirizada. Se estimaram os custos fixos e variáveis para manutenção aplicados à frota própria, com base em valores do período do estudo, e posteriormente comparados aos custos do serviço terceirizado, na situação hipotética dos veículos terem realizado o mesmo serviço. Os custos terceirizados foram obtidos por meio de planilhas de controle e faturamento da instituição pesquisada. Encontrou-se um custo fixo de R$20.312,92 para cada veículo, e um custo variável de R$ 1,5438 por quilômetro, o qual ainda incide valores de diárias, que são desconhecidos antecipadamente. Após a comparação dos custos de transporte próprio e terceirizado, os resultados indicam que o atual contrato de prestação de serviço de transporte de carga de medicamentos não apresenta vantagem ao Estado sob a perspectiva de custos

Relationship among medical student resilience, educational environment and quality of life

Resilience is a capacity to face and overcome adversities, with personal transformation and growth. In medical education, it is critical to understand the determinants of a positive, developmental reaction in the face of stressful, emotionally demanding situations. We studied the association among resilience, quality of life (QoL) and educational environment perceptions in medical students. We evaluated data from a random sample of 1,350 medical students from 22 Brazilian medical schools. Information from participants included the Wagnild and Young's resilience scale (RS-14), the Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure (DREEM), the World Health Organization Quality of Life questionnaire - short form (WHOQOL-BREF), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Full multiple linear regression models were adjusted for sex, age, year of medical course, presence of a BDI score >= 14 and STAI state or anxiety scores >= 50. Compared to those with very high resilience levels, individuals with very low resilience had worse QoL, measured by overall (beta=-0.89; 95% confidence interval =-1.21 to -0.56) and medical-school related (beta=-0.85; 95% CI=-1.25 to -0.45) QoL scores, environment (beta=-6.48; 95% CI=-10.01 to -2.95), psychological (beta=-22.89; 95% CI=-25.70 to -20.07), social relationships (beta=-14.28; 95% CI=-19.07 to -9.49), and physical health (beta=-10.74; 95% CI=-14.07 to -7.42) WHOQOL-BREF domain scores. They also had a worse educational environment perception, measured by global DREEM score (beta=-31.42; 95% CI=-37.86 to -24.98), learning (beta=-7.32; 95% CI=-9.23 to -5.41), teachers (beta=-5.37; 95% CI=-7.16 to -3.58), academic self-perception (beta=-7.33; 95% CI=-8.53 to -6.12), atmosphere (beta=-8.29; 95% CI=-10.13 to -6.44) and social self-perception (beta=-3.12; 95% CI=-4.11 to -2.12) DREEM domain scores. We also observed a dose-response pattern across resilience level groups for most measurements. Medical students with higher resilience levels had a better quality of life and a better perception of educational environment. Developing resilience may become an important strategy to minimize emotional distress and enhance medical training106CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQCOORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIOR - CAPE

Host country employees' ethnic identity confirmation: evidence from interactions with ethnically similar expatriates

Employing expatriates who share an ethnicity with host country employees (HCEs) is a widespread expatriate selection strategy. However, little research has compared how expatriates and HCEs perceive this shared ethnicity. Drawing upon an identity perspective, we propose HCEs’ ethnic identity confirmation, the level of agreement between how an HCE views the importance of his/her own ethnic identity and how expatriates view the importance of the HCE’s ethnic identity, affects HCEs’ attitudes towards ethnically similar expatriates. Results of two experiments show that HCEs’ ethnic identity confirmation is related to HCEs’ perception of expatriates’ trustworthiness and knowledge-sharing intention

Indulgent representation: theatricality and sectarian metaphor in The Tempest

At the end of The Tempest, Prospero (or, perhaps, the actor playing him) urges the audience, ‘As you from crimes would pardoned be, / Let your indulgence set me free’ (5.1.337-8). The lines are a plea for applause, for the audience to conclude the drama happily. As the play-world dissolves into the real world, at the threshold between fiction and reality, Prospero appeals to be set free from representation. He strikes an ethical bargain in the mode of the Lord's Prayer (‘forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us’). But, in speaking of ‘pardon’ and ‘indulgence’, he also alludes to a much maligned Catholic practice of purchased remission of sins. Thus, the audience's decision over whether or not to applaud the drama is playfully implicated in trying out a confessional attitude. Even so, the status of these ‘Catholic’ terms as wordplay means that they only flirt with sectarian resonance, rather than declaring a theological message. Taking the play's self-conscious theatricality as a starting point, this essay explores the ambiguity of this epilogue. It questions what it means for a post-Reformation audience to ‘indulge’ in metaphorically ‘Catholic’ behaviour, and how a play that stages forgiveness as a form of revenge negotiates difference ethically. These themes are part of a broader theatrical dynamic in which representation is constantly destabilised. The essay offers a case-study of the significance of equivocally Catholic material in post-Reformation drama, suggesting that as much attention needs to be paid to dramaturgy as to theology

Quantitative spray analysis of diesel fuel and its emulsions using digital image processing

In the present work, an experimental investigation of spray atomization of different liquids has been carried out. An air-assist atomizer operating at low injection pressures valued (4 and 6 bar) has been used to generate sprays of (diesel fuel, 5, 10, and 15% water-emulsified-diesel), respectively. A Photron-SA4 high speed camera has been used for spray imaging at 2000 fps. 20 time intervals (from 5 to 100 ms with 5 ms time difference) are selected for analysis and comparison. Spray macroscopic characteristics (spray penetration, dispersion, cone angle, axial and dispersion velocities) have been extracted by a proposed technique based on image processing using Matlab, where the maximum and minimum (horizontal and vertical) boundaries of the spray are detected, from which the macroscopic spray characteristics are evaluated. The maximum error of this technique is (1.5% for diesel spray) and a little bit higher for its emulsions

Cost-Effectiveness of HIV Treatment as Prevention in Serodiscordant Couples

The cost-effectiveness of early antiretroviral therapy (ART) in persons infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in serodiscordant couples is not known. Using a computer simulation of the progression of HIV infection and data from the HIV Prevention Trials Network 052 study, we projected the cost-effectiveness of early ART for such persons

Inward and Outward FDI Country Profiles, Second Edition

This second edition contains a series of 77 standardized country profiles dealing with the inward and outward foreign direct investment (FDI) performance of 40 economies. The profiles have been peer-reviewed by a global network of experts. The publication is intended to contribute to the analysis of trends in foreign direct investment and policy issues related to them. More specifically, the individual profiles discuss FDI trends and developments (country-level developments, the corporate players); effects of the recent global crises; and the policy scene. Each profile contains a standard set of tables, including on FDI stocks and flows, sectoral and geographical FDI distributions, the largest M&As and greenfield investments, the principal foreign affiliates (for inward FDI), and the principal multinational enterprises (for outward FDI). The standardized template used to produce the profiles allows cross-country comparisons. The volume is meant to be a reference tool for anyone interested in foreign direct investment

The benefits of being understood: the role of ethnic identity confirmation in knowledge acquisition by expatriates

In this article, we propose that the concept of ethnic identity confirmation (EIC), the level of agreement between how expatriates view the importance of their own ethnic identity and how local employees view the importance of expatriates’ ethnic identity, can explain why expatriates who are ethnically similar to host country employees are sometimes less effective than expected when working overseas. Multinationals often choose ethnically similar expatriates for assignments, assuming these expatriates can more effectively acquire knowledge from local employees. Thus, understanding the specific challenges that endanger the realization of this potential is crucial. Our survey, administered to a sample of 128 expatriate-local employee dyads working in China, reveals that both ethnically similar and ethnically different expatriates acquire more local knowledge when EIC is high. However, the association between ethnic (dis)similarity and knowledge acquisition is direct for ethnically different expatriates, whereas for ethnically similar expatriates it is indirect via their perception of local employees’ trustworthiness. We discuss this study’s important implications and provide recommendations for multinationals on how to provide tailored support to expatriates who face different identity challenges