A NOTE ON COMONOTONICITY AND POSITIVITY OF THE CONTROL COMPONENTS OF DECOUPLED QUADRATIC FBSDE

In this small note we are concerned with the solution of Forward-Backward Stochastic Differential Equations (FBSDE) with drivers that grow quadratically in the control component (quadratic growth FBSDE or qgFBSDE). The main theorem is a comparison result that allows comparing componentwise the signs of the control processes of two different qgFBSDE. As a byproduct one obtains conditions that allow establishing the positivity of the control process.Comment: accepted for publicatio

Telephone surveys using mobile phones: an analysis of response rates, survey procedures and respondents' characteristics

Telephone surveying has become the major mode of data collection in the sample survey field since the mid 1980s; presently other modes of advanced telecommunication such as mobile phones are fast becoming important supplements and even competitors to the fixed telephones. This paper uses a nationwide dual frame survey of fixed and mobile phone numbers to examine the potential of mobile phones for survey work, the methodological implications of their use and the differences to fixed phones surveys

Willingness to pay for environmental quality: The effects of pro-environmental behavior, perceived behavior control, environmental activism, and educational level

Environmental quality is one of the major concerns in contemporary societies. The main goal of this research is to investigate citizens’ willingness to pay for environmental quality and whether this propensity differs in line with education level. Structural equation modeling is used to explore the associations between several constructs; specifically, a multigroup analysis is conducted to assess the invariance of two educational level segments. Results suggest that willingness to pay more for environmental quality is positively associated with perceived behavior control and environmental activism. Pro-environmental behavior does not impact willingness to pay for environmental quality but is positively related to perceived behavior control and environmental activism. The relationships between constructs hold true for both groups of education. Implications for public policy and marketing actions are addressed.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The relevance of follow-ups in data collection for the quality assurance system of the Portuguese population and housing census

The operationalization of the Population and Housing Census in Portugal is managed by a hierarchical structure in which Statistics Portugal is at the top and local government institutions at the bottom. When the Census takes place every ten years, local governments are asked to collaborate with Statistics Portugal in the execution and monitoring of the fieldwork operations at the local level. During the Pilot Test stage of the 2011 Census, local governments were asked for additional collaboration: to answer the Perception of Risk survey, whose aim was to gather information to design a quality assurance instrument that could be used to monitor the Census operations. The response rate of the survey was desired to be 100%, however, by the deadline of data collection nearly a quarter of local governments had not responded to the survey and thus a decision was made to make a follow up mailing. In this paper, we examine whether the same conclusions could have been reached from survey without follow ups as with them and evaluate the influence of follow ups on the conception of the quality assurance instrument. Comparison of responses on a set of perception variables revealed that local governments answering previous or after the follow up did not differ. However the configuration of the quality assurance instrument changed when including follow up responses.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Index of satisfaction with public transport: a fuzzy clustering approach

Increasing public transport use is recognized by many countries as crucial to the pursuit of a global strategy for environmental sustainability and improving urban mobility. Understanding what users value in a public transport service is essential to carry out this strategy. Using fuzzy clustering, we developed an index that measures individual user satisfaction with the public transport service in the metropolitan area of Lisbon and subsequently identified the possible determinants of satisfaction by means of a regression tree model. The results achieved unveil a hierarchical partition of the data, highlighting the diversified level of satisfaction among public transport users that is reflected in the distribution of the index. The managerial implications of the findings for the public transport service are addressed.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Men who suffered intimate partner violence: Impressions about existing public campaigns and recommendations for new ones

Over the last decades, the negative effects of intimate partner violence (IPV) directed at men in abusive different-sex and same-sex relationships have been increasingly investigated. Men who are the targets of IPV face many barriers to help-seeking, and to overcome them, public awareness campaigns have been developed. Women who experienced IPV have found campaigns targeting them to be harmful and misleading, and previous research suggests that following the principles of formative evaluation research may improve campaigns’ effectiveness and reduce unwanted negative effects. This article documents the theory-based formative evaluation research conducted with 14 men abused in different-sex and same-sex relationships for the creation of targeted campaigns. Through semi-structured interviews, men were asked about their overall knowledge of campaigns, their thoughts about specific pictorial IPV campaigns, and their suggestions for the development of new campaigns. Thematic analysis and a theoretically grounded coding scheme were used to analyze the content of the interviews with high inter-rater reliability. Overall, our results indicate that most men were not aware of campaigns in Portugal, and their impressions about the ones they recalled were mixed. Most men praised clear messages informing forms of violence, while some responded negatively to the inclusion of words such as “shame” and “victim”, and the depiction of bruises. They also considered that future campaigns targeting men should portray “real people” like them and provide information on self-efficacy, the efficacy of recommended responses, and threat susceptibility. Our findings are consistent with previous evidence with women who experienced IPV but also provide theoretically grounded novel contributions and highlight the importance of considering the population of interest’s insights when developing and testing new campaigns.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Quality assurance in the Portuguese census: the contribution of the balanced scorecard

This article describes how the balanced scorecard methodology and associated procedures were developed and implemented as the framework for the quality assurance strategy of the fieldwork in the 2011 Portuguese Population and Housing Census. The main goal of a census operation is to provide high-quality statistical information on population, buildings, and dwellings that meet users’ needs. The most critical activity of a census is the fieldwork operation where the distribution, completion, and recollection of census questionnaires are handled. Due to the dimension, complexity, and need to guarantee the final product quality of the census 2011 operation, the balanced scorecard methodology was elected as the framework for the quality assurance strategy implementation. This was the first time such a management system was used in a census operation. In terms of academic research on census quality control, the quality focus has been on the net undercount based on post enumeration survey. On the contrary, the authors’ concern is about how to ensure quality enumeration work during the census operation. The balanced scorecard methodology allowed integrating the operational execution of goals and its control into a single census management tableaux du bord, which allowed the provision of updated information on the ongoing processes and, thus, the ability to make timely corrections for those targets that suffered deviations.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Instrumento de avaliação para otimizar a comunicação interna na Unidade de trabalho.

A comunicação, do ponto de vista empresarial, pode ser entendida como função indispensável de pessoas e organizações, através da qual se conduz uma relação com o meio ambiente, com os outros e com suas próprias partes, mediante processos internos. Entende-se, por isso, que o equilibrio da organização está na disposição ordenada entre as partes que a compõem. Esse equilibrio e integração dependem fundamentalmente do seu processo comunicacional, ou seja, ao se organizar, uma empresa organiza, de fato, o fluxo de informações a ela relacionadas. Assim, estarão organizando suas relações humanas, administrativas e estratégicas entre suas partes funcionais.bitstream/CNPDIA/8888/1/CT09_96.pd

Methodology to design a Map of Alert for population and housing censuses: the Portuguese case

The Portuguese Population and Housing Census is carried out every 10 years by Statistics Portugal. In the Census 2011, a new tool was developed to assist the Quality Assurance system in order to make the monitoring of fieldwork operations more efficient and thus diminish the uncertainties that could cause coverage error in the results. This tool, named as Map of Alert, presents a three-level typology of alert that ensures advance knowledge of the potential risk of each freguesia’s failure to meet the quality standards defined for the enumeration process. This article describes the methodological process that guided the development of the Map of Alert and presents the Map itself.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Measuring quality of life in the speaker with dysarthria: reliability and validity of the european portuguese version of the QoL-DyS

Background: The impact of acquired dysarthria on the person’s life and social participation is well recognized and is the key to the process of rehabilitation. Evaluation of the effectiveness of an intervention that addresses this impact is a challenge for clinicians and researchers. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the validity and reliability of the European Portuguese version of the Quality of Life in the Speaker with Dysarthria (QoL-DyS). Methods: This research was conducted in three phases: (i) cultural and linguistic adaptation; (ii) feasibility and reliability; and (iii) validity. The sample was composed of 105 subjects with dysarthria and 103 healthy subjects. The QAD (Quick Assessment for Dysarthria), PEAT10 (Portuguese Eating Assessment Tool), and EQ-5D (EuroQol five-dimension scale) were used for validity and reliability. Results and Conclusion: The QoL-DyS correlated positively with the QAD, PEAT-10, and EQ5D. Cronbach’s ? was 0.973, and it remained excellent when any item was deleted. The QoL-DyS score mean difference between the non-dysarthric cohort and the dysarthric cohort was also significant. Confirmatory factor analysis did not validate the original 40-item scale but a 33-item scale maintaining the four domains of the original version. A significantly higher perception of QoL was found in the non-dysarthric group. The results indicate that the European Portuguese version of the QoL-DyS is a reliable and valid tool to assess QoL in patients with dysarthria and may be used for screening in clinical practice and in research.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio