A videovigilância no local de trabalho

The emergence of new technologies has introduced significant changes in the citizens life’s. There is a constant evolution of technological means and profound impact of their use in the habits of life of the human being. These new technological media are important tools in labor relations. The working and businesses worlds are increasingly turning to these new technologies, so that the use of video surveillance in the workplace is nowadays common. New technologies in general and the use of video surveillance in workplace in particular are providing ways to allow control of the work performance that are desired by most employers. However, the collection of images in the workplace often collides with the fundamental rights and freedoms of workers, in particular, with the right to privacy. The subject concerns the question of investigating is whether the images collected in workplace can be used as evidence in disciplinary proceedings. In fact, this issue is controversial. Doctrine and jurisprudence defend, at least, two responses for the same question. Those who understand that the evidence may be admitted for not violate any right of the worker, and others who argue that the evidence should not be admitted in disciplinary office. In the Portuguese legal system, there is, even, a new intermediate theory that begins to be defended, that only on certain occasions the evidence may be admitted. The solution to this problem involves the study of employment law and data video surveillance processing. Analysis of workers fundamental rights is fundamental to come to a grounded conclusion.

Perception of organizational politics and the effect of authenticity and affective commitment on deviance and task performance in contact centers

This study aimed to understand employees’ reactions to organizational politics in Contact Centers. Drawing from a sample of 187 supervisor-employee dyads, we studied the relationship between employees’ perceptions of organizational politics and supervisor-rated task performance and deviance, and mediation effects by authenticity at work and affective commitment. Results indicate that workers tend to react to workplace politics with deviant behavior and worse task performance. We found that the relationship between perceived politics and task performance was mediated by authenticity. The relationship between perceived politics and supervisor-rated deviance was mediated by affective commitment to the organization. Implications for management are discussed.

Performance management practices in Portugal.

Performance management and assessment has returned to the forefront of the public debate in Portugal, at the same time that some international studies point Portugal as a country with bad management practices, highlighting performance management practices. Despite all this attention, there is little information about how those practices are applied in the country. This research’s goal is to assess why performance management systems and practices are so poorly applied in Portugal. To achieve this goal we studied employees’ perception about the topic and diagnose the associated problems. The methodology comprised inductive and qualitative research, in the form of interviews with employees from different professions, industries, hierarchies, and ages. Our findings suggest that performance management failure is related with a procedural problem with three different dimensions: Insufficient Planning, Process & Integrity Issues, and Non-Meritocratic Logic. By exposing the different components of the Portuguese performance management problem, we shed light into the topic and allow organizations to understand and face their performance management systems’ flaws.

The relationship between the education level of successor's and the firm performance in German publicly listed family firms- an empirical analysis

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how far the education level of the second or third generation of publicly traded German family firms affects the post-succession firm performance. By conducting a correlational and regression design, the aim is to examine how several variables influence the performance of family firms. Performance measures, for example ROA and Tobin’s q and variables, like Education level and succession periods, examine analytically that a positive succession trend will occur. However, with the used model, only a less rigid model shows empirical evidence.

How could marketing automation impact the business performance of Comexposium?

Comexposium continues to exhibit strong growth through global acquisition of key events. However, the company identified the need to increase the renewal rate of its exhibitors. In order to do so, Comexposium determined marketing automation software could have enormous value. However, the company currently does not have the appropriate data to determine to specific returns the software could provide. Thus, this report focused on assessing the impact of marketing automation on the business performance of a B2B enterprise and the best methods to implement and measure it. The main findings were that the software could be of immense value to Comexposium, if the company is ready to invest in internal resources and take the time to adapt to the changes the tool will incur.

Development of foam one-part geopolymers with enhanced thermal insulation performance and low carbon dioxide emissions

Buildings are responsible for more than 40% of the energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, increasing building energy efficiency is one the most cost-effective ways to reduce emissions. The use of thermal insulation materials could constitute the most effective way of reducing heat losses in buildings by minimising heat energy needs. These materials have a thermal conductivity factor, k (W/m.K) lower than 0.065 while other insulation materials such as aerated concrete can go up to 0.11. Current insulation materials are associated with negative impacts in terms of toxicity. Polystyrene, for example contains anti-oxidant additives and ignition retardants. In addition, its production involves the generation of benzene and chlorofluorocarbons. Polyurethane is obtained from isocyanates, which are widely known for their tragic association with the Bhopal disaster. Besides current insulation materials releases toxic fumes when subjected to fire. This paper presents experimental results on one-part geopolymers. It also includes global warming potential assessment and cost analysis. The results show that only the use of aluminium powder allows the production mixtures with a high compressive strength however its high cost means they are commercially useless when facing the competition of commercial cellular concrete. The results also show that one-part geopolymer mixtures based on 26%OPC +58.3%FA +8%CS +7.7%CH and 3.5% hydrogen peroxide constitute a promising cost efficient (67 euro/m3), thermal insulation solution for floor heating systems with low global warming potential of 443 KgCO2eq/m3.

Performance of a fly ash geopolymeric mortar for coating of ordinary portland cement concrete exposed to harsh chemical environments

Premature degradation of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) concrete infrastructures is a current and serious problem with overwhelming costs amounting to several trillion dollars. The use of concrete surface treatments with waterproofing materials to prevent the access of aggressive substances is an important way of enhancing concrete durability. The most common surface treatments use polymeric resins based on epoxy, silicone (siloxane), acrylics, polyurethanes or polymethacrylate. However, epoxy resins have low resistance to ultraviolet radiation while polyurethanes are sensitive to high alkalinity environments. Geopolymers constitute a group of materials with high resistance to chemical attack that could also be used for coating of concrete infrastructures exposed to harsh chemical environments. This article presents results of an experimental investigation on the resistance to chemical attack (by sulfuric and nitric acid) of several materials: OPC concrete, high performance concrete (HPC), epoxy resin, acrylic painting and a fly ash based geopolymeric mortar. Three types of acids, each with high concentrations of 10%, 20% and 30%, were used to simulate long term degradation by chemical attack. The results show that the epoxy resin had the best resistance to chemical attack, irrespective of the acid type and acid concentration.

Development of sandwich panels of customized functionalities for the rehabilitation of the built patrimony

Considering that the future of the construction sector in most European countries will mainly lie in the renovation of the existing building stock, in the next coming years thousands of energy inefficient buildings will need renovation to force EU member states to reach the EU 2020 targets and implement the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD). Seeing the actual crisis in the construction sector as an opportunity, this work aims to develop a concept for prefabricated customizable sandwich panels for the multifunctional renovation of buildings, focusing also on technological innovation. More than a conventional solution, this proposal aims to combine sustainable and recycled building materials, available technologies and systems with advanced design and manufacturing tools within an integrated and mass-customizable approach of advanced building renovation prefabricated solutions. The adoption of these new proposed solutions would improve the living standards of the inhabitants of our cities, reducing energy inefficiency and other existing construction/renovation problems, while enabling some advanced features like the incorporation of technical modules that could even monitor the building performance during its full lifetime and the living conditions of its occupants.

Equity offerings, stock price crash risk, and the impact of securities regulation: international evidence

We examine whether earnings manipulation around seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) is associated with an increase in the likelihood of a stock price crash post-issue and test whether the enactment of securities regulations attenuate the relation between SEOs and crash risk. Empirical evidence documents that managerial tendency to conceal bad news increases the likelihood of a stock price crash (Jin and Myers, 2006; Hutton, Marcus, and Tehranian, 2009). We test this hypothesis using a sample of firms from 29 EU countries that enacted the Market Abuse Directive (MAD). Consistent with our hypothesis, we find that equity issuers that engage in earnings management experience a significant increase in crash risk post-SEO relative to control groups of non-issuers; this effect is stronger for equity issuers with poor information environments. In addition, our findings show a significant decline in crash risk post-issue after the enactment of MAD that is stronger for firms that actively manage earnings. This decline in post-issue crash risk is more effective in countries with high ex-ante institutional quality and enforcement. These results suggest that the implementation of MAD helps to mitigate managers’ ability to manipulate earnings around SEOs.

Earnings management and stock price crashes post-crossdelisting

We test whether cross-delisted firms from the major U.S. stock exchanges experience an increase in crash risk associated with earnings management. Consistent with our prediction, we find that earnings management have a greater positive impact on stock price crash risk post-cross-delisting when compared to a sample of still cross-listed firms. Moreover, our results suggest that this effect is more pronounced for crossdelisted firms from countries with weaker investor protection and poorer quality of their information environment. We further examine whether managers’ ability to manipulate earnings increases post-cross-delisting around seasoned equity offerings. Our evidence shows that cross-delisted firms that engage in earnings management to inflate reported earnings prior to a seasoned equity offering are more likely to observe a subsequent stock price crash.

Assessment of the performance of steel fibre reinforced self-compacting concrete in elevated slabs

The reinforcement mechanisms at the cross section level assured by fibres bridging the cracks in steel fibre reinforced self-compacting concrete (SFRSCC) can be significantly amplified at structural level when the SFRSCC is applied in structures with high support redundancy, such is the case of elevated slab systems. To evaluate the potentialities of SFRSCC as the fundamental material of elevated slab systems, a ¼ scale SFRSCC prototype of a residential building was designed, built and tested. The extensive experimental program includes material tests for characterizing the relevant properties of SFRSCC, as well as structural tests for assessing the performance of the prototype at serviceability and ultimate limit conditions. Three distinct approaches where adopted to derive the constitutive laws of the SFRSCC in tension that were used in finite element material nonlinear analysis to evaluate the reliability of these approaches in the prediction of the load carrying capacity of the prototype.

High performance fiber reinforced concrete for the shear reinforcement: experimental and numerical research

High performance fiber reinforced concrete (HPFRC) is developing rapidly to a modern structural material with unique rheological and mechanical characteristics. Despite applying several methodologies to achieve self15 compacting requirements, some doubts still remain regarding the most convenient strategy for developing a HPFRC. In the present study, an innovative mix design method is proposed for the development of high17 performance concrete reinforced with a relatively high dosage of steel fibers. The material properties of the developed concrete are assessed, and the concrete structural behavior is characterized under compressive, flexural and shear loading. This study better clarifies the significant contribution of fibers for shear resistance of concrete elements. This paper further discusses a FEM-based simulation, aiming to address the possibility of calibrating the constitutive model parameters related to fracture modes I and II.

Evaluation of the bond performance in FRP-brick components re-bonded after initial delamination

The bond behavior between Fiber Reinforced Polymers (FRPs) and masonry substrates has been the subject of many studies during the last years. Recent accelerated aging tests have shown that bond degradation and FRP delamination are likely to occur in FRP-strengthened masonry components under hygrothermal conditions. While an investigation on the possible methods to improve the durability of these systems is necessary, the applicability of different bond repair methods should also be studied. This paper aims at investigating the debonding mechanisms after repairing delaminated FRP-strengthened masonry components. FRP-strengthened brick specimens, after being delaminated, are repaired with two different adhesives: a conventional epoxy resin and a highly flexible polymer. The latter is used as an innovative adhesive in structural applications. The bond behavior in the repaired specimens is investigated by performing single-lap shear bond tests. Digital image correlation (DIC) is used for deeper investigation of the surface deformation and strains development. The effectiveness of the repair methods is discussed and compared with the strengthened specimens.

Performance de populações de Milho (Zea Mays L.) em terras altas sob cerrado no Centro-sul do estado do Tocantins, Brasil1

No estado do Tocantins, o cultivo de milho em "terras altas sob cerrado" apresenta níveis de produtividade variáveis, cuja média não ultrapassa 2 t/ha. Fatores de solo, como acidez, baixos teores de Ca, Mg, Ρ e Κ e matéria orgânica, concorrem para reduzir as produtividades. O desenvolvimento de materiais genéticos melhorados busca contribuir na superação dessas limitações. Como atividade inicial em um programa de melhoramento genético, o presente estudo avaliou um total de 160 populações de milho, nas safras 1994/95, 1995/96 e 1998/99, nos municípios de Pedro Afonso e Gurupi, em termos de produtividade de grãos (PG), altura da planta (AP), altura da espiga (AE) e dias para florescimento feminino (FF). Para PG, os efeitos de populações foram significativos em todas as avaliações, ocorrendo produtividades entre 1,59 t/ ha a 7,46 t/ha. Destacaram-se as populações IAPAR 51, EGO 17, CMS 08, CMS 50, COMPOSTO TERRAS BAIXAS, TAIÚBA, TAITINGA, CMS 28, CMS 15 e SIKALQ, em Pedro Afonso, e K9201, CMS 39, BR 105 e CMS 03, em Gurupi, com produtividades acima de 5 t/ha. As diferenças nas performances produtivas e agronômicas em Pedro Afonso e Gurupi, juntamente com efeitos significativos das interações populações χ locais, alertam para a condução de programas de melhoramento específicos para cada local.

A performance-based method for seismic evaluation of masonry walls strengthened with RC layers

A conventional method for seismic strengthening of masonry walls is externally application of reinforced concrete layer (shotcrete). However, due to the lack of analytical and experimental information on the behavior of strengthened walls, the design procedures are usually followed based on the empirical relations. Using these design procedures have resulted in massive strengthening details in retrofitting projects. This paper presents a computational framework for nonlinear analysis of strengthened masonry walls and its versatility has been verified by comparing the numerical and experimental results. Based on the developed numerical model and available experimental information, design relations and failure modes are proposed for strengthened walls in accordance with the ASCE 41 standard. Finally, a sample masonry structure has been strengthened using the proposed and available conventional methods. It has been shown that using the proposed method results in lower strengthening details and appropriate (ductile) failure modes