Search results

On May 25, 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) became mandatory for all organizations that handle the personal data of European Union citizens. This exploratory study aims to determine the critical success factors (CSFs) related to implementing the GDPR in Portuguese public higher education institutions (HEIs).

This study adopts a multimethod methodology with qualitative and quantitative methods. A multiple case study was carried out in Portuguese public universities. As procedures for data collecting and analysis, semistructured interviews with 26 questions were conducted with the data protection officers of these universities during May and July 2019 to derive a set of CSFs. Next, the Delphi method has been applied to determine the ranking of the CSFs. The hierarchical clusters analysis has also been applied to determine the cluster with essential CSFs. To derive the CSF, the method by Caralli et al. (2004) has been applied.

This study has identified the list of 16 CSFs related to the implementation of GDPR in HEIs, among which we can highlight, for instance, empower workers on the GDPR; commit top management with the GDPR; implement the GDPR with the involvement of management and workers; create a culture for data protection; and create a decentralized team of pivots for data protection.

It could have been more enriching in the CSF determination process if all Portuguese public universities had participated in this study. In fact, within their many similarities, universities are also very different in approaching privacy and data protection. New studies are needed to determine whether the CSFs identified apply equally to other organizations, namely, private HEIs with less bureaucracy.

Identifying CSFs related to GDPR implementation in Portuguese public universities is a new area of study. This paper is a contribution to its development.

This paper discusses the role of Zakat Funds in the provision of social protection in the Middle East and North Africa region, based on the examples of Jordan and Sudan. The purpose of this paper is to assess different modalities of Zakat in two countries where it is regulated in some form by the state.

Findings are based on a desk review of academic, peer-reviewed literature as well as reports published by international organisations and information provided online by governments and national Zakat Funds. The choice of these countries was further motivated by the availability of literature in English and Arabic.

The extent to which Zakat can be used to finance social protection measures varies not only in the way it is collected and administered, but also with the country’s geographic and political conditions. In Sudan, Zakat is mandatory and reaches proportionally more households than in Jordan. While the Quran establishes the eight categories for those who should receive Zakat, the selection in both countries is at the discretion of the Funds’ administrators.

The topic of Zakat is one that has received increased attention by researchers interested in Muslim values, social policy and public finance. However, little research has been produced on the intersections of these three topics.

This paper aims to unveil the spheres that were silenced by the media and academia with regard to the collapse of the Fundão Dam that occurred in 2015, in Mariana (Minas Gerais - Brazil).

In an attempt to contribute to studies into the evil side of organizations, the authors use the theoretical contributions of corporate crime and the one-dimensional society. The authors used the “Samarco Mud” corporate crime case as an object of analysis, while a press conference with the company’s CEO and representatives from its parent companies was used as the analytical corpus. For the analysis, the authors used the content analysis technique.

The conclusions of this study point to the existence of subjects who were silenced about the phenomenon of the Fundão Dam collapse, a situation that reveals the power exercised by corporations and the totalitarian domination of the one-dimensional society as a social factor that favors the occurrence of corporate crimes.

The case in question is recent and not fully understood by academia. Neither is its organization around political and social movements understood with regard to the management implications for society and the environment. With a discussion that mixes the concepts of corporate crime and the one-dimensional society, this paper contributes to the base of critical studies in management, especially as far as concerns the mining policies used in the Southern Hemisphere.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which the organizational commitment and job satisfaction influence intent to turnover.

Following a quantitative approach regarding methodological aspects of this research, a case study was carried out in a company of information technology and communication located in Porto Digital, in the Northeast of Brazil. A data collection technique with 172 forms, a self-administered form with 18 closed questions with a Likert-type scale and an open questionnaire were used. In this analysis, Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software was used as the technique; besides the descriptive statistics, a correlation was made between dependent variables (intention of rotation) and independent variables (affective, normative, instrumental and work satisfaction). The level of organizational commitment in its three dimensions (affective, normative and instrumental), the job satisfaction in its five dimensions (satisfaction with nature of the task, with leadership, with colleagues, with salary and promotions) and the level of intent to turnover from the respondents were investigated.

The results suggest that affective and normative commitments and satisfaction with pay, satisfaction with promotions and satisfaction with the nature of the work are correlated with the intention of negative turnover significantly. Among the demographic factors, only the age showed a negative correlation with intent to turnover. By performing multiple regression analysis, we identified that the variables that most impacted the turnover intention are affective commitment, satisfaction with salary and normative commitment. The qualitative portion of this study was accomplished through a content analysis of the open question of the form. Finally, one of the main considerations is the findings that revealed variables other than those adopted in the study, which influence the permanence of the respondents.

Among the limitations of the research a single case study is highlighted that replicates the experience in other ICT companies to verify if the results found are similar in other organizations and in other segments. The findings direct the construction and validation of new scales, the creation of qualitative protocols to identify the variables that influence the retention of a specific group of individuals to serve as a guide for the elaboration of a questionnaire, as well as creation of surveys of longitudinal nature to correlate the data of intention of rotation with the effective turnover.

Based on the results, organizations can reduce voluntary evasion by adjusting actions, policies and practices, directing those responsible for People Management to attract and retain good employees. It should be emphasized that voluntary turnover should be treated as one of the management indicators of greater relevance by organizations, representing a thermometer of all human capital management.

The monitoring of employment and unemployment levels is part of the public policy agenda for generating employment and income in Brazil. For organizations, employee turnover can and should be managed and monitored so that appropriate levels are found and their consequences are minimized through effective solutions. The results are important both for technology-based organizations and for all stakeholders interested in the subject as the public power.

Although in the international literature turnover is a topic of study for many years, in the Brazilian context, there is a shortage of research on the subject, specifically in the sector of advanced technology where there is a great lack of skilled labor, a fierce competition and where to keep employees standard high becomes a survival factor. This study may contribute to the exploration in the local literature, as it will help locate the academy on the Brazilian reality and open the doors to new research works on turnover and its possible correlations with other variables besides organizational commitment and job satisfaction.

Given the potential for authorial fashion to lead the way in the field of sustainable fashion and digital platforms to be a powerful tool for spreading sustainable messages, this study seeks to explore the emphasis given to sustainability in the digital communication of Portuguese and Spanish’s authorial fashion.

A thematic analysis of all the posts published on the feeds of the 63 designers who presented their collections at the Madrid and Lisbon fashion weeks in September/October 2022 (Spring/Summer 2023) or February/March 2023 (Fall/Winter 2023/2024) editions was carried out. The information was collected over a six-month period between the two fashion weeks. This study is based on the categories identified in the reflexive thematic analysis developed by Testa et al. (2020). After adapting the categories to our analysis, 14 emerging themes were identified as observation criteria.

A total of 4,699 posts were examined. The analysis reveals a general lack of interest in mentioning sustainability – a subject evident in just around 6% of the content – as well as a high emphasis on the visual aspect of the fashion product. Several similarities between the Portuguese and Spanish markets were observed.

This study is important since there are few cross-cultural studies in the field of fashion between the two countries, particularly on sustainable fashion. Furthermore, it establishes a structure that is easily replicable in various markets and geographical areas.

This chapter delves into the significant role Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) play in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim of strengthening and refocusing institutional efforts toward the 2030 Agenda and beyond. Acknowledging the limited progress made toward the 2030 Agenda, the chapter discusses the extent to which universities are meeting their social and ethical responsibilities in fostering sustainable development and human rights. Through an examination of the relationship between universities and the SDGs (including criticism of their role in reinforcing urban inequalities), the chapter articulates a vision for HEIs to embrace transformative partnerships, interdisciplinary approaches, and community engagement to rebuild public trust and reinforce their place as pivotal actors in driving social and economic progress. Three essential tasks for HEIs are identified: fostering SDG synergies, establishing trust and collaboration with local communities, and advancing a data-informed progress assessment that provides a roadmap for how to use the SDGs to further new agendas.

This paper aims to present an adaptive approach of the generalized finite element method (GFEM) for transient dynamic analysis of bars and trusses. The adaptive GFEM, previously proposed for free vibration analysis, is used with the modal superposition method to obtain precise time-history responses.

The adaptive GFEM is applied to the transient analysis of bars and trusses. To increase the precision of the results and computational efficiency, the modal matrix is responsible for the decoupling of the dynamic equilibrium equations in the modal superposition method, which is used with only the presence of the problem’s most preponderant modes of vibration. These modes of vibration are identified by a proposed coefficient capable of indicating the influence of each mode on the transient response.

The proposed approach leads to more accurate results of displacement, velocity and acceleration when compared to the traditional finite element method.

In this paper, the application of the adaptive GFEM to the transient analysis of bars and trusses is presented for the first time. A methodology of identification of the preponderant modes to be retained in the modal matrix is proposed to improve the quality of the solution. The examples showed that the method has a strong potential to solve dynamic analysis problems, as the approach had already proved to be efficient in the modal analysis of different framed structures. A simple way to perform h-refinement of truss elements to obtain reference solutions for dynamic problems is also proposed.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of black sesame germination on its nutritional composition and antioxidant activity.

Germination occurred at constant temperature and humidity (35 °C and 95 ± 5%) for 72 h. The levels of moisture, protein, lipids, ash, total dietary fibre and fractions, carbohydrates, calories, phenolic compounds and antioxidant capacity were determined.

With germination, there was a significant increase in moisture and protein content, as well as a reduction in the other parameters assessed in terms of nutritional composition. When analysing bioactive compounds, no significant change was found in the content of phenolic compounds; however, there was a reduction in antioxidant capacity according to the three methods tested, which may be related to the characteristics of the grain itself, the conditions used for germination, or even the process of extracting phenolic compounds for analysis. Other conditions for the germination of black sesame using different times and temperatures should be evaluated in future studies.

This is an original research article, which has an industrial and health impact by transmitting highly relevant responses on nutrition and food. The novelty of this research is the fact of studying the germination of black sesame on the nutritional composition (moisture, protein, lipids, ash, total dietary fibre and fractions, carbohydrates and calories), levels of phenolic compounds and antioxidant capacity. These results can help improve the procedures adopted by the food industries and also in nutritional conduct, as the germination process leads to a change in the nutritional composition, especially with regard to protein synthesis, which is relevant, once it is an interesting protein option. However, it also brings us responses to reductions in important nutritional compounds.

Focusing on the Brazilian equity mutual fund industry, this study analyzes whether including the investor sentiment index in asset pricing models is important for explaining fund alpha.

The investor sentiment index and risk factors in the Fama and French (1993) and Carhart (1997) models were estimated, the risk-adjusted performance of a sample of equity mutual funds in Brazil was evaluated, and a United States (US) sample was included for a complementary perspective. The sample period spans 2010–2019 for Brazil and 2010–2018 for the US.

The results contrasted with those evidenced in the US, where the sentiment index was an important factor in explaining the probability of alpha occurrence, especially in the case of winner funds, defined as those exhibiting a positive and statistically significant alpha at the 5% level. Overall, the findings suggest that, in the Brazilian market, pricing models incorporating investor sentiment as an additional factor fail to adequately capture the outperformance probability of equity mutual funds. These results suggest that the factors influencing fund performance may differ between the two countries and highlight the relevance of developing more suitable investor sentiment indicators for emerging markets.

This study examines the impact of the sentiment index on the performance of equity mutual funds in Brazil, specifically its influence on alpha generation.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate and compare the mechanical performance of FFF parts when subjected to post processing thermal treatment. Therefore, a study of the annealing treatment influence on the mechanical properties was performed. For this, two different types of Nylon (PA12) were used, FX256 and CF15, being the second a short fibre reinforcement version of the first one.

In this study, tensile and flexural properties of specimens produced via FFF were determined after being annealed at temperatures of 135°C, 150°C or 165°C during 3, 6, 12 or 18 h and compared with the non-treated conditions. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was performed to determine the degree of crystallinity. To evaluate the annealing parameters’ influence on the mechanical properties, a full factorial design of experiments was developed, followed by an analysis of variance, as well as post hoc comparisons, to determine the most significative intervening factors and their effect on the results.

The results indicate that CF15 increased its tensile modulus, strength, flexural modulus and flexural strength around 11%, while FX256 presented similar values for tensile properties, doubling for flexural results. Flexural strain presented an improvement, indicating an increased interlayer behaviour. Concerning to the DSC analysis, an increase in the degree of crystallinity for all the annealed parts.

Overall, the annealing treatment process cause a significant improvement in the mechanical performance of the material, with the exception of 165°C annealed specimens, in which a decrease of the mechanical properties was observed, resultant of material degradation.