Acessibility in collective housing for the elderly: a case study in Portugal

Physical spaces need to be adjusted to suit the changes of a physical, cognitive and emotional order occasioned by the natural aging of people. Ergonomics of the built environment contributes to improving the interaction of the user and physical environment, with a view to their comfort and safety. By thinking through the influence that environments have on the quality of life of the elderly, this article presents an assessment of accessibility in private units--bedrooms and bathrooms--of a Long-Stay Institution for the Elderly (ILPI in Portuguese) in Portugal. The analysis of the physical and spatial conditioning factors by means of the Ergonomics Methodology for the Built Environment (EMBE), proposed by VILLAROUCO (2008), gave evidence of the need for interventions to suitably adapt physical infrastructure, with the objective of promoting the physical well-being of the elderly, and thus, enhancing the autonomy and independence of a wider range of users.     

Self-Reported Personal Well-Being of Youth Accessing Intensive Mental Health Treatment

Normative samples have been shown to rate their personal wellbeing (PWB) as positively high and high PWB is associated with many enduring benefits. Cummins (J Happiness Stud 10(6):1–17, 2009) has suggested that PWB has an equilibrium that is set at a rather high positive state and maintained through psychological mechanisms he termed homeostatic protected mood (HPM). Investigators who have explored PWB and mental health disorders have often focused on schizophrenia in adult populations, with varied results, and scant attention has been paid to clinical samples of youth with emotional and/or behavioral disorders. The purpose for this report was to explore the level of PWB reported by a subsample of youth who accessed residential treatment (n = 30) and intensive home based treatment (n = 33) at 12–18 months post-discharge, and explore whether clinical variables could predict PWB. Many youth reported high PWB despite experiencing continued challenges in symptoms and psychosocial functioning. Demographic and clinical characteristics did not predict participants’ PWB scores, lending support for the HPM theory with this sample of youth with emotional and behavioral disorder.     

Muslims in France and Great Britain: Issues of Securitization,Identities and Loyalties Post 9/11

The September 11, 2001 attacks in the USA have liberated an encompassing rhetoric globally, which designates all that is “Muslim” or perceived to be such, as a threat. The securitizing perspective, intertwined with debates over Muslims' integration and increasingly visible religiosity has led to growing suspicions regarding Muslims' loyalties in Europe. This analysis seeks to characterize this securitizing perspective and considers, on the one hand, the inherent equalization of increasing Muslim identity awareness with disloyalty, and on the other, the depiction of Muslims in Europe as a homogenous block, which facilitates constructing them as the “Other”. As an illustration, this paper focuses more particularly on France and Great Britain.     

Soil organic carbon stock in different urban land uses: high stock evidence in urban parks

Urban Ecosystems - Urban areas are major producers of atmospheric CO2 emissions, but at the same time they can offset some of the associated C losses by retaining stable organic carbon in their...     

Reshaping state/local communities relations in Tunisia: The socio-cultural and institutional challenges of the decentralization project

International development agencies believe that by adopting institutional reforms based on the best practices that have proved effective elsewhere, so-called « developing countries » could take their places in the globalised economy. Based on a case study carried out on the implementation challenges of a decentralization project in Tunisia, I will argue by using an interpretive approach that this thesis is not sustained. This article shows that institutions cannot be reduced to their technical functions but that they are based on particular collective imaginaries that ground what is legitimate or not and structure the relationship of individuals to power and the meaning given to their actions. It encourages the consideration of cultural framework of meaning; these local cultural references structure the governance modalities of a society, understood in terms of the modalities of exercise of power in a given group (state, company, local authority, etc.). It advocates the necessity to move from a technic-prone approach in the implementation of institutional changes towards a socio-cultural approach that integrates the local expectations of what “good governance” should be and on which depends the legitimacy of institutions and their appropriation by local populations.     

Pluralism in Organizations: Learning from Unconventional Forms of Organizations

The bureaucratic organization is still regarded as the conventional organizational form, but is ill‐suited to an increasingly pluralistic world. Research on the variety of organizational forms has increased dramatically over the past three decades and offers the potential to understand better how pluralism is manifested and managed within organizations. However, this research remains fragmented. The purpose of this paper is to review and synthesize research on unconventional organizations to explore how organizations resolve or attenuate the tensions related to pluralism. Drawing from research in leading management journals, it covers seven distinct literatures: ‘referent organization’, ‘temporary organization’, ‘pluralistic organization’, ‘meta‐organization’, ‘bridging organization’, ‘hybrid organization’ and ‘field‐configuring event’. For each literature, the authors trace the genealogy of the key concepts and review their distinct insights regarding organizational pluralism. They then synthesize and discuss their collective contributions and conclude with avenues of research for pluralism in organizations.     

Work overload and intimidation: The moderating role of resilience

Work overload is a critical but understudied stressor at work, particularly for boundary-spanning positions. Recent studies have highlighted the need for more research on the identification of different predictors of the use of intimidation, a type of assertive impression management tactic. Relying on Lazarus's transactional theory, this study hypothesized and investigated a mediated moderation model that includes resilience, work overload, and its outcomes.This paper contributes to the organizational literature by examining the use of intimidation by salespeople as a reaction to stressful circumstances and the association between this tactic and salespeople's performance. The information provided by 248 employee–supervisor dyads confirmed the proposed model. Work overload has a positive association with intimidation, and the direct effect of work overload on intimidation depends on the level of an employee's resilience. Finally, the use of intimidation has a negative association with supervisor-rated performance.     

An Empirical Analysis of Monitoring Behaviour and Private Benefits of Investors in the Spanish Market

The objective of our study is to look for anequilibrium among three factors: the privatebenefits that main shareholders can obtain fromthe firm, the social benefits derived from acertain ownership structure (such assupervision and alignment of interests) and thecosts derived from ownership concentration(such as loss of liquidity and riskdiversification). Our empirical analysis allowsus to conclude that the supervisory role ofownership is more intense in firms where thepotential conflict of interest betweenshareholders and managers is greater, andtherefore the value of the firm can beincreased through a specific composition of itsshareholders.     

Statistical Analyses and Modelling of the Mixing Process of Euro Coins in Germany and Europe

This paper reports on the mixing of Euro coins from different countries of origin in Europe, which started on 1 January 2002. There is an interesting conclusion: that the mobility of small and large denominations is different. The long‐term behaviour of the mixing process is studied using a simple deterministic model and data from Germany, France and the Netherlands. The analysis leads to predictions about the future progress of the mixing process.