An approximation algorithm for the maximum spectral subgraph problem

Journal of Combinatorial Optimization - Modifying the topology of a network to mitigate the spread of an epidemic with epidemiological constant $$\lambda $$ amounts to the NP-hard problem of...     

Reference model for collaborative management in the automotive industry

Changes in the competitive environment require corporate restructuring, strengthening the relationship between the participants in a supply chain, implementing inter-organisational collaborative actions. Different strategies for collaborative actions render the subject relevant to researchers and managers. Integration, cooperation and partnership are essential to the success of this restructuring; the practices in this subject will be treated as Collaborative Management. The main objective is to analyse and synthesise the requirements of Collaborative Management in the automotive industry. The multicase study begins with an exploratory study to identify the theoretical elements that involve collaborative activity between companies, followed by a multiple case study in order to analyse the collaborative strategies used by companies. With the data collected a reference model will be produced using the Enterprise Knowledge Development methodology under a collaborative management approach. The data will enable the systematic and consistent representation of the collaboration between companies, helping to clarify the Collaborative role, and the integration relationship with the inter-organisational managing strategies.     

Networks in policy,management and governance: a comparative literature review to stimulate future research avenues

Policy networks, network management and network governance have received particular attention in the public sector literature over the last 20 years. Networks have been studied from different perspectives resulting in the creation of various concepts and definitions. However, the proliferation of definitions, metrics and language is responsible for a confusing picture, where policy networks, network management and network governance are used both as synonyms and to define different concepts. We review the existing literature with two aims: firstly, to compare the three streams of literature, by highlighting their similarities and differences; secondly, to propose a guide for network scholars that identifies the importance of each stream in analyzing specific issues.     

Reduced-Bias Location-Invariant Extreme Value Index Estimation: A Simulation Study

In this article, we deal with semi-parametric corrected-bias estimation of a positive extreme value index (EVI), the primary parameter in statistics of extremes. Under such a context, the classical EVI-estimators are the Hill estimators, based on any intermediate number k of top-order statistics. But these EVI-estimators are not location-invariant, contrarily to the PORT-Hill estimators, which depend on an extra tuning parameter q, with 0 ≤ q < 1, and where PORT stands for peaks over random threshold. On the basis of second-order minimum-variance reduced-bias (MVRB) EVI-estimators, we shall here consider PORT-MVRB EVI-estimators. Due to the stability on k of the MVRB EVI-estimates, we propose the use of a heuristic algorithm, for the adaptive choice of k and q, based on the bias pattern of the estimators as a function of k. Applications in the fields of insurance and finance will be provided.     

Breach Penalties in Labour Contracts: Advance Notice and Severance Pay

This paper analyses the determining factors of advance notice and severance pay provisions that appear in collective bargaining agreements. The theoretical model constructed is a simple bargaining model in which advance notice and severance pay play the role of breach penalties that the firm must pay for breaking the employment relationship. The hypotheses are tested on data gathered from collective bargaining agreements from different industries that were signed between 1970 and 1989.     

Taking care of you and care for others: an analysis of the activity of the work of technical and nursing assistants of a psychiatric institution for children and adolescents

Our objective in this study, the analysis of potential fields of risk management in nursing work in psychiatric care to adolescents and children, while settings that go from the relationship between technical and organizational determinants of work activity and the skills of operators. It was established focus on the work process of the Technical and Nursing Assistants to seek for response elements in an attempt to understand the health-disease process experienced by these workers. It was used for analysis and data collection, through the method of Ergonomic Work Analysis (EWA), fifteen workers of nursing staff - T&NA, between effectives and contractors, and the strategies of action and regulation of these workers in relation to the interface that they deal with. The results show that the workers are exposed to all charges in an intense and specific way, causing physical and mental wear, as it approaches the psychological distress, exposure to the psychic pressure, not only through contact with the object of work, but the complexity of these relationships that are involved in nursing staff.     

The municipal solid waste and the quality of life of collectors of recyclable materials in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais

The generation growing and diversified of Municipal Solid Waste is configured as an environmental problem, economic and social deterioration, especially, by application of inappropriate management of them. Faced with this urban context, the research in development presents as specific objective assessment of the quality of life of the gatherers of recyclable materials were active in the city of Juiz de Fora, in the brazilian state of Minas Gerais. In addition, the objective is, still, the recognition of the activity of sorting performed by "scavengers" in order to maximize the reduction, reuse and recycling energy and material waste daily. The proposed methodology is based on the application of the questionnaire Word Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-100), prepared by the World Health Organization, in order to value the quality of life of the gatherers of recyclable materials, involved, even in educational workshops in order to discuss and organize strategies of health care and scouting to the basement to public policies.