A dynamic general equilibrium analysis of the political economy of public education

The primary objective of this paper is to highlight the distinct roles of altruism and of self-interest in the political determination of a public education policy. I assess the relative importance of three factors in the determination of the equilibrium level of this policy: altruism, the impact of public funding of education on social security benefits, and its impact on factor prices. I then focus on the impact of implementing a social security system on the equilibrium levels of education funding and on welfare. I find that although in the benchmark economy, the presence of social security might generate support for public funding of education, its overall effect on the well-being of individuals is negative for any level of social security taxation.

The methodological involvement of the emotional design and cognitive ergonomics as a tool in the development of children products

To demonstrate the relationship between design and emotional development for kids, this article offers an initial approach about the definition and historical aspects of emotion in product development, citing the main authors of this issue. Based the field research conducted with children from 2 to 6 years of age, was also describes the basic ideas of Piaget in the child psychology and pre-operational stage (age group studied) and the significance of children's toys from the perspective of Vigostsky. Using this theoretical framework and results of field research, we can infer some emotional design as advocated by the producers of positive affect on humans and its relationship with the child's development and choices of their toys.     

Analysis of mental workload of electrical power plant operators of control and operation centers

Electrical systems can be categorized as critical systems where failure can result in significant financial loss, injury or threats to human life. The operators of the electric power control centers perform an activity in a specialized environment and have to carry it out by mobilizing knowledge and reasoning to which they have adequate training under the terms of the existing rules. To reach this there is a common mental request of personnel involved in these centers due the need to maintain attention, memory and reasoning request. In this sense, this study aims to evaluate the Mental Workload of technical workers of the Control Centers of Electrical Energy. It was undertaken a research on operators control centers of the electricity sector in Northeast Brazil. It was used for systematic observations, followed by interview and application of the instrument National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index known as NASA-TLX. As a result there will be subsidies for an assessment of mental workload of operators, and a contribution to improving the processes of managing the operation of electric utilities and the quality of workers.     

An overview of occupational accidents notification systems within the enlarged EU

This paper describes a comparative analysis of the official forms used for reporting occupational accidents within the EU-27 member states. The comparison is based on two analysis grids (coding schedule) created to that effect, which incorporate a set of evaluation criteria and an interpretation key. The results obtained in the analysis allowed for attention to be drawn to the relevant attributes of such forms in terms of their content and format/structure. It also revealed the main similarities and differences between each country, providing a complete assessment of the 27 member states. The discussion gives account of the level of implementation of the "new" Eurostat variables within the European Statistics of Accidents at Work (ESAW). Furthermore, the study shows that certain formats (structure of information fields) appear to facilitate completeness of the information collected. It has also demonstrated that the European harmonisation process is still far from completion, although the newcomer states seem to be adjusting quickly to the process. The findings of this study may bring useful insights to national authorities and European policy-makers, or to employers/enterprises wishing to implement their internal procedures aligned with the ESAW methodology. The scientific community is another interest group, whose research relies on official statistics, preferably comparable across all countries.     

Exercise can improve speed of behavior in older drivers

The main aim of this research was to study the effects of a specific exercise program on the speed of behavior of older adults during on-the-road driving. Twenty-six drivers (55-78 yr old) were randomly assigned to either an exercise group or a control group. The exercise program (3 sessions of 60 min/wk for 8 wk) incorporated tasks that induced the participants to respond quickly to challenging situations. On-the-road driving tasks (under single- and dual-task conditions) included measures of simple and choice reaction time, movement time, and response time. Significant positive effects were found at follow-up resulting from participation in the exercise program: Improvements were found for several measures in all driving tasks, and a composite score reflected a better general drivers' speed of behavior. These results show that exercise can enhance speed of behavior in older drivers and should therefore be promoted.     

Worthy? Crowdfunding the Canadian Health Care and Education Sectors

Crowdfunding, the practice of asking for money from others using the Internet, is a major private means through which Canadians are funding their health care and education. Crowdfunding has proliferated in Canada during the 2010s and continues to grow, approaching the revenues of Canada's major traditional charities. Proponents describe it as an empowering practice from which anyone can benefit. If its gains are inequitably distributed, however, increasing reliance on this private funding mechanism, especially in core areas of welfare state provision, can further exacerbate inequalities of opportunity and income. This study asks why Canadians turn to health care and education crowdfunding and how equitably funds are raised using this novel method. Based on a mixed methods analysis of 319 campaigns conducted on two prominent crowdfunding platforms between 2012 and 2014, we find that crowdfunding users’ needs frequently correspond to known gaps in the contemporary social safety net, including in the area of cancer care, and that campaigns for older and visible minority Canadians face a disadvantage. We argue that health care and education crowdfunding is a response to the shortcomings of Canadian welfare state provision, but one that reproduces offline inequalities with potentially perilous consequences for democratic life and individual suffering.     

The struggle for the state and the politics of belonging in contemporary Angola, 1975–2015

On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Angola’s independence, this essay revisits key dimensions of the country’s postcolonial trajectory through the prism of the complex politics of the nationalist struggle and the first decades of self-rule. Its goal is to provide a series of reflections, mostly centred on the MPLA regime, rather than a comprehensive treatment of all political actors in Angolan politics of recent decades. It argues, firstly, that Angola’s trajectory from independence to the end of the country’s long civil war in 2002 was powerfully conditioned by the structural legacies of late colonialism, the associated intra-nationalist politics and the particular circumstances of the end of empire in 1975. To these legacies, the essay adds the (constrained, but real) choices made by Angolan decision-makers in terms of institutional consolidation, the management of the economy and state–society relations. Secondly, the essay outlines the extent to which the MPLA’s 2002 victory against UNITA in the country’s civil war did away with the fragmentation that had characterised Angolan politics since the 1960s. The clashing, indeed mutually exclusionary, nationalist projects that had jostled for control of the Angolan state were replaced by a would-be hegemonic political force with a strong sense of legitimacy and a self-defined project of postwar nation building. The key question for the contemporary study of Angola – and one that the oil-fuelled politics of the national reconstruction era provided plenty of reflection on – is the extent to which the MPLA’s postwar vision can supersede the country’s historical divisions and provide the population with both the material prosperity it yearns for and a shared understanding of belonging.     

Maritime Transportation Risk Assessment of Tianjin Port with Bayesian Belief Networks

This article develops a Bayesian belief network model for the prediction of accident consequences in the Tianjin port. The study starts with a statistical analysis of historical accident data of six years from 2008 to 2013. Then a Bayesian belief network is constructed to express the dependencies between the indicator variables and accident consequences. The statistics and expert knowledge are synthesized in the Bayesian belief network model to obtain the probability distribution of the consequences. By a sensitivity analysis, several indicator variables that have influence on the consequences are identified, including navigational area, ship type and time of the day. The results indicate that the consequences are most sensitive to the position where the accidents occurred, followed by time of day and ship length. The results also reflect that the navigational risk of the Tianjin port is at the acceptable level, despite that there is more room of improvement. These results can be used by the Maritime Safety Administration to take effective measures to enhance maritime safety in the Tianjin port.