Problem: Do ethical investments perform better than conventional investments? Purpose: To evaluate whether Shariah-compliant indexes and/or socially responsible indexes can improve financial performance of an investment portfolio. Sub-problem: What kind of relationship exists between socially responsible investments and faith-based investments, represented by Shariah-compliant investments? Sub-purpose: To discover how two types of ethical investments, socially-responsible and Shariah-compliant, are related. Method: Quantitative study, covering three types of investment styles of four index families during the period from 2000 until 2011. Financial performance evaluation through the Sharpe ratio, Treynor ratio and Jensen’s alpha. Conclusions: Conventional, socially responsible, and Shariah-compliant indexes do not have any significant differences in financial performance on a global basis. However, Shariah-compliant indexes could slightly over-perform conventional and socially responsible indexes during financial downturns. In the same time socially responsible indexes were noticed to be the most volatile during the whole period of study, to compare with conventional and Shariah-compliant. Regarding relationships, high correlations were found between ethical indexes, as well as between ethical and conventional indexes.

Viešosios erdvės – visuomenės kultūrinės, dvasinės ir ekonominės būklės atspindys. Viešosios erdvės funkcija – burti skirtingų interesų piliečius, skatinti bendrauti ir kurti. Tačiau kokia viešųjų erdvių situacija šiandienos miestuose ir kaip juose reiškiasi kūrybiškumas? Magistro darbe nagrinėjama Kauno centrinė viešoji erdvė – Nemuno sala kaip potenciali visuomenės komunikacijos vieta. Darbe tyrinėjama pačios vietos kaip centrinės miesto viešosios erdvės potencialas ir jos svarba miestui bei visuomenei. Teorinėje magistro darbo dalyje, remiantis kūrybingos aplinkos teorija, viešoji erdvė pristatoma kaip miesto struktūros dalis. Nagrinėjamos viešųjų miesto erdvių planavimo problemos, kūrybiškas vietos planavimas, vietos įvaizdžio formavimo ir kūrimo procesai. Viešosios erdvės koncepcija traktuojama ieškojimų, eksperimentavimo, siurprizų ir nuotykių vieta. Antroje ir trečioje darbo dalyse Nemuno sala nagrinėjama kaip sociokultūrinių sąlygų suformuotas miesto centrinis parkas. Ji analizuojama Kauno miesto geografiniu ir urbanistinės strategijos aspektu, taip pat viešajame diskurse. Empirinėje darbo dalyje pateikiamas Nemuno salos viešosios erdvės potencialas kūrybinėms iniciatyvomis. Kiekybis ir kokybinis tyrimas remiasi psichogeografijos ir kūrybingo miesto perspektyvomis. Nagrinėjama geografinės aplinkos poveikis žmonių elgesiui ir emocijoms, tarpusavio komunikacijai. Nemuno sala, teorinėje dalyje dėl savo geografinės padėties ir fizinės būklės traktuojama deaktyvuota... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Public space is a reflection of society cultural, spiritual, and economic conditions. Public spaces are designed to bring together the different interests of the citizens, encouraging them to interact and engage them in creative work. But what is the situation today with the public spaces in cities and how they are developing creativity? The Island of Nemunas, which is the main public space of Kaunas, is a potential place for meetings and inter-communications between different social groups. Master thesis analize the public space as a potencial city center place for inspiration and relevance for the city. Master of theoretical work, based on the theory of creative environment, public space is presented as an urban structure, it also explains problems of public spaces of the city planning issues, creative urban planning, design and place branding tool. Here public space is seen as place of explorations, experimentation, surprises and adventure. In the second and third parts of the work Nemunas Island is analyzed as the city central park, which was shaped by socio-cultural conditions. Public space in the Kaunas city was analyzed as geographical area, as area in social discourse and urban strategy of Kaunas city. The empirical part of work talks about Island of Nemunas as a public space for the creative initiatives. The research is based on psycho geographic and creative urban perspectives. Geographic environment impact on human behavior and emotions, peer communication is... [to full text]

Die politische Öffnung der Welt, die Deregulierung der Märkte sowie die informationstechnischen Möglichkeiten zur Restrukturierung von Unternehmungen werden begleitet von einer zunehmenden Verbreitung entstandardisierter Beschäftigungsverhältnisse und dem Rückgang klassischer Erwerbsbiographien (vgl. Weber 2005). Sie bilden den Nährboden für die Entstehung flexibler Modelle nicht-klassischer Organisations- und Arbeitsformen. Ein Beispiel hierfür ist die zunehmende Freisetzung hoch qualifizierter freiberuflicher Wissensarbeiter, die in Branchen wie IT- und Management-Beratung oder Personal- und Organisationsentwicklung tätig sind und sich in selbstorganisierten Netzwerken zusammenschließen. Eine bessere Außendarstellung und günstigere Bedingungen zur Auftragsakquise einerseits, sowie die Möglichkeit zur Bearbeitung komplexer kurzfristig personalintensiver Projekte, zu Fortbildungen, zu beruflichem und persönlichem Austausch andererseits, sind häufig genannte Vorteile, die ein Zusammenschluss im Netzwerk bieten kann.

Using the E. coli vaccine as a case study, this thesis examines the factors affecting the adoption of technologies with positive spillover (externality) effects related to food safety. Positive spillovers occur when the benefits from a technological innovation extend beyond the firm (farm) adopting the technology or they do not flow to the adopter. If there are insufficient incentives for the firm to adopt the new technology, adoption levels are sub-optimal, resulting in forgone benefits to society. These benefits include the avoidance of potential health costs, productivity loss and premature death costs as a result to exposure to E. coli O157:H7. Therefore, if the market incentives to adopt the technology are strengthened, adoption levels of the technology could reach socially optimal levels resulting in an improvement in food safety. This has been the case in the Canadian cattle industry, where the uptake of the E. coli vaccine by cow-calf producers has been very low. As such, a number of potential incentives to increase adoption of the vaccine were identified and assessed through a survey of cow-calf producers on the Prairies. Data from the survey were analyzed using a stated preference methodology, Best-Worst Scaling, and Latent Class cluster analysis. A Binary Probit Model was also used to examine the factors affecting willingness to adopt the vaccine. The results suggest that a significant number of producers were not aware of the existence of the E. coli vaccine. In addition, producers were most likely to be influenced in their adoption decisions by market/supply chain oriented incentives and government intervention incentives in the form of subsidies. On the other hand, incentives that were least likely to influence cow-calf producers’ decisions to adopt included government intervention through recommending use of vaccine and neighbours (other cow-calf producers) adopting the vaccine. The Latent Class cluster analysis revealed the existence of three unique producer clusters with different attitudes towards these incentives. Several socio-demographic variables and individual characteristics utilized in the Probit analysis were found to be determinants of a producer’s willingness to adopt an E. coli vaccine. The implications of this research are such that producer education and awareness campaigns may be utilized as tools for disseminating information on food safety technologies such as the E. coli vaccine. Furthermore, the market/supply chain incentives may be used to form potential market-based solutions to address the current low adoption rates. The existence of three unique producer clusters suggest that a one-size fits all strategy to encourage the adoption of the E. coli vaccine might be difficult to implement and thus a more targeted approach may be a feasible alternative.

Due to the world’s rapidly growing elderly population, dementia is becoming increasingly prevalent. This poses considerable health, social, and economic concerns as it impacts individuals, families and healthcare systems. Current research has shown that cognitive interventions may slow the decline of or improve brain functioning in older adults. This research investigates the use of intelligent socially assistive robots to engage individuals in person-centered cognitively stimulating activities. Specifically, in this thesis, a novel learning-based control architecture is developed to enable socially assistive robots to act as social motivators during an activity. A hierarchical reinforcement learning approach is used in the architecture so that the robot can learn appropriate assistive behaviours based on activity structure and personalize an interaction based on the individual’s behaviour and user state. Experiments show that the control architecture is effective in determining the robot’s optimal assistive behaviours for a memory game interaction and a meal assistance scenario.

Due to the world’s rapidly growing elderly population, dementia is becoming increasingly prevalent. This poses considerable health, social, and economic concerns as it impacts individuals, families and healthcare systems. Current research has shown that cognitive interventions may slow the decline of or improve brain functioning in older adults. This research investigates the use of intelligent socially assistive robots to engage individuals in person-centered cognitively stimulating activities. Specifically, in this thesis, a novel learning-based control architecture is developed to enable socially assistive robots to act as social motivators during an activity. A hierarchical reinforcement learning approach is used in the architecture so that the robot can learn appropriate assistive behaviours based on activity structure and personalize an interaction based on the individual’s behaviour and user state. Experiments show that the control architecture is effective in determining the robot’s optimal assistive behaviours for a memory game interaction and a meal assistance scenario.

Submitted by Patricia Figuti Venturini (pfiguti@anhembi.br) on 2018-10-17T13:32:22Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Vivian Suarez Martins.pdf: 27080829 bytes, checksum: a7072b20a987601d1d3e46657b00d1af (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Patricia Figuti Venturini (pfiguti@anhembi.br) on 2018-10-17T18:51:37Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Vivian Suarez Martins.pdf: 27080829 bytes, checksum: a7072b20a987601d1d3e46657b00d1af (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Patricia Figuti Venturini (pfiguti@anhembi.br) on 2018-10-17T18:54:15Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Vivian Suarez Martins.pdf: 27080829 bytes, checksum: a7072b20a987601d1d3e46657b00d1af (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-10-17T18:54:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Vivian Suarez Martins.pdf: 27080829 bytes, checksum: a7072b20a987601d1d3e46657b00d1af (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-03-30 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The realization of urban interventions increased considerably in Brazil in the end of the 90’s, mainly due to the emergence of artistic collectives that emerged in several cities. This research aims to present concepts related to the fields of socially oriented graphic design and urban art, as well investigate a potential approach and analyze a series of graphic interventions protest-related; the work pieces treated in this research are lambe-lambe posters, stickers, digital memes, yarn bombings and projections, applied in various media formats. The research aims to find parameters to identify possible categorizations within the larger scope of graphic language and types of solution found by street artists activists, who act in physical and digital urban environment; for this analysis, some visual settings were analyzed from the point of view of the graphical language, result of the assemblage of visual-graphic elements, seen in the light of technical skills and methods, visual syntax, styling, materiality, location and rhetoric. For the case study in the third and final part, the Pimp my Carroça 2014 event will be presented and its approach to the fields of graphic design and urban art will be listed and analyzed. / A realização de intervenções urbanas aumentou consideravelmente no Brasil a partir do final da década de 1990, principalmente em decorrência do surgimento de coletivos artísticos que se formaram em diversas cidades do país. Essa investigação propõe apresentar conceitos relacionados aos campos do design gráfico socialmente orientado e da arte urbana, pesquisar suas potenciais aproximações, bem como analisar uma série de intervenções gráficas com o específico cunho de protesto; as peças tratadas nesta pesquisa são cartazes lambe-lambe, adesivos (stickers), memes digitais, obras em crochê e projeções, aplicadas em suportes diversos. A pesquisa tem como principal objetivo o de buscar parâmetros para identificar possíveis categorizações dentro do escopo maior da linguagem gráfica e tipos de solução encontrados pelos interventores ativistas, atuantes no ambiente urbano, físico e digital; para tal análise, foram selecionadas algumas configurações visuais, analisadas sob o ponto de vista da linguagem gráfica, observando, deste modo, as resultantes do agenciamento entre os elementos gráfico-visuais, observados à luz dos itens técnica, sintaxe visual, estilo, materialidade, localização e a retórica. Para o estudo de caso da terceira e última parte, o evento Pimp my Carroça 2014 será apresentado e sua aproximação com os campos do design gráfico e arte urbana serão elencadas e analisadas.

The aim of this study is to analyze whether creating an own category for Socially Responsible Investment Funds (FISR) in Brazil generates time series changes in heritage and cash flow of these funds. We studied all FISR Brazilians during the period 2001 to 2009. The methodology used was the Box & Jenkins (1970) and interventions. The results reveal interventions in the two variables; however, the interventions take place before the change of category. Another important conclusion is that the category change does not cause alterations in the time series of the two variables considered. / El objetivo de este estudio es analizar si la creación de una categoría propia para los Fondos de Inversión Socialmente Responsables (FISR) de Brasil generó cambios en las series temporales de patrimonio y flujo de dinero de estos fondos. Para ello se han analizado todos los FISR brasileños existentes durante el periodo comprendido entre los años 2001 y 2009, aplicando las metodologías de Box y Jenkins (1970) y de intervenciones. Los resultados revelan intervenciones en las dos variables, sin embargo las intervenciones tuvieron lugar antes del cambio de categoría. Otra importante conclusión es que el cambio de categoría no provocó alteraciones en las series temporales de las dos variables consideradas.

The aim of the diploma thesis is to determine the benefits and the function of the preparatory class for children from socially disadvantaged environment. The main criterion for the benefits of preparatory class will be the assessment of teachers and assistants of the preparatory class but also the assessment of the teachers from primary school, who had the experience with teaching children who participated in the preparatory class. This thesis is mainly focused on students from socially disadvantaged environment but it will also compare students from socially disadvantaged environment with students from regular environment. Preparatory classes in the Czech educational system and the participation of students from different social environment in these classes is described and characterized in the first part of the thesis and it presents the issue of the influence of preparatory year for the entry to primary school. The practical part of the thesis is focused on the assessment of benefits of preparatory classes from chosen teachers' point of view. The author will make interviews with pedagogical workers from chosen schools in Jihlava (the thesis will be partly case study and it will follow the bachelor thesis of the author). The quantitative data will be refilled with the information from quantitative research (questionnaires).

The objective of this thesis is to analyze the cooperation of social workers involved in social work applied to Roma families in the socially excluded location "Fišlovka" in Tábor, and to outline the possibility of discussed cooperation in addressing ethical dilemmas related to social work with the target group. The subject of this analysis is an attempt to identify the main reservations and barriers of this cooperation and the possibilities of improving it. The thesis also explores the ethical dilemmas that social workers working with Roma families encounter, and the strategies that they most often use to deal with these dilemmas. The thesis consists of a theoretical and practical part. The theoretical part explains the basic concepts that govern the work topic. The practical part offers an interpretation of data obtained through qualitative research that involved nine respondents among social service workers working with the discussed target group.