Intelligent systems must maintain and manipulate task-relevant information online to adapt to dynamic environments and changing goals. This capacity, known as working memory, is fundamental to human reasoning and intelligence. Despite having on the order of 100 billion neurons, both biological and artificial systems exhibit limitations in working memory. This raises a key question: why do large language models (LLMs) show such limitations, given that transformers have full access to prior context through attention? We find that although a two-layer transformer can be trained to solve working memory tasks perfectly, a diverse set of pretrained LLMs continues to show working memory limitations. Notably, LLMs reproduce interference signatures observed in humans: performance degrades with increasing memory load and is biased by recency and stimulus statistics. Across models, stronger working memory capacity correlates with broader competence on standard benchmarks, mirroring its link to general intelligence in humans. Yet despite substantial variability in working memory performance, LLMs surprisingly converge on a common computational mechanism. Rather than directly copying the relevant memory item from context, models encode multiple memory items in entangled representations, such that successful recall depends on interference control -- actively suppressing task-irrelevant content to isolate the target for readout. Moreover, a targeted intervention that suppresses stimulus content information improves performance, providing causal support for representational interference. Together, these findings identify representational interference as a core constraint on working memory in pretrained LLMs, suggesting that working-memory limits in biological and artificial systems may reflect a shared computational challenge: selecting task-relevant information under interference.
Silvio Segundo Salej Higgins, Jorge Alexandre Barbosa Neves, Luciano Mattar
Abstract Following the field of insertion into the labor market, we tested the classic hypothesis of the strength of weak ties in the three largest cities in the Southeast Region of Brazil, with a focus on communities of religious worship. A survey was carried out in 2021 with 900 questionnaires divided equally among the three cities, weighted considering the size of the population and the distribution of religious affiliation. We investigated: (1) whether the strength of ties leverages the labor insertion of adults; (2) whether religious cult communities operate as mechanisms for the circulation of opportunities in the labor market. The data were analyzed with Heckman’s two-stage correction models to mitigate possible censoring biases. Controlling by seniority in the position and participation of three sampled cities in gross national product, inter alia, the results show that strong ties, as predicted by the strength of ties theory, are associated with lower earnings. At the same time, obtaining a paid job through another cult member is negatively associated with earnings. However, when testing our main hypothesis, we found that in the three largest cities in the Southeast Region of Brazil the religious embeddedness, composed of strong ties, high worship attendance and religious motivations coming from maternal ties, operate plausibly in labor market as favorable screen mechanism associated with higher earnings.
Widespread integration of Generative AI tools is transforming white-collar work, reshaping how workers define their roles, manage their tasks, and collaborate with peers. This has created a need to develop an overarching understanding of common worker-driven patterns around these transformations. To fill this gap, we conducted a systematic literature review of 23 studies from the ACM Digital Library that focused on workers' lived-experiences and practitioners with GenAI. Our findings reveal that while many professionals have delegated routine tasks to GenAI to focus on core responsibilities, they have also taken on new forms of AI managerial labor to monitor and refine GenAI outputs. Additionally, practitioners have restructured collaborations, sometimes bypassing traditional peer and subordinate interactions in favor of GenAI assistance. These shifts have fragmented cohesive tasks into piecework creating tensions around role boundaries and professional identity. Our analysis suggests that current frameworks, like job crafting, need to evolve to address the complexities of GenAI-driven transformations.
Artificial Intelligence's (AI) rapid development and growth not only transformed industries but also fired up important debates about its impacts on employment, resource allocation, and the ethics involved in decision-making. It serves to understand how changes within an industry will be able to influence society with that change. Advancing AI technologies will create a dual paradox of efficiency, greater resource consumption, and displacement of traditional labor. In this context, we explore the impact of AI on energy consumption, human labor roles, and hybrid roles widespread human labor replacement. We used mixed methods involving qualitative and quantitative analyses of data identified from various sources. Findings suggest that AI increases energy consumption and has impacted human labor roles to a minimal extent, considering that its applicability is limited to some tasks that require human judgment. In this context, the
The performance of industrial robotic work cells depends on optimizing various hyperparameters referring to the cell layout, such as robot base placement, tool placement, and kinematic design. Achieving this requires a bilevel optimization approach, where the high-level optimization adjusts these hyperparameters, and the low-level optimization computes robot motions. However, computing the optimal robot motion is computationally infeasible, introducing trade-offs in motion planning to make the problem tractable. These trade-offs significantly impact the overall performance of the bilevel optimization, but their effects still need to be systematically evaluated. In this paper, we introduce metrics to assess these trade-offs regarding optimality, time gain, robustness, and consistency. Through extensive simulation studies, we investigate how simplifications in motion-level optimization affect the high-level optimization outcomes, balancing computational complexity with solution quality. The proposed algorithms are applied to find the time-optimal kinematic design for a modular robot in two palletization scenarios.
A life cycle model of consumption and labor supply describes employment decisions of a collection of individuals during their lifetime. We develop a life cycle model describing a heterogeneous population operating in Finland under a wide variety of employment states and life situations. A rich life cycle model requires a large state space representing the possible states of simulated agents. The results demonstrate that the model reproduces a number of statistics of the Finnish employment market such as the age structures of employment rate and unemployment rate, distributions of observed effective marginal tax rates and participating tax rates, and proportion of part time work. As an application of analysis of a reform, we analyze how the program of Orpo government influences employment and public finances in Finland.
AbstractStarting from the early 1930s, structural changes in the Bulgarian tobacco industry, prompted by the advent of the world economic crisis and German economic expansionism into Southeastern Europe, led to a deep restructuring of the labor processes, known in the terminology of the time as rationalization, in the Bulgarian tobacco industry. The introduction of the tonga rationalization technology had a deskilling and deeply gendered effect on the industry, making a significant number of skilled male workers redundant, disproportionately decreasing average male wages and leading, in turn, to a further feminization of an already majority-female workforce.The introduction of the new system provoked a strong response from the organized labor movement, which used a variety of tactics to fight against the new technology: from strikes to petitions to tripartite negotiations. Organized labor's reaction was deeply gendered, an aspect that only becomes truly visible if, in addition to gender and skill, we employ the analytical lens of scale. By following trade union policies on the local, national, and international levels, the article goes beyond the carefully crafted gender-neutral language in official documents to reveal tensions between the conservative attitudes of rank-and-file activists and the official trade union agenda. This is especially evident in communist labor politics, where Bulgarian trade union policies on the local and national levels provoked an intervention on the part of the Profintern between 1930 and 1931. The movement's internal contradictions resulted in a polyvalent, ambiguous, and non-linear trade union policy formed through the clash of and negotiations between local activists’ conservative notions of gendered work and family roles and the radical gender program of international communism.
Med en aldrende befolkning vil det bli et økende press på de eldste arbeidstakerne om å yte omsorg til foreldre og samtidig jobbe mer. Ved hjelp av kvalitative intervjuer, spørreskjemadata og registerdata belyser vi denne tidsklemmen. Kvalitative data og spørreskjemadata viser at voksne barn yter flere typer praktisk hjelp til sine foreldre, særlig digital hjelp. Få pleier foreldre. Vi finner lite tegn til at omsorgsgivning påvirker yrkesdeltakelsen, men fravær, spesielt sykefraværet, øker, og mange opplever det som belastende å kombinere jobb og omsorg. Sykelønnsordningen ser ut til å redusere belastningene. Informanter som har deltatt i undersøkelsene, oppgir at en betalt korttidspermisjonsordning for arbeidstakere med omsorgstrengende foreldre tilsvarende ordningen som finnes for småbarnsforeldre, vil kunne gjøre det lettere for dem å kombinere omsorgssituasjonen med jobb.
Tizia Thoma, Lan Ma-Hock, Steffen Schneider
et al.
Abstract Background Significant variations exist in the forms of ZnO, making it impossible to test all forms in in vivo inhalation studies. Hence, grouping and read-across is a common approach under REACH to evaluate the toxicological profile of familiar substances. The objective of this paper is to investigate the potential role of dissolution, size, or coating in grouping ZnO (nano)forms for the purpose of hazard assessment. We performed a 90-day inhalation study (OECD test guideline no. (TG) 413) in rats combined with a reproduction/developmental (neuro)toxicity screening test (TG 421/424/426) with coated and uncoated ZnO nanoforms in comparison with microscale ZnO particles and soluble zinc sulfate. In addition, genotoxicity in the nasal cavity, lungs, liver, and bone marrow was examined via comet assay (TG 489) after 14-day inhalation exposure. Results ZnO nanoparticles caused local toxicity in the respiratory tract. Systemic effects that were not related to the local irritation were not observed. There was no indication of impaired fertility, developmental toxicity, or developmental neurotoxicity. No indication for genotoxicity of any of the test substances was observed. Local effects were similar across the different ZnO test substances and were reversible after the end of the exposure. Conclusion With exception of local toxicity, this study could not confirm the occasional findings in some of the previous studies regarding the above-mentioned toxicological endpoints. The two representative ZnO nanoforms and the microscale particles showed similar local effects. The ZnO nanoforms most likely exhibit their effects by zinc ions as no particles could be detected after the end of the exposure, and exposure to rapidly soluble zinc sulfate had similar effects. Obviously, material differences between the ZnO particles do not substantially alter their toxicokinetics and toxicodynamics. The grouping of ZnO nanoforms into a set of similar nanoforms is justified by these observations.
Amal Nanavati, Max Pascher, Vinitha Ranganeni
et al.
Despite the growth of physically assistive robotics (PAR) research over the last decade, nearly half of PAR user studies do not involve participants with the target disabilities. There are several reasons for this -- recruitment challenges, small sample sizes, and transportation logistics -- all influenced by systemic barriers that people with disabilities face. However, it is well-established that working with end-users results in technology that better addresses their needs and integrates with their lived circumstances. In this paper, we reflect on multiple approaches we have taken to working with people with motor impairments across the design, development, and evaluation of three PAR projects: (a) assistive feeding with a robot arm; (b) assistive teleoperation with a mobile manipulator; and (c) shared control with a robot arm. We discuss these approaches to working with users along three dimensions -- individual vs. community-level insight, logistic burden on end-users vs. researchers, and benefit to researchers vs. community -- and share recommendations for how other PAR researchers can incorporate users into their work.
We study the work statistics of a measurement-based quantum Otto engine, where quantum non-selective measurements are used to fuel the engine, in a coupled spin working system (WS). The WS exhibits quantum coherence in the energy eigenbasis at the beginning of a unitary work extraction stage in presence of inter-spin anisotropic interaction. We demonstrate that the probability of certain values of stochastic work can be negative, rendering itself akin to the quasi-probability distribution found in phase space. This can be attributed to the interference terms facilitated by quantum coherence. Additionally, we establish that coherence can improve the average work in finite time. Subsequently, we compare the work distribution with a standard QOE operating between two heat baths. We find that, because of the absence of quantum coherence, the probability of stochastic work cannot be negative in a standard QOE.
AbstractFollowing the 2014–2015 oil price crisis, service companies in Kazakhstan went through a process of industrial restructuring centered on workforce reduction and a concomitant increase of labor outsourcing. Taking the restructuring – or “optimization” – of state-owned service companies in the region of Mangystau as a starting point, this paper illustrates the heterogenous precarization effects and forms of precarity catalyzed by the process. Taking a multidimensional approach, the paper describes and analyses the effects of precarization in both socio-economic and political terms, as well as the implications for the production of differentiated laboring subjectivities. It situates the ethnographic trajectories of workers within the framework of Kazakhstan's authoritarian neoliberalism, highlighting the punitive and pastoral techniques of goverment deployed in the restructuring of the regional oil complex. In the first part, the article describes how precarization was experienced by workers as “slavery”, entailing the loss of social recognition as well as the intensification of economic exploitation and political domination, heightening their exposure to social and bodily vulnerability. The second section looks instead at the workings of a governmental agency in its effort to remake redundant workers into small business owners through the acquisition of entrepreneurial skills and the abandonment of the Soviet “dependency mindset”. The third and last section of the article concentrates on the individual trajectory of a dismissed worker joining a multi-level marketing scheme in order to cleanse himself from the bodily and social toxicity of precarized work in the oil industry.
AbstractThe simultaneous processes of secular state-building and state-led industrialisation resulted in a new ideology of women's labor in Turkey in the 1930s and the first half of the 1940s. As the country moved away from protectionist, state-led industrialisation in the post-war period, female industrial labor received increasing and contradictory attention from policy makers, employers, the new trade union movement, and middle-class feminists. On the one hand, there emerged an idealized image of factory women that emphasized their productive potential by metaphorically linking them with technology and mass production. However, this proud, progressive message was counterbalanced by an anxious, conservative view of young women's work—one that criticized factory girls’ consumption choices as posing a threat to respectable femininity. Weaving together lines of inquiry such as the change in industrialisation policy, women's access to technology, the sexual division of labor, and the emergent consumption patterns, I unpack the tropes of working-class productivity and femininity against the backdrop of the post-war expansion of capitalism in Turkey.
O resumo expandido apresentado tem como objetivo geral refletir em torno dos saberes docentes necessários ao trabalho dos professores de Biologia que atuam na Educação Profissional Técnica de Nível Médio (EPTNM), desenvolvida na forma integrada ao ensino médio. Nesse sentido, a temática está centrada na questão dos saberes docentes em uma perspectiva da práxis, na qual teoria e prática são vistas de forma indissociada. O presente texto decorre de um estudo de mestrado, produzido no âmbito do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação Profissional (PPGEP), do Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Rio Grande do Norte (IFRN).
No contexto temporal da produção e escrita do texto de dissertação, a Educação Profissional e Tecnológica (EPT), enquanto modalidade de ensino garantida pela Lei nº 9.394, de 20 de dezembro de 1996, estava em amplo processo de expansão na Rede Federal de Educação Profissional, Científica e Tecnológica, nas redes estaduais de ensino públicas, bem como na esfera privada. Os estudos de pesquisadores como Machado (2008), Kuenzer (2011), Silva (2012) e Moura (2014), evidenciavam as lacunas formativas dos professores que atuavam na EPT, bem como as especificidades da atuação docente em espaço de formação profissional e tecnológica.
No caso dos professores que lecionavam no componente curricular Biologia na educação básica, as pesquisas de Gatti (2010) e Delizoicov, Angotti e Pernambuco (2011) denunciavam o caráter bacharelesco da formação inicial desses docentes, o que incidia no trabalho dos profissionais formados em cursos de licenciatura em biologia na EPT e na EPTNM. Cumpre destacar que os professores de biologia atuam em um componente curricular da formação propedêutica dos estudantes, porém, também contribuem com a formação técnica e profissional, inerente à EPT e a EPTNM.
De acordo com Saviani (1996) e Tardif (2014), os saberes docentes são produzidos na formação inicial, na formação continuada e nas práticas pedagógicas cotidianas dos professores e das professoras. Esses saberes estão vinculados ao domínio dos conteúdos do componente curricular a ser ensinado em sala de aula, bem como aos conhecimentos pedagógicos e curriculares. Além disso, Saviani (1996) esclarece que os professores necessitam ter um olhar crítico-reflexivo e transformador frente ao seu trabalho, pois atuam contribuindo na formação dos estudantes e das novas gerações. No caso da EPT, Moura (2014) esclarece que os professores precisam compreender a dinâmica do modo de produção capitalista e da dinâmica do trabalho nessa sociedade, pois assim poderá entender o papel do seu fazer junto à formação técnica e profissional do estudantes.
A questão de pesquisa é do presente resumo expandido é quais são os saberes docentes necessários ao trabalho dos professores de Biologia na EPTNM desenvolvida na forma integrada? Para responder essa questão de pesquisa e o objetivo geral, foi realizada pesquisa bibliográficas em portais de periódicos e repositórios de dissertações e teses, no período entre 2015 e 2016. Os principais autores consultados foram Saviani (1996), Machado (2008), Kuenzer (2011), Silva (2012), Shulman (2014) e Tardif (2014).
A técnica utilizada para analisar os estudos levantados na pesquisa bibliográfica foi a Análise Textual Discursiva (ATD), de Moraes e Galliazi (2006). As categorias analíticas estão vinculadas a própria classificação dos saberes que serão elencadas no decorrer do resumo expandido, a saber: saberes do componente curricular, saberes da ciência da educação, saber experiencial, saber do pesquisador, saberes da área em que pode atuar e saberes crítico-contextual e atitudinal. O referencial teórico-metodológico que norteia o estudo tem como base o método materialista e histórico, tendo como fundamento os estudos teórico-práticos de Marx e Engels (2019).
A dissertação de mestrado foi defendida em julho de 2017, nas dependências do IFRN, antes da abertura do IV Colóquio Nacional e I Colóquio Internacional – A Produção do Conhecimento em Educação Profissional: a reforma do ensino médio e suas implicações para a educação profissional. Além da introdução, o texto apresentou quatro seções. A primeira tratou da EPTNM desenvolvida na forma integrada ao ensino média e o projeto de formação humana integral a ela vinculada. A segunda discorreu acerca da formação inicial e continuada de professores de Biologia. A terceira discorreu especificamente acerca dos saberes docentes e a quarta apresentou algumas conclusões do estudo.
No que tange à formação inicial e continuada de professores de Biologia, a legislação vigente no contexto da produção da dissertação garantia a formação em nível superior para lecionar, de forma que os conhecimentos pedagógicos fossem trabalhados de forma paralela à formação dos conteúdos biológicos. Os professores e as professoras, conforme normatização da Resolução do CNE/CP nº 2, de 1º de julho de 2015, necessitavam receber formação que visasse produzir saberes docentes que articulassem teoria e prática com foco na interdisciplinaridade. Apesar disso, o caráter bacharelesco de rebaixamento da importância das questões pedagógicas frente às biológicas estavam, conforme Gatti (2010), ainda muito presentes nos cursos de licenciatura em Biologia.
De encontro a essa questão, Delizoicov, Angotti e Pernambuco (2011) defendem uma formação docente necessita inserir em seu currículo tempo inicial de preparação propedêutica; no caso dos professores de Biologia, os conteúdos específicos da área, de carga mais teórica, ou seja, forte dose de estudo da metodologia científica e da teoria referencial, como fundamentos da formação geral comum a todo educador e como ferramenta para elaboração própria. Além disso, Moura (2014), defende uma formação que também apresente questões voltadas para a sociedade atual, a sua organização e contradições, sem esquecer das especificidades do trabalho docente frente ao modo de produção capitalista.
Na pesquisa, os saberes docentes são compreendidos como um conjunto de conhecimentos teórico-práticos produzidos na formação inicial e continuada e que visam o processo de ensino-aprendizagem dos estudantes. Nesse sentido, esses conhecimentos são transformados em saberes na medida que o professor atua em sala de aula e vivencia os desafios da docência com os estudantes, os técnicos pedagógicos das diferentes instâncias do seu trabalho (Ministério da Educação, Conselho Nacional da Educação, dentre outros).
Os saberes do componente curricular Biologia estão vinculados aos conteúdos e temas inerentes às ciências biológicas. Biologia Celular, Histologia, Embriologia, Anatomia Humana e Comparada, Fisiologia Humana e Comparada, Seres Vivos, Genética e Evolução, por exemplo. Esses conhecimentos fazem parte da especificidade da Biologia e necessitam ser produzidos inicialmente na formação inicial e, posteriormente, ressignificados na formação continuada e no trabalho docente em sala de aula. Na medida que o professor ou a professora estuda esses conteúdos, esses saberes vão ficando mais elaborados.
Os saberes da ciência da educação estão vinculados aos conhecimentos teórico-práticos acerca da educação, da pedagogia, da didática e da psicologia da educação. Eles são apreendidos no decorrer da formação inicial e continuada, sendo que as instituições formadoras são fundamentais nesse processo de aquisição de conhecimentos teórico-práticos sobre as teorias da educação, da pedagogia e da psicologia. Incluem-se, ainda, questões voltadas para o currículo. Os saberes da ciência da educação não podem ser vistos a partir do imediatismo prático-utilitário, tendo em vista que o professor aqui é visto como um intelectual que reflete criticamente sobre o seu fazer cotidiano e recorrer aos teóricos para ressignificar suas práticas.
É nesse processo teórico-prático que se ancoram os saberes do pesquisador. O professor de Biologia, nessa compreensão, é um sujeito que faz do seu fazer um campo empírico de produção de novos conhecimentos pedagógicos. Cumpre salientar que a principal diferença entre um professor de Biologia e um bacharel em biologia é a condição pedagógica e didática do trabalho docente.
Na medida que o professor atua, ressignifica seu fazer cotidiano a partir da relação indissociada entre os saberes da ciência da educação e do pesquisador, ele adquire experiência. Essa vai se consolidando e se transformando em um saber específico da docência. Notadamente, esse é um conjunto de conhecimentos adquiridos na formação continuada, o que não desconsidera as experiências e vivências adquiridas na formação inicial dos professores de Biologia, quando inseridos em estágios ou bolsas de iniciação à docência, tutorias ou iniciação à pesquisa.
No caso dos professores de Biologia que atuam na EPTNM desenvolvida de forma integrada, não basta apenas lecionar os conteúdos de ensino, se faz necessário relacioná-los com os conhecimentos, práticas e vivências da futura profissão/ocupação do estudante. Essa questão não se faz apenas no discurso, mas integrando o planejamento integrativo com a área técnica da formação. Esses saberes são fundamentais na constituição de um currículo que integra formação geral e formação específica, no caso dos estudantes da EPT e EPTNM.
Por fim, é esperado uma postura ética por parte dos professores de Biologia. Se faz necessário compreender que a docência é uma profissão especifica, que requer também saberes específicos. A profissão professor apresenta toda uma base legal e normatizadora que necessita ser compreendida por parte dos professores. Questões como o conhecimento acerca do modo de produção capitalista, de suas contradições, bem como da necessidade permanente de defesa em torna da democracia e do respeito às instituições são valiosas na constituição dos saberes crítico-contextual e atitudinal. Espera-se que os professores recebam formação que busque atitudes comprometidas com outro projeto de sociedade, diferente deste que está posto.
Sendo assim, espera-se que com esses saberes os professores possam contribuir para um projeto de educação que seja uma travessia para um outro projeto de sociedade, menos injusta, mais igualitária, laica e que respeita às diferenças de pensamento, desde que esses pensamentos não estejam vinculados ao extermínio de outros grupos sociais. Os professores de Biologia são partes fundamentais nesse processo, tendo em vista que lecionam um componente curricular que elucida para o homem as bases da relação com outros seres vivos e com o planeta Terra.
Special aspects of education, Labor market. Labor supply. Labor demand
Arezoo Jafari, Priscila De Azevedo Drummond, Dominic Nishigaya
et al.
Agricultural workers are essential to the supply chain for our daily food and yet, many face harmful work conditions, including garnished wages, and other labor violations. Workers on H-2A visas are particularly vulnerable due to the precarity of their immigration status being tied to their employer. Although worksite inspections are one mechanism to detect such violations, many labor violations affecting agricultural workers go undetected due to limited inspection resources. In this study, we identify multiple state and industry level factors that correlate with H-2A violations identified by the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division using a multilevel zero-inflated negative binomial model. We find that three state-level factors (average farm acreage size, the number of agricultural establishments with less than 20 employees, and higher poverty rates) are correlated with H-2A violations. These findings provide guidance for inspection agencies regarding how to prioritize their limited resources to more effectively inspect agricultural workplaces, thereby improving workplace conditions for H-2A workers.
Behnoosh Najafi Ghagholestani, Farzaneh Gandomi, Shirin Assar
et al.
Objectives: Using an exercise intervention to improve lumbopelvic control (LPC) can enhance the pain severity and disability of participants with non-specific low back pain (NSLBP). The present study aimed to compare dynamic neuromuscular stabilization (DNS) exercises and common aquatic exercises (AEs) in terms of improving the pain, disability, LPC, and spinal posture of patients with non-specific low back pain (NSLBP).
Methods: This single-blind controlled clinical trial was conducted on 45 subjects who were randomly divided into three groups, such as DNS (n=15), AEs (n=15), and control (n=15). LPC, spinal posture, pain severity, and disability were assessed in pretest and six weeks after the intervention by pressure biofeedback, a spinal mouse device, the visual analog scale (VAS), and the Oswestry disability questionnaire, respectively. No intervention was implemented for the control group.
Results: No significant differences were observed between the study groups regarding the impact of the interventions on improving pain and disability (P>0.05). In addition, no significant difference was observed between the AEs and DNS groups regarding the improvement of LPC disorders (P>0.05). The spinal inclination angle (P=0.03) and inclination of range of motion (P=0.05) were significantly improved only by the AEs.
Discussion: According to the results, the DNS exercises and AEs had no significant differences in terms of impact on the improvement of pain, disability, and LPC. Therefore, proper alternatives can be used to enhance such dysfunctions in case of a lack of access to pools and hydrotherapy pools.
Medicine, Vocational rehabilitation. Employment of people with disabilities
Estela María Hernández Runque, Nelsy Mirabal Rodríguez, Mercedes Berenice Blanco
et al.
Introducción: La resiliencia puede definirse como la capacidad que tiene un individuo de crecer, ser fuerte y hasta triunfar a pesar de las adversidades. De ahí que las empresas cuenten con un equipo de trabajo para apoyar y alentar acciones que contribuyan a la proliferación de conductas resilientes individuales y organizacionales.
Objetivo: Analizar el nivel de resiliencia en trabajadores de una empresa venezolana productora de concreto.
Métodos: Investigación de campo, no experimental, descriptiva. Las propiedades psicométricas de la resiliencia se presentaron a través de la Resilience Scale de 14 ítems aplicada a 73 trabajadores con edades entre 18 y 61 años, de los cuales 37 eran operarios y 36 administrativos.
Resultados: El nivel de resiliencia de los trabajadores fue de 44.84, lo cual clasifica como bajo. En el caso de las mujeres se detectó que eran más resilientes que los hombres y el nivel del personal administrativo fue superior al de los operarios. La trabajadora con un nivel alto de resiliencia mostró mayor capacidad de disciplina y los trabajadores con niveles normales y bajos presentaron como factor protector la autoestima.
Conclusiones: Los trabajadores de la empresa estudiada poseen un nivel general de baja resiliencia, coincidente con signos de apatía laboral, desinterés por las actividades asignadas, ausencias injustificadas al trabajo, renuncias sin motivos aparentes. Los resultados proyectan que los factores resilientes subyacentes en esta conducta están relacionados con las variables edad, sexo, estado civil, nivel educativo y condición de empleo
Introduction: Resilience may be defined as the capacity of an individual to grow, be strong and even succeed despite adversity. Hence the presence in enterprises of a work team whose aim is to support and foster actions contributing to the spread of individual and organizational resilient behavior.
Objective: Analyze the level of resilience in workers from a Venezuelan concrete producing enterprise.
Methods: A field non-experimental descriptive study was conducted. The psychometric properties of resilience were presented through the 14-Item Resilience Scale as applied to 73 workers aged 18-61 years, of whom 37 were operators and 36 were administrative employees.
Results: The resilience level of workers was 44.84, which classifies as low. It was found that women were more resilient than men and administrative workers were more resilient than operators. Female workers with a high resilience level showed greater discipline capacity, and workers with normal and low levels presented self-esteem as a protective factor.
Conclusions: Workers from the study enterprise have a low overall resilience level, coinciding with signs of work apathy, disinterest in the tasks assigned, unjustified absences to work and resignations for no apparent reason. Results suggest that the resilience factors underlying this behavior are related to the variables age, sex, marital status, educational level and employment conditions
Medicine (General), Industrial hygiene. Industrial welfare
Discute-se inovação educacional, evidenciando-se a importância do seu tratamento na atualidade. Defende-se que o trabalho na educação implica caráter teleológico e é com esse reconhecimento que se pode tratar de inovações na área. Dentro disso, tem-se por objetivo contribuir para a compreensão do caráter inovador ou não de recursos didáticos no trabalho docente. Com esse objetivo, o texto contém uma reflexão de caráter teórico sobre a temática. Essa inclui dados de estudo integrativo exploratório, ao qual se acrescentou estudo dos áudios, vídeos e textos que compuseram o n. 1 de 2020 da revista on-line Educação Básica em Foco. Com base nesses estudos, abordam-se concepções sobre inovação, assumindo-se a posição dialética pela qual as inovações educacionais devem estar a serviço de finalidades de transformação, nos âmbitos individual e coletivo. A partir dessa posição e pelas conclusões dos estudos mencionados, identificam-se recursos didáticos potencialmente inovadores no trabalho docente: as práticas colaborativas, dialógicas e o uso crítico das tecnologias digitais de informação e comunicação (TDIC’s). Neste último caso, discute-se também o seu uso na situação da pandemia pelo coronavírus. Conclui-se que os recursos didáticos assumem caráter inovador ou não ao se aproximarem mais ou menos daquelas finalidades, considerando-se os limites dessa condição, no interior das contradições societárias. Finalmente, levanta-se a questão da inclusão digital como um direito.
Special aspects of education, Labor. Work. Working class
This paper develops a framework for assessing the welfare effects of labor income tax changes on married couples. I build a static model of couples' labor supply that features both intensive and extensive margins and derive a tractable expression that delivers a transparent understanding of how labor supply responses, policy parameters, and income distribution affect the reform-induced welfare gains. Using this formula, I conduct a comparative welfare analysis of four tax reforms implemented in the United States over the last four decades, namely the Tax Reform Act of 1986, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. I find that these reforms created welfare gains ranging from -0.16 to 0.62 percent of aggregate labor income. A sizable part of the gains is generated by the labor force participation responses of women. Despite three reforms resulted in aggregate welfare gains, I show that each reform created both winners and losers. Furthermore, I uncover two patterns in the relationship between welfare gains and couples' labor income. In particular, the reforms of 1986 and 2017 display a monotonically increasing relationship, while the other two reforms demonstrate a U-shaped pattern. Finally, I characterize the bias in welfare gains resulting from the assumption about a linear tax function. I consider a reform that changes tax progressivity and show that the linearization bias is given by the ratio between the tax progressivity parameter and the inverse elasticity of taxable income. Quantitatively, it means that linearization overestimates the welfare effects of the U.S. tax reforms by 3.6-18.1%.