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This study analyzed the impact on the persistence of Chilean university students who had received a government-guaranteed loan (CAE).

Using academic and administrative data from 2016 to 2019, provided by 11 Chilean universities, a discrete-time survival model was constructed. The model was based on data of 5,276 students in the 2016 cohort and included sociodemographic variables, academic background prior to entering university and academic performance once in university. As a robustness check of our results to observable confounding, the analysis was repeated using a control group constructed using propensity score matching (PSM).

The results reveal that students who receive a bank loan (CAE) were more likely to remain in undergraduate studies for at least the first two years of university, as opposed to their peers who did not receive financial aid. In addition, they show the importance of academic performance in retention.

The article advances in the identification of the impact of bank loans on permanence. Although previous research has evaluated the impact of the CAE, it has been conducted on small samples of students. These studies also lacked student records associated with their academic performance at the university. The present research overcomes both weaknesses, allowing us to estimate the impact of the CAE on a larger population of students that is representative of the system.

The job satisfaction of university graduates can serve as an indicator of success in their professional development. At the same time, it can be a measure of higher education systems’ effectiveness. The purpose is to assess the relationship of university graduates’ socio-demographic characteristics, aspects of their degree program, experiences in the labor market and current working conditions and their job satisfaction.

The data were collected from a survey conducted at 11 Chilean universities with 534 graduates. An ordinal logistic regression model was fit to calculate job satisfaction probabilities for different graduate profiles.

The results show that sex, field of study, gross salary and horizontal match are related to graduates’ job satisfaction. Men and graduates in education and humanities are more likely to report being satisfied with their current job. Those graduates receiving higher salaries and those who are horizontally well-matched report higher levels of job satisfaction.

This study contributes to expanding knowledge about the job satisfaction of university graduates. Specifically, based on the results obtained, it introduces the idea of aspiration fulfillment as a possible determinant of job satisfaction in different fields of study. This can serve as a starting point for research that delves into differentiated expectations for graduates from different disciplines.

This study aimed to know the effect of cross-sectional risk, which comprises business-specific risk and stock market volatility, as a variable for estimating macroeconomic risk in Indonesia. This study observes public companies in Indonesia and Indonesian macroeconomic data from 2004 to 2020. In this study, the author uses term spread as the dependent variable that reflects macroeconomic risk. The cross-sectional risk comprises financial friction (FF), cash flow (CF), debt–service ratio, and stock market volatility as independent variables. By using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Model method, this study shows that business-specific and stock market risk can estimate macroeconomic risk, so that it becomes an early signal of economic shock, such as recession or high inflation, in the future. The model in this study also examines the cross-sectional risk relationship with other macroeconomic indicators, such as the Consumer Confidence Index (CCI), money supply (M0), and Indonesia’s trade balance (TB).

Is medically assisted fertilization (with the use of in vitro technology) about “reproductive rights” or about white women's privileges? What is “choice” for white and rich women seems to become a further commodification of the body for women of color and economically disadvantaged women.

Several feminists define reproductive rights by demanding social justice and a type of support for the mothers that does not include expensive technologies, which have a problematic outcome, that of generating a divide between women in the north and women in the south of the world. Some authors also talk about a “division of labor” in reproduction.

The first part of my chapter offers an outline of the historical feminist debate over gender and technology, looking at different positions regarding biotechnologies, and reproductive technologies in a specific way. The second part presents an investigation around the (often racialized) international market of eggs and surrogate mothers in the United States, India and Eastern Europe.

The third part consists of an analysis of few recent studies about the health of women who undergo ovarian hyper-stimulation in order to give eggs as “donation” (under payment); women who offer themselves as surrogate mothers and the children who have been conceived with in vitro fertilization, specifically with heterologue forms (egg donation or surrogate motherhood).

The paper reflects on the role of knowledge artefacts in the patient-provider relationship across the organisational boundaries of the clinical setting. Drawing on the analysis of the diabetes logbook, the purpose of this paper is to illustrate the role of knowledge artefacts in a fragmented system of knowledge through the study of two distinct practices: “logbook compiling” and “consultation in the surgery”.

The theoretical framework of analysis is rooted in the tradition of practice-based studies which envisions knowledge as the emerging, precarious and socially constructed product of being involved in a practice. The paper follows a designed qualitative research, conducting semi-structured interviews, participant observation and artefact analysis.

The knowledge artefacts support different and partially irreducible forms of knowledge. Knowing-in-practice is accomplished by means of different activities which contribute to the reshaping of the knowledge artefact itself. The analysis of the “knowledge artefact-in-use” reveals that different actors (doctors and patients) adopt two different perspectives when investigating the chronic condition. Clinicians are interested in a chronological representation of patient data while patients and families are interested in making sense of specific situations, adopting a kairotic perspective (Kairos: the right moment) that emphasises the instant in which something significant for someone happens.

The analysis of the knowledge artefacts-in-use has a twofold outcome. On one hand, it illustrates the mutual shaping of knowing, artefacts and practices. On the other hand, it shows how knowledge artefact can become pivotal resources in a fragmented system of knowledge.

A bibliographical review of the finite element methods (FEMs) applied for the linear and nonlinear, static and dynamic analyses of basic structural elements from the theoretical as well as practical points of view is given. The bibliography at the end of the paper contains 1,726 references to papers, conference proceedings and theses/dissertations dealing with the analysis of beams, columns, rods, bars, cables, discs, blades, shafts, membranes, plates and shells that were published in 1996‐1999.

Despite the opportunities of digital twins (DTs) for smart buildings, limited research has been conducted regarding the facility management stage, and this is explained by the high complexity of accurately representing and modelling the physics behind the DTs process. This study thus organises and consolidates the fragmented literature on DTs implementation for smart buildings at the facility management stage by exploring the enablers, applications and challenges and examining the interrelationships amongst them.

A systematic literature review approach is adopted to analyse and synthesise the existing literature relating to the subject topic.

The study revealed six main categories of enablers of DTs for smart building at the facility management stage, namely perception technologies, network technologies, storage technologies, application technologies, knowledge-building and design processes. Three substantial categories of DTs application for smart buildings were revealed at the facility management stage: efficient operation and service monitoring, efficient building energy management and effective smart building maintenance. Subsequently, the top four major challenges were identified as being “lack of a systematic and comprehensive reference model”, “real-time data integration”, “the complexity and uncertainty nature of real-time data” and “real-time data visualisation”. An integrative framework is finally proposed by examining the interactive relationship amongst the enablers, the applications and the challenges.

The findings could guide facility managers/engineers to fairly understand the enablers, applications and challenges when DTs are being implemented to improve smart building performance and achieve user satisfaction at the facility management stage.

This study contributes to the knowledge body on DTs by extending the scope of the existing studies to identify the enablers and applications of DTs for smart buildings at the facility management stage and the specific challenges.