We exhibit faithful representations of the hypoplactic, stalactic, taiga, sylvester, Baxter and right patience sorting monoids of each finite rank as monoids of upper triangular matrices over any semiring from a large class including the tropical semiring and fields of characteristic 0. By analysing the image of these representations, we show that the variety generated by a single hypoplactic (respectively, stalactic or taiga) monoid of rank at least 2 coincides with the variety generated by the natural numbers together with a fixed finite monoid (respectively, F) and forms a proper subvariety of the variety generated by the plactic monoid of rank 2.

Recognising the relevance of learning Geometry, and in particular 3D Geometry, this study aims to discuss the contributions that digital technology and paper and pencil approaches can bring to students’ learning. We seek, therefore, to identify the differences between the two approaches, and specifically: What factors are relevant in one and the other approach? What does one approach facilitate over the other? A quantitative and a qualitative and interpretive methodology was adopted, and based on a didactic intervention, the students' resolutions of the proposed tasks were analysed. The results obtained show that the experience and prior knowledge of the students with each of the solids involved seems to be decisive in the approach with paper and pencil. However, technology emerges as an enhancing resource when prior knowledge is more fragile. The study also shows differences between the representations supported by the two resources, suggesting the mobilisation of different knowledge by the students in relation to each of the resources.

In this paper we will address the impacts on work and employment in Portugal of undergoing reconfigurations in automotive Global Value Chains (GVC). Due to its contributions to employment, exports and production the automotive sector is regarded as strategic for Portugal. Currently, it is caught in the midst of a turmoil, spurred by major trends that are reshaping its global outlook, with perils and opportunities for firms and workers depending on their position in different segments of GVC. The emergence of GVC transformed the patterns of international division of labour, trade and investment. Countries and regions specialize not only in products and services but increasingly in tasks and functions. Value is created globally and is apportioned along the chain depending on the tasks performed, the resources and type of workforce engaged in production in each node, its geographical location and the relative power relations within the production network. Typically, along GVC’s production stages, labour intensive, low skill tasks are ascribed – offshored and subcontracted by lead firms – to firms and workers in peripheral countries, while knowledge intensive, more complex or higher skilled tasks are retained in core regions. The value captured, as well as the share of value ascribed to labour and the quality of employment, are broadly correlated with its position in the chain. GVC, besides firms or even sectors, thus become an appropriate locus for analysing labour processes and employment patterns.
Major trends reconfiguring automotive global networks of production, include: (i) automation; (ii) digitalisation; (iii) electrification of vehicles; (iv) shifting geographies of production; and (v) industrial, employment and social policies. Manufacture of vehicles is known to be an automation-intensive sector permeated by technological developments such as new cyber-physical systems and flexible lightweight robots with an impact on work and employment, particularly on low-skilled workers. National and regional industrial, trade and investment policies articulated with company strategies, are also participating in the reshaping of the automotive GVC and changing the geographies of production. Finally, employment and social policies impinge on and are conditioned by foreign investment and location decisions of automotive multinationals, thus participating in the reshaping of GVC. In order to respond to the main overarching research question (what are the actual and prospective impacts on work and employment in Portugal driven by transitions taking place in the automotive GVC?) an analytical model will be designed. It will place the ongoing and prospective transformations of work and employment patterns as consequence of the interplay of actor’s strategies and public policies, against the background of structures and institutions. The research study will be based on major OEM operating in Portugal (VW, Stellantis, Mitsubishi and Toyota) and on automotive supply chain companies, most of them major player on the automotive GVC (Faurecia, KWD, Vintech, Sodecia, Preh).

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Portugal has been referred as one example of lower levels of integration of social partners in the governance of education and training systems (Sanz de Miguel, 2017). There is lack of research about the effectiveness of the governance of the only program close to the Dual VET concept: the Apprenticeship system. A pilot project of Dual VET ran from 2012 and terminated in 2016 without substantial evaluation. The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of the role social partners have in the governance of the existing Portuguese Apprenticeship system. We carried out extensive review of the scientific and grey literature about Dual VET for youngsters in Portugal, as well as database queries to official statistical sources. Our research reveals a complex formal role: The employment agency IEFP provides funding for Apprenticeship and negotiates with the main social partners the allocation of the Single Social Tax for its regional centres. Indirectly, many social partners are formally involved in the general VET governance participating in various coordination and monitoring structures of the National System of Qualifications and other regulatory agencies (IEFP and ANQEP). In this article we also discuss possible causes for the failure of the pilot Dual VET, which took effect within the scope of a curricular review of the primary and secondary education.

Advances in concrete technology during the last decades have resulted in the development of materials with enhanced mechanical properties, such as High Strength Concrete (HSC), Fibre Reinforced Concrete (FRC) and Ultra-High Performance Fibre Reinforced Concrete (UHPFRC). The application of these materials in flat slabs, which are a popular structural solution in Reinforced Concrete (RC) buildings worldwide, has the potential of significantly reducing raw material consumption by enabling the design of slenderer and therefore lighter structures. However, flat slabs are susceptible to punching shear failure, which is a complex phenomenon that remains challenging, even though significant efforts have been made to experimentally study it. For advanced concrete materials (HSC, FRC and UHPFRC), the challenge is further accentuated by the continuous and rapid development of these materials. With the purpose of identifying and highlighting gaps in the published literature, a review of tests with HSC, FRC and UHPFRC slab-column connections in non-seismic and seismic loading applications is presented in this paper. It is shown that future research directions in this field include, among others, testing thicker slabs, HSC slabs with higher concrete compressive strength, HSC combined with FRC and several more cases related to seismic loading conditions.

Being able to efficiently mitigate the effects of blast loads on structures, sacrificial cladding solutions are increasingly used to protect structural elements from the effects of accidental explosions and/or terrorist attacks. The present study analyses the loss of effectiveness of a deterministically designed sacrificial cladding when variability in the material properties and uncertainties in the mechanical model are considered. The results of an experimental campaign are used to validate the numerical models that allow the deterministic design of a sacrificial cladding which successfully improves the blast resistant capabilities of a given structural element. Nonetheless, it is shown that, taking into account the probabilistic variability of key parameters is of vital importance when designing sacrificial cladding solutions, since, when not properly designed for the structural element it intends to protect, adding a sacrificial cladding might negatively impact its blast resistant capabilities. Additionally, it is concluded that the deterministic approach might be against safety. In the reported case study, when comparing the admissible charge weight yielding from the deterministic and probabilistic approaches, one verifies that the former allows a higher charge weight.

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In this paper we study the widely considered endomorphisms and weak endomorphisms of a finite undirected path from monoid generators perspective. Our main aim is to determine the ranks of the monoids $wEnd P_n$ and $End P_n$ of all weak endomorphisms and all endomorphisms of the undirected path $P_n$ with $n$ vertices. We also consider strong and strong weak endomorphisms of $P_n$.

High-strength concrete (HSC) slab-column connections with relatively low concrete strengths compared to today’s capabilities have been tested under seismic-type loading in the past. Herein, the hybrid use of HSC with compressive strength approximately 120 MPa and normal-strength concrete (NSC) is investigated through three reversed horizontal cyclic-loading tests with different geometries of the HSC region and a reference NSC specimen. The results show that HSC applied in the vicinity of the column can significantly enhance the seismic performance of slab-column connections. The best result in terms of drift capacity and economic use of HSC was achieved in the case of full-depth HSC extended from the column’s face up to 2.5 times the effective depth. Drift ratios up to 3.0% were achieved. A comparison with previous tests showed that the hybrid use of HSC and NSC can achieve similar results to the provision of punching shear reinforcement.

A suspensão das aulas presenciais na sequência da pandemia que estamos a atravessar trouxe para primeiro plano o ensino a distância. Neste artigo partilhamos algumas ideias e conceptualizações relativas a este tipo de ensino, abordamos aquilo que alguns autores que se têm dedicado à temática apontam como importantes desafios e oportunidades que se lhe encontram associados e, por fim, partilhamos algumas possíveis opções e recursos que pensamos poderem ser úteis para todos os professores que estão a viver a sua primeira experiência de ensino a distância.