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This chapter explores Quality of Work Life (QWL) in Macau. We investigate the meanings and importance of QWL and its implications in terms of happiness and business performance. Although QWL is central to people’s lives, research on this topic is still in its infancy in Macau. Our interviews revealed three salient themes of QWL: Work context, the perceived benefits and demands of the job; Organization, mainly work environment and factors within the organizational context mediating QWL; and the implications of QWL on overall living and happiness.
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Agglomerated cork is a known material by its contribution to the sustainment of the environment, not only because it is a wholly natural material, without chemical additives, but also because its industrial process of production results from the lowest quality residues of cork or industrial waste material, unsuitable for other applications. It is a reusable material, which means, the cork facade elements can be converted into a new agglomerated material, demonstrating a huge potential for adaptation to existing buildings following a reversible process. It is durable, lightweight, water resistant, low-cost material, some of the properties that may qualify it as suitable for application in large surfaces of vertical construction façades. The aim of this article is to analyze the mechanical, thermal and acoustic characteristics of cork composites against site-specific climatic conditions of subtropical climates and its suitability as an external coating system for residential buildings with the goal to reduce the energy consumption for cooling the inner environment. In high-density cities like Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong the majority of the buildings starting from the 1960s until early 21st century (Brach & Song 2006), did not integrate thermal insulation systems into external walls, producing a high level of heat transfer through the external façade from the outside environment during spring and summer seasons. Due to the extremely fast urban growth of the modern Chinese city, little importance is given to the quality of the external walls in current residential building construction. For at least during six months each year the consumption of energy due to air conditioning in Guangdong province is extremely high. The study concluded that substantial energy could be saved by implementing an external coating upgrade to existing buildings. Additionally, this study details the result obtained through software for energy simulations (Design Builder, ENVI-met) demonstrating the potential of this project to produce homogeneous and comfortable inside temperatures, which cools the indoor ambient temperature in summer time.
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Three key concepts will make up the pillars of this paper: second, foreign and heritage languages. Whenever appropriate “additional language” will be used as an umbrella term. A study of the domains of language use will be applied to these three different sociolinguistic contexts. To date, there are not many empirical studies on the domains of language and, more specifically, among young learners in different areal contexts, as it is the case of this study.
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Maria Celeste Natário, Renato Epifânio, Carlos Ascenso André, Gonçalo Cordeiro, Inocência Mata, Jorge Rangel, Maria Antónia Espadinha
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When Columbus arrived in 1492, the first free black person--a sailor--set foot in the Americas. Over the next 400 years, as slavery spread and became entrenched in the Western Hemisphere, free blacks built communities throughout North and South America, playing a critical role in every region, colony, and country. From Canada to the Caribbean to Chile, they established vital economic and social institutions, championed the cause of abolition, and formed a bridge between the worlds of free whites and enslaved blacks. They worked as artisans, farmers, ministers, merchants, shipbuilders, and reporters. Many free blacks served in the military and fought in every major war, including the American Revolution, the Haitian Revolution, and the Latin American wars for independence. Others served in government, and some--like presidents Bernardino Rivadavia of Argentina and Vicente Guerrero of Mexico--became national leaders.Free people of color in the United States and the Americas hold a unique status in global history. Never before and never since has such a group existed in large numbers anywhere in the world. Long shrouded in obscurity and overshadowed by scholarship on slavery and race, the free black community has become a growing and vibrant field of study as historians uncover vast material on this group, revealing how they lived, how they shaped society, and how they transformed the history of every nation in the hemisphere.Encyclopedia of Free Blacks and People of Color in the Americas is the first reference book to cover this crucial subject. Arranged alphabetically, this new, two-volume encyclopedia includes articles on all major events, issues, and concepts relevant to the free black community in the United States from the colonial period to the Civil War and in the rest of the Western Hemisphere from the late 1400s to the late 1800s, when emancipation became universal. Nearly 400 articles cover every country, colony, state, city, and region in the Americas with a significant presence of free blacks, and biographies, thematic articles, and entries on related subjects shed light on this fascinating topic. Featuring primary sources, illustrations, maps, tables, charts, a chronology, cross-references, suggestions for further reading, and a bibliography, this unique, original, and groundbreaking encyclopedia provides a wealth of information not available anywhere else.Entries include:-Abolitionist movement in Brazil -Zabeau Bellanton -Captain Cudjoe -Coffee cultivation -Education and literacy -Forten family -Free black artisans -French Caribbean -Gender attitudes -Guerrero (slave ship) -Haitian Revolution -La Escalera Plot -Laws of free birth -Legal discrimination on the basis of race -Living "as free" -Toussaint Louverture -Maroons -Marriage between free and slave -Midwives and traditional healers -Negro Convention Movement -Rebecca Protten -Somerset v. Stewart.