RESUMO
Parents in academic careers face notable challenges that may go unrecognized by university management and/or policy makers. The COVID-19 pandemic has shed light on some of these challenges, as academic parents shifted to working from home while simultaneously caring for children. On the other hand, many parents found that the shift to working from home offered new opportunities such as working more flexible hours, development of digital skillsets, and increased involvement in the education of their children. In this article we explore the work-related challenges and opportunities experienced by academic parents as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and offer potential long-term solutions for academic parents and their universities. We use the following methods: (1) a literature review focused on identifying the work-related challenges academic parents faced prior to the pandemic, as well as the impact of the pandemic on scientists and working parents and (2) administer a world-wide survey with the goal of identifying the challenges and opportunities associated with parenting and academic work through the COVID-19 lockdown (304 total responses; 113 complete). Moving forward these findings have enabled conclusions to be drawn in order to shape a new normal. Our aim is to offer university administrators, policy makers, and community service providers with ways to provide additional support for academic parents as well as provide tools for academic parents to learn successful strategies directly from their peers.
RESUMO
Adding steel fibers to concrete improves the capacity in tension-driven failure modes. An example is the shear capacity in steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) beams with longitudinal reinforcement and without shear reinforcement. Since no mechanical models exist that can fully describe the behavior of SFRC beams without shear reinforcement failing in shear, a number of empirical equations have been suggested in the past. This paper compiles the existing empirical equations and code provisions for the prediction of the shear capacity of SFRC beams failing in shear as well as a database of 488 experiments reported in the literature. The experimental shear capacities from the database are then compared to the prediction equations. This comparison shows a large scatter on the ratio of experimental to predicted values. The practice of defining the tensile strength of SFRC based on different experiments internationally makes the comparison difficult. For design purposes, the code prediction methods based on the Eurocode shear expression provide reasonable results (with coefficients of variation on the ratio tested/predicted shear capacities of 27â»29%). None of the currently available methods properly describe the behavior of SFRC beams failing in shear. As such, this work shows the need for studies that address the different shear-carrying mechanisms in SFRC and its crack kinematics.