Socially Responsible Investments, also referred to as ethical or sustainable investments, have experienced rapid global growth in recent years. They represent an investment approach that incorporates social, environmental, and ethical considerations into decision-making processes. Consequently, the significance of SRIs has captured the attention of academics, prompting inquiries into the impact of integrating social criteria on portfolio performance. The primary objective of this work was to conduct a comparative study of the performance between socially responsible and non-socially responsible investment funds, using funds domiciled in Portugal and Spain. Various multi-factor models, including the three-factor model of Fama and French (1992), the four-factor model of Carhart (1997), and the five-factor model of Fama and French (2015), were employed to assess performance. The sample comprised 125 investment funds, with 43 identified as socially responsible and 82 as non-socially responsible. The study's findings indicate that there are no significant differences between socially responsible funds and their conventional counterparts. The majority of funds experience performance alterations during periods of crisis compared to crisis-free periods. Additionally, when comparing non-conditional models with conditional models, an improvement in the explanatory power of the latter is observed. This suggests that the inclusion of the dummy variable enhances the quality of fit for the models.

Polymeric composites are prone to undergo damage, such as microcracks, during their operation, that can ultimately lead to catastrophic failure. To contradict such problem, effort has been put, by the scientific community, towards developing self-healing composites that, by mimicking biological systems, can autonomously and prematurely repair flaws, extending durability and improving security of materials. The present review explores the progress being made in such area, focusing on extrinsic self-healing methods, considering that they can be employed to a variety of materials. Reservoir-based techniques, that resort to capsules, hollow fibers or microvascular networks, and thermoplastic-based ones are overviewed, prioritizing innovative approaches made in recent years. At last, promising practical applications for self-healing composites are highlighted and future challenges and opportunities are pointed out.