Os equipamentos de proteção individual devem ser utilizados após a implantação de medidas administrativas, de medidas de proteção coletiva, alterações de projeto ou em situações de emergência. Podem ser considerados como a última barreira entre um trabalhador e uma condição perigosa. A seleção destes equipamentos deve ser cuidadosa e este trabalho objetivou a criação de um programa de computador para auxiliar os profissionais responsáveis pelo processo de seleção de protetores auditivos, uma posterior comparação entre as saídas do programa com os equipamentos disponibilizados para os trabalhadores das empresas analisadas e uma análise crítica dos documentos obtidos das empresas. Foi efetuada uma revisão bibliográfica das metodologias de seleção de protetores auditivos, criando-se um fluxograma decisório, com pontos de interação com o usuário para a coleta de dados. Foram utilizados programas de prevenção de riscos ambientais de 7 empresas de mineração, identificadas as atividades cujos níveis de ruído se encontravam acima dos limites legais permitidos, determinando-se a necessidade ou não da utilização de protetores auditivos. Os dados foram introduzidos no programa, obtendo-se uma lista de equipamentos adequados para cada atividade selecionada. Compararam-se os equipamentos selecionados pelo programa com os equipamentos oferecidos pelas empresas, identificando-se as vantagens do programa. Observou-se também a baixa qualidade dos documentos emitidos pelas empresas que, em geral, não atenderam aos requisitos mínimos dispostos na legislação. Verificou-se que, quando selecionados corretamente, os equipamentos selecionados pelas empresas estavam contidos na lista de saída do programa, concluindo-se que o programa permitiu maior flexibilidade na escolha dos equipamentos de proteção auditiva, podendo se refletir em vantagens ergonômicas para os trabalhadores e econômicas para as empresas. / Personal protective equipment should only be used after engineering, administrative and work practices or in emergency situations. For this reason, PPE may be considered the last line of defense between workers and a hazardous situation. This work aims to create computer software to assist safety personnel in the PPE selection process, to compare the results produced by this software with the equipment provided by the companies when data from exposures were input and a critical analysis of the documents provided by the companies. A search for the PPE selection methods was conducted, generating a flowchart for hearing protector selection that was implemented in a web site. Data from risk management programs of 7 Brazilian mining companies were used as input to the software once the high risk of noise exposure activities were identified. A list of adequate equipment was then generated by the software and this list was compared to the list of equipments provided by each company. After a critical analysis the software advantages were found to be the higher flexibility in the choice of hearing protectors brought by the much larger list of adequate equipment. Additional advantages include the smaller amount of time spent looking for the correct choice and the ability to provide multiple choices of equipment for workers to choose from, which increases the comfort and thus the compliance to the PPE program. The quality of the documents provided by the companies was found to be low and lacking several requirements of Brazilian Law. The created software was found to be a useful tool, further testing and improvements are needed to increase its usability and to consolidate it as an asset to health and workplace safety professionals.

INTRODUÇÃO: A legislação em enfermagem prevê o uso da Sistematização da Assistência de Enfermagem (SAE). As atitudes dos profissionais de enfermagem sobre o processo de enfermagem (PE) e o poder clínico que percebem ter para realizar mudanças são fatores potencialmente associados ao processo de implantação e manutenção da SAE. OBJETIVOS: Descrever as atitudes relacionadas ao PE (disposição sobre o PE e percepção de poder clínico) de auxiliares de enfermagem e enfermeiros; analisar associações entre atitudes relacionadas ao processo de enfermagem e variáveis selecionadas. MÉTODO: Estudo descritivo-exploratório de delineamento transversal, com amostra não probabilística de 973 auxiliares de enfermagem e 632 enfermeiros de 35 hospitais e ambulatórios vinculados à Secretaria de Estado da Saúde de São Paulo (86,9% do sexo feminino, idade média de 44,12 anos (DP= 9,55), 52,3% trabalhavam em hospitais gerais, cerca de 44 horas semanais, estavam nas instituições há 10 anos em média). Os dados foram coletados por meio de resposta ao instrumento de caracterização sociodemográfica e aos questionários padronizados Posições sobre o Processo de Enfermagem (PPE) adaptado para esse estudo e o Power as Knowing Participation in Change Tool- versão brasileira (PKPCT), que apresentaram boas estimativas de validade e confiabilidade. Testes não paramétricos foram usados para analisar associação entre as atitudes relacionadas ao PE e as variáveis selecionadas. RESULTADOS: O escore total médio no PPE foi de 112,37 (DP=22,28) e o escore total médio no PKPCT foi de 281,12 (DP= 38,72) para os 1605 respondentes. Houve associação entre as duas atitudes relacionadas ao PE e categoria profissional, a atitude dos enfermeiros sobre o PE foi mais favorável que a dos auxiliares de enfermagem (p=0,024) e a percepção de poder dos enfermeiros foi mais elevada que a dos auxiliares de enfermagem (p=0,004). Houve correlação positiva moderada entre os escores do PPE e do PKPCT para os auxiliares (r=0,480; p=0,000) e para os enfermeiros (r=0,460; p=0,000). Os auxiliares do sexo feminino tiveram disposição sobre o PE (111,93) mais favorável que os do sexo masculino (106,11) (p=0,018) e maior percepção de poder (279,75 vs 270,84) (p=0,020); na amostra de enfermeiros não houve associação entre essas variáveis. Apenas para os auxiliares de enfermagem ter pós-graduação associou-se significativamente a maiores médias de atitude sobre o PE (119,0, p=0,011). As enfermeiras que relataram ter cargo de chefia apresentaram escores de percepção de poder mais elevados (293,52) que as enfermeiras sem cargo de chefia (282,61 p=0,010), mas não houve associação entre cargo de chefia e atitude sobre o PE. As associações entre os escores do PPE e PKPCT e as variáveis idade, tempo de formado, atividade principal, satisfação com a carreira, satisfação com o local de trabalho, conhecimento e contato com a SAE foram de intensidade desprezível no caso das correlações ou não significantes ao nível de 5%. / INTRODUCTION: The Brazilian nursing legislation requires that the nursing process (NP) is documented in all health institution. Attitudes of nursing staff towards the nursing process (NP) and their perception on their own clinical power to make changes are factors potentially associated with implementation and maintenance of the NP. OBJECTIVES: To describe the attitudes towards NP (attitudes on NP and perception of clinical power) of auxiliary nurses and baccalaureate nurses; and to analyze associations between attitudes towards the NP and selected variables. METHODS: An exploratory descriptive study with cross-sectional design, with a non-probabilistic sample of 973 auxiliary nurses and 632 baccalaureate nurses from 35 health agencies linked to the Ministry of Health of São Paulo, Brazil (86.9% female, mean age = 44.12 years (SD = 9.55), 52.3% worked in general hospitals, about 44 hours per week, were in institutions for 10 years on average). Data were collected by self-report using a form for personal, educational and other social data, and the Positions on Nursing Process (PNP) tool, adapted for this study, and the Power as Knowing Participation in Change Tool-Brazilian version (PKPCT), which showed good estimates of validity and reliability. Nonparametric tests were used to test associations between attitudes towards the NP and the selected variables. RESULTS: The mean PNP total score was 112.37 (SD = 22.28) (possible range = 20-140) and the mean PKPCT total score was 281.12 (SD = 38.72) (possible range = 48-336) for 1605 subjects. There was an association between the two PNP-related attitudes and professional category; the attitude of baccalaureate nurses on the NP was more favorable than that of auxiliary nursing (p = 0.024) and perceived clinical power of the baccalaureate nurses was higher than that of the auxiliary nurses (p = 0.004). There was moderate positive correlation between the scores of the PNP and PKPCT for auxiliary nurses (r = 0,480, p = 0.000) and baccalaureate nurses (r = 0.460, p = 0.000). The female auxiliary nurses had higher scores on PNP (111.93vs 106.11; p = 0.018) and PKPCT (279.75vs. 270.84; p = 0.020) than the male ones. There were no associations between sex an attitudes towards NP among baccalaureate nurses. Only for auxiliary nurses sample attending a continuing education program was associated with higher NP scores (119.0, p = 0.011). Baccalaureate nurses serving in leadership positions had higher mean total score on PKPCT (293.52) than nurses serving in direct care (282.61 p = 0.010), but there was no association between leadership position and PNP scores. Association tests for scores of the PNP and PKPCT and the variables age, time since graduation, main activity, satisfaction with the career, satisfaction with the workplace, knowledge on NP and contact with the NP resulted in negligible correlation coefficients or non-significant coefficients at 5%.

Being inconspicuous in the dark outdoors can cause accidents including physical injuries. To prevent pedestrian being involved in accidents it is necessary to make them most visible to approaching people.This Master’s Thesis examines the use of retroreflective clothing in a semi-dark urban environment to provide safety through conspicuity. Through analysing the lighting situation in Stockholm, the ability of the human vision, reactions and existing products it has led to experiments and surveys to find the most efficient line placement and pattern to make an individual recognizable as human on approach.The results were that body outlines and horizontal lines along joints made a human most identifiable. Most conspicuity was given when lines were wider than 2cm and patterns contrasted to the surroundings.As the experiment was conducted in a semi-dark setting, different retroreflective design solutions might be more adequate for other lighting scenarios with more or less light

No description available.

The goal of the QPACE project is to build a novel cost-efficient massive parallel supercomputer optimized for LQCD (Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics) applications. Unlike previous projects which use custom ASICs, this is accomplished by using the general purpose multi-core CPU PowerXCell 8i processor tightly coupled with a custom network processor implemented on a modern FPGA. The heterogeneous architecture of the PowerXCell 8i processor and its core-independent OS-bypassing access to the custom network hardware and application-oriented 3D torus topology pose interesting challenges for the implementation of the applications. This work will describe and evaluate the implementation possibilities of message passing APIs: the more general MPI, and the more QCD-oriented QMP, and their performance in PPE centric or SPE centric scenarios. These results will then be employed to optimize HPL for the QPACE architecture. Finally, the developed approaches and concepts will be briefly discussed regarding their applicability to heterogeneous node/network architectures as is the case in the "High-speed Network Interface with Collective Operation Support for Cell BE (NICOLL)" project.

There are two general ways to introduce functionalities into a polymeric structure: functionalization of the monomeric units before polymerization and postfunctionalization of the preformed polymer. Building libraries of polymers with different functionalities can be completed with significantly less effort by the second method, as each postfunctionalization of a single batch of polymeric backbone can involve as little as one synthetic step. One method of building a polymeric backbone for postfunctionalization involves the synthesis of hyperbranched conjugated polymers (HCPs) from AB2 monomeric units. A polymer formed from n AB2 monomeric units should contain n reactive B groups, which act as sites of functionalization. Utilizing this principle, two different hyperbranched poly(phenylene vinylene-phenylene ethynylene) scaffolds were synthesized and studied in both their inherent properties and functionalization. The first HCP synthesized was compared against a monomeric cruciform model and a linear polymer with a similar structure. The hyperbranched polymer has red-shifted absorption and emission in comparison to the cruciform model and linear polymer. The HCP quenches paraquat more efficiently than the linear polymer by a factor of about two, suggesting a greater rate of energy transfer. The functionalization of HCPs was studied; iodine groups decorating the HCPs were replaced with terminal alkynes by Pd-catalyzed coupling, providing a library of 24 differently functionalized HCPs. Elemental analyses of the postfunctionalized polymers show nearly complete substitution of the iodine groups. The postfunctionalized polymers show increased fluorescence compared to the original iodine decorated polymers, due to the loss of the heavy atom effect inducing iodine groups. The emissions of the postfunctionalized polymers in solution show a strong dependence on the groups attached to the conjugated structures, with emission maxima ranging from 505 nm to 602 nm; quantum yields range from 0.7% to 25%. Solid-state emission studies show stronger and more red-shifted spectra compared to emissions observed in solution.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-10T10:38:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 FERNANDA RIBEIRO GODOY.pdf: 1338419 bytes, checksum: 9ce2f93850f1257da6253ceadf307402 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-02-15 / The impact of pesticide on agricultural workers is an issue that has received attention from the scientific community worldwide. Occupational exposure of agricultural workers occurs due to lack of information or lack of skilled technical resources. These workers are exposed to pesticides in crops and this exposure may be responsible for genetic damage causing a health issue. A problem with the use of pesticides is the genotoxicity, which may lead to the onset of diseases. Little is known about the relationship between genotoxicity and genetic polymorphisms xenobiotics metabolism that can modify individual susceptibility. Therefore, there is a need to study genes as glutathione-S-transferase mu (GSTM1) and glutathione-Stransferase theta (GSTT1) encoding detoxification enzymes. These enzymes promote the conjugation of glutathione facilitating removal of xenobiotics. In this context, this study aimed to evaluate the variability of GSTM1 and GSTT1 polymorphisms in individuals occupationally exposed to pesticides in Goias municipalities that present intense agricultural activity. We evaluated 235 individuals which 120 were rural workers occupationally exposed to pesticides and 115 individuals were not exposed to pesticides, forming the control group. The exposed group consisted of 111 men and 9 women only getting an average of 39 + 9 years old. These workers were form 12 rural municipalities situated at Goias state with intense agricultural activity. It was found that 18% of the exposed individuals had the GSTT1 null genotype and 49% had the GSTM1 null genotype, and 10% had both null genotypes. Data as intoxication (41%), use of Personal Protection Equipment (52%) and if the worker handled the pesticide (7%), or if just applied the pesticide (22%) or if the worker manipulated and applied (71%) have all been correlated with genetic polymorphisms. There were no statistically significant differences between the GSTM1 and GSTT1 polymorphisms between control and exposed groups. Thus, the study of genetic polymorphisms as biomarkers of susceptibility is of fundamental importance in understanding the processes involved in mutagenesis and carcinogenesis and could help minimize the risk to susceptible individuals who are exposed to pesticides. / O impacto do uso de agrotóxicos sobre os trabalhadores rurais é um problema que tem merecido atenção da comunidade científica em todo o mundo. A exposição ocupacional de trabalhadores agrícolas ocorre por falta de informação ou pela ausência de recursos técnicos qualificados. Esses trabalhadores estão constantemente expostos aos agrotóxicos que utilizam nas lavouras, e esta exposição pode ser responsável por danos genéticos causando um risco para a saúde. Um dos problemas da utilização de agrotóxicos é a genotoxicidade, que pode levar ao aparecimento de doenças. Pouco se sabe sobre a relação entre a genotoxicidade e a variação de polimosfismos genéticos de metabolização de xenobióticos que podem modificar a suscetibilidade individual aos efeitos genotóxicos dos agrotóxicos. Neste sentido, há a necessidade do estudo de genes como a glutationa-S-tranferase mu (GSTM1) e glutationa-S transferase teta (GSTT1) que codificam enzimas de detoxificação de compostos genotóxicos. Tais enzimas promovem a conjugação da glutationa facilitando remoção dos xenobióticos. Nesse contexto, esse estudo teve como objetivo avaliar a variabilidade polimórfica de GSTT1 e GSTM1 em indivíduos ocupacionalmente expostos a pesticidas, em municípios goianos com intensa atividade agrícola. Foram avaliados 235 indivíduos sendo que 120 eram trabalhadores rurais, ocupacionalmente expostos a agrotóxicos e 115 eram indivíduos não expostos a agrotóxicos, formando o grupo controle. O grupo exposto consistiu de 111 homens e apenas 9 mulheres obtendo uma média de idade 39 + 9 anos. Estes trabalhadores rurais eram de 12 municípios goianos com intensa atividade agrícola. Verificou-se que 18% dos indivíduos expostos possuíam o genótipo GSTT1 nulo e 49% apresentaram o genótipo GSTM1 nulo, e que 10% apresentaram ambos os genótipos nulos. Os dados como intoxicação (41%), uso de equipamentos de proteção individual (EPI´s) [52%] e se o trabalhador apenas manipulava o agrotóxico (7%), ou se apenas aplicava o agrotóxico (22%) ou se manipulava e aplicava (71%), foram todos correlacionados com os polimorfismos genéticos. Não foram encontradas diferenças estatisticamente significativas entre os polimorfismos dos genes GSTM1 e GSTT1 entre os grupos exposto e controle (p = ˃ 0,05) . Dessa forma, o estudo de polimorfismos genéticos como biomarcadores de suscetibilidade é de importância fundamental na compreensão dos processos de distribuição genotípica envolvidos na mutagênese e carcinogênese e poderia ajudar a minimizar os riscos para indivíduos suscetíveis que são expostos a agrotóxicos.

Many south Asian countries are deficient in appropriate documentation, legislation and surveillance related to occupational health and safety (OHS). All these countries have high OHS incidence rate and labourers working in these countries are constantly exposed to occupational accidents and diseases. Although occupational accidents and work-related concerns have been in debate for a long time, no concrete moves have been taken, making situations worse and posing consistent coercions to an increasing labour force. The current research was carried out to examine the main hazards faced by construction workers in Pakistan and the response of health, safety and environment (HSE) department in plummeting these hazards and in certaining sustainability in construction companies in Pakistan. Workers working in the construction industry are incessantly bared to unsafe working conditions and have to confront several kind of hazards. This embraces exposure to sound, dust and toxic substances, issues of ergonomics, stress etc. This study employed a comprehensive fact-finding design. Data was harbored using interviews, academic articles and reports from international and national organisations. Employer, administration and labourers all lack knowledge about OHS issues in Pakistan. The majority of the labourers are unskilled, uninformed and unregistered. There are no native directives, which are coupled with both OHS and the construction industry. There is an absence of safety ethics, and neither reporting nor monitoring is conducted in the construction business. Companies see HSE issues as an economic burden which will eventually end up mounting production costs. Labourers don’t follow safety instructions; they don’t wear personal protective equipment (PPE), they reckon wearing this equipment would cause obstruction in their work and would influence their productivity. The use of PPE is essential in the construction activity, as it is considered as the last line of defence. All this has affected the construction industry tremendously collectively in terms of financial loss, human loss and image loss, and injury incidence rates have increased alarmingly. Implementation of sustainable development is a core responsibility of an HSE department. Dearth of HSE means lack of sustainability in the construction sector. Today, sustainability is an important aspect of development. It means that development should not only be economically feasable but also socially and environmentally viable both for current and future generations. There is much need to formulate new strict policy and laws or to amend old ones, laws which are effective and practical in promoting HSE and sustainability norms in the construction sector of Pakistan. The main hazards that are faced by construction workers are falling from height, lifting activity and electrocution. HSE departments play a chief role in minimizing worksite accidents and in promoting sustainable development in work settings. For ensuring sustainable practices on construction sites, HSE departments formulate integrated working policy, keeping in mind social, environmental and econmical aspects and considering inputs from all stakeholders. In addition, they look for innovative green technologies and green materials which are more environmental friendly, economical and require less energy.

Conjugated polymers and oligomers are great materials for use in the next generation devices namely organic field effect transistors, light emitting diodes and polymeric solar cells. Apart from having the potential for developing power-efficient, flexible, robust and inexpensive devices, conjugated polymers can also be tuned by molecular design to optimize device characteristics. One key problem for the full commercial exploitation of conjugated polymers is that the charge carrier mobility of the state-of-the-art polymer semiconductors is much lower than required for many applications. The performance of the devices is strongly dependent on the molecular structure and supermolecular assembly of the conjugated polymer chains. This thesis covers our attempts to design molecular structure to control and improve the solid state properties of conjugated polymers. The relative placement of side chains along the backbone has a great influence on the solid state ordering of conjugated polymers. Poly(2,5-disubstituted-1,4-phenylene ethynylene)s (PPE)s, an important class of conjugated polymers, are generally synthesized by Pd-catalyzed coupling polymerizations of appropriately substituted diiodo and diethynyl benzenes (i.e., A-A and B-B type monomers). In asymmetrically substituted PPEs, this results in an irregular substitution pattern of the side chains along the polymer backbone. We report a new synthetic approach to prepare regioregular unsymmetrically substituted PPEs by polymerization of 4-iodophenylacetylenes (i.e., A-B type monomer). We provide a detailed discussion of various approaches to the synthesis of PPEs with different regioregularities and provide a description of the differences between regioregular and regiorandom analogs. The effect of regioregularity becomes even more important when the two side chains are very dissimilar or amphiphilic. We explore the effect of relative placement hydrophobic (dodecyloxy) / hydrophilic (tri(ethylene glycol) and hydrophobic (dodecyloxy)/fluorophilic (fluoroalkyl) side chains along the poly(1,4-phenylene ethynylene) backbone. We found that the regioregular substitution of the polymer backbone provides a structure in which the side chains segregate to afford a Janus-type structure. The regioregular polymer chains pack more densely in a monolayer at the air-water interface, and pack into a bilayer in the solid state to form a highly crystalline material. Pentacenes are very important organic molecules for use as semiconductor in oFETs due to their low band gap and high field effect mobility. One approach to reduce the bandgap of a polymeric system and improve performance is to include low bandgap small molecules into the conjugated backbone. A new copolymer system consisting of pentacene and terthiophene was developed and its optical and electronic properties along with its stability were evaluated. We report the use of ultrasonication of P3HT as a novel operationally-simple process to significantly improve the field effect mobility of P3HT-based FETs, thereby potentially eliminating the need for dielectric surface modifications or further processing of the device. Investigation of the sonicated polymer samples by number of characterization techniques indicates that ultrasonication leads to aggregation and ordering of the P3HT chains resulting in increase in the mobility.

Sjökaptensstudenter på Sjöfartshögskolan i Kalmar genomgår praktik under sammanlagt tolv månader i form av fartygsförlagd utbildning indelad i tre olika perioder under deras fyraåriga utbildning. Praktikperioderna ombord på fartyg ger studenterna möjligheten att lära sig yrket på ett praktiskt sätt, inte bara från läroboken. Ombord på fartyg används härdplaster i en stor utsträckning och som student på Sveriges två sjöfartshögskolor går man ut på fartygsförlagda praktikperioder med olika grundkunskaper inom härdplaster. Syftet med arbetet var att undersöka hur sjökaptensstudenter förhåller sig till härdplaster genom en kvalitativ metod med semistrukturerade intervjuer där sex avgångsstudenter från Sjökaptensprogrammet i Kalmar deltog. Resultatet visar att alla respondenter hanterade härdplaster under sina praktikperioder på fartyg, i form av tvåkomponentsfärger med olika utsträckningar av förståelse angående hälsorisker och PSU som ska användas för att minska hälsorisker. Studien visade också att faktorer som ålder, erfarenheter samt hur de ombordanställdas attityd kring hantering och användning av härdplaster spelar en stor roll på hur studenter förhåller sig till härdplaster. / Sea captain students at the Kalmar School of Maritime Capital undergo internship for a total of twelve months in the form of onboard education divided into three different periods during their four-year training. Practice periods onboard ships give students the opportunity to learn the profession in a practical way, not just from the textbook. Onboard ships, hardener is used extensively and as a student at Sweden’s two maritime universities goes out on onboard training with different basic knowledge about hardeners. The aim of the work was to examine how sea captain students relate to hardener through a qualitative method of semistructured interviews where six last year students from the sea captain Program in Kalmar participated. The result shows that all respondents handled hardener during their onboard training in the form of two-component paint with different extensions of understanding regarding health risks and PPE to be used to reduce its risks. The study also showed that factors such as age, experience and how the onboard attitude regarding handling and use of hardener play a big role in how students handle hardener by themselves.