Nutritional status and food intake at workplace as health indicators for industrial workers

This study aimed to verify the correlation among the nutritional composition of the food consumed in the work environment, the energy expenditure and the nutritional status of workers from different sectors (administration and production) in different industries. The anthropometric data, in addition to the energy expenditure and food intake at lunch were evaluated for 292 workers, all of them included in the Brazilian Worker Food Program (also called PAT). The food consumption was assessed from the direct observation of the meal, for five consecutive days. The obtained data were analyzed by Pearson correlation test and by a Principal Components Analysis. Prevalence of overweight was detected in the studied population, according to the Body Mass Index (BMI). A statistically significant difference was found in terms of the energy expenditure of physical activity and daily energy expenditure in relation to gender and the working sector. The obtained results indicate that there is significant positive correlation (p < 0.01) between the following variables: body weight and BMI (r = 0.84), weight and daily energy expenditure (DEE) (r = 0.52), BMI and DEE (r = 0.27), DEE and energy (r = 0.38), and energy and lipid intake (r = 0.50). These findings seems to indicate the importance of ensuring an adequate balance of nutrients at meals, due to the heterogeneity of workers, in particular in the case of those workers who perform tasks or functions requiring less energy expenditure.

Discriminação de género e construção das masculinidades nos contextos de trabalho: o caso da engenharia civil

Dissertação de mestrado em Gestão de Recursos Humanos

Automatic eye blink detection using consumer web cameras

This research aims to advance blinking detection in the context of work activity. Rather than patients having to attend a clinic, blinking videos can be acquired in a work environment, and further automatically analyzed. Therefore, this paper presents a methodology to perform the automatic detection of eye blink using consumer videos acquired with low-cost web cameras. This methodology includes the detection of the face and eyes of the recorded person, and then it analyzes the low-level features of the eye region to create a quantitative vector. Finally, this vector is classified into one of the two categories considered —open and closed eyes— by using machine learning algorithms. The effectiveness of the proposed methodology was demonstrated since it provides unbiased results with classification errors under 5%

A comunicação e a imagem do Gabinete de Apoio a Projectos: um estudo de caso

Dissertação de mestrado em Ciências da Comunicação (área de especialização em Publicidade e Relações Públicas)

Environment, health and safety policy in small construction sites: an analysis of the situation in Brazil

This paper analyzes the safety, environmental and occupational health of workers in the small construction industry in Brazil. In this sector there are still many unsafe practices, which are very common in small work sites. We used a qualitative approach to understand these problems by long interviews with people who work directly in small construction sites, including occupational physicians, civil engineers, safety engineers, safety technicians, general foremen, construction workers, labor unionists and auditors. This paper aims to demonstrate that the "invisibility" of the small sites workers makes them less safe and therefore more prone to accidents, also weakening their health. The results show that small constructions workers are less visible to society and supervision because of their short periods of work. Therefore, they are also uncovered to the rigorous applicability of principles of safety and accident prevention. Thus, it has been seen in this field of work a precarious application of NR - 18, which was specifically made for the construction sites and it needs simplification to meet normative characteristics of small construction sites. In the State of Rio de Janeiro, some laws on small sites were recently created and implemented. This study concludes that the rules to work are not being taken as seriously as the legislation determinates, remaining practically unknown by many professionals, from the plot command, supervisors, engineers, architects and technicians who work on construction sites. This ignorance creates space for the lack of safety and consequently to accidents, leading to by weakness in the workers health. Therefore, the work process needs to be modified, the safety regulation must be disseminated through safer practices, promoting employee health and ensure that the work of small sites can be visible, especially ensuring the construction workers health and safety.

Contratação Pública Verde: work in progress

Dissertação de mestrado em Direito Administrativo

Aspergilli and Penicillia related to the surface of ripening italian grana type cheese and its ripening environment

Information available on the mycoflora associated to ripening Italian “grana type” cheese is very poor. Recently, ochratoxin A (OTA) was detected in samples of packed grated cheese [1]; therefore, the need of information to perform a risk management was highlighted. Moreover, sterigmatocystin (STC) has been reported in cheese and it is considered an emerging problem. Despite the fact that both of them are mycotoxins included in group 2B by IARC [2,3], no European regulation exists. So, the main goal of this work is to give for the first time a general overview about Penicillia and Aspergilli growing on the surface of ripening “grana type” cheese, with particular attention on mycotoxigenic species. To perform this, in 2013 and 2014 crust samples were scratched from ripening grana cheese wheels and also Potato Dextrose Agar plates were exposed to monitor ripening house air. Then, 140 fungal isolates were randomly chosen, purified and monosporic colonies were obtained for their identification at specie level. A polyphasic approach is followed, based on morphological characterisation, toxic extrolites profiling and gene sequencing. The identification is still in progress, but the first results based on the morphological approach showed the presence of mycotoxigenic Aspergilli (Aspergillus flavus and A. versicolor) and various Penicillium species; among them Penicillium chrysogenum, P. implicatum and P. solitum were identified. Only P. chrysogenum was reported to produce the mycotoxins cyclopiazonic acid (CPA) and roquefortine-C (ROQ-C) [4]. These results will be presented and discussed. [1] A. Biancardi, R. Piro, G. Galaverna, C. Dall’Asta, "A simple and reliable liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry method for determination of ochratoxin A in hard cheese" International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition 64 (5), 2013, 632 – 640. [2] International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) “IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans” 31, 1983, 191 – 199. [3] International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) “IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of carcinogenic Risks to Humans”, suppl. 7, 1987, 72. [4] J. I. Pitt, D. A. Hocking, “Fungi and Food Spoilage” 1997, 291.

Numerical modeling and assessment of the thermal environment in an industrial premise of automotive components

Dissertação de mestrado em Engenharia Industrial

Resilience of concrete structures in the marine environment through microstructural innovation

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia Civil

Communications with QoS in IoT&Cloud environment

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia de Telecomunicações e Informática