Contribution of the evaluation strategy and the use of hearing protection for the uncertainty associated with occupational exposure to noise

Doctoral Thesis for PhD degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering

Benefits from energy related building renovation beyond costs, energy and emissions

The relevance of the building sector in the global energy use as well as in the global carbon emissions, both in the developed and developing countries, makes the improvement of the overall energy performance of existing buildings an important part of the actions to mitigate climate changes. Regardless of this potential for energy and emissions saving, large scale building renovation has been found hard to trigger, mainly because present standards are mainly focused on new buildings, not responding effectively to the numerous technical, functional and economic constraints of the existing ones. One of the common problems in the assessment of building renovation scenarios is that only energy savings and costs are normally considered, despite the fact that it has been long recognized that investment on energy efficiency and low carbon technologies yield several benefits beyond the value of saved energy which can be as important as the energy cost savings process. Based on the analysis of significant literature and several case studies, the relevance of co-benefits achieved in the renovation process is highlighted. These benefits can be felt at the building level by the owner or user (like increased user comfort, fewer problems with building physics, improved aesthetics) and should therefore be considered in the definition of the renovation measures, but also at the level of the society as a whole (like health effects, job creation, energy security, impact on climate change), and from this perspective, policy makers must be aware of the possible crossed impacts among different areas of the society for the development of public policies.

Racionalização e redução de custos das TIC na Administração Pública: o caso da PSP

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia e Gestão de Sistemas de Informação

Controlo de qualidade e inspeção visual por imagem: definição de uma aplicação para registo de alterações e avaliação de desempenho

Dissertação de mestrado em Engenharia e Gestão da Qualidade

From perfect strangers to research partners: a study of relationships, resource sharing and perceived benefits within R&D cooperation networks

Doctoral thesis in Marketing and Strategy.

Benefits of exercise training in the treatment of heart failure: study with a control group

OBJECTIVE: Exercise training programs have been proposed as adjuncts to treatment of heart failure. The effects of a 3-month-exercise-training-program with 3 exercise sessions per week were assessed in patients with stable systolic chronic heart failure. METHODS: We studied 24 patients with final left ventricle diastolic diameter of 70±10mm and left ventricular ejection fraction of 37±4%. Mean age was 52±16 years. Twelve patients were assigned to an exercise training group (G1), and 12 patients were assigned to a control group (G2). Patients underwent treadmill testing, before and after exercise training, to assess distance walked, heart rate, systolic blood pressure, and double product. RESULTS: In G2 group, before and after 3 months, we observed, respectively distance walked, 623±553 and 561± 460m (ns); peak heart rate, 142±23 and 146± 33b/min (ns); systolic blood pressure, 154±36 and 164±26 mmHg (ns); and double product, 22211± 6454 and 24293±7373 (ns). In G1 group, before and after exercise, we observed: distance walked, 615±394 and 970± 537m (p<0.003) peak heart rate, 143±24 and 143±29b/min (ns); systolic blood pressure, 136±33 and 133±24 mmHg (ns); and double product, 19907± 7323 and 19115±5776, respectively. Comparing the groups, a significant difference existed regarding the variation in the double product, and in distance walked. CONCLUSION: Exercise training programs in patients with heart failure can bring about an improvement in physical capacity.

Energy from waste (EfW): a feasibility study on the economic and the environmental co-benefits of biogas production within rural communities

Energy from waste (E/W) technologies in the form o f biogas plants, CHP plants and other municipal solid waste (MSW) conversion technologies, have been gaining steady ground in the provision o f energy throughout Europe and the UK. Urban Waste Water Treatment Plants (UWWTP) are utilising much o f the same biochemical processes common to these E/W plants. Previous studies on Centralised Anaerobic Digestion (CAD) within Ireland found that the legislative and economic conditions were not conducive to such an operation on the grounds o f low energy price for electric and heat energy, and due to the restrictive nature o f the allowable feedstocks. Recent changes to the Irish REFIT tariff on energy produced from Anaerobic digestion; alterations to the regulation o f the allowable use o f animal by products(ABP); the recent enactment o f the Renewable Energy D irective (09/28/EC) and a subsequent review o f the draft Biowaste Directive (2001) required that the issue o f decentralised energy production in Ireland be reassessed. In this instance the feasibility study is based on a extant rural community, centred around the village o f Woodford Co Galway. The review found that the prevailing conditions were now such that it was technically and economically feasible for this biochemical process to provide energy and waste treatment facilities at the above location. The review also outlines the last item which is preventing this process from becoming achievable, specifically the lack o f a digestate regulation on land spreading which deals specifically with biowaste. The study finds that the implementation o f the draft EU biowaste regulations, with amendments for Cr and Hg levels to match the proposed Irish regulation for compost, would ensure that Ireland has some o f the most restrictive regulations in Europe for this application. The delay in completing this piece o f legislation is preventing national energy and waste issues from being resolved in a planned and stepwise fashion. A proposed lay out for the new Integrated Waste from Energy Plant (IW/EP) is presented. Budget economic projections and alternative revenue streams are outlined. Finally a review o f the national policies regarding the Rural Development Plan (RDP), the Rural Planning Guidelines (RPG) and the National Renewable Energy Action Plan (NREAP) are examined against the relevant EU directives.

The Benefits of Prone SPECT Myocardial Perfusion Imaging in Reducing Both Artifact Defects and Patient Radiation Exposure

AbstractBackground:Prone imaging has been demonstrated to minimize diaphragmatic and breast tissue attenuation.Objectives:To determine the role of prone imaging on the reduction of unnecessary rest perfusion studies and coronary angiographies performed, thus decreasing investigation time and radiation exposure.Methods:We examined 139 patients, 120 with an inferior wall and 19 with an anterior wall perfusion defect that might represented attenuation artifact. Post-stress images were acquired in both the supine and prone position. Coronary angiography was used as the “gold standard” for evaluating coronary artery patency. The study was terminated and rest imaging was obviated in the presence of complete improvement of the defect in the prone position. Quantitative interpretation was performed. Results were compared with clinical data and coronary angiographic findings.Results:Prone acquisition correctly revealed defect improvement in 89 patients (89/120) with inferior wall and 12 patients (12/19) with anterior wall attenuation artifact. Quantitative analysis demonstrated statistically significant difference in the mean summed stress scores (SSS) of supine and mean SSS of prone studies in patients with disappearing inferior wall defect in the prone position and patent right coronary artery (true negative results). The mean difference between SSS in supine and in prone position was higher with disappearing than with remaining defects.Conclusion:Technetium-99m (Tc-99m) tetrofosmin myocardial perfusion imaging with the patient in the prone position overcomes soft tissue attenuation; moreover it provides an inexpensive, accurate approach to limit the number of unnecessary rest perfusion studies and coronary angiographies performed.

The Benefits of building barrier-free: a contingent valuation of accessibilty as an attribute of housing

Estimating the social benefits of barrier-free building has always required indirect solutions, such as calculating the savings in social services, hospitalisation or adaptations made possible by the increase in accessibility. This research uses the Contingent Valuation Method to gain a direct appraisal of the benefits from barrier-free housing. When comparing two similar dwellings, with the only difference being their accessibility conditions, the 1,007 randomly chosen households that answered the direct survey would pay, on average 12.5 per cent more for being barrier-free. None of the different appraisals made on accessibility costs reaches 5 per cent. This confirms the social profitability of building without barriers and shows the potential size of the private market for those housing developers that meet the demand. Accessibility is a general concern, an economic good or attribute that most households value, irrespective of the physical conditions of their members.

The vertical dispersión of Anopheles (Kerteszia) cruzi in a forest in southern Brazil suggests that human cases of malaria of simian origin might be expected

By staining females of Anopheles cruzi with fluorescent coloured powders in a forest in the State of Santa Catarina, we showed that they move from canopy to ground and vice-versa to feed. This suggests that in areas where this mosquito is a vector of human and simian malarias sporadic infections of man with monkey plasmodia might be expected.

Inbreeding avoidance through kin recognition: choosy females boost male dispersal.

Inbreeding avoidance is predicted to induce sex biases in dispersal. But which sex should disperse? In polygynous species, females pay higher costs to inbreeding and thus might be expected to disperse more, but empirical evidence consistently reveals male biases. Here, we show that theoretical expectations change drastically if females are allowed to avoid inbreeding via kin recognition. At high inbreeding loads, females should prefer immigrants over residents, thereby boosting male dispersal. At lower inbreeding loads, by contrast, inclusive fitness benefits should induce females to prefer relatives, thereby promoting male philopatry. This result points to disruptive effects of sexual selection. The inbreeding load that females are ready to accept is surprisingly high. In absence of search costs, females should prefer related partners as long as delta<r/(1+r) where r is relatedness and delta is the fecundity loss relative to an outbred mating. This amounts to fitness losses up to one-fifth for a half-sib mating and one-third for a full-sib mating, which lie in the upper range of inbreeding depression values currently reported in natural populations. The observation of active inbreeding avoidance in a polygynous species thus suggests that inbreeding depression exceeds this threshold in the species under scrutiny or that inbred matings at least partly forfeit other mating opportunities for males. Our model also shows that female choosiness should decline rapidly with search costs, stemming from, for example, reproductive delays. Species under strong time constraints on reproduction should thus be tolerant of inbreeding.

Parental Leave and Mothers' Careers: The Relative Importance of Job Protection and Cash Benefits

Job protection and cash benefits are key elements of parental leave (PL) systems. We study how these two policy instruments affect return-to-work and medium-run labour market outcomes of mothers of newborn children. Analysing a series of major PL policy changes in Austria, we find that longer cash benefits lead to a significant delay in return-to-work, particularly so in the period that is job-protected. Prolonged parental leave absence induced by these policy changes does not appear to hurt mothers' labour market outcomes in the medium run. We build a non-stationary model of job search after childbirth to isolate the role of the two policy instruments. The model matches return-to-work and return to same employer profiles under the various factual policy configurations. Counterfactual policy simulations indicate that a system that combines cash with protection dominates other systems in generating time for care immediately after birth while maintaining mothers' medium-run labour market attachment.

Is sociality driven by the costs of dispersal or the benefits of philopatry? A role for kin-discrimination mechanisms.

The role of ecological constraints in promoting sociality is currently much debated. Using a direct-fitness approach, we show this role to depend on the kin-discrimination mechanisms underlying social interactions. Altruism cannot evolve under spatially based discrimination, unless ecological constraints prevent complete dispersal. Increasing constraints enhances both the proportion of philopatric (and thereby altruistic) individuals and the level of altruistic investments conceded in pairwise interactions. Familiarity-based discrimination, by contrast, allows philopatry and altruism to evolve at significant levels even in the absence of ecological constraints. Increasing constraints further enhances the proportion of philopatric (and thereby altruistic) individuals but not the level of altruism conceded. Ecological constraints are thus more likely to affect social evolution in species in which restricted cognitive abilities, large group size, and/or limited period of associative learning force investments to be made on the basis of spatial cues.