Monitoring development and human rights?: a project for handling the challenge

Includes bibliography

Preliminary risk analysis applied to the handling of health-care waste

Between 75% and 90% of the waste produced by health-care providers no risk or is "general" health-care waste, comparable to domestic waste. The remaining 10-25% of health-care waste is regarded as hazardous due to one or more of the following characteristics: it may contain infectious agents, sharps, toxic or hazardous chemicals or it may be radioactive. Infectious health-care waste, particularly sharps, has been responsible for most of the accidents reported in the literature. In this work the preliminary risks analysis (PRA) technique was used to evaluate practices in the handling of infectious health-care waste. Currently the PRA technique is being used to identify and to evaluate the potential for hazard of the activities, products, and services from facilities and industries. The system studied was a health-care establishment which has handling practices for infectious waste. Thirty-six procedures related to segregation, containment, internal collection, and storage operation were analyzed. The severity of the consequences of the failure (risk) that can occur from careless management of infectious health-care waste was classified into four categories: negligible, marginal, critical, and catastrophic. The results obtained in this study showed that events with critics consequences, about 80%, may occur during the implementation of the containment operation, suggesting the need to prioritize this operation. As a result of the methodology applied in this work, a flowchart the risk series was also obtained. In the flowchart the events that can occur as a consequence of a improper handling of infectious health-care waste, which can cause critical risks such as injuries from sharps and contamination (infection) from pathogenic microorganisms, are shown.

30° inclination in handles of plastic boxes can reduce postural and muscular workload during handling

CONTEXTUALIZAÇÃO:O manuseio de materiais está ainda presente nos setores industriais e é associado a lesões na coluna lombar e membros superiores. A inserção de alças em caixas industriais é uma forma de reduzir os riscos relacionados à tarefa, porém a posição e a angulação das alças, que são fatores importantes para o conforto e segurança durante o manuseio, são ainda pouco investigadas objetivamente.OBJETIVOS:Comparar o manuseio de uma caixa comercial e de protótipos com alças e avaliar seus efeitos na postura de membros superiores, atividade elétrica muscular e percepção de agradabilidade em diferentes empunhaduras durante manuseio entre diferentes alturas.MÉTODO:Trinta e sete voluntários saudáveis avaliaram as alças dos protótipos que possibilitavam mudança nas posições (superior e inferior) e angulações (0°, 15° e 30º). Os movimentos dos punhos, cotovelos e ombros foram avaliados por meio da eletrogoniometria e inclinometria. A atividade elétrica muscular dos extensores do punho, bíceps braquial e porção superior do trapézio foi avaliada por um eletromiógrafo portátil. Os registros de movimento e atividade elétrica muscular foram sincronizados. Aspectos subjetivos de agradabilidade foram avaliados por meio de uma escala visual analógica.RESULTADOS E CONCLUSÕES:Os protótipos com alças inclinadas em 30° apresentaram as melhores avaliações de agradabilidade, posturas mais neutras de punho, menores níveis de atividade eletromiográfica do trapézio superior e menores ângulos de elevação dos braços. Os diferentes métodos de medida se mostraram complementares para a avaliação dos membros superiores durante as tarefas de manuseio.

Easily handling penicillin G acylase magnetic cross-linked enzymes aggregates: Catalytic and morphological studies

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Vocal complaint in physical education teachers and its association with the cardiovascular system

Background: We examined the vocal complaints and evaluated the correlation between the vocal handicap index (VHI) and heart rate variability (HRV) in physical education teachers. We evaluated 46 teachers. Method: The subjects were investigated regarding voice complaint and the VHI was applied. HRV was recorded at seated rest for ten minutes and it was analyzed in the time, frequency domains, geometric indices and fractal exponents. The three domains of the VHI were correlated with the indices of HRV. Results: The physical education teachers presented a VHI score much below the standard of the physiological normality. There was correlation of the organic domain of the VHI with the NN50 and pNN50 and correlation of the functional domain and organic domain of the VHI with the HF index of HRV. Conclusion: The physical education teachers evaluated reported vocal complaints that affected their function and it is suggested to be related with the cardiac autonomic regulation.

Long-term obesity promotes alterations in diastolic function induced by reduction of phospholamban phosphorylation at serine-16 without affecting calcium handling

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

BILL E. KUNKLE INTERDISCIPLINARY BEEF SYMPOSIUM: Temperament and acclimation to human handling influence growth, health, and reproductive responses in Bos taurus and Bos indicus cattle

Temperament in cattle is defined as the fear-related behavioral responses when exposed to human handling. Our group evaluates cattle temperament using 1) chute score on a 1 to 5 scale that increases according to excitable behavior during restraint in a squeeze chute, 2) exit velocity (speed of an animal exiting the squeeze chute), 3) exit score (dividing cattle according to exit velocity into quintiles using a 1 to 5 scale where 1 = cattle in the slowest quintile and 5 = cattle in the fastest quintile), and 4) temperament score (average of chute and exit scores). Subsequently, cattle are assigned a temperament type of adequate temperament (ADQ; temperament score <= 3) or excitable temperament (EXC; temperament score > 3). To assess the impacts of temperament on various beef production systems, our group associated these evaluation criteria with productive, reproductive, and health characteristics of Bos taurus and Bos indicus-influenced cattle. As expected, EXC cattle had greater plasma cortisol vs. ADQ cattle during handling, independent of breed type (B. indicus x B. taurus, P < 0.01; B. taurus, P < 0.01; B. indicus, P = 0.04) or age (cows, P < 0.01; heifers or steers, P < 0.01). In regards to reproduction, EXC females had reduced annual pregnancy rates vs. ADQ cohorts across breed types (B. taurus, P = 0.03; B. indicus, P = 0.05). Moreover, B. taurus EXC cows also had decreased calving rate (P = 0.04), weaning rate (P = 0.09), and kilograms of calf weaned/cow exposed to breeding (P = 0.08) vs. ADQ cohorts. In regards to feedlot cattle, B. indicus EXC steers had reduced ADG (P = 0.02) and G:F (P = 0.03) during a 109-d finishing period compared with ADQ cohorts. Bos taurus EXC cattle had reduced weaning BW (P = 0.04), greater acute-phase protein response on feedlot entry (P <= 0.05), impaired feedlot receiving ADG (P = 0.05), and reduced carcass weight (P = 0.07) vs. ADQ cohorts. Acclimating B. indicus x B. taurus or B. taurus heifers to human handling improved temperament (P <= 0.02), reduced plasma cortisol (P < 0.01), and hastened puberty attainment (P <= 0.02). However, no benefits were observed when mature cows or feeder cattle were acclimated to human handling. In conclusion, temperament impacts productive, reproductive, and health characteristics of beef cattle independent of breed type. Hence, strategies to improve herd temperament are imperative for optimal production efficiency of beef operations based on B. taurus and B. indicus-influenced cattle.

Early human handling in non-weaned piglets: Effects on behaviour and body weight

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Impact of the temperament of Nellore cows on the quality of handling and pregnancy rates in fixed-time artificial insemination

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Gestational protein malnutrition impairs c-myc and p63 protein expression, increases prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia incidence and prostatitis aggressiveness in adult male offspring subjected to hormonal handling

Background: Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer diagnosed in men; however its etiology remains unknown. Previous studies have shown that environmental adverse factors, such as maternal nutritional status during pregnancy, can influence fetal development and predispose people to diseases in adult life. The feeding of low-protein diets to pregnant rats result in fetal growth disturbance, androgen/estrogen unbalance and changes in the expression and sensibility of hormone receptors in male offspring. These alterations can promote permanent changes in androgen dependent organs, such as in the prostate. In this sense, we hypothesized that the hormonal unbalance that occurs during aging can lead to an increase in the susceptibility to prostatic disorders. Aim: To evaluate our hypothesis, malnourished male rat offspring were submitted to simultaneous estrogen and testosterone exposure in adulthood, to drive lesions in the rat ventral prostate gland (VP). Methods: 17 week-old Wistar rats (n=48) that received in utero normal protein diet (NP group, AIN93G=17% protein) or low protein diet (RP group, AIN93G modified=6% protein) were given implants with 17β-estradiol plus testosterone administration (NPH and RPH groups) for 17 weeks. The animals were killed at the age of 34 weeks and the VP were excised, weighted and processed for histopathological, immunohistochemical (Ki67, AR, p63, e-caderin, laminin, c-myc and GSTP), biochemical and ultrastructural analysis. Results: Both absolute and relative VP weight from NPH animals were about 30% higher than RPH. Serological data showed that estradiol levels were similar in both groups, but testosterone levels were lower in the RPH male offspring. The steroid hormone exposure in adult life promoted prostate lesions in both RPH and NPH offspring associated with reactive stroma. VP from RPH group exhibited heightened susceptibility to prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (mainly cribriform and signet ring-cell patterns) and increased the incidence and aggressiveness of prostatitis. In this group, a higher proportion of basal cells, increased proliferation index, lower expression ofthe androgen receptor and increased focus of collagenous micronodules closely associated to epithelial neoplasias were also observed. Conclusion:These observations suggest that maternal protein restriction alters adult prostate response to androgen/estrogen handling and increases susceptibility to prostate diseases. Ethical protocol:CEEA,476/2013 IBB-UNESP; Funding Support: 2009/50204-6 and 2013/09649-0.

Sister chromatid exchanges and chromosome aberrations in lymphocytes of nurses handling antineoplastic drugs

Chromosomal aberrations (CA) and sister-chromatid exchanges (SCE) were investigated in peripheral lymphocytes of 15 nurses and nurse's aides handling cytostatic agents in hospital oncology units. Significantly increased frequencies were noted for both CA and SCE rates when the exposed individuals were compared with 15 nurses working in other hospital units and to a control sample matched by sex and age. This points to the need for emphasizing protective measures in the handling of anti-neoplastic agents.