Trace metals in size-fractionated particulate matter in a Portuguese hospital: exposure risks assessment and comparisons with other countries

Hospitals are considered as a special and important type of indoor public place where air quality has significant impacts on potential health outcomes. Information on indoor air quality of these environments, concerning exposures to particulate matter (PM) and related toxicity, is limited though. This work aims to evaluate risks associated with inhalation exposure to ten toxic metals and chlorine (As, Ni, Cr, Cd, Pb, Mn, Se, Ba, Al, Si, and Cl) in coarse (PM2.5–10) and fine (PM2.5) particles in a Portuguese hospital in comparison with studies representative of other countries. Samples were collected during 1 month in one urban hospital; elemental PM characterization was determined by proton-induced X-ray emission. Noncarcinogenic and carcinogenic risks were assessed according to the methodology provided by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA; Region III Risk-Based Concentration Table) for three different age categories of hospital personnel (adults, >20, and <65 years) and patients (considering nine different age groups, i.e., children of 1–3 years to seniors of >65 years). The estimated noncarcinogenic risks due to occupational inhalation exposure to PM2.5-bound metals ranged from 5.88×10−6 for Se (adults, 55–64 years) to 9.35×10−1 for As (adults, 20–24 years) with total noncarcinogenic risks (sum of all metals) above the safe level for all three age categories. As and Cl (the latter due to its high abundances) were the most important contributors (approximately 90 %) to noncarcinogenic risks. For PM2.5–10, noncarcinogenic risks of all metals were acceptable to all age groups. Concerning carcinogenic risks, for Ni and Pb, they were negligible (<1×10−6) in both PM fractions for all age groups of hospital personnel; potential risks were observed for As and Cr with values in PM2.5 exceeding (up to 62 and 5 times, respectively) USEPA guideline across all age groups; for PM2.5–10, increased excess risks of As and Cr were observed particularly for long-term exposures (adults, 55–64 years). Total carcinogenic risks highly (up to 67 times) exceeded the recommended level for all age groups, thus clearly showing that occupational exposure to metals in fine particles pose significant risks. If the extensive working hours of hospital medical staff were considered, the respective noncarcinogenic and carcinogenic risks were increased, the latter for PM2.5 exceeding the USEPA cumulative guideline of 10−4. For adult patients, the estimated noncarcinogenic and carcinogenic risks were approximately three times higher than for personnel, with particular concerns observed for children and adolescents.

A cellulosic liquid crystal pool for cellulose nanocrystals: structure and molecular dynamics at high shear rates

Cellulose and its derivatives, such as hydroxypropylcellulose (HPC) have been studied for a long time but they are still not well understood particularly in liquid crystalline solutions. These systems can be at the origin of networks with properties similar to liquid crystalline (LC) elastomers. The films produced from LC solutions can be manipulated by the action of moisture allowing for instance the development of a soft motor (Geng et al., 2013) driven by humidity. Cellulose nanocrystals (CNC), which combine cellulose properties with the specific characteristics of nanoscale materials, have been mainly studied for their potential as a reinforcing agent. Suspensions of CNC can also self-order originating a liquid-crystalline chiral nematic phases. Considering the liquid crystalline features that both LC-HPC and CNC can acquire, we prepared LC-HPC/CNC solutions with different CNC contents (1,2 and 5 wt.%). The effect of the CNC into the LC-HPC matrix was determined by coupling rheology and NMR spectroscopy - Rheo-NMR a technique tailored to analyse orientational order in sheared systems. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Size matters when we talk about corporate social responsibility: the case of portuguese companies

Social responsibility arises as a measure of the corporate policy that goes beyond the production activity, thus covering also the social and environmental activities. This issue has been gaining importance over time. The number of companies that are implementing socially responsible actions has been growing steadily even though it is still centered on large and medium sized companies. Social responsibility is an accessible theme to any company of any size, once the social and environmental issues are resolved through concrete actions, but in the small and micro-sized companies there are factors that inhibit such actions. Some of these factors are: reduced investment capacity; minimal expectations of medium to long term returns; or even the short-term management focus that is aimed at survival. Such facts can be verified in the case of Portuguese companies, where out of the 41 companies certified by SA 8000 only 5 are micro-sized or small and even these are linked to large organizations.

Elspot: Nord Pool Spot Integration in MASCEM Electricity Market Simulator

The energy sector in industrialized countries has been restructured in the last years, with the purpose of decreasing electricity prices through the increase in competition, and facilitating the integration of distributed energy resources. However, the restructuring process increased the complexity in market players' interactions and generated emerging problems and new issues to be addressed. In order to provide players with competitive advantage in the market, decision support tools that facilitate the study and understanding of these markets become extremely useful. In this context arises MASCEM (Multi-Agent Simulator of Competitive Electricity Markets), a multi-agent based simulator that models real electricity markets. To reinforce MASCEM with the capability of recreating the electricity markets reality in the fullest possible extent, it is crucial to make it able to simulate as many market models and player types as possible. This paper presents a new negotiation model implemented in MASCEM based on the negotiation model used in day-ahead market (Elspot) of Nord Pool. This is a key module to study competitive electricity markets, as it presents well defined and distinct characteristics from the already implemented markets, and it is a reference electricity market in Europe (the one with the larger amount of traded power).

A Real Time Vision System for Autonomous Systems: Characterization during a Middle Size Match

in RoboCup 2007: Robot Soccer World Cup XI

Design of the ISePorto robocup Middle-Size League Robotic Soccer Team: Control, Localisation and Coordination

Proceedings of the 10th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation - MED2002 Lisbon, Portugal, July 9-12, 2002

Utilization of Quality Tools: does sector and size matter?

This research focuses on the influence of company sector and size on the level of utilization of Basic and Advanced Quality Tools. The paper starts with a literature review and then presents the methodology used for the survey. Based on the responses from 202 managers of Portuguese ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System certified organizations, statistical tests were performed. Results show, with 95% confidence level, that industry and services have a similar proportion of use of Basic and Advanced Quality Tools. Concerning size, bigger companies show a higher trend to use Advanced Quality Tools than smaller ones. For Basic Quality Tools, there was no statistical significant difference at a 95% confidence level for different company sizes. The three basic Quality tools with higher utilization were Check sheets, Flow charts and Histograms (for Services) or Control Charts/ (for Industry), however 22% of the surveyed organizations reported not using Basic Quality Tools, which highlights a major improvement opportunity for these companies. Additional studies addressing motivations, benefits and barriers for Quality Tools application should be undertaken for further validation and understanding of these results.

Comprehensive treatments for social cognitive deficits in schizophrenia: A critical review and effect-size analysis of controlled studies

Recent advances in psychosocial treatments for schizophrenia have targeted social cognitive deficits. A critical literature review and effect-size (ES) analysis was conducted to investigate the efficacy of comprehensive programs of social cognitive training in schizophrenia. Results revealed 16 controlled studies consisting of seven models of comprehensive treatment with only three of these treatment models investigated in more than one study. The effects of social cognitive training were reported in 11/15 studies that included facial affect recognition skills (ES=.84) and 10/13 studies that included theory-of-mind (ES=.70) as outcomes. Less than half (4/9) of studies that measured attributional style as an outcome reported effects of treatment, but effect sizes across studies were significant (ESs=.30-.52). The effect sizes for symptoms were modest, but, with the exception of positive symptoms, significant (ESs=.32-.40). The majority of trials were randomized (13/16), selected active control conditions (11/16) and included at least 30 participants (12/16). Concerns for this area of research include the absence of blinded outcome raters in more than 50% of trials and low rates of utilization of procedures for maintaining treatment fidelity. These findings provide preliminary support for the broader use of comprehensive social cognitive training procedures as a psychosocial intervention for schizophrenia.

Cournot model with investments to change the market size

We present a new deterministic dynamical model on the market size of Cournot competitions, based on Nash equilibria of R&D investment strategies to increase the size of the market of the firms at every period of the game. We compute the unique Nash equilibrium for the second subgame and the profit functions for both firms. Adding uncertainty to the R&D investment strategies, we get a new stochastic dynamical model and we analyse the importance of the uncertainty to reverse the initial advantage of one firm with respect to the other.

DISTINCT CELLULAR MIGRATION INDUCED BY Leishmania infantum chagasi AND SALIVA FROM Lutzomyia longipalpis IN A HEMORRHAGIC POOL MODEL

Recruitment of a specific cell population after Leishmania infection can influence the outcome of the disease. Cellular migration in response to Leishmania or vector saliva has been reported in air pouch model, however, cellular migration induced by Leishmania associated with host's blood and vector saliva in this model has not been described. Herein we investigated cellular migration into air pouch of hamster after stimulation with combination of L. chagasi and host's blood and Lutzomyia longipalpis saliva. Migration induced by saliva was 3-fold more than those induced by L. chagasi alone. Additionally, L. chagasi associated with blood and saliva induced significantly even more leukocytes into air pouch than Leishmania alone. L. chagasi recruited a diverse cell population; however, most of these cells seem to have not migrated to the inflammatory exudate, remaining in the pouch lining tissue. These results indicate that L. chagasi can reduce leukocyte accumulation to the initial site of infection, and when associated with vector saliva in the presence of blood components, increase the influx of more neutrophils than macrophages, suggesting that the parasite has developed a strategy to minimize the initial inflammatory response, allowing an unlimited progression within the host. This work reinforces the importance of studies on the salivary components of sand fly vectors of leishmaniasis in the transmission process and the establishment of the infection.

PATHOGENICITY OF Blastocystis sp. TO THE GASTROINTESTINAL TRACT OF MICE: RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INOCULUM SIZE AND PERIOD OF INFECTION

The pathogenic potential of Blastocystis sp. in experimental models requires further investigation. In this work, the pathogenicity of this parasite in the gastrointestinal tract of male Swiss mice was evaluated according to the inoculum size and period of infection. Animals were infected intragastrically, with 100, 500, 1,000, 5,000 and 10,000 Blastocystis sp. vacuolar forms obtained from a mixture of eight human isolates cultured axenically in Jones' medium. After seven, 14, 21, 28 and 60 days of infection, the animals were sacrificed and fragments of the small intestine (duodenum), large intestine, and cecum were subjected to histopathological analysis. Blastocystis sp. triggered an inflammatory response in the different tissues analyzed, with a predominance of mononuclear cells. The parasite was found in the muscular layer of the cecum, showing its invasive character. Larger inocula triggered inflammatory processes earlier (seven days) than smaller ones (from 21 days). We conclude that, in the proposed model, the pathogenicity of Blastocystis sp. isolates that were studied is related to inoculum size and period of infection.

LIVER BIOPSY: IMPORTANCE OF SPECIMEN SIZE IN THE DIAGNOSIS AND STAGING OF CHRONIC VIRAL HEPATITIS

Liver biopsy is the gold standard method for the grading and staging of chronic viral hepatitis, but optimal biopsy specimen size remains controversial. The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of liver specimen (number of portal tracts) and to evaluate the impact of the number of portal tracts in the staging of chronic hepatitis. Material and Methods: 468 liver biopsies from consecutive patients with hepatitis C virus and hepatitis B virus infection from 2009 to 2010 were evaluated. Results: The length of fragment was less than 10 mm in 43 cases (9.3%), between 10 and 14 mm in 114 (24.3%), and ≥ 15 mm in 311 (64.4%); of these, in 39 (8.3%) cases were ≥ 20 mm. The mean representation of portal tracts was 17.6 ± 2.1 (5-40); in specimens ≥ 15 mm the mean portal tract was 13.5 ± 4.7 and in cases ≤ 15 mm was 11.4 ± 5.0 (p = 0.002). Cases with less than 11 portal tracts were associated with F3, and cases with 11 or more portal tracts with F2 (p = 0.001). Conclusion: this study demonstrated the good quality of liver biopsy and a relationship between the macroscopic size of the fragment and the number of portal tracts.