A systematic approach for externalities in occupational safety through the use of the delphi methodology

Ramos, D., Arezes, P. M., & Afonso, P. (2015). A systematic approach for externalities in occupational safety through the use of the delphi methodology. Paper presented at the Occupational Safety and Hygiene III - Selected Extended and Revised Contributions from the International Symposium on Safety and Hygiene.

Contribution of portuguese vernacular building strategies to indoor thermal comfort and occupants’ perception

Solar passive strategies that have been developed in vernacular architecture from different regions are a response to specific climate effects. These strategies are usually simple, low-tech and have low potential environmental impact. For this reason, several studies highlight them as having potential to reduce the demands of non-renewable energy for buildings operation. In this paper, the climatic contrast between northern and southern parts of mainland Portugal is presented, namely the regions of Beira Alta and Alentejo. Additionally, it discusses the contribution of different climate-responsive strategies developed in vernacular architecture from both regions to assure thermal comfort conditions. In Beira Alta, the use of glazed balconies as a strategy to capture solar gains is usual, while in Alentejo the focus is on passive cooling strategies. To understand the effectiveness of these strategies, thermal performances and comfort conditions of two case studies were evaluated based on the adaptive comfort model. Field tests included measurement of hygrothermal parameters and surveys on occupants’ thermal sensation. From the results, it has been found that the case studies have shown a good thermal performance by passive means alone and that the occupants feel comfortable, except during winter where there is the need to use simple heating systems.

Portuguese strengths and fragilities on safety and health practices

Despite improvements over the years, accidents continue to be a scourge in the construction sector, leading to an increase in the number of journal articles addressing the issue, in an attempt to help construction industry to increase safety performance [1]. This paper aims to, helping construction industry and particulary tunneling community, describe the Portuguese approach to most typical health and safety problems in underground excavations performed with the Sequential Excavation Method (SEM). The article will address various topics, from safety management and organizational practices, to collective and personal protection equipment, to emergency planning. nt problems in safety and health matters are similar to several other countries, the paper will expose a compilation of Portuguese best practices used to solve that problems. This enunciation of best practices describes experience from most important and recognized Project Owners and Contractors in Portugal. In a second phase it will be analysed Portuguese weaknesses, identifying preventive measures, and their comparative importance, that should be adopted in Portugal in order to reduce accidents and health diseases.

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.

Foreword [Occupational Safety and Hygiene III]

[Excerpt] This book is the third edition of this series of publications that are entitled “Occupational Safety and Hygiene”. The main contributions for this book were, once again, the works previously submitted and approved to be presented at the annual Symposium of the Portuguese Society of Occupational Safety and Hygiene (SPOSHO), which is celebrating its 11th edition in 2015. The SHO2015—International Symposium on Occupational Safety and Hygiene, similarly to the past seven years, was held in the School of Engineering at University of Minho in Guimarães, Portugal.

Occupational Safety and Hygiene SHO2015 - Proceedings book

Occupational Safety and Hygiene SHO2015 - Proceedings book

Tax compliance and tax complexity in Portugal: essays on the perception of tax professionals

Tese de Doutoramento em Contabilidade.

Distance perception in immersive environments: the role of photorealism

Immersive environments (IE) are being increasingly used in order to perform psychophysical experiments. The versatility in terms of stimuli presentation and control and the less time-consuming procedures are their greatest strengths. However, to ensure that IE results can be generalized to real world scenarios we must first provide evidence that performance in IE is quantitatively indistinguishable from performance in real-world. Our goal was to perceptually validate distance perception for CAVE-like IEs. Participants performed a Frontal Matching Distance Task (Durgin & Li, 2011) in three different conditions: real-world scenario (RWS); photorealistic IE (IEPH) and non-photorealistic IE (IENPH). Underestimation of distance was found across all the conditions, with a significant difference between the three conditions (Wilks’ Lambda = .38, F(2,134)= 110.8, p<.01, significant pairwise differences with p<.01). We found a mean error of 2.3 meters for the RWS, 5 meters for the IEPH, and of 6 meters for the IENPH in a pooled data set of 5 participants. Results indicate that while having a photorealistic IE with perspective and stereoscopic depth cues might not be enough to elicit a real-world performance in distance judgment tasks, nevertheless this type of environment minimizes the discrepancy between simulation and real-world when compared with non-photorealistic IEs.

Women’s perception of separation/divorce in Portugal: A sociodemographic profile

This article focuses on the personal experiences of Portuguese women regarding separation and divorce. The sample included 96 women, with at least 1 child, who responded to an inventory that addressed conflict, dysfunctional conjugality, emotional experiences, social support, and adaptation to divorce. Higher levels of conflict and marital dysfunction in litigious divorces were found, as well as more conflict when different lawyers were employed. Those women who were satisfied with alimony and visiting rights reported less conflict, fewer negative emotional experiences, and greater social support. Level of education and duration of separation influenced women’s perceptions. Implications for intervention are addressed.

Sinistralidade rodoviária e o marketing relacional: perspetivas de soluções mais eficazes no seu combate em Portugal

Dissertação de mestrado em Marketing e Estratégia

Estudo comparativo entre indicadores de desempenho da JCI e do Contrato Programa Cirurgia Segura

Dissertação de mestrado em Engenharia e Gestão da Qualidade

Development of a model for occupational risk acceptance criteria definition in industrial settings

Doctoral Dissertation for PhD degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering

Coordenação de segurança em obra: metodologia, técnicas e ferramentas

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia Civil

Investigations on relational control of time perception

Tese de Doutoramento em Psicologia Básica

Myocardial perfusion by contrast echocardiography. Establishment of normal pattern of intracoronary injection and safety in humans

OBJECTIVE: To establish the normal pattern and safety of echocardiographic contrast in patients with no significant obstruction of epicardial coronary arteries. METHODS: 67 patients with normal coronary arteries or obstructions < 50% were selected from 277 patients who underwent coronary angiography (CA). Mean age was 56 ± 11years and 36 were males. At the end CA, echocardiographic contrast was selectively injected into each coronary artery. The parasternal short axis of the left ventricle (LV) was divided into six segments: anterior (A), antero-lateral (AL), postero-lateral (PL), posterior (P), infero-septal (IS) and antero-septal (AS). Anterolateral (ALPM) and posteromedial papillary muscles (PMPM) were also considered. The pattern and intensity of the appearance of the myocardial contrast was visually analyzed. RESULTS: The right coronary artery (RCA) was dominant in 60 patients. Contrast appearance was sudden and simultaneous in the 3 muscle layers. All segments could be contrasted after the injection in both coronary arteries. 100% of the AS, A and AL segments, 97% of the PL and 98% of the ALPM were perfused by the left coronary artery (LCA). P and IS segments were perfused by the RCA in 85% and 82%, respectively, and by a dominant LCA in 71% of the cases. The PMPM was perfused by a dominant RCA in 77% and by a dominant LCA in 86%. There were no symptoms. CONCLUSION: Intracoronary injection of the sonicated solution is a safe procedure that allows for an excellent opacification of the myocardium and can potentially be used during routine CA.