Mitigating the impact of occupational noise exposure for elderly workers: Setting the functional requirements for an ANC system

Noise affects people in very different aspects and in almost every aspect of our daily life. The most prominent impact of noise exposure is hearing loss. However, it can also impair people at their work settings due to other effects rather than hearing loss. Older works tend to be more susceptible to noise exposure effects at work, firstly because most of them already have some ‘natural’ hearing loss, as a results of the ageing process, and secondly because they also tend to be more susceptible at an psychological level. The current study is an attempt to describe the potential problem and to make a survey to identify the available active noise cancelation systems, as well as to specific the main requirements of this type of systems to be applied in such contexts. Several aspects of characteristics of the ANC systems were identified and are presented in this study. From the obtained results it was possible to have a clearer idea about the potential of this technology, and to confirm that this type of solution can be extremely important as a component of an active ageing program, as the preservation of hearing will also impact on the social life of the exposed workers.

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

Promoting sustainability as a strategy to mitigate the effects of economic downturn on the construction industry

During the recent years followed by the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), most of business and industries around the globe have been hardly hit to the limit that it still struggling to survive, suffering from the crisis financial consequences. For instance, in the construction industry; many construction projects have been suspended or totally cancelled. Nevertheless, among this dilemma, a call has been raised to use the sustainable practices to mitigate the effects of the GFC on construction industry. For the first look, it seems that there is contradiction since the sustainable solutions are often associated with an increase in the initial cost, undoubtedly, the sustainable practices have many advantages in both economic and environment aspects, however, the question which needs to be addressed here is, to what extent using such sustainable practices can mitigate the negative effects of the economic downturn on construction industry. Therefore, it is a challenging argument for using such sustainable construction from its economic perspective, however, this paper is aiming to present the economical benefits of sustainable practices in construction industry, and trying to clear the doubt of the high initial costs of the sustainable construction through studying the life cycle benefit of green building.

Quality costs analysis: case study in the automotive industry

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia e Gestão Industrial

Innovation in the portuguese footwear industry

Proceedings da AUTEX 2015, Bucareste, Roménia.

Innovation in “low-tech” industries: Portuguese footwear industry

ICEIM – International Conference in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, Roma, 17-18 de setembro de 2015.

Modelling tyre-road noise with data mining techniques

The research aimed to establish tyre-road noise models by using a Data Mining approach that allowed to build a predictive model and assess the importance of the tested input variables. The data modelling took into account three learning algorithms and three metrics to define the best predictive model. The variables tested included basic properties of pavement surfaces, macrotexture, megatexture, and uneven- ness and, for the first time, damping. Also, the importance of those variables was measured by using a sensitivity analysis procedure. Two types of models were set: one with basic variables and another with complex variables, such as megatexture and damping, all as a function of vehicles speed. More detailed models were additionally set by the speed level. As a result, several models with very good tyre-road noise predictive capacity were achieved. The most relevant variables were Speed, Temperature, Aggregate size, Mean Profile Depth, and Damping, which had the highest importance, even though influenced by speed. Megatexture and IRI had the lowest importance. The applicability of the models developed in this work is relevant for trucks tyre-noise prediction, represented by the AVON V4 test tyre, at the early stage of road pavements use. Therefore, the obtained models are highly useful for the design of pavements and for noise prediction by road authorities and contractors.

The impact of urban noise on primary schools: perceptive evaluation and objective assessment

This paper aims to assess the impact of environmental noise in the vicinity of primary schools and to analyze its influence in the workplace and in student performance through perceptions and objective evaluation. The subjective evaluation consisted of the application of questionnaires to students and teachers, and the objective assessment consisted of measuring in situ noise levels. The survey covered nine classes located in three primary schools. Statistical Package for Social Sciences was used for data processing and to draw conclusions. Additionally, the relationship of the difference between environmental and background noise levels of each classroom and students with difficulties in hearing the teacherâ s voice was examined. Noise levels in front of the school, the schoolyard, and the most noise-exposed classrooms (occupied and unoccupied) were measured. Indoor noise levels were much higher than World Health Organization (WHO) recommended values: LAeq,30min averaged 70.5 dB(A) in occupied classrooms, and 38.6 dB(A) in unoccupied ones. Measurements of indoor and outdoor noise suggest that noise from the outside (road, schoolyard) affects the background noise level in classrooms but in varying degrees. It was concluded that the façades most exposed to road traffic noise are subjected to values higher than 55.0 dB(A), and noise levels inside the classrooms are mainly due to the schoolyard, students, and the road traffic. The difference between background (LA95,30min) and the equivalent noise levels (LAeq,30min) in occupied classrooms was 19.2 dB(A), which shows that studentsâ activities are a significant source of classroom noise.

Antibiofilm strategies in the food industry

Biofilms in food processing plants represent not only a problem to human health but also cause economic losses by technical failure in several systems. In fact, many foodborne outbreaks have been found to be associated with biofilms. Biofilms may be prevented by regular cleaning and disinfection, but this does not completely prevent biofilm formation. Besides, due to their diversity and to the development of specialized phenotypes, it is well known that biofilms are more resistant to cleaning and disinfection than planktonic microorganisms. In recent years, a considerable effort has been made in the prevention of microbial adhesion and biofilm formation on food processing surfaces and novel technologies have been introduced. In this context, this chapter discusses the main conventional and emergent strategies that have been employed to prevent bacterial adhesion to food processing surfaces and thus to efficiently maintain good hygiene throughout the food industries.

Introduction [to Food Safety in the Seafood Industry: A practical guide for ISO 22000 and FSSC 22000 implementation]

The prelims comprise: * Half-Title Page * Dedication Page * Title Page * Copyright Page * Table of Contents * Foreword * Acknowledgements * Disclaimer * Introduction

Noise mapping for an urban area: study case: old city of Damascus, Syria

Dissertação de mestrado em Engenharia Urbana

How does banking industry influence economic growth in Latin American countries?

Mestrado em Finanças

Impact of wind power generation on the electricity supply industry

The objective of this dissertation is to investigate the effect wind energy has on the Electricity Supply Industry in Ireland. Wind power generation is a source of renewable energy that is in abundant supply in Ireland and is fast becoming a resource that Ireland is depending on as a diverse and secure of supply of energy. However, wind is an intermittent resource and coupled with a variable demand, there are integration issues with balancing demand and supply effectively. To maintain a secure supply of electricity to customers, it is necessary that wind power has an operational reserve to ensure appropriate backup for situations where there is low wind but high demand. This dissertation examines the affect of this integration by comparing wind generation to that of conventional generation in the national grid. This is done to ascertain the cost benefits of wind power generation against a scenario with no wind generation. Then, the analysis examines to see if wind power can meet the pillars of sustainability. This entails looking at wind in a practical scenario to observe how it meets these pillars under the criteria of environmental responsibility, displacement of conventional fuel, cost competitiveness and security of supply.

A comparison of environmental licensing systems in operation in the wood panel manufacturing industry in the Northern Hemisphere

The objective of this thesis is to compare and contrast environmental licensing systems, for the wood panel industry, in a number of countries in order to determine which system is the best from an environmental and economic point of view. The thesis also examines the impact which government can have on industry and the type of licensing system in operation in a country. Initially, the thesis investigates the origins of the various environmental licensing systems which are in operation in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France, USA and Canada. It then examines the Environmental Agencies which control and supervise industry in these countries. The impact which the type of government (i.e. unitary or federal) in charge in any particular country has on industry and the Regulatory Agency in that country is then described. Most of the mills in the thesis make a product called OSB (Oriented Strand Board) and the manufacturing process is briefly described in order to understand where the various emissions are generated. The main body of the thesis examines a number of environmental parameters which have emission limit values in the licenses examined, although not all of these parameters have emission limit values in all of the licenses. All of these parameters are used as indicators of the potential impact which the mill can have on the environment. They have been set at specific levels by the Environmental Agencies in the individual countries to control the impact of the mill. Following on from this, the two main types of air pollution control equipment (WESPs and RTOs) are described in regard to their function and capabilities. The mill licenses are then presented in the form of results tables which compare air results and water results separately. This is due to the fact that the most significant emission from this type of industry is to air. A matrix system is used to compare the licenses so that the comparison can be as objective as possible. The discussion examines all of the elements previously described and from this it was concluded that the IPC licensing system is the best from an environmental and economic point of view. It is a much more expensive system to operate than the other systems examined, but it is much more comprehensive and looks at the mill as a whole rather than fragmenting it. It was also seen that the type of environmental licensing system which is in place in a country can play a role in the locating of an industry as certain systems were seen to have more stringent standards attached to them. The type of standard in place in a country is in turn influenced by the type of government which is in place in that country.