Biomarkers of oxidative stress and its association with the urinary reducing capacity in bus maintenance workers.

BACKGROUND: Exposure to particles (PM) induces adverse health effects (cancer, cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases). A key-role in these adverse effects seems to be played by oxidative stress, which is an excess of reactive oxygen species relative to the amount of reducing species (including antioxidants), the first line of defense against reactive oxygen species. The aim of this study was to document the oxidative stress caused by exposure to respirable particles in vivo, and to test whether exposed workers presented changes in their urinary levels for reducing species.METHODS: Bus depot workers (n = 32) exposed to particles and pollutants (respirable PM4, organic and elemental carbon, particulate metal content, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, NOx, O3) were surveyed over two consecutive days. We collected urine samples before and after each shift, and quantified an oxidative stress biomarker (8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine), the reducing capacity and a biomarker of PAH exposure (1-hydroxypyrene). We used a linear mixed model to test for associations between the oxidative stress status of the workers and their particle exposure as well as with their urinary level of reducing species.RESULTS: Workers were exposed to low levels of respirable PM4 (range 25-71 μg/m3). However, urinary levels of 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine increased significantly within each shift and between both days for non-smokers. The between-day increase was significantly correlated (p < 0.001) with the concentrations of organic carbon, NOx, and the particulate copper content. The within-shift increase in 8OHdG was highly correlated to an increase of the urinary reducing capacity (Spearman ρ = 0.59, p < 0.0001).CONCLUSIONS: These findings confirm that exposure to components associated to respirable particulate matter causes a systemic oxidative stress, as measured with the urinary 8OHdG. The strong association observed between urinary 8OHdG with the reducing capacity is suggestive of protective or other mechanisms, including circadian effects. Additional investigations should be performed to understand these observations.

Tractament de dades i geolocalització: proper bus Barcelona

Desenvolupament d'una aplicació per a mòbils Android que permeti conèixer les parades de bus més properes i el temps que falta perquè arribi cada línia de bus, mitjançant la geolocalització de l'usuari, un mapa de parades o un codi QR. Obtenció i tractament de les dades de parades i línies, així com obtenció en temps real de les properes arribades mitjançant "web scraping" (simulació de navegació d'un usuari per extreure dades dels webs) de les pàgines dels operadors.

Building object-oriented software with the D-Bus messaging system

Object-oriented programming is a widely adopted paradigm for desktop software development. This paradigm partitions software into separate entities, objects, which consist of data and related procedures used to modify and inspect it. The paradigm has evolved during the last few decades to emphasize decoupling between object implementations, via means such as explicit interface inheritance and event-based implicit invocation. Inter-process communication (IPC) technologies allow applications to interact with each other. This enables making software distributed across multiple processes, resulting in a modular architecture with benefits in resource sharing, robustness, code reuse and security. The support for object-oriented programming concepts varies between IPC systems. This thesis is focused on the D-Bus system, which has recently gained a lot of users, but is still scantily researched. D-Bus has support for asynchronous remote procedure calls with return values and a content-based publish/subscribe event delivery mechanism. In this thesis, several patterns for method invocation in D-Bus and similar systems are compared. The patterns that simulate synchronous local calls are shown to be dangerous. Later, we present a state-caching proxy construct, which avoids the complexity of properly asynchronous calls for object inspection. The proxy and certain supplementary constructs are presented conceptually as generic object-oriented design patterns. The e ect of these patterns on non-functional qualities of software, such as complexity, performance and power consumption, is reasoned about based on the properties of the D-Bus system. The use of the patterns reduces complexity, but maintains the other qualities at a good level. Finally, we present currently existing means of specifying D-Bus object interfaces for the purposes of code and documentation generation. The interface description language used by the Telepathy modular IM/VoIP framework is found to be an useful extension of the basic D-Bus introspection format.

Bus bar aeolian vibration field tests

Large amplitude bus bar aeolian vibration may lead to post insulator damage. Different damping applications are used to decrease the risk of large amplitude aeolian vibration. In this paper the post insulator load caused by the bus bar aeolian vibration and the effect of damping methods are evaluated. The effects of three types of bus bar connectors and three types of primary structures are studied. Two actual damping devices, damping cable and their combinations are studied. The post insulator loads are studied with strain gage based custom made force sensors installed on the both ends of the post insulator and with the displacement sensor installed on the midpoint of the bus bar. The post insulator loads are calculated from the strain values and the damping properties are determined from the displacement history. The bus bar is deflected with a hanging weight. The weight is released and the bus bar is left to free damped vibration. Both actual bus bar vibration dampers RIBE and SBI were very effective against the aeolian vibration. Combining vibration damper with damping cable will increase the damping ratio but it may be unnecessary considering the extra effort. Bus bar connector type or primary structure have no effect on the vertical load. The bending moment at the post insulator with double sided bus bar connector is significantly higher than at the post insulator with single sided bus bar connector. No reliable conclusions about bus bar connector type effect can be done, but the roller bearing type or central bearing type connector may reduce the bending moment. The RHS steel frame as primary structure may increase the bending moment peak values since it is the least rigid primary structure type and it may start to vibrate as a response to the awakening force of the vibrating bus bar.

Sleep patterns and sleep-related complaints of Brazilian interstate bus drivers

Sleep-related complaints have become a highlight for physicians as well as public health administrators. Studies of sleep patterns and sleep-related complaints of shift workers have been useful in minimizing reduction in the quality of life due to the warping of the sleep-wake cycle. The objective of the present study was to assess patterns of sleep, sleep-related complaints as well as physical activity and scoring rates for depression and anxiety in interstate bus drivers. Data were obtained with a sleep questionnaire, with the Beck inventory for depression, and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). A total of 400 interstate bus drivers from the northern, southern, central-western and south-eastern regions of Brazil were interviewed. Sixty percent of the subjects interviewed presented at least one sleep-related complaint, 16% admitted to have dozed at the wheel while on duty, and 41% stated that they exercised on a regular basis. Other sleep disturbance complaints reported were: sleep latency 29'17"; physical fatigue, 59.8%; mental fatigue, 45.4%; sleepiness, 25.8%; irritability, 20.6%; insomnia, 37.5%, respiratory disturbances, 19.25% and snoring, 20.75%. Scores for anxiety and depression were not in the pathological range. The present data reinforce the view that bus drivers are generally discontent with shift work and its effects on sleep. Consequently, it is very important to establish an appropriate work schedule for drivers, besides implementing photo-therapy and physical activities in order to minimize sleepiness when driving.

Embedded Service Bus for Internet of Things Interoperability

Internet of Things (IoT) technologies are developing rapidly, and therefore there exist several standards of interconnection protocols and platforms. The existence of heterogeneous protocols and platforms has become a critical challenge for IoT system developers. To mitigate this challenge, few alliances and organizations have taken the initiative to build a framework that helps to integrate application silos. Some of these frameworks focus only on a specific domain like home automation. However, the resource constraints in the large proportion of connected devices make it difficult to build an interoperable system using such frameworks. Therefore, a general purpose, lightweight interoperability framework that can be used for a range of devices is required. To tackle the heterogeneous nature, this work introduces an embedded, distributed and lightweight service bus, Lightweight IoT Service bus Architecture (LISA), which fits inside the network stack of a small real-time operating system for constrained nodes. LISA provides a uniform application programming interface for an IoT system on a range of devices with variable resource constraints. It hides platform and protocol variations underneath it, thus facilitating interoperability in IoT implementations. LISA is inspired by the Network on Terminal Architecture, a service centric open architecture by Nokia Research Center. Unlike many other interoperability frameworks, LISA is designed specifically for resource constrained nodes and it provides essential features of a service bus for easy service oriented architecture implementation. The presented architecture utilizes an intermediate computing layer, a Fog layer, between the small nodes and the cloud, thereby facilitating the federation of constrained nodes into subnetworks. As a result of a modular and distributed design, the part of LISA running in the Fog layer handles the heavy lifting to assist the lightweight portion of LISA inside the resource constrained nodes. Furthermore, LISA introduces a new networking paradigm, Node Centric Networking, to route messages across protocol boundaries to facilitate interoperability. This thesis presents a concept implementation of the architecture and creates a foundation for future extension towards a comprehensive interoperability framework for IoT.

Voyage de Jean de Mandeville, Roman de Fauvel, par Gervais Du Bus, et pièces diverses.

Contient : « Le livre des parties d'Oultre mer, lequel fu fait, ordonné et compilé par honorable et vaillant seigneur Jehan de Mandeville... Escript (fol. 62) par moy, Ogier de Caumont, en la cité de Liege, et finy le penultieme jour de juillet l'an mil CCC IIIIxx??? et XVI. » Cf. R. Röhricht, Bibliotheca geographica Palestinae, p. 79 ; On lit : « Hunc librum acquisivit monasterio Sancti Victoris prope Parisius frater Johannes Lamasse, dum esset prior ejusdem ecclesie. Scriptum anno Domini 1424 » ; Prière à la Vierge ; « Dit de la rose », pièce en l'honneur de la Vierge ; Les peines de l'enfer ; « Scriptum quoddam super degradatione et combustione quorumdam fratrum ordinis Predicatorum, qui... opinionem suam ab ecclesia damnata de conceptione purissime Virginis matris Domini Jhesu deffendere nitebantur... Actum anno Domini millesimo quingentesimo nono. » Cf. Du Boulay, Historia Universitatis Parisiensis, t. VI, p. 45 ; Pater Noster et Ave Maria, en vers ; Vers sur le plaisir de boire. « Ad primum morsum, nisi potavero mort sum... » (15 vers) ; « Statutum sacre facultatis Theologie studii Parisiensis super materia conceptionis immaculate gloriosissime Virginis... » (1497) ; Paraphrase, en vers français, de l'Ave maris stella ; « Clericus sic ethimologizatur : Per c intelligitur quod sit clarus... » ; « Almalarius (sic), qui loquitur de duobus ebdomadis passionis Christi. Due ebdomade passionis Christi significant duo tempora ante legem et sub lege... » ; Explications, en latin, du Pater et du Credo. « Elegit Dominus Deus noster Jhesus Christus septem apostolos... » ; « Tabula fidei christiane. Septem virtutes principales : fides, spes... » ; Notes de comput. « Ad habendum ciclum solarem, secundum Gallandum, sive litteram dominicalem... » ; Prière à la Vierge ; « La deputaison » ou « le mireur du corps et de l'ame. Une grant vision est en ce livre escripte... » ; Prières à la Vierge ; I ; II ; III ; Note relative à « Jehan Le Mire, jadis trésorier des guerres » (1339) ; La maison de sapience ; Poème moral sur la mort du Christ ; Vers latins, en l'honneur de S. Jean-Baptiste ; « Missa pro evitanda mortalitate, quam dominus papa Clemens sextus constituit et fecit... » ; « Le Testament maistre Jehan de Meun. » Cf. Histoire littéraire, t. XXVIII (1880), p. 416 (art. de P. Paris) ; Roman de Fauvel, par Gervais Du Bus. Cf. Histoire littéraire, t. XXXII (1898), p. 108 (art. de M. G. Paris) ; Vers latins contre les femmes ; Autre pièce contre les femmes ; Autre pièce sur les femmes. « Se j'avoye une fame qui ne me mentist point... » ; Prière. « Doulx Diex, qui es sans fin et sans initium... » ; « Les heures de la Croiz [en vers], ausquellez le pape Jehan XXII donna i an ex xl jours de vray pardon à quelconque persone, qui par devocion dira ceste office du mistère de la Passion Jhesu Crist » ; Prière à la Vierge

Personal soundtracks on public transit : personal listening devices and socio-spatial negotiations of students' bus journeys

One way of exploring the power of sound in the experience and constitution of space is through the phenomenon of personal listening devices (PLDs) in public environments. In this thesis, I draw from in-depth interviews with eleven Brock University students in S1. Catharines, Ontario, to show how PLDs (such as MP3 players like the iPod) are used to create personalized soundscapes and mediate their public transit journeys. I discuss how my interview participants experience the space-time of public transit, and show how PLDs are used to mediate these experiences in acoustic and non-acoustic ways. PLD use demonstrates that acoustic and environmental experiences are co-constitutive, which highlights a kinaesthetic quality of the transit-space. My empirical findings show that PLDs transform space, particularly by overlapping public and private appropriations of the bus. I use these empirical findings to discuss the PLD phenomenon in the theoretical context of spatiality, and more specifically, acoustic space. J develop the ontological notion of acoustic space, stating that space shares many of the properties of sound, and argue that sound is a rich epistemological tool for understanding and explaining our everyday experiences.

A la UdG en bus

Aquest curs la reducció en un 20% del preu que els estudiants de la UdG paguen per l'abonament del bus s'ha traduït en un augment de més del 600% en la venda de títols de transport