Fast growing fungi: a problem to be solved to achieve characterization of occupational exposure to fungi in cork industry

Chrysonilia sitophila is a common mould in cork industry and has been identified as a cause of IgE sensitization and occupational asthma. This fungal species have a fast growth rate that may inhibit others species’ growth causing underestimated data from characterization of occupational fungal exposure. Aiming to ascertain occupational exposure to fungi in cork industry, were analyzed papers from 2000 about the best air sampling method, to obtain quantification and identification of all airborne culturable fungi, besides the ones that have fast-growing rates. Impaction method don’t allows the collection of a representative air volume, because even with some media that restricts the growth of the colonies, in environments with higher fungal load, such as cork industry, the counting of the colonies is very difficult. Otherwise, impinger method permits the collection of a representative air volume, since we can make dilution of the collected volume. Besides culture methods that allows fungal identification trough macro- and micro-morphology, growth features, thermotolerance and ecological data, we can apply molecular biology with the impinger method, to detect the presence of non-viable particles and potential mycotoxin producers’ strains, and also to detect mycotoxins presence with ELISA or HPLC. Selection of the best air sampling method in each setting is crucial to achieve characterization of occupational exposure to fungi. Information about the prevalent fungal species in each setting and also the eventual fungal load it’s needed for a criterious selection.

Assessment of workers’ exposure to Aflatoxin B1 in a Portuguese waste industry

Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is considered by different International Agencies as a genotoxic and potent hepatocarcinogen. However, despite the fact that the fungi producing this compound are detected in some work environments, AFB1 is rarely monitored in occupational settings. The aim of the present investigation was to assess exposure to AFB1 of workers from one Portuguese waste company located in the outskirt of Lisbon. Occupational exposure assessment to AFB1 was done with a biomarker of internal dose that measures AFB1 in the serum by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Forty-one workers from the waste company were enrolled in this study (26 from sorting; 9 from composting; 6 from incineration). A control group (n = 30) was also considered in order to know the AFB1 background levels for the Portuguese population. All the workers showed detectable levels of AFB1 with values ranging from 2.5ng ml−1 to 25.9ng ml−1 with a median value of 9.9±5.4ng ml−1. All of the controls showed values below the method’s detection limit. Results obtained showed much higher (8-fold higher) values when compared with other Portuguese settings already studied, such as poultry and swine production. Besides this mycotoxin, other mycotoxins are probably present in this occupational setting and this aspect should be taken into consideration for the risk assessment process due to possible synergistic reactions. The data obtained suggests that exposure to AFB1 occurs in a waste management setting and claims attention for the need of appliance of preventive and protective safety measures.

Buying behavior and competition in the software market

In the actual world, the impact of the software buying decisions has a rising relevance in social and economic terms. This research tries to explain it focusing on the organizations buying decisions of Operating Systems and Office Suites for personal computers and the impact on the competition between incumbent and alternative players in the market in these software categories, although the research hypotheses and conclusions may extend to other software categories and platforms. We concluded that in this market beside brand image, product features or price, other factors could have influence in the buying choices. Network effect, switching costs, local network effect, lock-in or consumer heterogeneity all have influence in the buying decision, protecting the incumbent and making it difficult for the competitive alternatives, based mainly on product features and price, to gain market share to the incumbent. This happens in a stronger way in the Operating Systems category.

Influencing factors on the buying behavior in the software market

The case of desktop Operating System and Office Suite choices considering Proprietary and Open Source Software alternatives.

Cleanup of industrial effluents containing heavy metals: a new opportunity of valorising the biomass produced by brewing industry

Heavy metal pollution is a matter of concern in industrialised countries. Contrary to organic pollutants, heavy metals are not metabolically degraded. This fact has two main consequences: its bioremediation requires another strategy and heavy metals can be indefinitely recycled. Yeast cells of Saccharomyces cerevisiae are produced at high amounts as a by-product of brewing industry constituting a cheap raw material. In the present work, the possibility of valorising this type of biomass in the bioremediation of real industrial effluents containing heavy metals is reviewed. Given the autoaggregation capacity (flocculation) of brewing yeast cells, a fast and off-cost yeast separation is achieved after the treatment of metal-laden effluent, which reduces the costs associated with the process. This is a critical issue when we are looking for an effective, eco-friendly, and low-cost technology. The possibility of the bioremediation of industrial effluents linked with the selective recovery of metals, in a strategy of simultaneous minimisation of environmental hazard of industrial wastes with financial benefits from reselling or recycling the metals, is discussed.

On the hardware and software architecture of the robuter mobile platform: a hands-on approach

The Robuter is a robotic mobile platform that is located in the “Hands-On” Laboratory of the IPP-Hurray! Research Group, at the School of Engineering of the Polytechnic Institute of Porto. Recently, the Robuter was subject of an upgrading process addressing two essential areas: the Hardware Architecture and the Software Architecture. This upgrade in process was triggered due to technical problems on-board of the robot and also to the fact that the hardware/software architecture has become obsolete. This Technical Report overviews the most important aspects of the new Hardware and Software Architectures of the Robuter. This document also presents a first approach on the first steps towards the use of the Robuter platform, and provides some hints on future work that may be carried out using this mobile platform.

Potential pathogenic fungi assessment through molecular biology in cork industry

Portugal has been the world leader in the cork sector in terms of exports, employing ten thousands of workers. In this working activity, the permanent contact with cork may lead to the exposure to fungi, raising concerns as potential occupational hazards in cork industry. The application of molecular tools is crucial in this setting, since fungal species with faster growth rates may hide other species with clinical relevance, such as species belonging to P. glabrum and A. fumigatus complexes. A study was developed aiming at assessing fungal contamination due to Aspergillus fumigatus complex and Penicillium glabrum complex by molecular methods in three cork industries in the outskirt of Lisbon city.

Sustainable waste recycling solution for the glass fibre reinforced polymer composite materials industry

In this paper the adequacy and the benefit of incorporating glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) waste materials into polyester based mortars, as sand aggregates and filler replacements, are assessed. Different weight contents of mechanically recycled GFRP wastes with two particle size grades are included in the formulation of new materials. In all formulations, a polyester resin matrix was modified with a silane coupling agent in order to improve binder-aggregates interfaces. The added value of the recycling solution was assessed by means of both flexural and compressive strengths of GFRP admixed mortars with regard to those of the unmodified polymer mortars. Planning of experiments and data treatment were performed by means of full factorial design and through appropriate statistical tools based on analyses of variance (ANOVA). Results show that the partial replacement of sand aggregates by either type of GFRP recyclates improves the mechanical performance of resultant polymer mortars. In the case of trial formulations modified with the coarser waste mix, the best results are achieved with 8% waste weight content, while for fine waste based polymer mortars, 4% in weight of waste content leads to the higher increases on mechanical strengths. This study clearly identifies a promising waste management solution for GFRP waste materials by developing a cost-effective end-use application for the recyclates, thus contributing to a more sustainable fibre-reinforced polymer composites industry.

Proposta de metodologia para avaliação de software comercial destinado ao projeto de engenharia da construção

A partir da década de noventa do século passado, começaram a surgir no mercado ferramentas de cálculo com o objetivo de agilizar a conceção do projeto de engenharia da construção. Até ao final da década de setenta os computadores existentes eram enormes, apenas entidades de grande poder económico os podiam adquirir. Na década de oitenta surgiu no mercado o PC, Personal Computer, estas pequenas máquinas começaram a ser adquiridas pela generalidade das empresas e em Portugal no final desta década era possível encontrar indivíduos que já possuíam o seu PC. Na década de noventa, a saída de recém-formados das instituições de ensino superior, fomentou no mercado o aparecimento de empresas de informática dedicadas à conceção de software de acordo com as necessidades do próprio mercado, daí resultando software comercial à medida e software comercial de prateleira (COTS, Commercial Off-The-Shelf)). O software comercial, ao ser utilizado por um grande número de pessoas, atingindo facilmente, no caso do COTS, os milhares, tem condições para evoluir de acordo com as exigências sistemáticas do próprio mercado, atingindo elevados patamares no cumprimento de requisitos de qualidade, nomeadamente no que concerne à funcionalidade, fiabilidade, usabilidade, manutenibilidade, eficiência, portabilidade e qualidade na utilização. A utilização de software comercial na área do projeto de engenharia da construção é hoje em dia uma prática absolutamente generalizada. A seleção do software pode tornar-se um processo complexo especialmente naquelas áreas em que existe grande oferta. A utilização de critérios de avaliação bem definidos poderá agilizar o processo e dar maiores garantias no momento da decisão final. Neste documento apresenta-se uma proposta de metodologia para avaliação e comparação de softwares.

Software transactional memory as a building block for parallel embedded realtime systems

The recent trends of chip architectures with higher number of heterogeneous cores, and non-uniform memory/non-coherent caches, brings renewed attention to the use of Software Transactional Memory (STM) as a fundamental building block for developing parallel applications. Nevertheless, although STM promises to ease concurrent and parallel software development, it relies on the possibility of aborting conflicting transactions to maintain data consistency, which impacts on the responsiveness and timing guarantees required by embedded real-time systems. In these systems, contention delays must be (efficiently) limited so that the response times of tasks executing transactions are upper-bounded and task sets can be feasibly scheduled. In this paper we assess the use of STM in the development of embedded real-time software, defending that the amount of contention can be reduced if read-only transactions access recent consistent data snapshots, progressing in a wait-free manner. We show how the required number of versions of a shared object can be calculated for a set of tasks. We also outline an algorithm to manage conflicts between update transactions that prevents starvation.

Managing contention of software transactional memory in real-time systems

The foreseen evolution of chip architectures to higher number of, heterogeneous, cores, with non-uniform memory and non-coherent caches, brings renewed attention to the use of Software Transactional Memory (STM) as an alternative to lock-based synchronisation. However, STM relies on the possibility of aborting conflicting transactions to maintain data consistency, which impacts on the responsiveness and timing guarantees required by real-time systems. In these systems, contention delays must be (efficiently) limited so that the response times of tasks executing transactions are upperbounded and task sets can be feasibly scheduled. In this paper we defend the role of the transaction contention manager to reduce the number of transaction retries and to help the real-time scheduler assuring schedulability. For such purpose, the contention management policy should be aware of on-line scheduling information.

Change Processes and Future Perspectives in the Knowledge Society. The Example of Clothing and Textile Industry

The paper examines change processes und future perspectives in the knowledge society. It presents the clothing and textile industry as an example for a transforming industry in a global economy. The paper reviews existing future studies, which have surveyed change processes and future developments in the clothing and textile industry. Main goals of the review are the identification of changes in work and the description of the restructuring of global value chains within the clothing and textile sector. The paper also highlights major current trends, drivers of change and future prospects in this sector.

Working in IT projects – Options and Limits of Work Design

Flexible forms of work like project work are gaining importance in industry and services. Looking at the research on project work, the vast majority of present literature is on project management, but increasingly, problems concerning the quality of work and the efficiency of project teams become visible. The question now is how project work can be structured in order to simultaneously provide efficient and flexible work and healthy working conditions ensuring the development of human resources for a long time. Selected results of publicly funded research into project work will be presented based on case studies in 7 software development /IT consulting project teams (N=34). A set of different methods was applied: interviews with management/project managers, group interviews on work constraints, a monthly diary about well-being and critical incidences in the course of the project, and a final evaluation questionnaire on project outcomes focusing on economic and health aspects. Findings reveal that different types of projects exist with varying degree of team members’ autonomy and influence on work structuring. An effect of self-regulation on mental strain could not be found. The results emphasize, that contradicting requirements and insufficient organizational resources with respect to the work requirements lead to an increased work intensity or work obstruction. These contradicting requirements are identified as main drivers for generating stress. Finally, employees with high values on stress for more than 2 months have significantly higher exhaustion rates than those with only one month peaks. Structuring project work and taking into account the dynamics of project work, there is a need for an active role of the project team in contract negotiation or the detailed definition of work – this is not only a question of individual autonomy but of negotiation the range of option for work structuring. Therefore, along with the sequential definition of the (software) product, the working conditions need to be re-defined.

Schedulability analysis of generalized multiframe traffic on multihop-networks comprising software-implemented ethernet switches

Consider a multihop network comprising Ethernet switches. The traffic is described with flows and each flow is characterized by its source node, its destination node, its route and parameters in the generalized multiframe model. Output queues on Ethernet switches are scheduled by static-priority scheduling and tasks executing on the processor in an Ethernet switch are scheduled by stride scheduling. We present schedulability analysis for this setting.