João Santos Baptista

Thermal comfort assessment of a surgical room through computational fluid dynamics using local PMV index.

BACKGROUND Studies concerning indoor thermal conditions are very important in defining the satisfactory comfort range in health care facilities. OBJECTIVE This study focuses on the evaluation of the thermal comfort sensation felt by surgeons and nurses, in an orthopaedic surgical room of a Portuguese hospital. METHODS Two cases are assessed, with and without the presence of a person. Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) tools were applied for evaluating the predicted mean vote (PMV) index locally. RESULTS Using average ventilation values to calculate the PMV index does not provide a correct and enough descriptive evaluation of the surgical room thermal environment. As studied for both cases, surgeons feel the environment slightly hotter than nurses. The nurses feel a slightly cold sensation under the air supply diffuser and their neutral comfort zone is located in the air stagnation zones close to the walls, while the surgeons feel the opposite. It was observed that the presence of a person in the room leads to an increase of the PMV index for surgeons and nurses. That goes in line with the empirical knowledge that more persons in a room lead to an increased heat sensation. CONCLUSIONS The clothing used by both classes, as well as the ventilation conditions, should be revised accordingly to the amount of persons in the room and the type of activity performed.

Domestic safety and accidents risk perception by active elderly

The improvement in the quality of life of older people goes far beyond the responsibility of the healthcare sector. Thus, it seems necessary to create accident prevention strategies and manage all the conditions involving the physical and social environment of the elderly. Although it is widely recognized that aging is a process that affects all human beings, it is noted that very often the elderly refuse to notice or consider this process, since the residential dwellings remain without any adjustments or with slightly adaptations, for almost their entire life. The purpose of this study is to discuss the perception of the elderly regarding the relationship between accident risk at home and their physical condition when performing daily activities, by establishing a comparison between the activities carried out by the elderly and the needed home adjustments throughout their life cycle.

The Impact of BIM-based virtual and augmented reality interfaces on health and safety in construction projects: protocol for a systematic review

The construction sector is notable for its interdisciplinary knowledge and complex interactions between different parties and the sector has been gradually adopting new methodologies to improve work and collaboration practices, such as the case of Building Information Modeling (BIM). A protocol for a systematic review is proposed to evaluate the effectiveness of virtual reality techniques in the Architectural, Engineering, Construction and Operations sector. The search will be carried out in the reference databases for the field. One of the main outcomes of this study is to assess the effectiveness of virtual reality tools implemented in construction projects at the same time it will try to estimate the cost of the equipment and the implementation of the intervention and if any other mentioned cost might be related to risk reduction or better performance. This protocol is registered in PROSPERO under the code of PROSPERO CRD42018085845.

Research Methods Applied to Studies with Active Elderly: A Literature Review

In almost every developed and in developing countries, the elderly population is increasing. It is assumed that environments, products and services must be appropriate and accessible to them as many people, regarding their characteristics, abilities and limitations. The purpose of this paper is to establish an outlook about the methods that are usually applied in research involving active elderly at the development stages of products designed for that specific segment of the Society.

Model to assess economic impact of hot environments on productivity

In sectors as mining, smelting or food production, workers are constantly subjected to hot environmental conditions that affect them somehow. In this paper, a quantitative model that aims at relating the effects of such environments on labour productivity is presented. Simultaneously, the proposed model allows the evaluation of the economic balance between the loss of productivity and the energy consumption of the installed cooling systems. This allows to obtain an optimal solution for industrial plants operation.

Occupational risk in a glass manufacturing industry unit

Risk assessment is one of the main pillars of the framework directive and other directives in respect of health and safety. It is also the basis of an effective management of safety and health as it is essential to reduce work-related accidents and occupational diseases. To survey the hazards eventually present in the workplaces the usual procedures are i) gathering information about tasks/activities, employees, equipment, legislation and standards; ii) observation of the tasks and; iii) quantification of respective risks through the most adequate risk assessment among the methodologies available. From this preliminary evaluation of a welding plant and, from the different measurable parameters, noise was considered the most critical. This paper focus not only the usual way of risk assessment for noise but also another approach that may allow us to identify the technique with which a weld is being performed.In this paper, we present two Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSR) models for compressive and flexural strength responses of a concrete composite material reinforced with pultrusion wastes. The main objective is to characterize this cost-effective waste management solution for glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) pultrusion wastes and end-of-life products that will lead, thereby, to a more sustainable composite materials industry. The experiments took into account formulations with the incorporation of three different weight contents of GFRP waste materials into polyester based mortars, as sand aggregate and filler replacements, two waste particle size grades and the incorporation of silane adhesion promoter into the polyester resin matrix in order to improve binder aggregates interfaces. The regression models were achieved for these data and two latent variables were identified as suitable, with a 95% confidence level. This technological option, for improving the quality of GFRP filled polymer mortars, is viable thus opening a door to selective recycling of GFRP waste and its use in the production of concrete-polymer based products. However, further and complementary studies will be necessary to confirm the technical and economic viability of the process.