Classification of critical levels of CO exposure of firefigthers through monitored heart rate

Smoke inhalation poses a serious health threat to firefighters (FFs), with potential effects including respiratory and cardiac disorders. In this work, environmental and physiological data were collected from FFs, during experimental fires performed in 2015 and 2019. Extending a previous work, which allowed us to conclude that changes in heart rate (HR) were associated with alterations in the inhalation of carbon monoxide (CO), we performed a HR analysis according to different levels of CO exposure during firefighting based on data collected from three FFs. Based on HR collected and on CO occupational exposure standards (OES), we propose a classifier to identify CO exposure levels through the HR measured values. An ensemble of 100 bagged classification trees was used and the classification of CO levels obtained an overall accuracy of 91.9%. The classification can be performed in real-time and can be embedded in a decision fire-fighting support system. This classification of FF’ exposure to critical CO levels, through minimally-invasive monitored HR, opens the possibility to identify hazardous situations, preventing and avoiding possible severe problems in FF’ health due to inhaled pollutants. The obtained results also show the importance of future studies on the relevance and influence of the exposure and inhalation of pollutants on the FF’ health, especially in what refers to hazardous levels of toxic air pollutants.publishe

Estudo da suscetibilidade ao escurecimento por radiação gama de quartzo róseo-leitoso da província pegmatítica da Borborema

Este estudo considera as transformações induzidas pela radiação γ sobre os defeitos estruturais em quartzo róseo e leitoso da Província Pegmatítica da Borborema (Paraíba e Rio Grande do Norte, Brasil). Amostras de coloração rósea e leitosa foram irradiadas com doses de raios γ (60Co) entre 0,5 e 96 kGy. Defeitos pontuais relacionados às impurezas de Al, Ge, Li e grupos OH foram caracterizados por espectroscopias ultravioleta visível e infravermelha e ressonância paramagnética eletrônica, antes e após a irradiação. A espectrometria de massa com plasma indutivamente acoplado foi empregada para quantificar as concentrações de Al, Li, Ge, Fe, Ti e outras impurezas em fragmentos de diferentes tonalidades. Constatou-se que os defeitos [AlO4]0, [AlO4/H]0 e [GeO4/Li]0 são formados pela dissociação dos defeitos [AlO4/Li]0 e [Li-OH], a partir de doses de 0,5 kGy. A diminuição do sinal da ressonância paramagnética eletrônica do centro [GeO4/Li]0 e a formação de centros E'1 perturbados por Ge para doses acima de 8 kGy confirmou a grande mobilidade dos íons Li+ pela estrutura do quartzo. O aumento da população de defeitos [AlO4]0 e o consequente escurecimento das amostras foi semelhante para ambos os tipos de quartzo. Análises preliminares por microscopia eletrônica mostraram a presença de fibras nanométricas apenas no resíduo da digestão ácida de amostras róseas, indicando que a coloração rósea do quartzo da Província Pegmatítica da Borborema está provavelmente relacionada às inclusões de dumortierita

Um serviço de replicação transparente de servidores CORBA utilizando sincronia virtual

This paper describes a transparent active replication service for CORBA servers. This service works with any CORBA client/server without requiring any code recompilation. This implementation uses a group comunication service available on the Appia communication support platfor

Physical activity, physical fitness and metabolic risk factors in Azorean adolescents

This study aimed to analyze the relationships between metabolic risk factors (MRF) with physical activity (PA) and physical fitness (PF) in a sample of Azorean adolescents.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Engineering Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for Clinical Settings

Iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) occupy a privileged position among magnetic nanomaterials with potential applications in medicine and biology. They have been widely used in preclinical experiments for imaging contrast enhancement, magnetic resonance, immunoassays, cell tracking, tissue repair, magnetic hyperthermia and drug delivery. Despite these promising results, their successful translation into a clinical setting is strongly dependent upon their physicochemical properties, toxicity and functionalization possibilities. Currently, IONPs-based medical applications are limited to the use of non-functionalized IONPs smaller than 100 nm, with overall narrow particle size distribution, so that the particles have uniform physical and chemical properties. However, the main entry of IONPs into the scene of medical application will surely arise from their functionalization possibilities that will provide them with the capacity to target specific cells within the body, and hence to play a role in the development of specific therapies. In this review, we offer an overview of their basic physicochemical design parameters, giving an account of the progress made in their functionalization and current clinical applications. We place special emphasis on past and present clinical trials

Morphological evaluation of an in situ collection of species from the Annonaceae family in Colombia

An in situ collection composed of 167 accessions of the species Annona cherimola, A. glabra, A. reticulata, and A. squamosa, Rollinia sp., and the interspecific hybrid A. squamosa × A. cherimola was established through bioprospecting of genetics resources of the Annonaceae family in the Colombian Andean and Caribbean regions. These accessions were distributed in 13 departments and 48 municipalities. The most representative species of this collection are A. squamosa and A. reticulata, which are derived from traditional cultivars of populated centers with a variable altitude range of up to 1,021 m a.s.l. The morpho-agronomic evaluation was carried out on 98 accessions using 25 qualitative and quantitative descriptors, which identified the phenotypic traits in A. squamosa and A. reticulata that are related to fruit quality, such as size, weight, symmetry, degrees Brix, pH, acidity, seed weight and seed number, which are the more discriminating descriptors, differentiating six clusters in A. squamosa and four clusters in A. reticulata

Correlação entre ensaios com câmara termográfica e resistógrafo na avaliação da integridade de vigas antigas de madeira

Este trabalho de investigação pretende dar um contributo no campo das técnicas não destrutivas de inspecção e de diagnóstico de vigas antigas de madeira. Para o efeito, correlacionou-se os resultados obtidos através do uso do resistógrafo e da termografia no estudo de uma viga recolhida num edifício de habitação unifamiliar que foi sujeito a um processo de remodelação. Verificou-se que poderá haver uma cerca correlação entre ensaios. Contudo, também se recomenda a realização de um número mais expressivo de ensaios de amostras para ser possível apresentar uma conclusão mais fidedigna. A relevância desta possível correlação prende-se com o facto de poder haver uma alternância na realização destes ensaios consoante os condicionalismos do cenário de obra