Construction Time of Three Wall Types Made of Locally Sourced Materials: A Comparative Study

Similarly to any other industry, the construction sector puts emphasis on innovativeness, unconventional thinking, and alternative ideas. At present, when sustainable development, ecology, and awareness of people’s impact on the environment grow in importance, low impact buildings can become an innovative alternative construction technology for the highly industrialized construction sector. The paper presents a comparative study of three walls made of available materials used locally, which can be classified as biosourced materials, in terms of construction time. The comparison of times necessary to make 1 m2 of the wall allows us to decide which building technology is more advantageous in terms of the construction duration. A shorter construction time means lower labour costs and lower expenses for construction machines. In order to obtain answers to the questions posed, the authors made extensive searches of source data on the time-consuming building works which used locally sourced materials. Reference is made to “Temporary principles of erecting clay buildings” issued by the Institute of Housing Construction in Warsaw (Poland). Three types of walls made of locally sourced materials were studied: a wall made of clay blocks insulated with mineral wool boards, a wall made of clay compacted in formwork, and one insulated with mineral wool boards and wooden frame structure filled with straw bales and cladded with fibreboards. The layers have been chosen in such a manner that heat transfer coefficient values for the studied variants are as equal as possible (0.2 W/m2 K), thus allowing a reliable comparative study

A study on the state of knowledge of managers of construction sites in the field of occupational safety

The construction site and its elements create circumstances that are conducive to the formation of risks to work safety during the execution of works. Analysis indicates the critical importance of these factors in the set of characteristics that describe the causes of accidents in the construction industry. They are indicated as important factors having an impact on risks, and increasingly are the subject of studies on work safety in construction. The research focused on as well as the awareness of health and safety of site managers - who perform independent functions in construction, legally involved in the construction process. Main substantive tasks included comparison of observed values with expected values in regard to characteristics related to health and safety awareness among site managers

Modern safety systems for work at height

When organising work at height, the site manager has a duty to provide adequate security measures which will ensure safe working conditions. The correct criteria adopted to ensure the safe movement of equipment and materials and the safe implementation of all professional activities by all employees. This paper attempts to identify and describe systems set up to protect against falls from height, without the use of scaffolding, employed in today’s construction market

Highly sensitive luminescence nanothermometry and thermal imaging facilitated by phase transition

Currently available temperature measurements or imaging at nano-micro scale are limited to fluorescent molecules and luminescent nanocrystals, whose spectral properties respond to temperature variation. The principle of operation of these conventional temperature probes is typically related to temperature induced multiphonon quenching or temperature dependent energy transfers, therefore, above 12%/K sensitivity and high thermal resolution remain a serious challenge. Here we demonstrate a novel class of highly sensitive thermographic phosphors operating in room temperature range with sub-kelvin thermal resolution, whose temperature readings are reproducible, luminescence is photostable and brightness is not compromised by thermal quenching. Corroborated with phase transition structural characterization and high spatio-temporal temperature imaging, we demonstrated that optically active europium ions are highly and smoothly susceptible to monoclinic to tetragonal phase transition in nanocrystalline (54 ± 14 nm) LiYO2 host, which is evidenced by changed number and the splitting of Stark components as well as by smooth variation of contribution between magnetic and electric dipole transitions. Further, reducing the size of phosphor from bulk to nanocrystalline matrix, shifted the phase transition temperature from 100 °C down to room temperature. These findings provide insights into the mechanism underlaying phase transition based luminescence nanothermometry and motivate future research toward new, highly sensitive, high temporal and spatial resolution nano-thermometers aiming at precise studying heat generation or diffusion in numerous biological and technology applications

Prevalence of home mechanical ventilation in Poland

Wstęp: Domowe wspomaganie wentylacji (DWW) staje się coraz powszechniejszą metodą leczenia chorych z przewlekłą niewydolnością oddychania. Na jej rozwój wpływa starzenie się społeczeństwa, rozwój technologii umożliwiających stosowanie wentylacji w domu oraz stale poszerzający się zakres wskazań. Autorzy podjęli próbę oceny rozpowszechnienia DWW w Polsce, metod oraz wskazań do jej stosowania. Materiał i metody: Do wszystkich ośrodków prowadzących DWW oraz do wszystkich wojewódzkich oddziałów NFZ wysłano ankiety, w których proszono o udzielenie informacji na temat stosowania DWW. Wyniki: Na podstawie uzyskanych odpowiedzi ze wszystkich oddziałów NFZ ustalono, że na przełomie roku 2008/2009 w Polsce leczenie DWW stosowano u 846 chorych, w tym 31% dzieci, czyli u średnio 2,2 pacjenta na 100 tys. mieszkańców. Na ankiety odpowiedziało tylko 12 ośrodków (31%) prowadzących DWW. Zgłosiły one łącznie 206 leczonych chorych (24% wszystkich leczonych), z tego 122 (59%) było leczonych w sposób inwazyjny przez tracheostomię. Na schorzenia nerwowo-mięśniowe cierpiało 168 chorych (82%), pozostałych 38 (18%) na choroby układu oddechowego. Najczęstszymi przyczynami stosowania DWW była dystrofia mięśniowa (57 chorych, co stanowiło 34% pacjentów z chorobami nerwowo-mięśniowymi) i stwardnienie zanikowe boczne (39, 23%). Wśród chorób płuc i klatki piersiowej przeważali chorzy z POChP (17 pacjentów) oraz kifoskoliozą (10 chorych). Wnioski: Mimo znacznego rozwoju DWW w Polsce w ciągu ostatnich 10 lat, rozpowszechnienie tej metody leczenia nadal odbiega od stanu w innych krajach europejskich. Przyczyną tych różnic może być bardzo mała liczba pacjentów z chorobami układu oddechowego leczonych DWW. Wysoki odsetek chorych stanowią pacjenci leczeni w sposób inwazyjny. Głównymi przyczynami hamującymi rozwój DWW jest system kwalifikacji, który pomija udział specjalisty chorób płuc, brak ustalonych przez towarzystwa naukowe wskazań, wyjątkowo wymagające kryteria udzielania tego świadczenia nałożone przez NFZ oraz mała świadomość pulmonologów na temat potrzeby i możliwości leczenia tą metodą, zwłaszcza pacjentów z chorobami restrykcyjnymi układu oddechowego oraz zespołem hipowentylacji w przebiegu otyłości. Pneumonol. Alergol. Pol. 2010; 78, 6: 392-398Introduction: Home mechanical ventilation (HMV) is increasingly used in the treatment of chronic respiratory failure thanks to rapid technological development, increasing number of elderly people and extension of indications. The aim of the study was to assess: prevalence of HMV in Poland, the proportions of lung disease and neuromuscular patients using HMV and the type of interface (invasive v. non-invasive). Material and methods: The questionnaire was send to all institutions providing HMV in Poland and to regional departments of National Health System (NHS). Results: All NHS departments responded. They reported 846 HMV users, 31% of children. The prevalence of HMV in Poland was assessed as 2,2 patient per 100.000 population without striking differences between provinces. Among 39 HMV centers in Poland 12 (31%) answered. They reported 206 patients (24% of all HMV users). Proportion of ventilation mode consisted of 59% (122 pts) treated via a tracheostomy and 41% (84 pts) with non invasive ventilation (NIV). 168 patients (82%) had neuromuscular diseases (ND), majority of them muscular dystrophy - 57 patients ( 34% of ND) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis - 39 patients (23% of ND). There were only 38 patients (18%) with lung and thoracic cage diseases: 17 with COPD and 10 with kyphoscoliosis. Conclusions: The prevalence of HMV treatment in Poland has developed dramatically in the last decade, but is still very low comparing to other European countries, especially due to very low number of patients with lung and chest wall diseases. The prevalence of invasive mode of ventilation is extremely high. The most important factors which inhibit development of HMV in Poland are: omission of respiratory physicians in the process of qualification, lack of national guidelines, sophisticated demands for HMV providers. The awareness of the need of HMV especially in patients with respiratory failure due to obesity hypoventilation syndrome and restrictive lung diseases should be increased among chest physicians. Pneumonol. Alergol. Pol. 2010; 78, 6: 392-39

Stosowanie leków biopodobnych w hematoonkologii – stanowisko Polskiego Towarzystwa Hematologów i Transfuzjologów

Leki biopodobne odgrywają coraz większą rolę w terapii wielu chorób wraz z wygaśnięciem ochrony patentowej dla kolejnych leków biologicznych. Celem niniejszego opracowania jest przybliżenie terminologii i zasad wprowadzania na rynek leków biopodobnych, zagadnień dotyczących ich etykietowania, ekstrapolacji, wymienialności i automatycznej substytucji. Opracowanie to przedstawia stanowisko Polskiego Towarzystwa Hematologów i Transfuzjologów dotyczące leków biopodobnych, oparte na wytycznych EMA (European Medicine Agency) i stanowisku ESMO (European Society of Medical Oncology)