Energy and buildings

The Elbow and its Disorders

The pollution of groundwater by organic or inorganic pollutants, originating from either soil leaching or anthropogenic activities, is one of the major environmental issues. Remediation of this water source is of highest priority because many countries use it for drinking purpose. Pump-and-treat method is represented for many decades the major technique to treat groundwater infected with organic/inorganic pollutants. In last two decades, this technique becomes to be in lack with the sense of modern concepts of sustainability and renewable energy. Permeable reactive barriers (PRBs) technology was introduced as an alternative method for traditional pump-and-treat systems to remediate contaminated groundwater that was achieving these concepts. Within this issue, this technology has been proven to be a successful and most efficient promising method used by many researchers and in several projects due to its direct and simple techniques to remediate groundwater. A rapid progress from bench scale to field scale implementation in the PRB technique is recognized through the last few years. In addition, this technique was modeled theoretically for characterizing the migration of contaminants spatially and temporally through the barrier and, consequently, these models can be used for estimating the longevity of this barrier. An overview of this technique and the promising horizons for scientific research that integrates this method with sustainability and green technology practices are presented in the present study.

A review of permeable reactive barrier as passive sustainable technology for groundwater remediation

Advances in the catalytic reduction of nitrate by metallic catalysts for high efficiency and N2 selectivity: A review

Multilayer system of nanoscale zero valent iron and Nano-Fe/Cu particles for nitrate removal in porous media

Fatigue decreases performance and physical strength causing incidents and accidents in operational settings. During military operations, soldiers encounter extreme situations, which combined lead to a fatigue status that can later develop in overreaching (OR) and overtraining (OT) conditions. Studies in real environments are essential to expand the knowledge regarding the consequences of stress exposure and facilitate development of operationally-useful techniques. Nevertheless, there is not much available information on non-invasive physiological monitoring during high training military activities. Therefore, this systematic review, as part of a project for the development of a safety system based on physiological monitoring, aims to evidence the relevance of non-invasive physiological monitoring for detecting stages of fatigue, OR, OT and indicators of potential physical impairments in high intensity training scenarios. Four databases (SCOPUS, PubMed, Medline and Science Direct) are used to develop a data search based on the combinations of keywords. 19 articles are included in this review. Sample characteristics, assessment context, purposes and outcomes of each study, were analyzed. Conclusions regarding the most suitable parameters to be considered within an occupational safety assessment system, applicable to military operational settings, were gathered.

Real Time Fatigue Assessment: A Short Review Evidencing the Relevance of Physiological Monitoring

The main objective is to detect Whole-Body Vibration (WBV) patterns in different mining equipments along their working cycles. Three activities / equipment were studied (rock drill, shovel and dumper) in a north Portugal quarry. The WBV measurement and analysis was conducted in accordance with ISO 2631-1 (1997). It was studied three WBV transmission ways: 1) seat surface, 2) seat backrest and 3) cabin floor (feet). Rock drill shown a WBV pattern, where there was an extensive drilling phase, with residual accelerations values, and a short phase when the vehicle have to move to do another hole. In shovel, was not detected any associated pattern. In dumper, can be distinguished all tasks: loading, loaded and unloaded travel, dumping. Big differences were found when WBV is transmitted through the seat backrest, with the longitudinal x-axis dominating. Rock drill and dumper shown WBV patterns, as opposed to shovel. Table 1. Features of the equipment under study. Equipment Rock drill Shovel Dumper Brand Atlas Copco CAT Terex Model Rock D7 374 D TR 45 Year of manufacture 2007 2011 2005 2.2 Measurement of Whole-Body Vibration WBV exposure measurements were conducted in accordance with the protocol defined by International Standards Organization (ISO) standard 2631-1 (1997). An SV 106 tri-axial accelerometer manufactured by SVANTEK, Poland was used. It measured vibration in three translational axes (longitudinal = xaxis; lateral = y-axis; vertical = z-axis). In order to measure vibration at the operator/seat and operator/floor interface, the accelerometer was mounted in a rubber seat pad and fixed in three different ways: (1) supporting seat surface; (2) seat backrest and (3) cabin floor. This is shown in Figures 1, 2 and 3, respectively. It was possible to study three-way transmission of WBV in the sitting position: input through the buttock, back and feet of the operator. The rubber pad was well fixed with tape trying to stay as close as possible to the surface. Figure 1. Placement of the whole-body accelerometer in the supporting seat surface a) rock drill, b) shovel and c) dumper. Figure 2. Placement of the whole-body accelerometer in the seat backrest of the a) rock drill, b) shovel and c) dumper. Figure 3. Placement of the whole-body accelerometer in the cabin floor of the a) rock drill, b) shovel and c) dumper, d) Orientation of the coordinated axis (fig.1, 2 and 3). 2.3 Data collection procedure For each workplace, typical work duty cycles were monitored. In rock drill, it included (1) Drilling; (2) Vehicle movement and positioning. In shovel, (1) Loading trucks or dumpers; (2) Material shifting and placing. In dumper, (1) Loading the bucket with rock; (2) Driving with loaded bucket to a dumping zone; (3) Dumping the loaded bucket; (4) Driving with an empty bucket back to the development heading to load another bucket. The time spent performing each task in the cycle was dependant on the skill of the operator, layout of the quarry and environmental factors (e.g. road conditions). Therefore, the total data collection time per workplace varied between 1 and 3h. The tasks were timed and the vibration measurements were accompanied by an observation and occurrences registration, sometimes with the aid of video recordings. 2.4 Analysis of Whole-Body Vibration exposure WBV analysis was conducted in accordance with ISO 2631-1 (1997) and carried out with SVAN PC ++, 1.5.10 version, developed by SVANTEK Poland. The analysis included a graphical monitoring, establishing a pattern of instantaneous acceleration versus time. The work duty cycle and each task were identified.

João Santos Baptista

Papers

Real Time Fatigue Assessment: A Short Review Evidencing the Relevance of Physiological Monitoring

Patterns of whole-body vibrations in open pit mining