VLT: a sustainable solution to urban mobility, in João Pessoa-PB

The changes happen quickly in today's world, simultaneously interacting with technological advances in the sciences and new paradigms socio-political and economic, in search of a sustainable future and a present with emergency strategies for the preservation of humanity and the planet "Earth ". Currently, the mobility of people in the intra-urban space is being threatened by congestion, pollution resulting from the appreciation of the culture of personal transport and the precariousness of public transportation. In the city of Jo?o Pessoa (PB), the subject of this finding for these disorders. Workers suffer the consequences of daily stress takes to access home-work, difficulty in arriving at the right time to the workplace and adverse reactions caused by pollution. The VLT (Light Rail Vehicle) has been presented as a viable solution to the problems of public transport, with several experiments that can be seen as positive in the world. This work involves the implementation of a public transport system based on VLT Corridor along the Avenue Dom Pedro II, in Jo?o Pessoa (PB), aiming to acquire a good transport network for use of the population, reduce the number of vehicles on process, minimize pollution and optimize urban mobility.     

Biomechanical analysis of loading/unloading a ladder on a truck

Loading/unloading a ladder on vehicles are frequent tasks and involve overhead handling that may expose workers to risk factors of shoulder musculoskeletal disorders. The objective of the present study was to evaluate posture, forces required and perceived exertion when loading and unloading the ladder on a utility truck. Thirteen male overhead line workers from an electric utility in Brazil participated in this study. Shoulder elevation angle was measured using inclinometers. The required force to load/unload the ladder was measured by dynamometer. Subjective assessment of the perceived exertion was recorded to compare the exertion reported during the test conditions to the field conditions. The task of loading/unloading the ladder presented risks of shoulder musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) to workers because it requires high levels of force (approximately 60% of the maximal force) combined with overhead posture of the shoulders (more than 100° from the neutral posture). Age and height presented to interfere in biomechanical risks presented in load/unload task. There was no significant difference between the subjective exertion during the test conditions and handling the ladder in the field. Ergonomic intervention is recommended to reduce these risks for shoulder MSDs.     

Shoes influence in women posture

One of the most prevalent aspects is women with complaints of discomfort in the lumbar region for the use of high heeled shoe. Authors described that there may be a relation between attitude and the present discomfort, often associated with muscular fatigue and increase the forces of reaction soil during the use of such footwear. The purpose of this study was to evaluate possible changes postural associated with the use of different types of shoes and barefoot. Fifteen sedentary women were subjected to a static evaluation posture with the use of the software SAPO. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) repeated measures was used to investigate differences between the shoes in all variables postural analyzed. The results showed no significant difference in static position with the types of shoes and barefoot. It was concluded that the shoes did not interfere in static position.     

Mapping of noise impact provoked by the execution of foundation piles at high rise building sites

The objective of this work is to map, in a limited area inside and outside of the worksite, the environmental impact generated by sound pollution coming from the driving of foundation piles for high rise buildings, as well as to observe and check if the noise levels produced by the emitting source are tolerable in the urban environment. The methodology of the work includes a survey of technical references about the subject; measurement of noises surrounding the worksite during the foundation phase for four distinct buildings, with different types of piles: prefabricated piles, continuous helical displacement piles , traditional compaction piles and Terra Probe compaction piles. A grid of points was built due to the time of driving and after that the measurements of environmental noises were performed emitted by the execution of each type of pile using a sound level meter. The interpretation of the measurements and their impacts on the neighborhood of the building were performed using the computational tool Suffer for creating noise level contours. The X and Y axes of the grid represent the distances in meters of the area studied and the Z axis represents the noise measured in dB. The contours developed represent the mapping of the noise at the worksites and their surroundings. The mapping of the urban impact of noise, the measurement of its dimensions, and the examination of its propagation around the building are important subsides to adequate individual and collective protection procedures. Seventy one points were measured at four building sites with different types of piles, and the results showed that at only three points was the noise within the limits of the Municipal Law of Recife of 70 dB, which proves the relevance of the research. Finally, the comparative analysis between the four types of piles shows that the continuous helical displacement pile emits the lowest noise level among the four pile types studied.     

Mind‐Mindedness as a Multidimensional Construct: Appropriate and Nonattuned Mind‐Related Comments Independently Predict Infant–Mother Attachment in a Socially Diverse Sample

In a socially diverse sample of 206 infant–mother pairs, we investigated predictors of infants’ attachment security at 15 months, with a particular emphasis on mothers’ tendency to comment appropriately or in a non‐attuned manner on their 8‐month‐olds’ internal states (so‐called mind‐mindedness). Multinomial logistic regression analyses showed that higher scores for appropriate mind‐related comments and lower scores for non‐attuned mind‐related comments distinguished secure‐group mothers from their counterparts in the insecure‐avoidant, insecure‐resistant, and insecure‐disorganized groups. Higher scores for appropriate mind‐related comments and lower scores for non‐attuned mind‐related comments also independently predicted dichotomous organized/disorganized attachment. General maternal sensitivity predicted neither attachment security nor organization, although sensitivity was found to relate to dichotomous secure/insecure attachment specifically in the context of low socioeconomic status. The findings highlight how appropriate and non‐attuned mind‐related comments make independent contributions to attachment and suggest that mind‐mindedness is best characterized as a multidimensional construct.     

A test procedure for detecting super-heavy tails

The aim of this work is to develop a test to distinguish between heavy and super-heavy tailed probability distributions. These classes of distributions are relevant in areas such as telecommunications and insurance risk, among others. By heavy tailed distributions we mean probability distribution functions with polynomially decreasing upper tails (regularly varying tails). The term super-heavy is reserved for right tails decreasing to zero at a slower rate, such as logarithmic, or worse (slowly varying tails). Simulations are presented for several models and an application with telecommunications data is provided.     

Measuring Health: A Multivariate Approach

We examined the health status of 171 countries by employing factor analysis on various national health indicators for the period 2000–2005 to construct two new measures on health. The first measure is based on the health of individuals and the second on (the quality of) the health services. Our measures differ substantially from indicators used in previous studies on health and also lead to different rankings of countries. As rankings are not that informative without further information, we analyzed the distance between each country and the sample mean. Differences between countries are much more pronounced for our measure on health services than for our measure on the health of individuals. Using cluster analysis, we classified the countries in six homogenous groups.     

The Public Acceptance of Voluntary Childlessness in the Netherlands: from 20 to 90 per cent in 30 years

Within a relatively short period of 30 years, public acceptance of voluntary childlessness has increased enormously in the Netherlands. In this paper, we address two research questions, which we answer with data from 13 waves of the repeated cross-sectional survey Cultural Change in the Netherlands (CCN, 1965–1996). First, we investigate to what extent the increasing permissiveness is due to cohort replacement and to intra-cohort change. We find that between 1965 and 1980 the change is primarily due to intra-cohort (period) effects, whereas cohort replacement has become more important since 1980. Second, we address the question which social categories constitute the 10% of the population who do not accept voluntary childlessness. Church attendance—and not religiosity or religious socialization—turns out to be the most important factor. Low levels of income and education also negatively affect the acceptance of voluntary childless.