RESUMO Introdução/Enquadramento A Diabetes mellitus é uma doença crónica, resultante de deficiente secreção e/ou ação periférica da insulina, causando hiperglicemia, com lesão de múltiplos órgãos alvo. A sua incidência mundial tem aumentado nas últimas décadas, estimando-se uma prevalência mundial próxima dos 415 milhões de adultos. Neste contexto, existirá um elevado número de trabalhadores com esta patologia, que serão obrigatoriamente avaliados em exames de aptidão profissional, pelo que é imprescindível que o Médico do Trabalho permaneça atualizado relativamente à clínica e opções farmacológicas disponíveis para deliberação fundamentada quanto à aptidão e eventuais condicionantes, restrições e recomendações a ela associada. Metodologia Trata-se de uma revisão narrativa da evidência disponível na base de dados PubMed, complementada pela legislação portuguesa e orientações de sociedades nacionais e internacionais. Conteúdo/Discussão As complicações da Diabetes podem afetar a capacidade de trabalho e, por este motivo, devem ser alvo de avaliação periódica pelo Médico do Trabalho. Algumas complicações crónicas, como a retinopatia ou a doença neuro-isquémica são relativamente evidentes nas suas manifestações incapacitantes, pelo que motivam frequentemente o estabelecimento de limitações na atividade profissional. Por outro lado, as complicações agudas, apesar de frequentemente ligeiras e passíveis de resolução pelo próprio, podem colocar o trabalhador em grave risco de acidente de trabalho. O exemplo mais óbvio é o da hipoglicemia grave, com sintomas neuroglicopénicos. A farmacoterapia utilizada para controlo da doença pode, por si só, condicionar episódios hipoglicémicos ou outros sintomas que colocam em risco a segurança do trabalhador e, inclusivamente, terceiros. Trabalhadores que exerçam funções em planos desnivelados/trabalho em altura, que manipulem máquinas ou instrumentos de trabalho perigosos ou que conduzam profissionalmente, devem ser cuidadosamente avaliados pelo Médico do Trabalho. Apesar de a maioria não vir a ter limitações laborais, poderá ser necessário adequar o local de trabalho ou condicionar determinadas tarefas de modo a ser possível atingir um bom controlo glicémico, fator determinante na prevenção das complicações da doença. Recomendações para o trabalhador com Diabetes incluem a realização de pausas para avaliação de glicose, alimentação e administração terapêutica, eventual restrição dos turnos noturnos e/ou de tarefas de alta exigência metabólica, sendo que estas recomendações dependem das complicações da doença, farmacoterapia anti-hiperglicémica utilizada e da capacidade de o trabalhador reconhecer hipoglicemias. Conclusão A atualização permanente de conhecimentos sobre os avanços na farmacoterapia de controlo desta doença, nomeadamente dos mecanismos de ação e eventuais efeitos secundários, é essencial no controlo e prevenção dos riscos decorrentes de uma má gestão desta patologia em contexto profissional.

ABSTRACT Introduction/Framework Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease resulting from deficient secretion and/or peripheral insulin action, causing hyperglycemia, with multiple organ damage. The worldwide Diabetes mellitus incidence has increased in recent decades, with an estimated worldwide prevalence close to 415 million adults. In this context, a lot of workers with this disease will be accessed through medical examination to evaluate fitness for work, so it is essential that the Occupational Physician remains updated about the clinic and the available pharmacological options to deliberate on aptitude, restrictions and recommendations for a specific job/task. Methodology It’s a narrative review of the available evidence from the PubMed database, complemented by the national and international guidelines and the Portuguese law. Contents/Discussion DM complications can affect the ability to work and should motivate periodic evaluation by the Occupational Physician. Some chronic complications are evident in their likelihood of disability, such as retinopathy or neuro-ischemic disease, which often motivate work restrictions. On the other hand, acute complications, although often mild and self-limited, can put the worker at serious risk of an occupational accident. Severe hypoglycemia, with neuroglycopenic symptoms, is the most obvious example. The pharmacotherapy itself can cause hypoglycemic episodes or other symptoms that put the safety of the worker and even others at risk. Workers with DM who work at heights, who handle dangerous equipment or who drive professionally, must be carefully evaluated by the Occupational Physician. Although most will not have work restrictions, it may be necessary to adapt the workplace or limit certain tasks to achieve adequate glycemic control, a determining factor for preventing complications. Recommendations for workers with diabetes include breaks for glycaemic control, food ingestion and/or therapeutic administration, appropriate choice of protective equipment and, eventually, restriction of night shifts or some tasks with high metabolic expenditure. Those recommendations depend on the awareness of hypoglycaemea, the pharmacotherapy used to control diabetes and the complications of the disease. Conclusion Occupational Physician needs to be updated about Diabetes Mellitus management tools, pharmacotherapy, with particular attention to eventual side effects, to control and prevent professional risks arising from poor control.

This study aimed to analyze the agreement between measurements of unloaded oxygen uptake and peak oxygen uptake based on equations proposed by Wasserman and on real measurements directly obtained with the ergospirometry system. We performed an incremental cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET), which was applied to two groups of sedentary male subjects: one apparently healthy group (HG, n=12) and the other had stable coronary artery disease (n=16). The mean age in the HG was 47±4 years and that in the coronary artery disease group (CG) was 57±8 years. Both groups performed CPET on a cycle ergometer with a ramp-type protocol at an intensity that was calculated according to the Wasserman equation. In the HG, there was no significant difference between measurements predicted by the formula and real measurements obtained in CPET in the unloaded condition. However, at peak effort, a significant difference was observed between oxygen uptake ( V ˙O2)peak(predicted) and V ˙O2peak(real) (nonparametric Wilcoxon test). In the CG, there was a significant difference of 116.26 mL/min between the predicted values by the formula and the real values obtained in the unloaded condition. A significant difference in peak effort was found, where V ˙O2peak(real) was 40% lower than V ˙O2peak(predicted) (nonparametric Wilcoxon test). There was no agreement between the real and predicted measurements as analyzed by Lin’s coefficient or the Bland and Altman model. The Wasserman formula does not appear to be appropriate for prediction of functional capacity of volunteers. Therefore, this formula cannot precisely predict the increase in power in incremental CPET on a cycle ergometer.

Some venomous spiders of the genus Loxosceles can reach high population densities inside and around houses. In Brazil, most spider accidents are related to Loxosceles intermedia. Control of loxoscelism should utilize integrated pest management tools, such as vacuum cleaners, to eliminate egg sacs, webs and spiders. The present study tested the efficacy of one type of vacuum cleaner (for professional and domestic use) in the control of L. intermedia populations. Cockroaches (Pycnoscelus surinamensis) were used in some tests for comparison. Vacuuming using standard accessories or a paper tube resulted in the death of all female (n=60), male (n=60), young (n=60) and just-hatched (n=60) L. intermedia, and all egg sacs (n=5) were destroyed. The removal of the plastic plate present at the bottom of the vacuuming tube inside the machine allowed some spiders to survive the vacuuming process. When kept inside a vacuum bag full of dust and debris, adult females (n=10) survived for 10 days; however, significant mortality was observed among male (n=10) and young individuals (n=10). Addition of cornstarch to the vacuum bag did not affect the spiders (n=20). Vacuum cleaners, such as the one used in the present investigation, are promising tools for integrated management of L. intermedia and other spiders in domestic environments.

Extended gate field-effect transistor (EGFET) is a device composed of a conventional ion-sensitive electrode and a MOSFET device, which can be applied to the measurement of ion content in a solution. This structure has a lot of advantages as compared to the Ion- Sensitive Field Effect Transistor (ISFET). In this work, we constructed an EGFET by connecting the sensing structure fabricated with SnO2 to a commercial MOSFET (CD4007UB). From the numerical simulation of site binding model it is possible to determine some of the desirable characteristics of the films. We investigate and compare SnO2 films prepared using both the Sol-gel and the Pechini methods. The aim is an amorphous material for the EGFET. The SnO2 powder was obtained at different calcinating temperatures (200 - 500ºC) and they were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared spectroscopy (IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential thermal analysis (DTA). The films were investigated as pH sensors (range 2-11).

A study of ultraviolet and visible Raman spectroscopy was made in amorphous carbon nitride (a-C:Nx) and amorphous hydrogenated carbon nitride (a-C:Nx:H) thin films. Two growth techniques were used: 1) glow discharge was used for depositing hydrogenated films with diamond-like (at -200V of bias) and graphite-like (-800V of bias) structure and 2) ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD) to deposit non-hydrogenated films and to obtain high nitrogen concentrations (~30%). The difference in energy between the visible and UV Raman, the so called G dispersion parameter, was investigated for both series of films. This parameter brings additional information concerning the structure of the films regarding size and concentration of graphitic clusters, and qualitative information on the sp²/sp³ concentration. The characterization of the structural properties in these films indicates an increase of graphite clusters with the incorporation of nitrogen.

System identification consists of the development of techniques for model estimation from experimental data, demanding no previous knowledge of the process. Aeroelastic models are directly influence of the benefits of identification techniques, basically because of the difficulties related to the modelling of the coupled aero- and structural dynamics. In this work a comparative study of the bilinear dynamic identification of a helicopter blade aeroelastic response is carried out using artificial neural networks is presented. Two neural networks architectures are considered in this study. Both are variations of static networks prepared to accomodate the system dynamics. A time delay neural networks (TDNN) for response prediction and a typical recurrent neural networks (RNN) are used for the identification. The neural networks have been trained by Levemberg-Marquardt algorithm. To compare the performance of the neural networks models, generalization tests are produced where the aeroelastic responses of the blade in flapping and torsion motions at its tip due to noisy pitching angle are presented. An analysis in frequency of the signals from simulated and the emulated models are presented. In order to perform a qualitative analysis, return maps with the simulation results generated by the neural networks are presented.

A numerical model for the simulation of fixed wings aeroelastic response is presented. The methodology used in the work is to treat the aerodynamics and the structural dynamics separately and then couple them in the equations of motion. The dynamic characterization of the wing structure is done by the finite element method and the equations of motion are written in modal coordinates. The unsteady aerodynamic loads are predicted using the vortex lattice method. The exchange of information between the aerodynamic and structural meshes is done by the surface splines interpolation scheme, and the equations of motion are solved iteratively in the time domain, employing a predictor-corrector method. Numerical simulations are performed for a prototype aircraft wing. The aeroelastic response is represented by time histories of the modal coordinates for different airspeeds, and the flutter occurrence is verified when the time histories diverge (i.e. the amplitudes keep growing). Fast Fourier Transforms of these time histories show the coupling of frequencies typical of the flutter phenomenon.

Funções de pedotransferência são equações usadas para estimar características edáficas de difícil determinação a partir de outras mais facilmente obtidas. Apesar do bom número de equações disponíveis para estimativa da umidade retida a potenciais matriciais específicos, elas não devem ser usadas indiscriminadamente, pois, em sua maioria, foram desenvolvidas com solos de clima temperado e a partir de dados gerados por métodos diversos dos em uso nos laboratórios brasileiros. O presente trabalho teve por objetivos: (a) elaborar funções de pedotransferência para estimar o conteúdo de água nos potenciais de -33 e -1.500 kPa e a água disponível, a partir de dados granulométricos e de densidade do solo, para solos do estado de Pernambuco e (b) comparar a eficiência de predição das equações propostas em relação a equações similares, disponíveis na literatura. No desenvolvimento das equações, foi utilizada uma base de dados composta por 98 perfis de solos e 467 horizontes. Os perfis foram agrupados, de acordo com Sistema Brasileiro de Classificação de Solos, em 27 classes de terceiro nível categórico (grande grupo). As equações desenvolvidas apresentaram bons coeficientes de determinação e baixo erro de predição. A sistematização dos dados por atividade da fração argila ou grau aproximado de desenvolvimento ou classe textural não produziu melhorias na capacidade preditiva das pedofunções. As equações propostas em outros trabalhos apresentaram elevado erro de predição, o que restringe a sua utilização para solos do estado de Pernambuco.

Pedotransfer functions are equations used to estimate soil properties of difficult determination, based on other, more easily obtained soil properties. In spite of the considerable number of equations available to predict moisture retention to specific matrix potentials, these should not be used indiscriminatley,since most of them were developed in temperate climate soils, using data obtained by method that differ from the ones used in Brazilian laboratories. The objectives of this study were: (a) to develop pedotransference functions to estimate water retention at potentials between -33 and -1,500 kPa and water availability, using particle size distribution and global density data from soils of Pernambuco State, and (b) to compare the prediction efficiency of the new equations with similar equations available in literature. A database of 467 soil horizons from 98 soil profiles was used to develop the equations. The profiles were grouped, according to the Brazilian Soil Classification System, in 27 third category level classes (great group) The obtained equations showed worthwhile determination coefficients and low prediction standard error. Data grouping according to clay fraction, approximated development rate or textural class, did not improve the prediction capacity of the pedofunctions. The equations proposed in other works presented high prediction errors and are not recommended for soils of Pernambuco State.

Non-linear functional representation of the aerodynamic response provides a convenient mathematical model for motion-induced unsteady transonic aerodynamic loads response, that accounts for both complex non-linearities and time-history effects. A recent development, based on functional approximation theory, has established a novel functional form; namely, the multi-layer functional. For a large class of non-linear dynamic systems, such multi-layer functional representations can be realised via finite impulse response (FIR) neural networks. Identification of an appropriate FIR neural network model is facilitated by means of a supervised training process in which a limited sample of system input-output data sets is presented to the temporal neural network. The present work describes a procedure for the systematic identification of parameterised neural network models of motion-induced unsteady transonic aerodynamic loads response. The training process is based on a conventional genetic algorithm to optimise the network architecture, combined with a simplified random search algorithm to update weight and bias values. Application of the scheme to representative transonic aerodynamic loads response data for a bidimensional airfoil executing finite-amplitude motion in transonic flow is used to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach. The approach is shown to furnish a satisfactory generalisation property to different motion histories over a range of Mach numbers in the transonic regime.

The hardness and stress of amorphous carbon films prepared by glow discharge and by ion beam assisting deposition are investigated. Relatively hard and almost stress free amorphous carbon films were deposited by the glow discharge technique. On the other hand, by using the ion beam assisting deposition, hard films were also obtained with a stress of the same order of those found in tetrahedral amorphous carbon films. A structural analysis indicates that all films are composed of a sp²-rich network. These results contradict the currently accepted concept that both stress and hardness are only related to the concentration of sp³ sites. Furthermore, the same results also indicate that the sp² sites may also contribute to the hardness of the films.