Urban noise assessment in hospitals: measurements and mapping in the context of the city of Sorocaba, Brazil.

Noise pollution has become a public health problem in several countries worldwide. Noise maps are tools used in many cities, mainly on the European continent. In other regions, they are used in smaller areas, and few studies focus on hospital areas, considered noise-sensitive zones. In this context, this study aimed to perform sound measurements and noise maps for the day and night periods in the surroundings of three hospitals in Sorocaba, Brazil. Sound measurements occurred around the three hospitals based on NBR 10151 and ISO 1996 standards. The noise maps were drawn up using a calculation model based on ISO 9613-2. Results showed that the sound measurement points around the hospitals had levels above those recommended by the Brazilian standard for sensitive areas (LAeq 50 and 45 dB for day and night, respectively). The acoustic maps showed high sound levels on all faces of the hospital buildings, both during the day and at night. The worst scenario concerned the vicinity of the roads with the highest flow and speed of vehicles. We concluded that three different hospitals in the city have high sound levels in their surroundings above the recommended for sensitive areas.

Environmental noise in hospitals: a systematic review.

Environmental noise has been growing in recent years, causing numerous health problems. Highly sensitive environments such as hospitals deserve special attention, since noise can aggravate patients' health issues and impair the performance of healthcare professionals. This work consists of a systematic review of scientific articles describing environmental noise measurements taken in hospitals between the years 2015 and 2020. The researchers started with a consultation of three databases, namely, Scopus, Web of Science, and ScienceDirect. The results indicate that for the most part, these studies are published in journals in the fields of medicine, engineering, environmental sciences, acoustics, and nursing and that most of their authors work in the fields of architecture, engineering, medicine, and nursing. These studies, which are concentrated in Europe, the Americas, and Asia, use as reference values sound levels recommended by the World Health Organization. Leq measured in hospital environments showed daytime values ranging from 37 to 88.6 dB (A) and nighttime values of 38.7 to 68.8 dB (A). Leq values for outdoor noise were 74.3 and 56.6 dB (A) for daytime and nighttime, respectively. The measurements were taken mainly inside hospitals, prioritizing more sensitive departments such as intensive care units. There is a potential for growth in work carried out in this area, but research should also include discussions about guidelines for improvement measures aimed at reducing noise in hospitals.

Overcoming dormancy of Senna multijuga seeds with an ultrasonic probe the comparison with ultrasound and sulfuric acid baths / Superação da dormência de sementes de Senna multijuga com sonda ultrassônica e a comparação com banho de ultrassom e ácido sulfúrico

ABSTRACT: Understanding germination is extremely important for the production of seedlings that are used in revegetation of degraded areas. Some species enter dormancy as a survival strategy to overcome adverse environmental conditions. Their seeds germinate only when this process is interrupted, which can occur naturally when the conditions become more favorable for the survival of the species or by induction. Studies showed that ultrasound can increase the germination rate of seeds. The objective of this research was to evaluate the effect of an ultrasound probe and compare it with other methodologies implemented for seed germination of Senna multijuga (Rich.) H. S. Irwin & Barneby, a species used in revegetation of degraded areas. The experiment evaluated the effect of the ultrasonic probe at different powers on seeds that were placed to germinate in a gerbox on paper moistened with distilled water. Ninety-five percent of seeds treated with ultrasound and only 14% of non-treated seeds (control) germinated. There was no significant difference in the germination among the treatments with different powers. The speed of germination index (SGI) reached 4.7 in seeds that underwent the treatment, and 0.6 in the control group. From the results it is possible to conclude that the ultrasound probe is an efficient treatment to accelerate seed germination in this species; and consequently, contributed to production of a greater number of seedlings to be used in revegetation of degraded areas in a short period of time.

RESUMO: Entender a germinação é extremamente importante para produção de mudas utilizadas na revegetação de áreas degradadas. Algumas espécies são consideradas dormentes por apresentarem uma estratégia de sobrevivência para superar condições ambientais adversas. Essas sementes germinam apenas quando esse processo é interrompido, o que pode ocorrer naturalmente quando as condições se tornam mais favoráveis para a sobrevivência da espécie ou de forma induzida. Estudos demonstram que o ultrassom pode aumentar a taxa de germinação das sementes. Esse trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar o efeito da sonda ultrassom e compará-la com outras metodologias utilizadas para a germinação de sementes de Senna multijuga (Rich.) H. S. Irwin & Barneby, espécie utilizada na revegetação de áreas degradadas. O experimento avaliou o efeito da sonda de ultrassom em diferentes potências sobre as sementes, que foram colocadas para germinar em gerbox sobre papel umedecido com água destilada. Das sementes que sofreram o tratamento com a sonda de ultrassom 95% germinaram, já das que não sofreram nenhum tratamento apenas 14% delas germinaram. Não houve diferença significativa entre as diferentes potências avaliadas. O índice de velocidade de germinação (IVG) chegou a 4,7 em sementes que sofreram o tratamento e 0,6 no grupo controle. A partir dos resultados é possível concluir que a sonda de ultrassom é um tratamento eficiente para acelerar a germinação de sementes desta espécie e, consequentemente, contribuir para produção de um maior número de mudas em curto período para serem utilizadas na revegetação de áreas degradadas.

Construção de um índice global de impacto para análise ambiental comparativa aplicada à adequação de empreendimentos irregulares / Construction of an impact global index for comparative environmental analysis applied to the settlement of irregular activities

RESUMO Por muito tempo o exercício de atividades econômicas ocorreu na ausência de normas reguladoras. Com a normatização, muitos empreendimentos enquadraram-se em situação de irregularidade, sobretudo por ocuparem obras situadas em áreas especialmente protegidas. Nessa condição, a manutenção ou o desfazimento dessas obras deve se basear em uma análise comparativa dos impactos decorrentes de ambas as alternativas, entretanto a falta de critérios e de padronização nos procedimentos tem prejudicado o adequado tratamento e respectiva tomada de decisões. Assim, o presente trabalho teve como objetivo apresentar uma proposta metodológica para análise ambiental comparativa aplicada à adequação de empreendimentos irregulares. Para tanto, foi construído um índice global de impacto, mediante revisão bibliográfica, que possibilitou identificar os parâmetros envolvidos e o seu equacionamento com o uso de matrizes de interação. O método foi aplicado em um empreendimento que realizou intervenção em uma Área de Preservação Permanente, no limite urbano consolidado sem prévia autorização do órgão licenciador. Como resultado, alcançou-se um índice capaz de subsidiar tomadas de decisão quanto à manutenção ou ao desfazimento de empreendimentos irregulares, levando em consideração atributos como duração, extensão e intensidade no equacionamento da magnitude do impacto, bem como os parâmetros de acumulação, reversibilidade e sensibilidade para avaliar sua importância. Embora o método proposto não elimine a subjetividade da avaliação ambiental, contribui para sua padronização por meio de um procedimento lógico e organizado que propicia comparação fundamentada em parâmetros quantitativos, de maneira especial para empreendimentos de menor porte, em geral avaliados de acordo com atributos unicamente qualitativos.

ABSTRACT For a long time, economic activities occurred in the lack of legal rules. Due to advancement of legislation, many activities became in situation of irregularity, mainly by occupying buildings in protected areas. In this condition, the maintenance or destruction of these buildings should be based on an impact comparative analysis of both alternatives. However, a lack of criteria and standardization of procedures has undermined the proper treatment and decision making. Thus, the purpose of this paper was to introduce a methodological proposal for comparative environmental analysis applied to the settlement of irregular activities. For that, an impact global index was constructed, by means of literature review to identify the parameters involved, as well as to its formulation with use of interaction matrices. The method was applied for assessing an activity that made intervention in permanent preservation area, within consolidated urban area without authorization of competent agency. As a result, an index able to support making-decision about maintenance or destruction of irregular buildings was obtained, considering attributes as duration, extension and intensity in the formulation of magnitude of the impact, as well as the parameters of accumulation, reversibility and sensibility to evaluate its importance. Although the proposed method does not eliminate the subjectivity of the environmental assessment, it contributes to standardization through a logical and organized procedure that allows a comparison based on quantitative parameters, especially for smaller projects, usually assessed only according to qualitative attributes.

Porosity measurement of solid pharmaceutical dosage forms by gamma-ray transmission.

The aim of the present work is the determination of porosity in tablets by using the gamma-ray transmission technique. Tablet dissolution depends on some inherent characteristics of the manufacturing process, such as compression force, tablet volume, density and porosity, nature of excipients, preparation methods and its physical-chemical properties. Porosity is a measure of empty spaces in a material and can be determined by various techniques. In this paper, we propose the use of a gamma-ray transmission technique to obtain the porosity of experimental formulation of tablets. The results of porosity were compared with those obtained by using conventional methodology (density and mercury intrusion). The experimental setup for gamma-ray transmission consists of a gamma-ray source of (241)Am (photons of 59.6 keV and an activity of 3.7 × 10(9)Bq), an NaI(Tl) scintillation detector, collimators and a standard gamma-ray spectrometry electronics. Our results suggest that the gamma-ray transmission technique is a powerful tool for non-destructive porosity quantification of solid pharmaceutical forms and presents smaller errors than those obtained with conventional methodologies.