One of the principal difficulties related to road safety management in Brazil is the lack of data on road projects, especially those on rural roads, which makes it difficult to use road safety studies and models from other countries as a reference. Updating road networks through the use of hyperspectral remote sensing images can be a good alternative. However, accurately recognizing and extracting hyperspectral images from roads has been recognized as a challenging task in the processing of hyperspectral data. In order to solve the aforementioned challenges, Hyperion hyperspectral images were combined with the Optimum Forest Path (OPF) algorithm for supervised classification of rural roads and the effectiveness of the OPF and SVM classifiers when applied to these areas was compared. Both classifiers produced reasonable results, however, the OPF algorithm outperformed SVM. The higher classification accuracy obtained by the OPF was mainly attributed to the ability to better distinguish between regions of exposed soil and unpaved roads.

During the production of aggregates at quarry sites, elevated quantities of micro-particulate mineral dust are produced in all stages of the process. This dust contains appreciable amounts of free crystalline silica in a variety of forms which, if maintained suspended in the air in the work environment, expose the workers to the risk of developing occupational silicosis, which causes reduced ability to work and potential shortening of lifespan. This study was conducted to qualitatively and quantitatively evaluate workers' exposure to mineral dust containing free crystalline silica at a midsized quarry in the Recife metropolitan area, in the State of Pernambuco. It involved evaluation of the industrial process, collection and analysis of representative dust samples, and interviews with the management team of the company with the intent to assess the compliance of the company with Regulatory Standard (NR) 22 -Occupational safety and health in mining. In order to assist the company in managing risks related to dust exposure, three protocols were developed, implemented and made available, the first based on NR 22, from which the company was also given an economic safety indicator, the second based on the recommendations and requirements of Fundacentro to implement a Respiratory Protection Program and, finally, an assessment protocol with respect to the guidelines of the International Labor Organization to implement a health and safety management system. This study also showed the inadequacy of the formula for calculating tolerance limits in Brazilian legislation when compared with the more strict internationally accepted control parameters. From the laboratory results, unhealthy conditions at the quarry site were confirmed and technical and administrative measures were suggested to reduce and control dust exposure at acceptable levels, such as the implementation of an occupational health and safety management system, integrated with other management systems. From these assessments it is hoped that the proposals can assist the company in developing mechanisms for management and control of dust exposure risks that may improve environmental quality and the well-being of workers.

Most existing analytical models determine signal settings at intersections by minimizing total delay. The main problem with these methods is that when green split is based on minimum total intersection delay, low-volume approaches are penalized. Although this may be appropriate, the extent of this penalty has never been theoretically resolved. A new concept and its methodology for determining traffic signal settings were proposed to provide a theoretical basis for this issue. This new concept, marginal delay, has its inception in marginal analysis and is defined as the increase in total delay resulting from a one-vehicle increase in the approach volume. Given the nature of the existing delay equations, marginal delay also represents the measure of the maximum individual vehicle delay for a given cycle. Three marginal delay equations were derived and analyzed over a range of 265 cases. Marginal delay analysis was applied to signal-setting calculations and compared with existing delay models. The work concluded that marginal delay is a significant variable in the calculation of signal settings, especially when large differences exist between the volumes of the different approaches. Furthermore, marginal delay used in conjunction with total delay can improve current signal-timing methods by quantifying the penalty applied to light-volume approaches and by providing a measure of variance between real-time flow and design flow.

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Brazil has one of the highest percentages of solar radiation in the world and which it is a favorable condition to generate electricity using solar photovoltaic systems. The construction of photovoltaic plants depends on the site selection that influences the electricity generation capacity and the socio-economic benefits that can be derived from it in the future. This article proposes to combine Spatial analysis that involves the acquisition and management of spatial data using a Geographic Information System (GIS), and the fuzzy multi-criteria AHP-TOPSIS model to identify potential locations for the installation of solar photovoltaic systems in the northeastern region of Brazil, State of Pernambuco. The combination of GIS and fuzzy AHP-TOPSIS offers the user the possibility of assigning merit categories to the mapping according to multiple assessment criteria. The GIS include factors of the restrictions and criteria. The restrictions are inserted into the GIS using layers defined from current legislation (urban areas, undeveloped land, community sites, infrastructure, etc.), which reduce the study area by eliminating zones in which PV installation is not permitted. The results show that 22 and 40% of the area of the state of Pernambuco has the very high and high potential, respectively, for the implantation of PV.