In: Ecotoxicology and environmental safety: EES ; official journal of the International Society of Ecotoxicology and Environmental safety, Band 104, S. 132-135
The COVID-19 pandemic has been the largest global health crisis in decades. Apart from the unprecedented number of deaths and hospitalizations, the pandemic has resulted in economic slowdowns, widespread business disruptions, and significant hardships. This study focused on investigating the early impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the U.S. construction industry since the declaration of the national emergency on 13 March 2020. The study objectives were achieved through 34 telephone interviews with project managers, engineers, designers, and superintendents that represented different states and distinct industry sectors in the United States (U.S.). The interviewees offered information on their experience with the pandemic, including the general and adverse effects experienced, new opportunities created, and risk management efforts being undertaken. The reported adverse effects included significant delays on projects, inability to secure materials on time, reduction in productivity rates, material price escalations, and others. The new opportunities that were created included projects involving the fast-track construction of medical facilities, construction of residential buildings, transportation-related work, and opportunities to recruit skilled workers. The risk management measures that were widely adopted included measures to enhance safety and reduce other project risks. The safety measures adopted included requiring employees to wear cloth face masks, adoption of social distancing protocols, staggering of construction operations, offering COVID-19-related training, administering temperature checks prior to entry into the workplace, and others. Measures to manage other project risks included the formation of a task force team to review the evolving pandemic and offer recommendations, advocating that construction businesses be deemed essential to combat delays and taking advantage of government relief programs. The study findings will be useful to industry stakeholders interested in understanding the early ...
The present work focussed on the concerns of the existence of coliform, faecal coliform, and other pathogens in both tap water and commercially available bottled water, along with the drug resistant pattern of the isolates. The physico-chemical features of the bottled water samples were satisfactory, but most of the tap water exceeded the marginal limit. A total of 21 samples (10 of tap water and 11 of bottled water) were collected and processed for microbiological analysis. All the samples were found to be contaminated with total viable bacteria up to 108 CFU/mL. Among the 21 samples, seven samples were found to be contaminated with E. coli up to 106 CFU/mL, and six samples had Klebsiella spp. up to 102 CFU/mL. Faecal contamination was totally absent in all bottled water, but present in four tap water samples. Fungi was found in six samples within the range of 102 to 103 CFU/mL. Surprisingly, Staphylococcus spp. were observed in all bottled water. Vibrio spp. were detected in three samples. An elevated number of faecal coliforms, Klebsiella spp., Salmonella spp., Shigella spp., Vibrio spp., and Pseudomonas spp. were estimated among the tap water samples up to 105 CFU/mL. The water samples, especially tap water, collected from the different areas were microbiologically unsafe, as few pathogenic microorganisms were found in several samples. This indicated as public health threat. Most of the isolates from both tap and bottled water samples were found to be resistant against more than one antibiotic tested, which is extremely alarming for the consumers. Very few antibiotics were found to be effective against the bacterial isolates.
A global partnership that is aligned with the Global Framework for Climate Services, Climate Services for Resilient Development (CSRD) works to link climate science, data streams, decision support tools, and training with decision-makers in developing countries. CSRD is led by the United States Government and is supported by the UK Government Department for International Development (DFID), UK Meteorological Office, ESRI, Google, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the American Red Cross. Led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the CSRD initiative in South Asia works with partners to conduct applied research and facilitate the use of climate information to reduce risk for smallholder farmers. This report details activities of the CSRD project in South Asia during 2018, with emphasis on the second half of 2018 (activities in the first half of 2018 can be found in the semi-annual report).
The Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) LSQ14fmg exhibits exaggerated properties that may help to reveal the origin of the "super-Chandrasekhar" (or 03fg-like) group. The optical spectrum is typical of a 03fg-like SN Ia, but the light curves are unlike those of any SNe Ia observed. The light curves of LSQ14fmg rise extremely slowly. At -23 rest-frame days relative toB-band maximum, LSQ14fmg is already brighter thanJandHbands, far more luminous than any 03fg-like SNe Ia with near-infrared observations. At 1 month past maximum, the optical light curves decline rapidly. The early, slow rise and flat color evolution are interpreted to result from an additional excess flux from a power source other than the radioactive decay of the synthesized Ni-56. The excess flux matches the interaction with a typical superwind of an asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star in density structure, mass-loss rate, and duration. The rapid decline starting at around 1 month pastB-band maximum may be an indication of rapid cooling by active carbon monoxide (CO) formation, which requires a low-temperature and high-density environment. These peculiarities point to an AGB progenitor near the end of its evolution and the core degenerate scenario as the likely explosion mechanism for LSQ14fmg. ; National Science Foundation (NSF) AST-1008343 AST-1613426 AST-1613455 AST-1613472 AST-1008962 AST-1907570 AST1920392 AST-1911074 AST-1515927 AST1908570 AST-0908816 Danish Agency for Science and Technology and Innovation through a Sapere Aude Level 2 grant European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant 839090 European Union (EU) PGC2018-095317-B-C21 DiRAC Institute in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Washington George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy Mitchell Foundation Academy of Finland 324504 328898 National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) 80NSSC19K1717 Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation GBMF5490 Mt. Cuba Astronomical Foundation Ohio State University Chinese Academy of Sciences South America Center for Astronomy (CASSACA) Villum Foundation Independent Research Fund Denmark (IRFD) 8021-00170B VILLUM FONDEN 13261 28021 ESO Telescopes at the Paranal Observatory 099. D-0022(A)
DOE (USA) ; NSF (USA) ; MEC/MICINN/MINECO (Spain) ; STFC (UK) ; HEFCE (United Kingdom) ; NCSA (UIUC) ; KICP (U. Chicago) ; CCAPP (Ohio State) ; MIFPA (Texas AM) ; Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) ; Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ) ; FINEP (Brazil) ; DFG (Germany) ; Argonne Lab ; UC Santa Cruz ; University of Cambridge ; CIEMAT-Madrid ; University of Chicago ; University College London ; DES-Brazil Consortium ; University of Edinburgh ; ETH Zurich ; Fermilab ; University of Illinois ; ICE (IEEC-CSIC) ; IFAE Barcelona ; Lawrence Berkeley Lab ; LMU Munchen ; Excellence Cluster Universe ; University of Michigan ; NOAO ; University of Nottingham ; Ohio State University ; University of Pennsylvania ; University of Portsmouth ; SLAC National Lab ; Stanford University ; University of Sussex ; Texas AM University ; OzDES Membership Consortium ; NSF ; MINECO ; ERDF funds from the European Union ; CERCA program of the Generalitat de Catalunya ; European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013) ; ERC ; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO) ; U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of High Energy Physics ; Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy ; NSF: AST-1138766 ; NSF: AST-1536171 ; MINECO: AYA2015-71825 ; MINECO: ESP2015-66861 ; MINECO: FPA2015-68048 ; MINECO: SEV-2016-0588 ; MINECO: SEV-2016-0597 ; MINECO: MDM-2015-0509 ; ERC: 240672 ; ERC: 291329 ; ERC: 306478 ; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO): CE110001020 ; CNPq: 465376/2014-2 ; U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of High Energy Physics: DE-AC02-07CH11359 ; Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy: DE-AC02-05CH11231 ; The combination of multiple observational probes has long been advocated as a powerful technique to constrain cosmological parameters, in particular dark energy. The Dark Energy Survey has measured 207 spectroscopically confirmed type Ia supernova light curves, the baryon acoustic oscillation feature, weak gravitational lensing, and galaxy clustering. Here we present combined results from these probes, deriving constraints on the equation of state, w, of dark energy and its energy density in the Universe. Independently of other experiments, such as those that measure the cosmic microwave background, the probes from this single photometric survey rule out a Universe with no dark energy, finding w = -0.80(-0.11)(+0.09). The geometry is shown to be consistent with a spatially flat Universe, and we obtain a constraint on the baryon density of Omega(b) = 0.069(-0.012)(+0.009) that is independent of early Universe measurements. These results demonstrate the potential power of large multiprobe photometric surveys and pave the way for order of magnitude advances in our constraints on properties of dark energy and cosmology over the next decade.
U.S. Department of Energy ; U.S. National Science Foundation ; Ministry of Science and Education of Spain ; Science and Technology Facilities Council of the United Kingdom ; Higher Education Funding Council for England ; National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ; Kavli Institute of Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago ; Center for Cosmology and Astro-Particle Physics at Ohio State University ; Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy at Texas AM University ; Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos ; Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ) ; Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) ; Ministerio da Ciencia, Tecnologia e Inovacao ; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft ; Argonne National Laboratory ; University of California at Santa Cruz ; University of Cambridge ; Centro de Investigaciones Energeticas ; Medioambientales y Tecnologicas-Madrid ; University of Chicago ; University College London ; DES-Brazil Consortium ; University of Edinburgh ; Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule Zurich ; Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory ; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ; Institut de Ciencies de l'Espai ; Institut de Fisica d'Altes Energies ; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory ; Ludwig-Maximilians Universitat Munchen ; Excellence Cluster Universe ; University of Michigan ; National Optical Astronomy Observatory ; University of Nottingham ; Ohio State University ; University of Pennsylvania ; University of Portsmouth ; SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford University ; University of Sussex ; Texas A M University ; OzDES Membership Consortium ; National Science Foundation ; MINECO ; European Union ; Centres de Recerce de Catalunya (CERCA) program of the Generalitat de Catalunya ; European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Program (FP7) ; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics ; U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of High Energy Physics ; Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy ; National Science Foundation: AST-1138766 ; National Science Foundation: AST-1536171 ; MINECO: AYA2015-71825 ; MINECO: ESP2015-88861 ; MINECO: FPA2015-68048 ; MINECO: SEV-2012-0234 ; MINECO: SEV-2016-0597 ; MINECO: MDM-2015-0509, ; European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Program (FP7): 240672 ; European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Program (FP7): 291329 ; European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Program (FP7): 306478 ; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics: CE110001020 ; U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of High Energy Physics: DE-AC02-07CH11359 ; Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy: DE-AC02-05CH11231 ; We present cosmological results from a combined analysis of galaxy clustering and weak gravitational lensing, using 1321 deg(2) of griz imaging data from the first year of the Dark Energy Survey (DES Y1). We combine three two-point functions: (i) the cosmic shear correlation function of 26 million source galaxies in four redshift bins, (ii) the galaxy angular autocorrelation function of 650,000 luminous red galaxies in five redshift bins, and (iii) the galaxy-shear cross-correlation of luminous red galaxy positions and source galaxy shears. To demonstrate the robustness of these results, we use independent pairs of galaxy shape, photometric-redshift estimation and validation, and likelihood analysis pipelines. To prevent confirmation bias, the bulk of the analysis was carried out while blind to the true results; we describe an extensive suite of systematics checks performed and passed during this blinded phase. The data are modeled in flat Lambda CDM and wCDM cosmologies, marginalizing over 20 nuisance parameters, varying 6 (for Lambda CDM) or 7 (for wCDM) cosmological parameters including the neutrino mass density and including the 457 x 457 element analytic covariance matrix. We find consistent cosmological results from these three two-point functions and from their combination obtain S-8 equivalent to sigma(8) (Omega(m)/0.3)(0.5) = 0.773(-0.020)(+0.026) and Omega(m) = 0.267(-0.017)(+0.030) for Lambda CDM; for wCDM, we find S-8 = 0.782(-0.024)(+0.036) , Omega(m) = 0.284(-0.030)(+0.033), and w = -0.82(-0.20)(+0.21) at 68% C.L. The precision of these DES Y1 constraints rivals that from the Planck cosmic microwave background measurements, allowing a comparison of structure in the very early and late Universe on equal terms. Although the DES Y1 best-fit values for S-8 and Omega(m) are lower than the central values from Planck for both Lambda CDM and wCDM, the Bayes factor indicates that the DES Y1 and Planck data sets are consistent with each other in the context of Lambda CDM. Combining DES Y1 with Planck, baryonic acoustic oscillation measurements from SDSS, 6dF, and BOSS and type Ia supernovae from the Joint Lightcurve Analysis data set, we derive very tight constraints on cosmological parameters: S-8 = 0.802 +/- 0.012 and Omega(m) = 0.298 +/- 0.007 in Lambda CDM and w = -1.00(-0.04)(+0.05) in wCDM. Upcoming Dark Energy Survey analyses will provide more stringent tests of the Lambda CDM model and extensions such as a time-varying equation of state of dark energy or modified gravity.