Workmen's Compensation

Notes and Comment

Tall Buildings in Dubai—Converting Architecture into Reality

In just over two decades, Dubai has transformed from a desert served by a single port to a flourishing metropolis. Dubai alone is the home to 20% of the world’s tallest 50 buildings. This transformation brings new challenges to the city during construction and post completion. The surrounding areas will be affected by these skyscrapers from transportation, traffic constraints, parking, power and water consumption and other factors. The cost of building a skyscraper remains the major obstacle with the need to source out new materials other than steel and concrete. Also, moving people around efficiently in super tall buildings is another challenge for engineers keeping in mind the unique designs that architects are looking after. Once all design aspects are concluded and approved by different stakeholders, it will move on to the next phase which is construction, that is called: Reality.Construction realization is the focus of this paper. It will discuss the actual facts and surprises which will be encountered during the transformation of the design into shop drawings and tangible concrete. A physical case study from a busy district in the city of Dubai is the main focus of this study along with the core challenges and obstacles faced the team during the execution phase. Also, this review will debate couple of design elements that were considered as a design feature then developed to be a real construction challenge.Originality/value: the paper will focus on a case study of a high-end skyscrapers designed and built in the city of Dubai in a dense area and the challenges faced by the team during construction. These challenges are beneficial to understand since they will help architects and designers to take into consideration during their studies

A Randomized Trial of Brief Online Interventions to Facilitate Treatment Seeking for Social Anxiety

Objective: This study developed and evaluated a brief, single-session online intervention designed to facilitate treatment seeking among adults with clinically significant social anxiety (SA) symptoms, who generally seek treatment at exceptionally low rates. Method: Adults (N= 267) reporting significant SA symptoms were recruited online and randomized to a brief, single-session online intervention: Education consisted of brief psychoeducation and treatment resources, or Education+Motivation which added treatment seeking-focused motivational content adapted from Motivational Interviewing and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Attitudes, intentions, perceived control, and treatment seeking were assessed at Pre, Post, and one-month follow-up (FU). Results: Both interventions were feasible (90% completion) and improved all outcomes. At FU, 70% reported engaging in 1or more SA treatment-seeking behaviors. Education+Motivation was more effective than Education at improving treatment-seeking attitudes and behaviors. Conclusions: A brief online intervention with educational and motivational content is a promising direction for promoting treatment seeking for adults with SA symptoms

Characterization of Desulfovibrio fructosovorans sp. nov.

Desulfovibrio strain JJ isolated from estuarine sediment differed from all other described Desulfovibrio species by the ability to degrade fructose. The oxidation was incomplete, leading to acetate production. Fructose, malate and fumarate were fermented mainly to succinate and acetate in the absence of an external electron acceptor. The pH and temperature optima for growth were 7.0 and 35° C respectively. Strain JJ was motile by means of a single polar flagellum. The DNA base composition was 64.13% G+C. Cytochrome c3 and desulfoviridin were present. These characteristics established the isolate as a new species of the genus Desulfovibrio, and the name Desulfovibrio fructosovorans is proposed

Larval settlement in flocculated particulates

Author Posting. © The Authors, 2008. This article is posted here by permission of Sears Foundation for Marine Research for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Marine Research 66 (2008): 275-297, doi:10.1357/002224008785837167.Planktonic larval settlement can be a major determinant of population and community dynamics. Settlement templates of benthic invertebrates have been attributed to biological, chemical, and hydrodynamic mechanisms. Completely unexplored, however, is the role of patchy, but widespread, flocculated particulates (“floc”) that intermittently rest on substrate surfaces. Motivated by observations of very high (of order 106 m-3) larval/postlarval densities in floc from a coastal embayment, this study experimentally identified physical and behavioral mechanisms responsible for these associations. In annular-flume studies, sediment cores were mounted flush with the channel bottom, serving as the floc source. Larval (Capitella sp. I, a polychaete worm) distributions in the flume were consistent with predictions for transported particulates. Floc and larvae accumulated at the channel inner corner in high flows (shear velocities, u*, of 0.8 and 1.6 cm s-1), but not in low flows (u* of 0, 0.2 and 0.4 cm s-1). Inner-corner concentrations of larvae/floc resulted from a predictable, cross-channel, bottom flow in that direction. In still-water behavioral assays, there were no significant differences in percent metamorphosis among flocs fabricated from particulate-laden seawater, conspecific fecal pellets (compact floc) and organic-rich sediment. Surficial aggregates clearly were acceptable settlement substratum. This study is the first to show that settling larvae associate with surficial aggregates via both physical and behavioral mechanisms. Floc may be a transient larval venue facilitating habitat search, providing nutrition, or offering protection from predators. Alternatively, it could confer high mortality, reducing larval flux to the bed. Associations between larvae and floc do not supersede established mechanisms of habitat selection. They just thicken the plot.This study was supported by the National Science Foundation (OCE 97-29972 and OCE 02-42321), NOAA California Sea Grant College Program (R/F-197) and the UCLA Council on Research