Water quality and quantity assessment of pervious pavements performance in experimental car park areas

Pervious pavements have become one of the most used sustainable urban drainage system (SUDS) techniques in car parks. This research paper presents the results of monitoring water quality from several experimental car park areas designed and constructed in Spain with bays made of interlocking concrete block pavement, porous asphalt, polymer-modified porous concrete and reinforced grass with plastic and concrete cells. Moreover, two different sub-base materials were used (limestone aggregates and basic oxygen furnace slag). This study therefore encompasses the majority of the materials used as permeable surfaces and sub-base layers all over the world. Effluent from the test bays was monitored for dissolved oxygen, pH, electric conductivity, total suspended solids, turbidity and total petroleum hydrocarbons in order to analyze the behaviour shown by each combination of surface and sub-base materials. In addition, permeability tests were undertaken in all car parks using the ‘Laboratorio Caminos Santander’ permeameter and the Cantabrian Portable Infiltrometer. All results are presented together with the influence of surface and sub-base materials on water quality indicators using bivariate correlation statistical analysis at a confidence level of 95%. The polymer-modified porous concrete surface course in combination with limestone aggregate sub-base presented the best performance

Investigating what works to support family carers of people with dementia: a rapid realist review

Introduction - Advances in longevity and medicine mean that many more people in the UK survive life-threatening diseases but are instead susceptible to life-limiting diseases such as dementia. Within the next 10 years those affected by dementia in the UK is set to rise to over 1 million, making reliance on family care of people with dementia (PWD) essential. A central challenge is how to improve family carer support to offset the demands made by dementia care which can jeopardise carers’ own health. This review investigates ‘what works to support family carers of PWD’. Methods - Rapid realist review of a comprehensive range of databases. Results - Five key themes emerged: (1) extending social assets, (2) strengthening key psychological resources, (3) maintaining physical health status, (4) safeguarding quality of life and (5) ensuring timely availability of key external resources. It is hypothesized that these five factors combine and interact to provide critical biopsychosocial and service support that bolsters carer ‘resilience’ and supports the maintenance and sustenance of family care of PWD. Conclusions - ‘Resilience-building’ is central to ‘what works to support family carers of PWD’. The resulting model and Programme Theories respond to the burgeoning need for a coherent approach to carer support

Whole-genome sequencing reveals host factors underlying critical COVID-19

Critical COVID-19 is caused by immune-mediated inflammatory lung injury. Host genetic variation influences the development of illness requiring critical care1 or hospitalization2,3,4 after infection with SARS-CoV-2. The GenOMICC (Genetics of Mortality in Critical Care) study enables the comparison of genomes from individuals who are critically ill with those of population controls to find underlying disease mechanisms. Here we use whole-genome sequencing in 7,491 critically ill individuals compared with 48,400 controls to discover and replicate 23 independent variants that significantly predispose to critical COVID-19. We identify 16 new independent associations, including variants within genes that are involved in interferon signalling (IL10RB and PLSCR1), leucocyte differentiation (BCL11A) and blood-type antigen secretor status (FUT2). Using transcriptome-wide association and colocalization to infer the effect of gene expression on disease severity, we find evidence that implicates multiple genes—including reduced expression of a membrane flippase (ATP11A), and increased expression of a mucin (MUC1)—in critical disease. Mendelian randomization provides evidence in support of causal roles for myeloid cell adhesion molecules (SELE, ICAM5 and CD209) and the coagulation factor F8, all of which are potentially druggable targets. Our results are broadly consistent with a multi-component model of COVID-19 pathophysiology, in which at least two distinct mechanisms can predispose to life-threatening disease: failure to control viral replication; or an enhanced tendency towards pulmonary inflammation and intravascular coagulation. We show that comparison between cases of critical illness and population controls is highly efficient for the detection of therapeutically relevant mechanisms of disease

Water Resources for the Built Environment: Management Issues and Solutions

This book comprises three parts and eight sections, which are collated into twenty–nine chapters. The first part of the book (Sections 2, 3 and 4) addresses management issues and solutions to minimise water shortages and provide water security for society; whilst the second part of the book (Sections 5 and 6) addresses management issues and solutions to control excessive rainfall and minimise flooding impacts. The latter part of the book (Section 7) contextualises the issues of the earlier sections within international case studies from the developing world.Section 1 forms the introduction to the book and provides insights into issues and examples of the need to balance water resources from the extremes of having too little (drought) versus having too much (flooding). Section 2 introduces water demand, policy and cost and gives insights into water strategy, policy and legislation for meeting water demand, whilst also looking at the issues of regulating, privatising and economics of water. Section 3 concentrates on water infrastructure and supply and presents insights into issues of large scale water storage, the impacts of powering the water industry, treatment of water to meet potable supply standards and delivering supplies in buildings. Section 4 assembles chapters dealing with water conservation and bestows insights into the concept of achieving water neutral housing developments, building regulation attempts to reduce water usage, reaping water from rainwater and greywater harvesting, and an innovative approach to utilising inland waterways. Section 5 centres on flooding responses and reinstatement and furnishes insights into measuring and monitoring rainfall, engineered schemes for managing and protecting communities from floodwater, the economic cost of flooding, burdens on the insurance sector, and a holistic approach to property flood protection. Section 6 ponders on flood solutions in the urban landscape and proffers insights into sustainable drainage systems, together with pavement drainage and green infrastructure benefits, the role of constructed wetlands and the treatment of wastewater. Section 7 contextualises international case studies with insights into water resources issues in Africa and Asia. Section 8 converges with a summary of the book and offers insights into the lessons that can be learnt for the future of water resources management