At-risk wastewater pipeline identification due to flooding

Corrosion is a risk to all ferrous pipelines, and the impact of moisture from major flood events in potentially corrosive soils upon the corrosion of sensitive pipeline materials has not yet been thoroughly studied. Rapidly accelerated corrosion from flooding can cause a pipeline break and lead to environmental hazards. This research seeks to quantify the risk of wastewater pipeline components to fracturing and damage from flooding to inform decision-makers. The corrosion risk to Austin Water Utility’s aged ferrous wastewater pipelines from surrounding soil through flooding is analyzed by establishing the relationships among pipeline material, age, and the surrounding soil type. First, aged ferrous wastewater pipelines in the network were isolated. Then, the Web Soil Survey from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) for Travis County and FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRM) were overlaid on the selected pipelines. USGS soil data was used to locate potentially corrosive soils surrounding the pipelines. Third, FIRM flood zones were overlaid on the selected soil and pipelines in order to examine the relationship between soil type, moisture, and increased corrosion potential. Three different flood zones were evaluated. The analysis shows a total of 386 pipelines, or 27.99 miles of pipelines, were identified to be at-risk.Energy and Earth Resource

VAST Challenge 2016: Streaming Visual Analytics

The 2016 VAST Challenge returns to the (fictional) island of Kronos to pose three Mini-Challenges. In Mini-Challenge 1, participants must design an innovative interactive visual interface that enables security investigators from the Euybia Island Resort and Conference Center to conduct real-time analysis of streaming data. In Mini-Challenge 2, the GAStech Corporation returns from the 2014 kidnapping disaster more committed than ever to tighten up operations at its new headquarters in Abila. Using data from stationary and mobile sensors of multiple types, participants must help the company to understand both operational issues as well as security issues. In Mini-Challenge 3, participants are asked to try their hand at the most complex VAST Challenge scenario to date: 2.5 days of live, streaming operational data. The VAST Challenge 2016 received 29 submissions and had participation from 72 reviewers

Exhaled Aerosol Transmission of Pandemic and Seasonal H1N1 Influenza Viruses in the Ferret

Person-to-person transmission of influenza viruses occurs by contact (direct and fomites) and non-contact (droplet and small particle aerosol) routes, but the quantitative dynamics and relative contributions of these routes are incompletely understood. The transmissibility of influenza strains estimated from secondary attack rates in closed human populations is confounded by large variations in population susceptibilities. An experimental method to phenotype strains for transmissibility in an animal model could provide relative efficiencies of transmission. We developed an experimental method to detect exhaled viral aerosol transmission between unanesthetized infected and susceptible ferrets, measured aerosol particle size and number, and quantified the viral genomic RNA in the exhaled aerosol. During brief 3-hour exposures to exhaled viral aerosols in airflow-controlled chambers, three strains of pandemic 2009 H1N1 strains were frequently transmitted to susceptible ferrets. In contrast one seasonal H1N1 strain was not transmitted in spite of higher levels of viral RNA in the exhaled aerosol. Among three pandemic strains, the two strains causing weight loss and illness in the intranasally infected ‘donor’ ferrets were transmitted less efficiently from the donor than the strain causing no detectable illness, suggesting that the mucosal inflammatory response may attenuate viable exhaled virus. Although exhaled viral RNA remained constant, transmission efficiency diminished from day 1 to day 5 after donor infection. Thus, aerosol transmission between ferrets may be dependent on at least four characteristics of virus-host relationships including the level of exhaled virus, infectious particle size, mucosal inflammation, and viral replication efficiency in susceptible mucosa