A cost comparison of traditional drainage and SUDS in Scotland

The Dunfermline Eastern Expansion (DEX) is a 350 ha mixed development which commenced in 1996. Downstream water quality and flooding issues necessitated a holistic approach to drainage planning and the site has become a European showcase for the application of Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS). However, there is minimal data available regarding the real costs of operating and maintaining SUDS to ensure they continue to perform as per their design function. This remains one of the primary barriers to the uptake and adoption of SUDS. This paper reports on what is understood to be the only study in the UK where actual costs of constructing and maintaining SUDS have been compared to an equivalent traditional drainage solution. To compare SUDS costs with traditional drainage, capital and maintenance costs of underground storage chambers of analogous storage volumes were estimated. A whole life costing methodology was then applied to data gathered. The main objective was to produce a reliable and robust cost comparison between SUDS and traditional drainage. The cost analysis is supportive of SUDS and indicates that well designed and maintained SUDS are more cost effective to construct, and cost less to maintain than traditional drainage solutions which are unable to meet the environmental requirements of current legislation

Coordinated and tailored work rehabilitation: a randomized controlled trial with economic evaluation undertaken with workers on sick leave due to musculoskeletal disorders

Introduction In Denmark, the magnitude and impact of work disability on the individual worker and society has prompted the development of a new "coordinated and tailored work rehabilitation" (CTWR) approach. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of CTWR with conventional case management (CCM) on return-to-work of workers on sick leave due to musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). Methods The study was a randomized controlled trial with economic evaluation undertaken with workers on sick leave for 4-12 weeks due to MSDs. CTWR consists of a work disability screening by an interdisciplinary team followed by the collaborative development of a RTW plan. The primary outcome variable was registered cumulative sickness absence hours during 12 months follow-up. Secondary outcomes were work status as well as pain intensity and functional disability, measured at baseline, 3 and 12 months follow-up. The economic evaluation (intervention costs, productivity loss, and health care utilization costs) was based on administrative data derived from national registries. Results For the time intervals 0-6 months, 6-12 months, and the entire follow-up period, the number of sickness absence hours was significantly lower in the CTWR group as compared to the control group. The total costs saved in CTWR participants compared to controls were estimated at US $1,366 per person at 6 months follow-up and US$ 10,666 per person at 12 months follow-up. Conclusions Workers on sick leave for 4-12 weeks due to MSD who underwent "CTWR" by an interdisciplinary team had fewer sickness absence hours than controls. The economic evaluation showed that-in terms of productivity loss-CTWR seems to be cost saving for the society

HIV non-B subtype distribution: emerging trends and risk factors for imported and local infections newly diagnosed in South Australia

Monitoring HIV subtype distribution is important for understanding transmission dynamics. Subtype B has historically been dominant in Australia, but in recent years new clades have appeared. Since 2000, clade data have been collected as part of HIV surveillance in South Australia. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of and risk factors for HIV-1 non-B subtypes. The study population was composed of newly diagnosed, genotyped HIV subjects in South Australia between 2000 and 2010. We analyzed time trends and subtype patterns in this cohort; notification data were aggregated into three time periods (2000–2003, 2004–2006, and 2007–2010). Main outcome measures were number of new non-B infections by year, exposure route, and other demographic characteristics. There were 513 new HIV diagnoses; 425 had information on subtype. The majority (262/425) were in men who have sex with men (MSM), predominantly subtype B and acquired in Australia. Infections acquired in Australia decreased from 77% (2000–2003) to 64% (2007–2010) ( p = 0.007) and correspondingly the proportion of subtype B declined from 85% to 68% ( p = 0.002). Non-B infections were predominantly (83%) heterosexual contacts, mostly acquired overseas (74%). The majority (68%) of non-B patients were born outside of Australia. There was a non-significant increase from 1.6% to 4.2% in the proportion of locally transmitted non-B cases (p = 0.3). Three non-B subtypes and two circulating recombinant forms (CRFs) were identified: CRF_AE (n = 41), C (n = 36), CRF_AG (n = 13), A (n = 9), and D (n = 2). There has been a substantial increase over the past decade in diagnosed non-B infections, primarily through cases acquired overseas

The Discovery of a Second Field Methane Brown Dwarf from Sloan Digital Sky Survey Commissioning Data

We report the discovery of a second field methane brown dwarf from the commissioning data of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The object, SDSS J134646.45-003150.4 (SDSS 1346-00), was selected because of its very red color and stellar appearance. Its spectrum between 0.8-2.5 mic is dominated by strong absorption bands of H_2O and CH_4 and closely mimics those of Gliese 229B and SDSS 162414.37+002915.6 (SDSS 1624+00), two other known methane brown dwarfs. SDSS 1346-00 is approximately 1.5 mag fainter than Gliese 229B, suggesting that it lies about 11 pc from the sun. The ratio of flux at 2.1 mic to that at 1.27 mic is larger for SDSS 1346-00 than for Gliese 229B and SDSS 1624+00, which suggests that SDSS 1346-00 has a slightly higher effective temperature than the others. Based on a search area of 130 sq. deg. and a detection limit of z* = 19.8, we estimate a space density of 0.05 pc^-3 for methane brown dwarfs with T_eff ~ 1000 K in the 40 pc^3 volume of our search. This estimate is based on small-sample statistics and should be treated with appropriate caution.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, AASTeX, to appear in ApJ Letters, authors list update

Weak Lensing with SDSS Commissioning Data: The Galaxy-Mass Correlation Function To 1/h Mpc

(abridged) We present measurements of galaxy-galaxy lensing from early commissioning imaging data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We measure a mean tangential shear around a stacked sample of foreground galaxies in three bandpasses out to angular radii of 600'', detecting the shear signal at very high statistical significance. The shear profile is well described by a power-law. A variety of rigorous tests demonstrate the reality of the gravitational lensing signal and confirm the uncertainty estimates. We interpret our results by modeling the mass distributions of the foreground galaxies as approximately isothermal spheres characterized by a velocity dispersion and a truncation radius. The velocity dispersion is constrained to be 150-190 km/s at 95% confidence (145-195 km/s including systematic uncertainties), consistent with previous determinations but with smaller error bars. Our detection of shear at large angular radii sets a 95% confidence lower limit $s>140^{\prime\prime}$, corresponding to a physical radius of $260h^{-1}$ kpc, implying that galaxy halos extend to very large radii. However, it is likely that this is being biased high by diffuse matter in the halos of groups and clusters. We also present a preliminary determination of the galaxy-mass correlation function finding a correlation length similar to the galaxy autocorrelation function and consistency with a low matter density universe with modest bias. The full SDSS will cover an area 44 times larger and provide spectroscopic redshifts for the foreground galaxies, making it possible to greatly improve the precision of these constraints, measure additional parameters such as halo shape, and measure the properties of dark matter halos separately for many different classes of galaxies.Comment: 28 pages, 11 figures, submitted to A

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasar Catalog I. Early Data Release

We present the first edition of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Quasar Catalog. The catalog consists of the 3814 objects (3000 discovered by the SDSS) in the initial SDSS public data release that have at least one emission line with a full width at half maximum larger than 1000 km/s, luminosities brighter than M_i^* = -23, and highly reliable redshifts. The area covered by the catalog is 494 square degrees; the majority of the objects were found in SDSS commissioning data using a multicolor selection technique. The quasar redshifts range from 0.15 to 5.03. For each object the catalog presents positions accurate to better than 0.2" rms per coordinate, five band (ugriz) CCD-based photometry with typical accuracy of 0.05 mag, radio and X-ray emission properties, and information on the morphology and selection method. Calibrated spectra of all objects in the catalog, covering the wavelength region 3800 to 9200 Angstroms at a spectral resolution of 1800-2100, are also available. Since the quasars were selected during the commissioning period, a time when the quasar selection algorithm was undergoing frequent revisions, the sample is not homogeneous and is not intended for statistical analysis.Comment: 27 pages, 4 figures, 4 tables, accepted by A

The First Hour of Extra-galactic Data of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Spectroscopic Commissioning: The Coma Cluster

On 26 May 1999, one of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) fiber-fed spectrographs saw astronomical first light. This was followed by the first spectroscopic commissioning run during the dark period of June 1999. We present here the first hour of extra-galactic spectroscopy taken during these early commissioning stages: an observation of the Coma cluster of galaxies. Our data samples the Southern part of this cluster, out to a radius of 1.5degrees and thus fully covers the NGC 4839 group. We outline in this paper the main characteristics of the SDSS spectroscopic systems and provide redshifts and spectral classifications for 196 Coma galaxies, of which 45 redshifts are new. For the 151 galaxies in common with the literature, we find excellent agreement between our redshift determinations and the published values. As part of our analysis, we have investigated four different spectral classification algorithms: spectral line strengths, a principal component decomposition, a wavelet analysis and the fitting of spectral synthesis models to the data. We find that a significant fraction (25%) of our observed Coma galaxies show signs of recent star-formation activity and that the velocity dispersion of these active galaxies (emission-line and post-starburst galaxies) is 30% larger than the absorption-line galaxies. We also find no active galaxies within the central (projected) 200 h-1 Kpc of the cluster. The spatial distribution of our Coma active galaxies is consistent with that found at higher redshift for the CNOC1 cluster survey. Beyond the core region, the fraction of bright active galaxies appears to rise slowly out to the virial radius and are randomly distributed within the cluster with no apparent correlation with the potential merger of the NGC 4839 group. [ABRIDGED]Comment: Accepted in AJ, 65 pages, 20 figures, 5 table

Colors of 2625 Quasars at 0<z<5 Measured in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Photometric System

We present an empirical investigation of the colors of quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) photometric system. The sample studied includes 2625 quasars with SDSS photometry. The quasars are distributed in a 2.5 degree wide stripe centered on the Celestial Equator covering $\sim529$ square degrees. Positions and SDSS magnitudes are given for the 898 quasars known prior to SDSS spectroscopic commissioning. New SDSS quasars represent an increase of over 200% in the number of known quasars in this area of the sky. The ensemble average of the observed colors of quasars in the SDSS passbands are well represented by a power-law continuum with $\alpha_{\nu} = -0.5$ ($f_{\nu} \propto \nu^{\alpha}$). However, the contributions of the $3000 {\rm \AA}$ bump and other strong emission lines have a significant effect upon the colors. The color-redshift relation exhibits considerable structure, which may be of use in determining photometric redshifts for quasars. The range of colors can be accounted for by a range in the optical spectral index with a distribution $\alpha_{\nu}=-0.5\pm0.65$ (95% confidence), but there is a red tail in the distribution. This tail may be a sign of internal reddening. Finally, we show that there is a continuum of properties between quasars and Seyfert galaxies and we test the validity of the traditional division between the two classes of AGN.Comment: 66 pages, 15 figures (3 color), accepted by A

Galaxy Clustering in Early SDSS Redshift Data

We present the first measurements of clustering in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) galaxy redshift survey. Our sample consists of 29,300 galaxies with redshifts 5,700 km/s < cz < 39,000 km/s, distributed in several long but narrow (2.5-5 degree) segments, covering 690 square degrees. For the full, flux-limited sample, the redshift-space correlation length is approximately 8 Mpc/h. The two-dimensional correlation function \xi(r_p,\pi) shows clear signatures of both the small-scale, ``fingers-of-God'' distortion caused by velocity dispersions in collapsed objects and the large-scale compression caused by coherent flows, though the latter cannot be measured with high precision in the present sample. The inferred real-space correlation function is well described by a power law, \xi(r)=(r/6.1+/-0.2 Mpc/h)^{-1.75+/-0.03}, for 0.1 Mpc/h < r < 16 Mpc/h. The galaxy pairwise velocity dispersion is \sigma_{12} ~ 600+/-100 km/s for projected separations 0.15 Mpc/h < r_p < 5 Mpc/h. When we divide the sample by color, the red galaxies exhibit a stronger and steeper real-space correlation function and a higher pairwise velocity dispersion than do the blue galaxies. The relative behavior of subsamples defined by high/low profile concentration or high/low surface brightness is qualitatively similar to that of the red/blue subsamples. Our most striking result is a clear measurement of scale-independent luminosity bias at r < 10 Mpc/h: subsamples with absolute magnitude ranges centered on M_*-1.5, M_*, and M_*+1.5 have real-space correlation functions that are parallel power laws of slope ~ -1.8 with correlation lengths of approximately 7.4 Mpc/h, 6.3 Mpc/h, and 4.7 Mpc/h, respectively.Comment: 51 pages, 18 figures. Replaced to match accepted ApJ versio