Construction – Page 2 – PossibleThreat Articles

Predicting the impact of climate change on bridge safety

October 9, 2019 0 Comments Civil Engineering, Climate, Construction, Engineering, Engineering and Construction, Environmental Awareness, Floods, Global Warming

Climate change will increase the frequency and intensity of natural hazards like flooding. In turn, floodwaters erode a bridge's foundation, creating scour holes that compromise the integrity of the structure. But to date, it's been possible to quantify that scour risk. A new model developed by civil engineering researchers takes a holistic approach combining climatology, hydrology, structural engineering, and risk assessment to determine the effects of climate change on bridges.

News Science

The science Of Breaking Bad: Would you know if meth was cooked inside your house?

October 8, 2019 0 Comments Civil Engineering, Construction, Energy Technology, Engineering, Engineering and Construction, Forensic Research, Materials Science

Researchers analysed the contamination levels in household items from a home suspected to have previously been used for cooking methamphetamine, to determine whether surface wipe samples can adequately establish contamination and define the health risks. Results demonstrate methamphetamine has continued to mobilise after manufacture for a period exceeding five years when the property was under new ownership.

News Science

New metasurface design can control optical fields in three dimensions

October 4, 2019 0 Comments Biochemistry, Chemistry, Civil Engineering, Construction, Engineering and Construction, Inorganic Chemistry, Nanotechnology, Optics

A team led by scientists has designed and tested a 3D-printed metamaterial that can manipulate light with nanoscale precision. Their designed optical element focuses light to discrete points in a 3D helical pattern.

News Science

Hard as ceramic, tough as steel: Newly discovered connection could help design of nextgen alloys

October 2, 2019 0 Comments Chemistry, Civil Engineering, Construction, Engineering and Construction, Graphene, Inorganic Chemistry, Materials Science, Physics

A new way to calculate the interaction between a metal and its alloying material could speed the hunt for a new material that combines the hardness of ceramic with the resilience of metal.

News Science

Your video can ID you through walls with help of WiFi

October 1, 2019 0 Comments Batteries, Biometric, Construction, Detectors, Medical Technology, Physics, technology, Telecommunications

Researchers have enabled, for the first time, determining whether the person behind a wall is the same individual who appears in given video footage, using only a pair of WiFi transceivers outside.

News Science

Helping tobacco plants save water

September 30, 2019 0 Comments Batteries, Construction, Consumer Electronics, Electronics, Engineering and Construction, Nature of Water, Organic Chemistry, technology

Biologists have used bioelectronics to influence transpiration in a tobacco plant, without harming the plant in any way.

News Science

Wrist-worn step trackers accurate in predicting patient health outcomes

September 29, 2019 0 Comments Construction, COPD, Diseases and Conditions, Medical Technology, Microarrays, Patient Education and Counseling, Today's Healthcare, Virtual Environment

Researchers have found that steps measured through a step tracker worn on the wrist can be used to estimate exercise capacity and determine the health status of patients, rather than the standardized 6-minute walk distance test, which is usually conducted in a clinical setting.

News Science

Hurricanes: Improving rapid intensification predictions

September 26, 2019 0 Comments Civil Engineering, Construction, Engineering, Hurricanes and Cyclones, Severe Weather, Storms, Weather

Many scientists have said that storms are more intense than ever before – Cat. 4 or 5 storms used to be outliers, but today, it seems they are becoming the norm. Why? That's the question a research team is working to answer – they are looking what contributes to the rapid intensification of storms.

News Science

Model helps choose wind farm locations, predicts output

September 24, 2019 0 Comments Construction, Energy and Resources, Energy and the Environment, Energy Technology, Environmental Science, Renewable Energy, Weather, Wind Energy

The wind is always blowing somewhere, but deciding where to locate a wind farm is a bit more complicated than holding up a wet finger. Now a team of researchers has a model that can locate the best place for the wind farm and even help with 24-hour predictions of energy output.

News Science

New standard of reference for assessing solar forecast proposed

September 24, 2019 0 Comments Construction, Energy Policy, Energy Technology, Geomagnetic Storms, Renewable Energy, Severe Weather, Solar Energy, Weather

Being able to accurately forecast how much solar energy reaches the surface of the Earth is key to guiding decisions for running solar power plants and new work looks to provide a standard of reference to the field. A researcher proposes an improved way to assess day-ahead solar forecasting, which combines two popular reference methods for weather forecasting, namely persistence and climatology. His approach provides a new way to gauge the skill of a forecaster.