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Roadmap report lays out getting to a ‘next normal’ with coronavirus

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Earlier this month, a 136-page report on a COVID roadmap was published by 23 public health experts and included the work of many other contributors and reviewers. The authors present what they think the “next normal” could look like in three scenarios and emphasize strategizing for respiratory illnesses on the whole in addition to focusing on living with COVID-19. 

One of the major points the authors make in the report is that there is a need to shift focus to major respiratory viral illnesses at large like flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), rather than focusing mainly on the coronavirus. Other areas the authors list are the need for a “transparent” dashboard to disseminate information, increased surge capacity for at-home rapid tests to 1 billion per month, better indoor air quality and a permanent group of health care workers dedicated to support vulnerable populations. They also call for more involvement in global vaccine access and research on long COVID. 

A goal of the roadmap is to lay out how we can get to and sustain a “next normal” where what that means is defined and specific indicators to monitor the country are identified. It also attempts to be explicit on steps to get there and learn from past failures and successes. “It’s an attempt to have a more disciplined approach to dealing with this crisis, providing a vision for what ‘next’ might look like,” says Luciana Borio, who is one of the authors and a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, to STAT. 

Our country is in a historic fight against the coronavirus. Add Changing America to your Facebook or Twitter feed to stay on top of the news.

The current numbers in the U.S. are trending better than earlier this year. “But while optimism is justified, inaction is not,” write the authors. In a chapter on potential scenarios, variations in attack rate or incidence of infections and infections fatality rate affect outcomes in optimistic, intermediate and pessimistic scenarios. Population immunity and viral virulence also affect potential levels of annual deaths. 

In additional chapters, the experts touch on other topic areas such as the health care workforce and how it has been strained by the pandemic, as well as supply chain and capacity for manufacturing respirator masks. They also emphasize that vaccine research should be sustained and enhanced. 

This report comes at a time when government funding for the pandemic response may run dry. Congress voted on a spending bill last week which did not include the full amount of $22.5 billion requested for COVID spending. 

This week, a few of the authors took part in a panel discussion to urge Congress to pass additional funding to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. “We have had a once-in-a-century pandemic. We are breathing easier. The mortality rate is coming down, the case rate is coming down, and hospitalizations are coming down. But let’s remember we’ve been here before,” says Ezekiel J. Emanuel, who is Vice Provost of Global Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania and also a former member of President Biden’s Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board, on the press call. “The last thing we need is to hesitate in our response to COVID. If we want to get to the ‘next normal’ and not have another deadly surge, we need to be prepared. Being prepared in America takes money.” 

If new funding is not approved by Congress, it could have immediate effects on surveillance, testing and therapeutic treatments. “As we’re moving to this ‘next normal’, we have testing, vaccines, and therapeutics,” says report author Howard Forman, who is a professor at Yale School of Medicine, on the press call. “If we allow those things to fall by the wayside, even to a small degree, harm will occur to large swaths of the population that should not happen. We’re talking about the potential for tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths.” 

READ MORE STORIES FROM CHANGING AMERICA

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WHY MILLIONS OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED MOSQUITOES MAY BE RELEASED IN FLORIDA AND CALIFORNIA

FLORIDA SENATE APPROVES BAN ON LESSONS ABOUT HISTORICAL EVENTS THAT MAKE PEOPLE FEEL ‘GUILTY’

EXERCISE COULD TREAT SYMPTOMS OF LONG-COVID, RESEARCHERS SAY

HERE’S HOW BIDEN HAS TACKLED STUDENT LOAN DEBT SO FAR

 

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Workers are returning to the office. Now companies have to earn their commutes

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Office buildings have sat largely quiet for two years now thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, though, the move is on to bring many of these workers back, at least in a hybrid mode in which they work some days from the office and others remotely.

But what do these workers want when they return to the office? What are they looking for from their employers to make the return to the office as stress-free and productive as possible?

Steelcase, the national manufacturer of office furniture, attempted to find out in a report released in February of this year. The report, The New Era of Hybrid Work, surveyed 5,000 workers in late 2021, asking them what they wanted to see in the layouts and functionality of their offices in 2022 and beyond.

The results? Steelcase found that workers want private dedicated workspaces and aren’t happy with completely open office plans. They also want their offices to offer a variety of spaces that support individual work and in-person and virtual collaboration for small and large groups.

Workers are also interested in offices that feel more like home, providing comfortable furniture and greater control over where they perform their work.

Midwest Real Estate News recently spoke with Chris Congdon, director of global research communications with Steelcase, about the results of the survey and the steps companies and office owners need to take to boost the productivity of workers as they return to the office.

Here is what he had to say.

Let’s start with the important question: How would you describe a hybrid workplace?
Chris Congdon: A hybrid workplace is about empowering people to work from diverse locations. Different organizations will have different policies regarding the frequency of when they expect people to work in company offices or their own home offices. Right now, as people come back to the office, that will be fluid. What’s important, though, is that the workspace be designed to support this kind of work. A few fundamental factors need to change from the way office has been set up in the past.

What are some of those changes?
Congdon: At the highest level, you are trying to achieve equity. You want the people who are in the office and the people who are home to all be having a similar experience. You don’t want to compromise part of your employee base depending on the locations from which they are working. The second big factor is engagement. Companies need to recognize that people engage in different ways based on the medium in which they are working.

Consider that during this interview, we are all on Zoom. But not everyone has cameras on. In a lot of organizations, you have people working in an office and people who are on video. If I were to feel that I am not a full-on equal participant in a meeting because I am on video, I might be quieter. I might spend part of the meeting checking emails, tuned out and not engaged.

How can companies create that equity once people are working both from home and in the office?
Congdon: First, it has to be easy for people to do whatever it is they have to do throughout the day. Anything that creates friction for people causes them to resist. A workplace supporting hybrid work has to solve for those issues.

The way offices are set up can help with this. If more people are attending meetings on video, not everyone will be gathering in a big conference room. Instead, people can gravitate to spaces where they have higher levels of acoustical privacy. They can head to enclaves and enclosed spaces that have four walls and a door. You are going to see more people in the workplace needing those spaces.

That is the number-one thing people asked for in our survey: private spaces. That is more important now than before the pandemic. In our survey, 64% of respondents said they need places to do this hybrid collaboration. If companies want to support that equitable experience, they need to offer these spaces.

What else do people want to see from their workplaces as they return to the office?
Congdon: There is an increased demand for privacy. Even before the pandemic, there was a pushback against the open office plan. The way the open plan was interpreted by a lot of organizations was that everything was wide open. People were shoulder-to-shoulder. They were at benches. There was not a place to escape and get any kind of privacy, whether you needed to focus or needed to make a personal phone call.

The push against that was happening before the pandemic. Now you have sent people home for two years. During this time, 70% either had a dedicated private office or were able to take over a guest room or some other space that became their private office. Contrast that with what people have in the office. More than 50% of people are sitting in open workspaces. After two years, people have more control over privacy at home than they do in the office. As they migrate back to the office, they expect spaces with higher levels of privacy. People want that privacy when they come back.

They also want more work furniture that can either be moved easily by the user or by the installer. The demand is for less of a focus on permanence and more on flexibility.

How about safety measures? Are people worried about their safety with COVID and a return to the office?
Congdon: That does continue to be one of employees’ concerns. They want good air quality. There is less of a focus on material surfaces and more on air quality as we have learned more about COVID. Overall, employees have a heightened expectation that the workplace should be a place where you should be able to feel relatively safe from picking up crud, whether that’s a cold and flu or COVID. Organizations that are smart and savvy will focus first on their indoor air quality, on improving ventilation and filtration. They want to be able to say with confidence that they are providing a good turnover of fresh air for the people in their workplace. If they can’t do that, they’ll have to at least find more space for room-based air-purification systems or even personal ones.

Will companies use the improvements to their office space as recruitment tools?
Congdon: They already are. You can see where the investments are going. Organizations recognize that they have to earn people’s commutes. If people have alternatives, you can’t expect them to make those commutes for the same old thing they left behind two years ago. Organizations are very seriously looking at creating spaces that are checking all the boxes: inspiring, safer, designed specifically to suit the kind of work people are doing today.

The pandemic challenged our traditional assumptions about the way things are or might work, and that’s true, too, in the office.

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Kansas impasse shows green energy opposition has lost steam – Leavenworth Times

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John Hanna AP Political Writer

Efforts to propel Kansas’ renewable energy future are at a standstill, mired in legislative stalemate. At its center is a former TV weather personality who is using his chairmanship of a key committee to promote questionable claims about green energy and to spotlight complaints from opponents of wind and solar energy projects.

Republican state Sen. Mike Thompson’s pushback against renewable energy is pitting him not only against environmentalists, whose bills can’t get a vote in his committee, but also against big utilities and GOP colleagues, who say his measures to restrict new wind turbines and solar farms go too far.

While lawmakers in GOP-led states continue to resist the global push to drop fossil fuels, Kansas is unusual in giving such a big policy role to someone who publicly denies the link between human activity and climate change. Resistance to addressing climate change “is now starting to turn a little bit more towards the solutions side,” said Mandy Warner, the national Environmental Defense Fund’s climate and clean air policy director.

“You won’t say that you deny the problem, that there is an issue, that it’s happening,” Warner said.

Thompson is an often-affable, 64-year-old retired television meteorologist from the Kansas City area His focus as Utilities Committee chair on fighting wind companies and building a case against renewable energy has left his committee with time for little else.

“It’s the worst possible place to put this person,” said Rabbi Moti Rieber, executive director of Kansa Interfaith Action, which lobbies on climate issues.

Even with the Republicancontrolled Kansas Legislature’s conservative bent, environmentalists had hoped for modest green initiatives, such as studying green hydrogen’s potential, doing more to encourage energy efficiency or getting more electric vehicle charging stations along highways.

While Democratic states enacted dozens of laws last year aimed at combatting climate change, Republican states moved to protect fossil fuels, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. For example, Kansas and at least nine other states now bar cities from ending natural gas service.

Yet renewable-energy advocates make headway even in conservative states by pitching its potential to create jobs and economic growth. For example, Oklahoma formed a task force last year that drafted proposals for launching a hydrogen fuel industry there.

“There may be individuals that don’t believe in climate change or whatnot, but they’re not driving the policy agenda because the economic opportunity is what’s really driving the policy agenda,” said Kimberly Svaty, a lobbyist for an alliance of renewable energy companies and investors with projects from Texas to the Canadian border.

In Minnesota, with Republicans trying to roll back “clean cars” standards, GOP state Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen, who chairs a committee on environmental spending, laughed when reminded of his 2011 comments calling climate change “a fallacy.” He now agrees that the climate is warming and said the real question is, “Can we possibly make a change as human beings?”

Kansas renewable-energy advocates argue that Thompson’s opposition is from an earlier political era. Kansas moved from renewables representing only 1.1% of its capacity for generating electricity in 2002 to 50% now, supplanting coal as the top source, according to federal data.

“Eliminating those investments is a bad bet for consumers. It’s a bad bet for the environment,” said

Chuck Caisley, a senior vice president at Evergy, the largest electric company in Kansas.

Thompson said he’s defending frustrated property owners who are overmatched in countering big companies’ pressure on them, their neighbors and local officials. He said landowners are treated “like they’re collateral damage,” and, “I’m just sick of it.”

He sees renewable energy as unreliable and ultimately expensive, both outdated descriptions. He also promotes highly disputed arguments that noise and light “flicker” from turbine blades create health problems.

Thompson also stands out because of comments like his response to scientists’ concerns that coastal cities are in danger as polar ice caps melt and sea levels rise.

“Only 20 percent of the Earth’s history have we had polar ice caps. People assume they’ve always been there, and that’s not the case,” Thompson said during an interview. (The Earth has had ice caps at both poles for about the last 3 million years; modern humans have been on the planet for roughly 300,000 years.)

“There may be individuals that don’t believe in climate change or whatnot, but they’re not driving the policy agenda because the economic opportunity is what’s really driving the policy agenda.” – Kimberly Svaty

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Water supply from Kabini to be augmented to cater to needs of Mysuru

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Drinking water woes of residential areas in south Mysuru will be addressed with the ongoing upgradation of the Kabini water project at Bidaragodu near Nanjangud.

The project is being implemented with funding from the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) to ensure that the installed capacity of 180 MLD of water supply is harnessed fully within the next few months.

MUDA Chairman H.V. Rajeev – who conducted a spot inspection of Bidargodu which is on the banks of the river Kabini – told mediapersons on March 18 that 60 MLD of water is being pumped to southern parts of Mysuru, and work was in progress to augment the supply by 30 MLD.

But given the rapid expansion of Mysuru and the incessant complaints from certain areas that water supply is inadequate, the MUDA decided to tap the full installed capacity of 180 MLD. He said the Detailed Project Report (DPR), which has been finalised, may need some fine-tuning besides technical approval by the Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board, which is implementing the project.

The MUDA has earmarked funds for the project and the work also entails replacing the existing 450 HP pumps with 1250 HP pumps. In addition, the 11 kV sub-station will be upgraded to 66 kV capacity as to ensure 24×7 water supply to Mysuru.

Minister for Urban Development Byrathi Basavaraj had approved the plan and instructed the MUDA to release the funds, and hence, the project is being fast-tracked.

The existing pipelines will be connected to a few village en route and will cover most of the residential areas along the Outer Ring Road in south Mysuru, including all the layouts within Bogadi, Dattagalli, R.T. Nagar, Udbur and Kopplur each of which have many MUDA-approved layouts.

The work is expected to benefit 50 villages along the pipeline. An additional 15 villages in the vicinity will also be covered under the project.

This is one of the two major water projects being implemented to cater to the drinking water requirements of Mysuru. The Haleunduwadi water project in the backwaters of the KRS is a greenfield project, which envisages pumping 150 MLD of water on completion of the first phase while the planned capacity is 300 MLD.

Once the two projects are completed, the infrastructure will cater to the drinking water needs of the fast expanding city for the next 60 years, according to Mr. Rajeev.

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What to prune in March: Garden design expert shares exclusive spring pruning guide

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Making space for new growth is the key to securing your summer garden, but with so much ready to prune, it can be tough to know where to start. Whether you’re growing shrubs, grasses or a mixture of vibrant flowers the seasonal transition is the perfect time to give your plants some TLC. Express.co.uk spoke to award-winning garden designer Polly Wilkinson to find out exactly what you should be doing in your garden this March.

What to prune in March

While spring has arrived in the meteorological sense, the new season will not officially set in until the end of the month.

This three-week transition between winter and spring is the perfect time to prune plants ahead of their flowering period, but where should you begin?

Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk, multi-award-winning garden designer, Polly Wilkinson said: “There is so much to prune at this time of year.

“For those in colder areas you may want to hold off until closer to April, but there is a long list of plants that can be pruned between now and early spring.”

READ MORE: White vinegar cleaning hacks: Four things to avoid cleaning with it

Deciduous ornamental grasses

Most of these tall, swinging grasses are left to stand during winter thanks to their long-lasting display, but by early March they can begin to wither away.

Old leaves and biscuit-coloured stems need to be cut back before new shoots emerge.

Miscanthus and Calamagrostis can be cut to the ground right now to make way for new growth.

Simply gather them up and chop at the base, but try not to cut any new green growth if possible.

Lavender

This fragrant shrub is loved for its iconic colours and rich aroma, and now is the perfect time to give it some attention.

Give your established lavender plant a gentle prune to remove stragglers and improve the shape, said Polly.

Cornus

Cornus alba, sanguinea and salix willow can be pruned hard now to secure colourful stems for winter.

Hydrangeas

Hydrangea paniculata and arborescens can also be pruned relatively hard now

Prune by half if you wish to keep the existing shape, or all the way to the lowest pair of buds – this is usually around 25-30 cm from the ground.

Late summer shrubs

The time is right to give late flowering summer shrubs a vigorous prune, said Polly.

Focus on fuchsias and buddleja to secure fresh flowers and vibrant, healthy growth.

Polly said: “Use loppers and a pruning saw to cut back buddleja to around 30m above the ground.

“If you want the frothy, smoke-like flowers on your cotinus – don’t prune.

“But if you want the beautiful fresh foliage display, cut the stems back hard to two to three buds from the base – if you want both, cut a third of the stems – starting with the oldest.

Herbaceous plants

Polly added: “Any herbaceous plants that weren’t cut back in autumn to provide winter interest in the form of seedheads can now be cut back.”

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Common pruning mistakes you should try to avoid

While pruning is a relatively straightforward process, it could negatively affect the growth of your plants if done incorrectly.

Pruning too much, in the wrongplace or not pruning at all can all damage your seasonal blooms – but how can you avoid them?

Pruning too much

As a general rule, unless it’s a shrub that should be cut back ‘hard’ such as Buddleja or Cornus, you shouldn’t ever prune more than a third of a plant at a time, any more than this and it can shock the plant, said Polly.

Pruning in the wrong place

It also matters where you prune. In most cases, you want to prune just above a node (where the leaf or bud emerges from the stem).

Polly added: “If you leave a lot of material above the node, you will be left with an unsightly stump of dead stem.”

Not pruning at all

While this one has an easy fix, it can be tough to know exactly when to prune your plants.

Polly explained: “Certain plants need to be pruned to be kept at their best, whether that be for shape, flowers, size or colour.

“Certain Cornus produce the brightest stems from new growth – so if you don’t cut it, you won’t get that pop of colour in winter.

“Other plants can be thuggish and take over, so pruning keeps them to the right size and prevents them becoming a congested mess.”

Top tips for spring pruning

Tools and techniques play a huge role in the quality of your pruning, ultimately affecting the future of your plants.

Whether you’re dealing with shrubs, climbers or trees, Polly has revealed her top tips to live by while working through your early spring pruning.

Clean and sharpen your equipment

Polly said: “Blunt secateurs won’t give a clean cut, which will expose the plant to possible disease and take longer to heal than a good clean cut.

“Make sure to disinfect your tools to avoid spreading any disease from plant to plant.”

  • Use secateurs for smaller shrubs and climbers
  • Use loppers and a pruning saw for trees and large shrubs
  • Keep tools clean, sharp and well oiled
  • Draw up a list and tackle each plant one by one – you have until April to get them all done

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Improvements to school air quality could go further

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Gov. Ned Lamont’s recent proposal to allocate $90 million for upgrades to heating, ventilation and cooling systems in Connecticut’s public schools is a necessary response to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. What is often overlooked in discussions about indoor air quality, however, is another ongoing health crisis — asthma.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that Connecticut has among the highest childhood asthma rates in the nation. In 2018, nearly one out of every 10 children in Connecticut had asthma. Children with asthma are three times more likely to be chronically absent from school than their peers without asthma.

Moreover, when they are present, children with asthma are less likely to fully participate in school activities because of concerns about asthma triggers. The burden of asthma across Connecticut is not shared equally. In 2021, the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America ranked New Haven the fifth most challenging place in the country to live with asthma. Connecticut’s five largest cities — Bridgeport, Hartford, New Haven, Stamford and Waterbury — have the highest asthma rates in the state, disproportionately burdening Black and Latinx families.

As leaders with Congregations Organized for a New Connecticut, or CONECT, we have advocated over the last several years for greater support for students living with asthma in New Haven. While Gov. Lamont’s proposal is an important step in the right direction, rather than requiring “municipalities to provide matching grants to fund the project costs’’ as proposed, the Legislature should consider a scaled matching program to avoid placing an undue burden on the school districts where asthma prevalence is highest and the municipal tax base may be lower.

An investment in indoor air quality is an investment in children’s futures. It indicates to families that their children — particularly their children with asthma — will be able to breathe safely at school. This reassurance is invaluable. As schools across Connecticut strive to recover learning loss and re-engage students, taking proactive measures to support families burdened by chronic health challenges including asthma is essential to improving attendance and lowering hospitalization rates.

In addition to improving indoor air quality, districts should be supported in pursuing creative solutions to health-based causes of absenteeism. Notably, New Haven Public Schools is taking the lead; in collaboration with Clifford Beers, the district has hired five school community care coordinators. whose responsibility will include empowering and supporting families of students experiencing health impediments to attendance, both mental and physical. This school-community approach will help educate families and students and the resources and practices that reduce health-related barriers to school attendance. Investments in indoor air quality, coupled with long-term investments in programs like this, are critical to achieving safe and supportive learning environments and healthy students.

As the COVID-19 pandemic peaks and subsides — and peaks and subsides, and peaks and subsides — let’s prioritize the students and families who, before, during, and after the pandemic, express serious concerns about indoor air quality and its implications on their ability to breathe and learn. Additionally, many public school buildings across the state are in need of intentional upgrades. We praise Gov. Lamont’s proposal to address air quality in schools and call on the Legislature to do so in an equitable manner to ensure that all our children can breathe, learn and thrive.

Veronica Douglas-Givan is an education advocate and member of CONECT; Charles A. Pillsbury is a professor at Quinnipiac University School of Law; Dr. Beverley Sheares is an associate professor of pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine.

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Our Opinion: During Sunshine Week and beyond, reflect the disinfecting light of transparency | Editorials

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Sunshine Week is a time to celebrate a simple motto: Open government is good government. The sun should never set on our project to reify that principle — and we say that not just as journalists but as citizens.

Yes, Sunshine Week beams particularly brightly for newspapers and other journalistic entities. We are proud to be a part of the institution enshrined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution — the free press — tasked with informing readers, keeping the powerful honest and facilitating the free flow of information. But reporters, editors and photojournalists doggedly gather and curate that information because that information belongs to all of us — including whoever is reading this right now.

Or at least it should. A government by, of and for the citizenry requires that we the people have a view and understanding of how government structures and agents operate. Healthy democracy demands that the electorate be educated on who and what is on the ballot. Holding officials accountable is only truly possible when we can observe what they do while representing us and spending our tax dollars.

Whenever any of these are not available to any citizen, we take seriously our ultimate responsibility of shedding light on the corners of power and governance where transparency is lacking. Sunlight, it is said, is the best disinfectant. What that wise observation from the late Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis implies, we state explicitly: Official opacity and severance of the people from the people’s business are diseases infecting our body politic. From this sickness reliably spring symptoms like corruption, mendacity and authoritarianism which offend what should be our society’s highest-held ideals. If we truly value democracy, freedom and accountability, then it is up to all of us to preserve them against the undermining forces of secrecy.

When a North Adams man asked the city’s Airport Commission for meeting minutes from previous years, he wasn’t asking for a public entity to provide a service for him; it was a citizen asking that entity to furnish public records that already belong to him and all other citizens. And when the Airport Commission said city files were missing at least a decade of minutes, that’s not simply a blunder of official disorganization; it’s a failure to live up to the social contract of a free society, wherein citizens should have open and easy access to the information needed to hold responsible those who represent us.

With any institution, from the North Adams Airport Commission to the U.S. Congress and every governmental body in between, transparency should never be taken for granted. Officials, agencies and power-brokers are often predisposed toward secrecy. Ultimately, though they work for us. We call on all our leaders to live up to their job as custodians of public information rather than stonewall constituents as protectors of public power.

Seeking and maintaining transparency is a responsibility we’re all tasked with in a democratic society, including Those righteous pushes take many forms. We urge officials at the municipal, state and federal level to do better at maintaining and preserving public records, and we embrace our responsibility to underscore when and how they don’t.

We reiterate our call for Massachusetts to shed a shameful distinction as the only state in which all three branches of government — the Legislature, governor’s office and judiciary — claim exemption from public records laws. If local planning boards and conservation commissions can do it, then so can our representatives on Beacon Hill.

Welcome the opportunity to engage government where it hits home and you can have the biggest impact: at the local level. Participate in local democracy; attend meetings; talk to and question your leaders. Further, you can familiarize yourself with the Freedom of Information Act, FOIA request procedures and other resources for keeping government accountable and accessible at every level, from the National Freedom of Information Coalition to the First Amendment Coalition.

Whatever we might disagree on politically, we should all find common ground on these principles: Our government works for us, public records belong to us, and it’s up to all of us to foster a more informed citizenry toward a freer and more democratic society. Sunshine Week comes to a close in a couple days, but the principles it espouses require defending every day. The forces of secrecy don’t take days off, so neither can the pursuit of transparent government and the free flow of information.

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RFL tubewell to provide pure drinking water to 40 villages

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RFL tubewell, the first product of the country’s leading business conglomerate RFL Group, has completed 40 years. On this occasion, the group will provide pure drinking water to 40 villages in different parts of the country. RFL Group Managing Director RN Paul made the announcement at a function to mark the 40th anniversary held at a hotel in the capital’s Badda area on Tuesday, a press release said.

Addressing the occasion, RN Paul said, “RFL tubewell started its journey in the eighties of the last century when people were suffering from various water-borne diseases due to lack of pure drinking water. Since then, RFL has been meeting the needs of drinking water for majority in the country. We are proud to be able to provide safe drinking water to nearly 30 million families. “

He added, “We have been able to come to the present situation because consumers were with us. So, we have responsibility to the country and its people. As part of this responsibility, we have been conducting various CSR activities. In continuation of this, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary, pure water will be provided to 40 villages through tube wells in remote and char areas of Bangladesh”.

Abdul Kuddus Miah, business In-charge of RFL tubewell, said that the name RFL tubewell comes to mind when the name of tubewell comes to the fore. RFL tubewell has become one of the leading brands in the country due to its wide presence, affordable prices and excellent quality. RFL tubewell has been the source of drinking water of the people all over the country for 40 years.

In the program, top 10 tubewell distributors of RFL were awarded. 

Shariful Islam, Assistant General Manager (Marketing) of RFL Tube well, Bijoy Islam Arif, Brand Manager, Md. Taibur Rahman, Operations In-charge and Enamul Haque, Head of Sales, among others, were present at the program.

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New Tech to Look for at ISC West 2022

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ISC West is right around the corner—March 22-25 in Las Vegas—and as the first regularly scheduled version of the conference in three years, excitement is at an all-time high. And with the latest and greatest in physical security technology on display, it can be hard to decide where to start.

Be sure to check out the list of SIAEducation@ISC West sessions running throughout the week—we recommend “The Big 5: Key Security Strategies for Preventing Domestic Violence in the Workplace” on the 23 and “Balancing Privacy with Effective Security” on the 24. But make sure to set aside plenty of time to walk the show floor, where networking opportunities and a display of new technology awaits.

To help guide your exploration, check out this guide to some of the most exciting new technologies that will be on display at ISC West this year.

Eagle Eye Smart Video Search

Booth #25051

Eagle Eye Networks will be previewing its upcoming Eagle Eye Smart Video Search, which allows users to search for people, vehicles, or objects and immediately find the exact video across all cameras in all sites, saving time and money. All customers will get this AI capability without any change to their installations—at no extra subscription cost—in the Eagle Eye Cloud VMS.

VSaas by Bosch

Booth #11053

VSaaS by Bosch is a new offering that enables users to monitor, manage, record, and replay video security footage in the cloud from anywhere. With VSaaS, cameras are the only hardware investment needed on-site, , which reduces capital expenses and eliminates maintenance.

New Hanwha Cameras

Booth #14079

Hanwha Techwin America is unveiling a new line of affordable cameras and NVRs designed for the most budget-conscious projects. The A series line combines NDAA-compliant devices in bullet and dome form factors with Hanwha’s imaging technology. The Wisenet A series cameras offer 120dB WDR and IR to capture the best possible images in a variety of lighting conditions.

Zenitel’s Turbine Mini Video Intercom

Booth #14109

Zenitel is adding the new Turbine Mini with Video to its growing portfolio of Turbine intercom and communication solutions. The new TMIV-1+ provides video surveillance, two-way communications, and remote entry control in a low-profile size.

Securitech Auto-Bolt Max Exit Device Series

Booth #2045

Securitech is launching the Auto-Bolt Max Exit Device Series, designed for doors requiring panic exit hardware. This projects steel deadbolts as opposed to traditional latching exit devices, and is available in both concealed models and surface applied models.

SDS Gunshot Detection

Booth #28065

Shooter Detection Systems (SDS) will be doing live gunshot detection demonstrations at the show and will introduce new innovations in security integrations, software enhancements for enterprise-level deployments, and wireless/battery-powered gunshot detection solutions.

Genetec Streamvault Edge

Booth #13062

Genetec will be unveiling Streamvault Edge, an innovative new line of connected appliances that enable an easy transition to a hybrid-cloud infrastructure. Ideally suited for multi-site operations such as retail, Streamvault enables organizations to modernize their security while leveraging existing infrastructure.

Azena Application Store

Booth #23075

Azena will be showcasing its open platform marketplace for smart cameras, which provides more than 100 AI-enabled, flexible video analytics. Apps available from third-party developers on the Azena Application Store will be on display, demonstrating solutions for retail and other verticals.

Ontic Real-Time Threat Detection

Booth #31099

Ontic’s Real-Time Threat Detection offering connects the entire threat management landscape and investigation process, providing a comprehensive picture of the risks that an organization faces. Key features include continuous gathering of real-time and historical data and customizable alert configurations for active events and known risks.

Salient CompleteView VMS

Booth #10053

Salient’s CompleteView VMS platform is focused on harnessing video to improve operations in a retail environment, providing actionable information for loss prevention efforts, liability claims, personnel behavior issues, and marketing trends. It also enables web and mobile access for remote monitoring and satellite operations.

OpenEye’s Analytics-Enabled Cameras

Booth #22043

OpenEye is introducing a family of analytics-enabled cameras that can detect people, vehicles, and line-crossing video events. They will be available in multiple form factors and resolutions, and work with OpenEye Web Services (OWS) to send real-time alerts and streamline video event search.

LiveView D3 Security Unit

Booth #15115

LiveView’s D3 Security Unit is a completely customizable security solution to meet the most off-the-beaten-path needs. The unit does not require hard line access to the internet or electricity, and it offers dozens of possible camera and analytic combinations.

AlertEnterprise Policy-Based Access Control

Booth #6071

AlertEnterprise will be sharing its Policy-Based Access Control (PBAC), a cloud dynamic authorization service for physical access using identity, roles, and policies to determine access rights to buildings and physical spaces in real-time at the door.

Cisco Meraki’s Expanded Sensor Models

Booth #25071

Cisco Meraki is introducing two new sensors, the MT14 and MT30. The MT14 is an indoor air quality sensor, providing insight into overall air conditions to improve comfort and safety. The MT30 is a smart automation button designed to streamline common tasks or trigger specific actions.


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Design and implementation of a highly accurate spatiotemporal monitoring and early warning platform for air pollutants based on IPv6

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The system consists of two parts: software and hardware platforms14. The software platform is a functional module based on a B/S architecture that conducts data acquisition, data analysis and processing, data visualization, data trend analysis, air pollutant interpolation analysis, and data early warning. The hardware platform is a wireless sensor network, which includes a motherboard and data acquisition board.

The software operating environment is a Web portal server with 4 CPUs, 8 GBs of memory, 160 GBs of disk, and the 2012 Windows Server operating system. The software environment has a running environment that uses JAVA 8, Apache Tomcat 9.0.8, MySQL, and other software preinstalled on the server.

Hardware platform design

Since the platform is a sensory platform, the hardware system adopts a modular design, which was mainly applied to the design and development of the motherboard and data acquisition board. With an ARM processor as the core, the IPv6 protocol is embedded in each sensor node to operationalize the data acquisition and upload functions.

Motherboard

The motherboard is the core component of a wireless sensor, and it is composed of a charging management unit, power conversion unit, clock management unit, network interface, J-Link component, data storage unit, network interface, and signal transceiver. With the STM32F107 chip as the core, the IPv6 protocol is embedded to control the acquisition and storage of data in field environments and is responsible for the communication between wireless sensors and servers.

Data acquisition board

Air quality is monitored by a series of air pollutant concentration indexes, so equipment must be used to connect different sensors and equipment15. For different sensor types, the acquisition board requires various connection modes to interact with the motherboard. Therefore, the data acquisition board is separated from the motherboard to improve the universality and scalability of the whole system. The separately designed digital acquisition board connects to each type of sensor. For example, a digital sensor is the communications interface between the sensor and the processor provided by the data acquisition board; an analog sensor is a functional component provided by the data acquisition board to connect the final amplified or converted data with the processor when the sensor signal needs to be amplified and converted, and the output pulse sensor is used to shape the pulse signal output by the sensor. The I/O ports on the motherboard include 12 A/D converters and 12 D/A converters, as well as synchronous and asynchronous transceivers, a controller area network, timers, counters, and internal integrated circuits16. The entire hardware framework is shown in the following Fig. 1.

Figure 1

The entire hardware framework.

On the platform, the data acquisition board is shown in Fig. 1. Through this board, the sensor can communicate with the mainboard and provide data interaction. For the above-mentioned different types of sensors, the interaction between the data acquisition board and the mainboard is different. For example, for digital sensors, the data acquisition board only provides an interface for these sensors to communicate with the motherboard. For analog sensors, the data acquisition board amplifies and converts the electrical signals output by the sensors, and then passes them to the mainboard for processing through a dedicated interface.

Software platform design

The overall framework of the monitoring and early warning platform for air pollutants with high space–time accuracy based on IPv6 is shown in Fig. 1. The platform is divided into the data acquisition module, the data analysis, and processing module, and the data visualization and early warning module.

The data acquisition module monitors the status of atmospheric pollutants through wireless sensors, builds a system database, and sends the data on the atmospheric pollutant concentration status to the background server in real-time. The data analysis and processing module are responsible for receiving the message data sent by the wireless sensor and unpacking and analyzing the data according to the specified analysis rules. The data visualization and early warning module is responsible for the front-end display of the data, determines abnormal monitoring statuses, flags unexpected monitoring data from the monitoring points based on the received data, and feeds the information back to the management personnel in a timely fashion.

Data acquisition module

The design and implementation of the data acquisition module require a 4G communication network to implement data uploading, and a wireless sensor network collector terminal implements data forwarding through an embedded system. At present, the socket port monitoring data on the server are implemented using the TCP protocol17. After the terminal data collector collects data, it requests that the server interface establish a connection with the server to facilitate communication. After the server receives the data transmitted by the collector, it unpacks and analyzes the collected data according to the format of the protocol message. For a specific acquisition factor, it is necessary to analyze the data according to their corresponding analysis parameters. After the analysis is completed, the data are stored in the database to wait for the data call. The specific operation flow is as follows:

  1. 1

    First, the data are accepted and stored in the local buffer through the socket interface, and the completely agreed message data are accepted

  2. 2

    Then, the sensor mark position is analyzed corresponding to the data, and the data are converted behind the data position, according to whether the corresponding sensor has data (0 means no data, 1 means data)

  3. 3

    According to the agreed resolution factor of each acquisition parameter, different parameters are multiplied by different resolution factors, and then, the data-bind with the equipment after the corresponding equipment ID is resolved.

  4. 4

    To ensure the readiness of the data, the calibration equipment is installed at the near-ground position, and the accuracy of the data collected by the sensors is updated by comparing the collected and analyzed data.

Data analysis and processing module

The data analysis and processing module analyze the collected data, and the current TCP connection node is message data obtained through the socket interface. For different acquisition factors, data are arranged according to whether the corresponding data collector has data, and then, the data format is filled after the flag bit. The data bits have already agreed to the arrangement rules in the data analysis part, and each bit represents a different data sensor. To save the stored message length, the collected data are filled after the flag bit; otherwise, they are not filled.

As shown in above Table 3, the collected data, the data flag bits, and the corresponding data bits are analyzed to obtain the corresponding real data.

Table 3 The specific meaning of each position of the received data.

To facilitate the transmission of data and to avoid the complexity of data formats caused by decimals, the scaling parameters of each parameter are agreed upon through the parsing program during data acquisition to ensure that the data transmission results are integers. After unpacking and parsing the basic data, the data are post-processed according to the agreed-upon parameters. The corresponding acquisition equipment binds to the data according to the transmitted equipment number.

Data visualization

After collecting the high spatiotemporal precision data collected by the wireless sensor network in the server, our main task is to visualize the data to show changes in an atmospheric environment in a useful way for decision-makers.

The overall architecture of data visualization is shown in the figure below, which is mainly composed of a front-end call, background data processing, and a data storage module. For the background data call process, we use the spring MVC framework in Java, which ensures the implementation of the front-end real-time data display function18. Figure 2 shows the statistical interface of the latest data for each site:

Figure 2figure 2

The statistical interface of the latest monitoring data of each site of the monitoring and early warning platform.

Data trend analysis and change

The data trend analysis changes of the stations in the experimental area include hourly trend analyses, daily average trend analyses, and data trend analyses for each station. The latest collected data are displayed in node charts with high spatial and temporal distributions installed in the area. For the collected data, the air pollution index is calculated corresponding to each collection time based on the calculation method stipulated by its state. The ranking of data collections at multiple points in the region is calculated according to the air pollution index, and the pollution situation of different observation points is analyzed. Based on the installation nodes, the API function of the network map is used to distribute the nodes on the map, and then, the distribution of the collection sites is obtained from the entire area. The following Fig. 3 shows a heat diagram of the change trends of different observation parameters for different dates:

Figure 3figure 3

Because of the AQI, PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NO2, CO, different observation parameters such as O3 change trend in different periods to heat (From: Bai du map).

Interpolation analysis of air pollutants

The toolbox based on ArcGIS interpolates the observation point data with high spatial and temporal distributions and then obtains the air pollution status of the entire region through limited data collection points. Using the collected data, a different analysis of the regional fine particles, nitrogen and sulfur oxides, the environmental pollution index can be obtained. By using time series data, continuous monitoring of regional environmental pollution can be performed, and by including the monitoring of unexpected data, timely reporting and decision-making for problematic pollution are enabled.

After collecting the different data, we can calculate the data of different places. Via comparison with data from known observation points, we can choose a more suitable interpolation algorithm. By calling the interpolation algorithm interface of the ArcGIS server, we can find an interpolation algorithm with the lowest error for mapping.

Data early warning module

The data early warning module is divided into abnormal data collections and abnormal data thresholds. As shown in Fig. 4. The figure shows that the device named SH had a machine failure at 14:46:07 on 2018.05.21.

Figure 4figure 4

The platform early warning module includes data acquisition anomalies and data threshold anomalies.

A data collection anomaly triggers an abnormal alarm if the remote collector receives an abnormal collection (that is, no data are collected); then, the system will push the information to the person in charge, and the appropriate personnel will carry out the specific equipment maintenance.

The principle of the data threshold alarm is to set a specific monitoring threshold for specific pollutants. If the threshold is exceeded, then early warning information is triggered, allowing problematic pollution incidents to be found and treated in time. The data threshold anomaly is divided into two parts. One part makes a judgment according to a set threshold. System administrators can set different early warning thresholds for different pollutants, which will trigger data alarms when the collected data exceed the current threshold (the corresponding situation may be a sudden increase in environmental pollution). The other part is an early warning for different pollutant variation ranges, which are triggered based on early warning information when the collected data increase beyond a certain range. On the whole, the data early warning system mainly relies on the high spatial and temporal distribution data of the wireless sensor networks. This system implements real-time monitoring of pollutant concentration changes for specific observation points in an entire area and processes decisions for sudden high pollution events in a timely fashion.

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