TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Legal Research Digest 14: Achieving Airport-Compatible Land Uses and Minimizing Hazardous Obstructions in Navigable Airspace discusses airport-compatible land-use requirements, the legal issues related to achieving airport compatible land use, and legal issues particular to eliminating hazardous obstructions to airspace. The report also includes a review of some of the major legal issues of concern in achieving airport-compatible land use.

The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held a hearing on May 6, 2020.

Rubber Content of Crumb Rubber Modified Bitumen: Soxhlet Method , released by Austroads

The incentive to automate will be enormous for $15 per hour minimum wage. Of America’s nearly 16 million retail workers, the biggest group — 4.6 million — are salespeople. Their average wage is $10.47 an hour. After that, the country has another 3.4 million cashiers, and their average wage is $9.28 an hour. Only a quarter of salespeople earn more than $14 — and only 10 percent earn more than $19. The figures are worse for cashiers. But in the race to automate there will be a clear winner: Amazon. Why: Amazon can automate more easily than can physical stores. It is analogous to why long haul trucking can be automated before taxis: Just as highways are simpler places than...

Lymph node stromal cells (LNSCs) regulate immunity through constructing lymphocyte niches. LNSC-produced laminin α5 (Lama5) regulates CD4+ T cells but the underlying mechanisms of its functions are poorly understood. Here we show that depleting Lama5 in LNSCs resulted in decreased Lama5 protein in the LN cortical ridge (CR) and around high endothelial venules (HEVs). Lama5 depletion affected LN structure with increased HEVs, upregulated chemokines, and cell adhesion molecules, and led to greater numbers of Tregs in the T cell zone. Mouse and human T cell transendothelial migration and T cell entry into LNs were suppressed by Lama5 through the receptors α6 integrin and α-dystroglycan. During immune responses and allograft transplantation, depleting Lama5 promoted antigen-specific CD4+ T cell entry into the CR through HEVs, suppressed T cell activation, and altered T cell differentiation to suppressive regulatory phenotypes. Enhanced allograft acceptance resulted from depleting Lama5 or blockade of T cell Lama5 receptors. Lama5 and Lama4/Lama5 ratios in allografts were associated with the rejection severity. Overall, our results demonstrated that stromal Lama5 regulated immune responses through altering LN structures and T cell behaviors. This study delineated a stromal Lama5–T cell receptor axis that can be targeted for immune tolerance modulation.

A few people don't want to own one of these intriguing red cement balls. I'm not one of those people.

MineHub Technologies e IBM anunciaron hoy una colaboración para utilizar la tecnología blockchain con el objetivo de mejorar la eficiencia operativa, logística, financiamiento y reducir los costos en la cadena de suministro de concentrados minerales de alto valor, desde la mina hasta el comprador final.

IBM announces agreement to move the New Zealand Ministry of Health to IBM Cloud Managed Infrastructure for New Zealand Government.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a new collaboration with Thiess, one of the world’s largest contract miners, to use Big Data to improve machine availability and operational productivity utilizing predictive analytics and modeling technologies. This initial collaboration focuses on Thiess’ Mining haul trucks and excavators, and will help unify asset management and business operations.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced it will establish a Natural Resources Solution Centre (NRSC) in Perth to help mining, LNG and petroleum companies accelerate the development and adoption of innovative technologies and business strategies.

Americké ministerstvo financí v pondělí uvedlo, že si v současném čtvrtletí půjčí rekordní 3 biliony dolarů (v přepočtu asi 75 bilionů korun), aby mohlo pokrýt obrovské náklady spojené s koronavirovou krizí. Peníze vláda potřebuje na testování, zdravotní péči, pomoc pro firmy a domácnosti a na opatření, která mají pomoci v boji s nemocí a zmírnit ekonomické dopady.

Trump’s Failed Coronavirus Response

The Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has been a deliberate disaster from the beginning. But don’t take my word for it – just look at the facts.

Here’s the timeline: 

In 2018, he let the pandemic-preparedness office in the National Security Council simply dissolve, and followed up with budget cuts to HHS and CDC this year. That team’s job was to follow a pandemic playbook written after global leaders fumbled their response to Ebola in 2014. Trump was briefed on the playbook’s existence in his first year - had he listened, the government would’ve started getting equipment to doctors two months ago.

The initial outbreak of the coronavirus began in Wuhan, China, in December, 2019.  

By mid-January, 2020, the White House had intelligence reports that warned of a likely pandemic.

On January 18th, HHS Secretary Azar spoke with Trump to emphasize the threat of the virus just as US Diplomats were being evacuated from Wuhan.

Two days later, the virus was confirmed in both the US and South Korea.

That week, South Korean officials immediately drafted medical companies to develop test kits for mass production. The WHO declared a global health emergency. But Trump … did nothing.

As Hubei Province went on lockdown, Trump, who loves any excuse to enact a racist travel ban, barred entry of any foreigners coming from China (it was hardly proactive) but took no additional steps to prepare for infection in the United States.

He said, “We pretty much shut it down, coming in from China,”

He didn’t ramp up production of test kits so we could begin isolating the virus.

By February, the US had 14 confirmed cases but the CDC test kits proved faulty; there weren’t enough of them, and they were restricted to only people showing symptoms. The US pandemic response was already failing.

Trump then began actively downplaying the crisis and baselessly predicting it would go away when the weather got warmer.

Trump decided there was nothing to see here, and on February 24th, took time out of his day to remind us that the stock markets were soaring.

A day later, CDC officials sounded the alarm that daily life could be severely disrupted. The window to get ahead of the virus by testing and containment was closing. 

Trump’s next move: He compared Coronavirus to the seasonal flu…and called the emerging crisis a hoax by the Democrats.

With 100 cases in the US, Trump declined to call for a national emergency.

Meanwhile, South Korea was now on its way to testing a quarter million people, while the US was testing 40 times slower.

When a cruise ship containing Americans with coronavirus floated toward San Francisco, Trump said he didn’t want people coming off the ship to be tested because they’d make the numbers look bad.

It wasn’t until the stock market reacted to the growing crisis and took a nosedive that Trump finally declared a national emergency.

By this time, South Korea had been using an app for over a month that pulled government data to track cases and alert users to stay away from infected areas.

Over the next weeks, as the virus began its exponential spread across the US, and Governors declared states of emergency, closing schools and workplaces and stopping the American economy in its tracks –  Trump passed on every opportunity to get ahead of this crisis.

Trump’s priority was never public health. It was about making the virus seem like less of a nuisance so that the “numbers” would “look good” for his reelection.

Only when the stock market crashed did Trump finally begin to pay attention…and mostly to bailing out corporations in the form of a massive $500 billion slush fund, rather than to helping people. And then, with much of America finally and belatedly in lockdown, he said at a Fox News town hall that he would “love” to have the country “opened up, and just raring to go” by Easter.

At every point, Trump has used this crisis to compliment himself.

This is not leadership. This is the exact opposite of leadership. 

Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju said the first priority for this would be given to those who have qualified for the Olympics.