CSD Engineers (Switzerland)

Prediction of rockslope dynamic evolution and catastrophic failure remains a fundamental challenge for scientists and practitioners, even though this topic has been studied for decades. Here we report about a case in the Swiss Alps, which has received worldwide attention, not only because a village was evacuated on May 12, 2023, and traffic corridors were progressively closed prior to the slope collapse, but also because this site had been studied and monitored with unprecedented detail during many years before failure. In 2023 the structural and dynamic evolution of the 2 million m3 suspended compound rockslide at Brienz/Brinzauls was closely monitored with diverse ground-based systems and continuously modeled with Voight’s creep law. Substantial deviations from this classical failure model were observed, which are in most cases not related to variations in external driving factors, but diverse internal strength degradation processes. This led to a systematic analysis of Voight’s model uncertainty and the development of an early warning system which includes supplementary early warning parameters to the classical velocity thresholds. We show how to treat the spatial and temporal variations of velocity thresholds and when they reach their applicability limit in a real-time early warning model. The unstable compartment at Brienz/Brinzauls progressively collapsed in the night of June 15, 2023, and generated a series of dry granular flows and rock mass falls, which just stopped at the Brienz settlement boundary.

As part of the German site selection procedure for deep geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste (HLW), an investigation, according to federal regulations, must be undertaken into whether potential sites for HLW are also suitable for the additional disposal of low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste (L/ILW) at the same site in a separate repository area. In order to assess this option, the mutual influences that could emanate from the two different repository areas need to be examined. To this end the GemEnd research project has investigated the identification and assessment of processes that could arise from a repository at the same site for both HLW and L/ILW. The research project was carried out on behalf of the Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management (BASE). The present paper provides a brief overview of international concepts for a combined repository and their findings on potential safety-relevant processes and the resulting minimum safety distances between the repository areas in the respective host rock. These potentially safety-relevant thermal, hydraulic, mechanical, chemical, and biological processes are compared with the results of the GemEnd research project for the three host rock types permitted in Germany, namely, rock salt, clay rock, and crystalline rock. Finally, similarities and differences in the joint disposal concepts and the international investigations into the extent of the identified processes are analyzed in order to assess the transferability of the obtained findings to the site selection procedure in Germany.

Abstract. Between 2009 and 2015, Andra has conducted a unique long-term hydraulic interference test in two parallel boreholes 1 m apart from each other and air core drilled in the undisturbed Oxfordian Clay rock at Andra's Underground Research Laboratory (CMHM) in Bure, France. The experimental set-up consisted of six test intervals positioned along the parallel boreholes drilled from a drift located within the Callovo–Oxfordian clay at around 500 m b.g.l. (below ground level). The 20 m boreholes were oriented around 30∘ downwards. The pressure sensors linked to six intervals of 1 m length each allowed for continuous pressure measurement over 6 years and a slanted borehole for the observation of rock displacements (see Fig. 1). Additionally, flow rates were measured during water injection tests that lasted weeks or months. This extensive set of hydraulic data allowed, for the first time, a precise determination of the in situ Callovo–Oxfordian clay rock permeability and anisotropy and its specific storage at the metre to decametre scale. It was achieved based on an automated calibration, using a 3D flow model and explicitly considering all the relevant hydraulic elements acting on the flow system (such as rock mass, borehole disturbed zone and sealing elements) and the drift acting as a steady sink due to the underground ventilation (see Fig. 2). The history matching was performed on the transient pressure measurements. The obtained numerical calibration results were in close agreement with the hydraulic parameter values of the Callovo–Oxfordian clay determined at a smaller scale (single borehole tests and rock core samples in the laboratory), therefore demonstrating the reliability of the very low permeability of the Callovo–Oxfordian clay at the metre to decametre scale. Furthermore, the modelling illustrated the impact of the measurement set-up and its details on the observed hydraulic behaviour. The analysis methodology and the main findings will be presented.

Since early 2020 COVID-19 has swept across the United States, exposing shortcomings in the current healthcare delivery system. Although some interim efforts have been made to mitigate the spread of infection and maintain access to treatment for opioid use disorder, more permanent changes are needed to combat the ongoing opioid crisis. In this commentary, we describe the regulatory barriers to methadone maintenance treatment that disproportionately impact communities of color. We then discuss strategies supporting more equitable access to this proven treatment for opioid use disorder.

Surveillance of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an essential component of any strategy to mitigate AMR and needs regular evaluation to ensure its effectiveness. A first step for any evaluation is to describe the system and context. In this study, we aimed to characterise and map the surveillance system for AMR and antimicrobial use (AMU) in the United Kingdom (UK) using a One Health (OH) approach and to identify integration points in the system. To describe the surveillance system for AMR/AMU, international guidelines for establishing surveillance systems for AMR and AMU were used. A review of the literature was conducted to collect information on the different parameters identified. Multiple data collection systems exist for AMU and AMR in humans, animals and food. Each sector is responsible for the planning, implementation, analysis and reporting of its own surveillance for AMR and AMU. Some cross-sectoral collaborative activities exist such as the UK AMR contingency plan and the publication of UK OH reports; there are opportunities for further integration such as the harmonisation of data analyses methods and interpretation across sectors and the publication of joint surveillance reports. This overview of key stakeholders, data collection streams, reporting, linkages within and across sectors and international monitoring forms an important basis for future evaluation of the UK AMR/AMU surveillance system from a OH perspective.

Проаналізовано сучасний стан питання про молекулярні підтипи м’язово-інвазивного раку сечового міхура (МІ-РСМ), їхні ключові біомаркери та рекомендовані підходи до лікування. Відомо кілька варіантів молекулярних класифікацій РСМ, враховуючи версії медичного коледжу Бейлора (BCM), Університету Північної Кароліни (UNC), Центру раку МД Андерсона (MDA), проєкту Атлас генома раку (TCGA) і класифікацію Лунда (Швеція).  Сьогодні розроблена консенсусна міжнародна класифікація молекулярних підтипів МІ-РСМ, яка не тільки поглибила розуміння біології РСМ, а й виявила взаємозв’язок певних геномних порушень з конкретними морфологічними підтипами та клінічним перебігом РСМ. Молекулярні класифікації МІ-РСМ допомагають не тільки прогнозувати перебіг пухлинного процесу, а й стратифікувати пацієнтів за ймовірною відповіддю на хіміотерапію та імунотерапію. Однак впровадження молекулярної класифікації РСМ в клінічну практику має певні обмеження та потребує проведення валідаційних досліджень.

Abstract We monitored the seismohydromechanical rock mass response to high‐pressure fluid injection during a decameter‐scale hydraulic stimulation experiment in crystalline rock at the Grimsel Test Site, Switzerland. Time series recorded at two pressure monitoring locations show abrupt pressure increases that change in amplitude and appearance between subsequent stimulation cycles. Induced seismicity correlates with the propagation of one of these pressure fronts. Deformation data along the same shear zone shows permanent fracture dislocation preceded by strong transient fracture opening. We interpret these observations as nonlinear pressure diffusion along flow channels that reorganize in response to hydromechanical effects during stimulation. Combining these observations with the in situ stress field estimated before stimulation, we argue that the underlying hydromechanical processes involve mixed‐mode stimulation with both Mode I and II/III fracture dislocation.

Walter Fernandes, Veronica Pala, Gita Bharali and Bitopi Dutta, The Development Dilemma: Displacement in Meghalaya 1947–2010. Guwahati: North-Eastern Social Science Research Centre, 2016, 396 pp., ₹600, ISBN: 978-81-89762-56-8.

To investigate the roaming of Indigenous community dogs and potential interaction with wild dogs and dingoes. Cross-sectional survey and longitudinal follow-up study. Six remote Indigenous communities in Cape York Peninsula and Arnhem Land in northern Australia were selected. Hair samples were collected from community dogs and microsatellite DNA analyses were used to determine hybrid (>10% dingo DNA) status. Dogs were fitted with GPS collars and home range (ha) was estimated during monitoring periods of up to 3 days. In Cape York Peninsula, 6% of the 35 dogs sampled were dingo hybrids, whereas in Arnhem Land 41% of the 29 dogs sampled were hybrids. The median extended home range was estimated to be 4.54 ha (interquartile range, 3.40 - 7.71). Seven community dogs were identified with an estimated home range > 20 ha and home ranges included the bushland surrounding communities. No significant difference in home ranges was detected between hybrid and non-hybrid dogs. Study results provide some evidence (dingo hybridisation, bushland forays) of the potential interaction between domestic and wild dogs in northern Australia. The nature of this interaction needs further investigation to determine its role in disease transmission; for example, in the case of a rabies incursion in this region.