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Flooding events can inflict major disruption on society and cause significant infrastructural and environmental damage. However, the adverse health impacts of flooding, particularly as they pertain to private groundwater resources used for consumption, are frequently overlooked. Whilst the literature has previously found a lack of well stewardship among private well owners under ‘normal’ conditions, our understanding of private well owners’ perceptions of and preparedness for the risks posed by flooding to their domestic well-water supply is limited. This study advances the qualitative literature on this subject. It is amongst the first qualitative studies employing focus groups to examine private well owners, and the first in an Irish context. Six focus groups were conducted in four counties in Ireland, with the themes emerging from the focus groups refined, organised, and interpreted in the context of the Health Belief Model. Most focus group participants expressed awareness of the potential severity of well contamination following flooding, but many did not consider their local area “at risk” of it, notwithstanding the occurrence of previous local flooding events. All focus group participants shared the view that owners were primarily responsible for their own wells. However, their capacity to undertake appropriate actions was reduced by reliance on visual and olfactory evidence to assess water quality, and concerns regarding the financial cost and accessibility of water testing facilities. The phenomenon of misperception was also evident among participants. In light of the increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events including flooding, these findings provide direction for future socio-hydrogeological interventions. Targeted communication strategies highlighting the risks posed by flooding, mitigation measures that promote well stewardship, and protective behaviours are required. The provision of access to free well water testing would also promote protective actions.

Globally, approximately 2.2 billion people rely on groundwater for daily consumption. It is widely accepted that groundwater is more pristine than surface water but while this assumption is frequently the case, groundwater is not ubiquitously free of contaminants; accordingly, this presumption can result in an unfounded and potentially hazardous sense of security among owners, operators and users. The current paper presents a review of published literature providing epidemiological evidence of the contribution of groundwater to global human enteric infection. An emphasis is placed on enteric pathogens transmitted via the faecal-oral route, and specifically those associated with acute gastrointestinal illness (AGI). The review identified 649 published groundwater outbreaks globally between 1948 and 2013 and several epidemiological studies that show there is an increased risk of AGI associated with the consumption of untreated groundwater. The review identified that the following five pathogens were responsible for most outbreaks: norovirus, Campylobacter , Shigella , Hepatitis A and Giardia . Crudely, the authors estimate that between 35.2 and 59.4 million cases of AGI per year globally could be attributable to the consumption of groundwater. Although groundwater is frequently presumed to be a microbiologically safe source of water for consumption, this review demonstrates that consumers served by an untreated groundwater supply remain at risk to enteric disease. The authors conclude that collaboration between microbiologists, hydrogeologists and epidemiologists is needed to better understand pathogen occurrence, persistence, detection and transport in groundwater as well as build stronger epidemiological evidence documenting the true magnitude of disease associated with groundwater globally.

The DD4HEP detector description toolkit offers a flexible and easy-to-use solution for the consistent and complete description of particle physics detectors in a single system. The sub-component DDREC provides a dedicated interface to the detector geometry as needed for event reconstruction. With DDREC there is no need to define an additional, separate reconstruction geometry as is often done in HEP, but one can transparently extend the existing detailed simulation model to be also used for the reconstruction. Based on the extension mechanism of DD4HEP, DDREC allows one to attach user defined data structures to detector elements at all levels of the geometry hierarchy. These data structures define a high level view onto the detectors describing their physical properties, such as measurement layers, point resolutions, and cell sizes. For the purpose of charged particle track reconstruction, dedicated surface objects can be attached to every volume in the detector geometry. These surfaces provide the measurement directions, local-to-global coordinate transformations, and material properties. The material properties, essential for the correct treatment of multiple scattering and energy loss effects in charged particle reconstruction, are automatically averaged from the detailed geometry model along the normal of the surface. Additionally, a generic interface allows the user to query material properties at any given point or between any two points in the detector's world volume. In this paper we will present DDREC and how it is used together with the linear collider tracking software and the particle-flow package PANDORAPFA for full event reconstruction of the ILC detector concepts ILD and SiD, and of CLICdp. This flexible tool chain is also well suited for other future accelerator projects such as FCC and CEPC.

Groundwater quality analyses were carried out on samples from 262 private sources in the Republic of Ireland during the period from April 2008 to November 2010, with microbial quality assessed by thermotolerant coliform (TTC) presence. Assessment of potential microbial contamination risk factors was undertaken at all sources, and local meteorological data were also acquired. Overall, 28.9% of wells tested positive for TTC, with risk analysis indicating that source type (i.e., borehole or hand‐dug well), local bedrock type, local subsoil type, groundwater vulnerability, septic tank setback distance, and 48 h antecedent precipitation were all significantly associated with TTC presence (p < 0.05). A number of source‐specific design parameters were also significantly associated with bacterial presence. Hierarchical logistic regression with stepwise parameter entry was used to develop a private well susceptibility model, with the final model exhibiting a mean predictive accuracy of >80% (TTC present or absent) when compared to an independent validation data set. Model hierarchies of primary significance are source design (20%), septic tank location (11%), hydrogeological setting (10%), and antecedent 120 h precipitation (2%). Sensitivity analysis shows that the probability of contamination is highly sensitive to septic tank setback distance, with probability increasing linearly with decreases in setback distance. Likewise, contamination probability was shown to increase with increasing antecedent precipitation. Results show that while groundwater vulnerability category is a useful indicator of aquifer susceptibility to contamination, its suitability with regard to source contamination is less clear. The final model illustrates that both localized (well‐specific) and generalized (aquifer‐specific) contamination mechanisms are involved in contamination events, with localized bypass mechanisms dominant. The susceptibility model developed here could be employed in the appropriate location, design, construction, and operation of private groundwater wells, thereby decreasing the contamination risk, and hence health risk, associated with these sources. Model has high predictive accuracy and may be internationally transferable Localised pathways, particularly well design parameters dominant

A survey of young adults was conducted at several 3rd level agricultural institutions across Ireland over a 6-month period. The results from the agri-student survey were compared and contrasted with those of an identical survey of private well owners. Students (n = 246) scored significantly lower than well owners (n = 245) in two developed metrics, namely “groundwater source awareness” and “groundwater contamination awareness” (p < 0.001). Future “environmental custodians” are not well informed of the human health risks associated with poor groundwater management or of potential amelioration procedures. For example, just 7 % of young respondents exhibited an awareness of the purpose or presence of a sanitary seal; while only 17.5 % were aware of the presence or purpose of a well liner. Results suggest that neither intergenerational nor institutional knowledge transfer pertaining to groundwater protection or drinking water quality is prevalent. A Bayesian clustering method identified four distinct “awareness groups” within an amalgamated dataset (n = 476). Clusters comprised four predictors: presence of an elderly householder (predictor importance = 0.91), residence within the household during well design (predictor importance = 0.55), presence of an infant or young child (≤5 years) in the household (predictor importance = 0.48) previous instance of gastrointestinal illness or symptoms within the household (predictor importance = 0.31) The results of this research may be used to inform future risk management, communication and knowledge transfer policies, which are currently required to ensure the safeguarding of private groundwater supplies both in Ireland and further afield.

Ireland reports the highest incidence of verotoxigenic Escherichia coli (VTEC) infection in Europe. This study investigated potential risk factors for confirmed sporadic and outbreak primary VTEC infections during 2008–2013. Overall, 989 VTEC infections including 521 serogroup O157 and 233 serogroup O26 were geo-referenced to 931 of 18 488 census enumeration areas. The geographical distribution of human population, livestock, unregulated groundwater sources, domestic wastewater treatment systems (DWWTS) and a deprivation index were examined relative to notification of VTEC events in 524 of 6242 rural areas. Multivariate modelling identified three spatially derived variables associated with VTEC notification: private well usage [odds ratio (OR) 6·896, P < 0·001], cattle density (OR 1·002, P < 0·001) and DWWTS density (OR 0·978, P = 0·002). Private well usage (OR 18·727, P < 0·001) and cattle density (OR 1·001, P = 0·007) were both associated with VTEC O157 infection, while DWWTS density (OR 0·987, P = 0·028) was significant within the VTEC O26 model. Findings indicate that VTEC infection in the Republic of Ireland is particularly associated with rural areas, which are associated with a ubiquity of pathogen sources (cattle) and pathways (unregulated groundwater supplies).

The mechanisms of private-well groundwater contamination are uniquely complex, necessitating a multisector communicative approach to risk management, premised on behaviour promotion. In countries such as the Republic of Ireland (ROI), characterised by oftentimes high groundwater contamination risk and concurrently limited user awareness, incorporation of multidisciplinary, ‘expert-based’ knowledge may facilitate design of evidence-based, practical interventions. Expert interviews represent an efficient form of expert consultation, enabling ease of access to niche information and comparison of procedure, but remain under-utilised within the groundwater management literature. In response, the current study elicited opinion from 50 experts across four broad categories (communications, engineering/science, policy, and risk assessment) via a mixed-methods interview study. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were undertaken with experts from the ROI (n = 25) and European/North American countries (n = 25) and examined using thematic (qualitative) and bivariate statistical (quantitative) analyses. Experts noted financial cost, knowledge and social norms as primary barriers to adopting private-groundwater and other health risk-prevention behaviours. Lack of organisational knowledge as a communication barrier was significantly related to expert category (p = 0.034) and highlighted by a majority of communications experts (95%) compared to policy (75%), risk assessment (67%) and engineering/science (50%) experts. The most frequently suggested communication activities comprised events (24%), radio segments (22%), workshops (24%) and community meetings (30%), allied with family-oriented, discursive approaches to information delivery. Study findings may be used by both national (Irish) and international stakeholders in myriad hydrogeological contexts to develop educational outreach strategies and contribute to the existing groundwater-management-knowledge base.

Extreme weather events including flooding can have severe personal, infrastructural, and economic consequences, with recent evidence pointing to surface flooding as a pathway for the microbial contamination of private groundwater supplies. There is a pressing need for increasingly focused information and awareness campaigns to highlight the risks posed by extreme weather events and appropriate subsequent post-event actions. To date, little is known about the presence, directionality or magnitude of gender-related differences regarding flood risk awareness and behaviour among private groundwater users, a particularly susceptible sub-population due to an overarching paucity of infrastructural regulation across many regions. The current study investigated gender-related differences in flood risk perception and associated mitigation behaviours via a cross-sectional, national survey of 405 (168 female, 237 male) private groundwater supply users. The developed survey instrument assessed socio-demographic profile, previous flood experience, experiential and conjectural health behaviours (contingent on previous experience), and Risk, Attitude, Norms, Ability, Self-regulation (RANAS) framework questions. Statistically significant gender differences were found between both ‘Norm—Descriptive’ and ‘Ability—Self-efficacy’ RANAS elements (p < 0.05). Female respondents reported a lower level of awareness of the need for post-flood action(s) (8.9% vs. 16.5%), alongside a perceived “lack of information” as a reason for not testing their domestic well (4.9% vs. 11.5%). Conversely, male respondents were more likely to report awareness of their well location in relation to possible contamination sources (96.6% vs. 89.9%) and awareness of previous water testing results (98.9% vs. 93.0%). Gender-related gaps exist within the studied private groundwater reliant cohort, a sub-population which has to date remained under-studied within the context of climate change and extreme weather events. Accordingly, findings suggest that gender-focused communication and education may represent an effective tool for protecting current and future generations of global groundwater users.

Asciminib, a novel ABL tyrosine kinase inhibitor that targets the myristoyl site of the molecule rather than the ATP-binding domain, showed mainly low-grade toxic effects in a minority of patients and considerable antileukemic activity in the majority of those who had resistance to or unacceptable side effects from standard TKIs.