A three-year study conducted by the American Society of Safety Professionals Foundation revealed that wearable devices, big data analytics and safety engineering could help employers monitor worker fatigue and use the insights to combat workplace injuries and improve safety. The study identified stress, sleep deprivation and shift scheduling as the main causes for worker fatigue, with the ankles, feet, eyes and lower back being the most affected areas.

Tariffs on materials imported from China has created "a period of maximum uncertainty" in the construction industry, according to Ken Simonson, chief economist at the Associated General Contractors of America. Tariff-related cost increases are expected to affect lumber, plywood and asphalt mixture imports, according to AGC.

The WORKNOW construction workforce training program in Colorado does more than teach new skills. It also connects trainees with potential employers and helps with "childcare support, support buying tools for their first job, getting access to boots, gas cards or bus passes to get to work," says Katrina Wert of the Center for Workforce Initiatives at Community College of Denver.

Construction crews have placed the first roof support beam on Levitt Shell, a new entertainment venue in Sioux Falls, S.D. The 10,000-pound, 78-foot beam features a curve that mimics the nearby Sioux River.

Designer and architect Bastian Beyer is working to determine how well knitted textile structures, solidified biologically, could work as a sustainable construction material. These composite materials could potentially be used for roof and wall structures.

New materials such as recycled paper, steel and ceramics are revolutionizing the 3D-printing industry, and printers now can produce objects that were never thought possible. NASA is looking at utilizing the technology to build structures on Mars, and the Marine Corps recently built a barrack with 3D-printed concrete.

Materials manufacturer Standard Industries has launched GAF Energy, a startup that focuses on rooftop solar adoption. Key among the company's goals is to make solar rooftops a standard option for the 5 million homes re-roofed in the US annually.

Audience members who become directly involved with your presentation have a better likelihood of responding to your message and retaining it, writes Caitlin McGuire. Invite input with a show of hands, take questions or ask the audience to close their eyes so they can feel and hear you tell a connective story, she writes.

It's important we resist an attachment to a singular way of performing tasks, says University of Chicago Booth's Ronald S. Burt as part of a series of videos. Without seeking outside from others, we might never intellectually challenge ourselves to find better approaches to problem-solving, he says.

The partial government shutdown has furloughed Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board employees, but the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Mine Safety and Health Administration are still open. OSHA is not taking a break during the shutdown, says Eric Conn of Conn Maciel Carey, noting that "by essentially every measure OSHA is doing more enforcement than it did at the end of the Obama administration."

Contractors say that new technologies like drones, augmented reality, artificial intelligence will be useful for productivity and improved safety on job sites.