Design manufacturing integration and flight testing of a health monitoring system for a prototype unmanned airborne vehicle

This article describes the design, development, build and flight testing of a health monitoring system for the landing gear and the electrical power system on board the Demon prototype unmanned airborne vehicle. Demon is a flying technology demonstrator which successfully flew in September 2010. The Demon can achieve pitch and roll control without the use of hinged control surfaces, by instead using fluidic devices based on the Coanda effect, attaining low-maintenance, high-manoeuvrability operations. A vehicle health monitoring system was added on board between the first and the second flight test campaigns. The integration of the health monitoring system into the vehicle is discussed as a whole. The key health monitoring sub-systems include data logging and real-time measurement of several parameters. This includes systems to measure Voltage and current from the main batteries, landing gear stress, suspension travel, wheel hub acceleration and shock absorber pressure. Wherever possible, the use of commercially available components was maximised to minimise development time and cost. Some example results of system health monitoring during flight trials are presente

Biological Control of Eucalypt Pests Overseas and Australia

This project aims to address the growing need for a coordinated approach to research into the biological control of Australian eucalypt insect pests by scoping the formation of a Centre in Australia which would (a) coordinate the evaluation and provision of biological control agents (initially to South Africa and Brazil, but in future years more widely), (b) research the role natural enemies play in pest population regulation in Australian eucalypt plantations and how this may be enhanced as a management tool, and (c) form a network focussed on forest biosecurity with an emphasis on eucalypt pests and pathogens

Combining polynomial chaos expansions and genetic algorithm for the coupling of electrophysiological models

The number of computational models in cardiac research has grown over the last decades. Every year new models with di erent assumptions appear in the literature dealing with di erences in interspecies cardiac properties. Generally, these new models update the physiological knowledge using new equations which reect better the molecular basis of process. New equations require the fi tting of parameters to previously known experimental data or even, in some cases, simulated data. This work studies and proposes a new method of parameter adjustment based on Polynomial Chaos and Genetic Algorithm to nd the best values for the parameters upon changes in the formulation of ionic channels. It minimizes the search space and the computational cost combining it with a Sensitivity Analysis. We use the analysis of di ferent models of L-type calcium channels to see that by reducing the number of parameters, the quality of the Genetic Algorithm dramatically improves. In addition, we test whether the use of the Polynomial Chaos Expansions improves the process of the Genetic Algorithm search. We conclude that it reduces the Genetic Algorithm execution in an order of 103 times in the case studied here, maintaining the quality of the results. We conclude that polynomial chaos expansions can improve and reduce the cost of parameter adjustment in the development of new models.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Seasonal shifts in the movement and distribution of green sea turtles Chelonia mydas in response to anthropogenically altered water temperatures

Anthropogenically altered water temperatures (AAWT) have the potential to affect the movement and distribution of marine ectothermic species. Green sea turtles (GSTs) Chelonia mydas are an ectothermic species observed inhabiting 2 sites with AAWT at the northern point of their geographical range in the eastern Pacific. An acoustic receiver array was deployed with temperature loggers at the San Gabriel River, Long Beach, CA, where 2 power plants discharge warm water into the river, and at the 7th St. Basin, Seal Beach, CA, a dredged shallow basin with warmer water compared to surrounding coastal habitats during the summer months. Juvenile GSTs (n = 22, straight carapace length = 45.2 to 96.8 cm) were tagged with acoustic transmitters. Turtles in the basin migrated into the river during winter months when temperatures dropped below 15°C. During the winter, turtles were most frequently detected at the river receiver stations adjacent to and downstream of the power plants. This suggests that GSTs use the warm effluent as a thermal refuge, avoiding colder areas upstream of the power plants and near the river mouth. In the summer, turtles were most frequently detected at receiver stations upstream of the power plants, potentially exploiting areas of the river with higher primary productivity. AAWT sustain the northernmost aggregation of GSTs in the eastern Pacific year round; however, based on GST thermal tolerance, this population is expected to change their movement patterns when the power plants discontinue discharging warm water by 2029

Whose crisis is it anyway? Examining complexity in blame attribution and reputational risk in the airline industry.

The airline industry has long been identified as crisis prone (Gonzales-Herrero & Pratt, 1996). Yet in recent years, the industry has faced an increasingly difficult task in managing issues, not least of all because of the complex international audiences and situations facing it. The complexity surrounding catastrophic events is not limited to the different global audiences to whom the airline might be speaking but also the level of coordination required to respond as was demonstrated by the March 2015 crash of the Germanwings flight in France where the world heard from the leaders of France, Spain, and Germany along with the Spanish King all before hearing from the company itself. In a 2x2 experimental design, approximately 200 respondents from each of the following countries – Bulgaria, Nigeria, Oman, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the US – were exposed to a news article customised to their region reporting on either a health or safety crisis with either an accommodative or defensive response from the airline

Factors associated with age at autism diagnosis in a community sample of Australian adults

Autism diagnosis in adulthood has become increasingly common due to a range of factors including changes in awareness, diagnostic criteria, and professional practices. Past research identified a range of demographic and autism-related factors associated with autism diagnosis age in children. However, it is unclear whether these apply to autistic adults. This study aimed to examine predictors of autism diagnosis age in adults while controlling for current age and autistic traits. We used a cross-sectional sample of 657 adults aged 15–80 from three self and carer-report studies: the Australian Longitudinal Study of Autism in Adulthood (ALSAA), Study of Australian School-Leavers with Autism (SASLA) and Pathways, Predictors and Impact of Receiving an Autism Spectrum Diagnosis in Adulthood (Pathways). Using hierarchical multiplicative heteroscedastic regression, we found that older current age and higher self-reported autistic traits predicted older diagnosis age, and that female gender, lack of intellectual disability, language other than English, family history of autism, lifetime depression, and no obsessive–compulsive disorder predicted older diagnosis age beyond current age and autistic traits. The paradoxical relationship between high autistic traits and older diagnosis age requires further investigation. Based on these findings, we recommended strategies to improve autism recognition in women and people from non-English-speaking backgrounds. Future studies could extend the findings by examining the effects of childhood and adulthood socioeconomic status on adult diagnosis age. Lay Summary: We studied the relationship between age at autism diagnosis and other characteristics in adults. We found that both older current age and higher autistic traits, female gender, language other than English, family history of autism, and history of depression were related to older age at diagnosis, while intellectual disability and history of obsessive–compulsive disorder were related to younger age at diagnosis. Our findings suggest more work is needed to help recognize autism in women and people from non-English-speaking backgrounds

The synthesis of single enantiomers of α-mycolic acids of M.tuberculosis with alternative cyclopropane stereochemistries

We report the synthesis of three stereoisomers of a mycolic acid from Mycobacterium tuberculosis containing a di-cis-cyclopropane and of two stereoisomers of a mycolic acid containing a proximal trans-cyclopropane and a distal cis-cyclopropane.</jats:p

Chimeric antigens displaying GPR65 extracellular loops on a soluble scaffold enabled the discovery of antibodies, which recognized native receptor

GPR65 is a proton-sensing G-protein coupled receptor associated with multiple immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, whose function is relatively poorly understood. With few reagents commercially available to probe the biology of receptor, generation of an anti-GPR65 monoclonal antibody was desired. Using soluble chimeric scaffolds, such as ApoE3, displaying the extracellular loops of GPR65, together with established phage display technology, native GPR65 loop-specific antibodies were identified. Phage-derived loop-binding antibodies recognized the wild-type native receptor to which they had not previously been exposed, generating confidence in the use of chimeric soluble proteins to act as efficient surrogates for membrane protein extracellular loop antigens. This technique provides promise for the rational design of chimeric antigens in facilitating the discovery of specific antibodies to GPCRs

Where constructionism and critical realism converge: interrogating the domain of epistemological relativism

The paper interrogates the status, nature and significance of epistemological relativism as a key element of constructionism and critical realism. It finds that epistemological relativism is espoused by authorities in critical realism and marginalized or displaced in the field of management and organization studies, resulting in forms of analysis that are empirically, but not fully critically, realist. This evaluation prompts reflection on the question of whether, how and with what implications epistemological relativism might be recast at the heart of critical realist studies of management and organization