Hearing and acoustic interaction in mosquitoes

Johnston, who discovered the mosquito auditory organ at the base of the antennae 150 years ago, speculated that audition was involved in mating behaviour. Indeed, the Johnston’s organ (JO) is now known to detect the whine of flying mosquitoes. Analysis of sound recordings of flight tones from tethered, flying, mosquitoes revealed that opposite-sex pairs, when within their acoustic near-fields, attempt to frequency-match the harmonic components of their flighttones. Same-sex pairs actively avoid frequency-matching. Mosquitoes of the species Toxorhynchites brevipalpis, where the flight-tone frequencies of males and females are similar, attempt to match the fundamental frequency of their flight-tones. Haemophilic, vector-carrying mosquitoes Culex quinquefasciatus and Anopheles gambiae ss, where the fundamental frequency of the male flight tone is about 1.5 times that of the female, frequency-match harmonic components of their flight tones. Usually the male’s 1st harmonic with the 2nd harmonic of the female flight-tone. In Burkina Faso, where two morphologically similar molecular forms aggregate in the same swarms but rarely hybridise, frequency-matching of flight-tones may perform a pre-mating barrier and a form of subspecies recognition. We discovered that frequency-matching occurred significantly more frequently between same-form male-female pairs of flying, tethered mosquitoes, than when each member of the pair was of a different molecular form. The bandwidth and tuning of sound-evoked flagellum vibrations and the JO’s electrical responses to this mechanical input were measured using laser interferometry and extracellular electrodes, respectively. For the first time we showed that distortion products, recorded from the flagellum and JO, could provide the neural basis for frequency-matching at frequencies beyond the range of the JO’s electrical responses. We also discovered that spontaneous oscillations of the antennae are produced by physiologically-sensitive mosquitoes. Through temperature-control and injection of pharmacological agents into the JO, evidence is presented advocating dynein as the molecular motor responsible for powering these oscillations

Water quality monitor (EMPAX instrument)

The impetus of the Viking Mission to Mars led to the first miniaturization of a X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometer (XRFS). Two units were flown on the Viking Mission and successfully operated for two years analyzing the elemental composition of the Martian soil. Under a Bureau of Mines/NASA Technology Utilization project, this XRFS design was utilized to produce a battery powered, portable unit for elemental analysis of geological samples. This paper will detail design improvements and additional sampling capabilities that were incorporated into a second generation portable XRFS that was funded by the EPA/NASA Technology Utilization project. The unit, Environment Monitoring with Portable Analysis by X-ray (EMPAX), was developed specifically for quantitative determination of the need of EPA and and any industry affected by environmental concerns, the EMPAX fulfills a critical need to provide on-site, real-time analysis of toxic metal contamination. A patent was issued on EMPAX, but a commercial manufacturer is still being sought

A brief history of Formosa

Until 1949, when Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek fled from Mainland China to the Island of Formosa, few people throughout the world knew about that island of the China coast. Once Formosa became the seat of the Nationalist Government of China that little island has been much in headlines everywhere. Indeed, Formosa is of major importance in world politics and international affairs these days. So much for a very brief sketch of the island itself. The story of its importance, its history and its development will be the purpose of the balance of this study. It is not to be the purpose of this treatise to present an exhaustive study of all the various facets of the life of Formosa’s many classes and types of people. Rather, it will be an endeavor, briefly, to outline the history of Formosa, and thus identify the place and power of Formosa as it related to the whole field of contemporary history. No doubt for many years to come, Formosa will continue to be an important factor in the affairs of the Far East

Engaging creative communities in an industrial city setting: A question of enclosure

This article discusses the politics and practicalities of research process in a major government-funded, academic/community collaborative research project on cultural assets in Wollongong, a regional industrial city 85 km south of Sydney, Australia. It does so through the theoretical concept of ‘enclosure’, which helps illuminate how policy discourses are framed, and reveals capacities to challenge and reframe policy imaginations through research. The setting is pivotal: Wollongong has a legacy of steel and coal industries that dominates contemporary discourses about the city’s future prosperity. Cultural industries such as music, film, art, circus and theatre have at various times been either marginalised as insignificant to economic futures or, when they have been noticed, have been worked into city planning in very particular ways – as cultural pastimes, as prospects for economic diversification or as means to renew socioeconomically disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Such visions have rested on notions of what constitutes ‘culture’ and ‘creativity’, with a focus on the performing arts, while other forms of vernacular creativity have remained largely unnoticed. Our research project has sought to respond to this, identifying and engaging with people involved in forms of vernacular creativity outside the arts orthodoxy among Wollongong’s blue-collar and youth populations (including surfboard shapers, Aboriginal rappers, custom car designers and alternative music subcultures). Our hope is that such engagement can better inform future planning for cultural industries in Wollongong. However, engaging with such creative communities is complicated, and in different times and places research strategies confronted apathy, suspicion, absence of representative organisation and ‘consultation fatigue’. We discuss our efforts at engagement with creative communities beyond the arts orthodoxy, and appraise some of the prospects and difficulties of the research methodologies adopted. Keywords: Cultural industries, engagement, enclosure, community, vernacular creativity, Wollongong, Australi

An Ideal Biodiesel Facility

Controlling greenhouse gas emissions and producing energy from renewable sources are two key components of energy sustainability movement. • Livestock manure is a large producer of greenhouse gases, but also has the potential to be a feedstock for energy production

Taxing Cars With Attitude

It is now becoming clear that the ACEA (European Automobile Manufacturers' Association) CO2 voluntary agreement for a reduction to 140 g/km for 2008-2009 is unlikely to be met. Furthermore, delivering the target of 120 g/km by 2012 now looks improbable. Although pressure for mandatory regulation grows, for a limited time there remains an opportunity to increase the effectiveness of existing consumer price signals to encourage the uptake of low carbon cars. This paper proposes a new approach to designing an effective low carbon taxation regime. This is to start by identifying the most accessible attitudinal levers with which to modify consumer behaviour. This achieved, a taxation system is then devised to influence attitudes and behaviour to maximum effect. In this way, the attitude-action gap is bridged, exploiting the most efficient links between tax policy, consumer attitudes, car purchasing behaviour and carbon impact

Unaided stereo vision based pose estimation

This paper presents the development of a low-cost sensor platform for use in ground-based visual pose estimation and scene mapping tasks. We seek to develop a technical solution using low-cost vision hardware that allows us to accurately estimate robot position for SLAM tasks. We present results from the application of a vision based pose estimation technique to simultaneously determine camera poses and scene structure. The results are generated from a dataset gathered traversing a local road at the St Lucia Campus of the University of Queensland. We show the accuracy of the pose estimation over a 1.6km trajectory in relation to GPS ground truth