Systematic review of the technical and physiological constraints of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle that affect the capability of astronauts to exercise effectively during spaceflight

Background The constraints of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle present challenges to the use of current exercise countermeasures necessary to prevent severe deconditioning of physiological systems during microgravity exposure beyond Low Earth Orbit. The purpose of this qualitative systematic review was to determine the technical constraints of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle which may hinder astronauts’ capabilities to effectively exercise during long distance spaceflight. Methods Databases were searched from the start of their records to December 2018. Included documents were quality assessed with the AMSRG quality scoring tool and Thematic Analysis was used to analyse the included documents to assess technical constraints of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle. Results 19 studies were included in the final review. All identified constraints, other than data transmission limitations, were found to ultimately be a result of the volume and upload mass constraints of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle. There was a lack of detailed studies and lack of consistency in specifying spacecraft in the literature that limit the conclusions of this review. Conclusion Space agencies are advised to ensure that information on relevant spacecraft constraints is readily available to researchers. This information should be made accessible in an official published document as opposed to disparate and grey literature, and include quantitative information rather than qualitative summaries

Using fire in spotted gum - ironbark forests for production and biodiversity outcomes. Guidelines for landholders

This guide applies to spotted gum - ironbark forests and woodlands. Topics covered in the guide include: *The spotted gum - ironbark ecosystem; *General effects of burning practices; *Understandinng the effects of fire management; *Timber production; *Livestock grazing production; *Balancing production and biodiversity; *Fire management planning for the property; *Recommendtaions for landholders. These guidelines have been prepared for spotted gum - ironbark forests and woodlands and are not necessarily applicable to other forest and woodland ecosystems. The recommendations provided in these guidelines should be used as a guide only

Issues of digital ecosystems approach to biological ecosystems simulation model fit optimization

This study examines the application of digital ecosystems concepts to a biological ecosystem simulation problem. The problem involves the use of a digital ecosystem agent to optimize the accuracy of a second digital ecosystem agent, the biological ecosystem simulation. The study also incorporates social ecosystems, with a technological solution design subsystem communicating with a science subsystem and simulation software developer subsystem to determine key characteristics of the biological ecosystem simulation. The findings show similarities between the issues involved in digital ecosystem collaboration and those occurring when digital ecosystems interact with biological ecosystems. The results also suggest that even precise semantic descriptions and comprehensive ontologies may be insufficient to describe agents in enough detail for use within digital ecosystems, and a number of solutions to this problem are proposed

Factors influencing early restoration progress of a 'eucalyptus tereticornis' open forest on former agricultural land

We monitored an area that was revegetated with the goal of restoring a Eucalyptus tereticornis open forest on former agricultural land in central, eastern Queensland. Revegetation involved: (1) planting 60 ha of previously cleared and heavily grazed land with eight local trees species; and (2) removing cattle grazing to encourage natural regeneration in areas where some mature trees remained. We compared the revegetation site to native pasture that had also been previously cleared, with only scattered paddock trees remaining, and continued to be managed for livestock production (an area similar to the revegetation site, prior to planting) and a remnant forest (reference area). Nine years since revegetation began there was some evidence that the revegetated site was diverging from pasture in terms of understorey plant composition, sapling density and topsoil C and N. There was little divergence in terms of plant species richness (native, introduced, grass, forb and woody plant richness), herbaceous biomass and woody plant regeneration. Some monitoring plots were subject to fire (prescribed fire and or wildfire) over the period of monitoring. With increasing time since tire, the richness of native species, introduced species and grass species (both native and introduced) declined, and forb and grass species richness declined with increasing litter biomass, suggesting that the occurrence of tire and the associated removal of litter biomass has a positive influence on herbaceous diversity in this ecosystem. Woody plant regeneration persisted through lignotubers at the revegetation site and at the pasture, but this regeneration was stunted at the pasture presumably due to livestock grazing. Hence areas of former E. tereticornis forest showed promising regenerative capacity where mature trees remained and where livestock grazing was removed

Parameter optimisation for a discrete event simulator

Reactive thermostatistical search (RTS) is used within this paper to optimise parameter settings for discrete event simulation problems; the performance of its implementation within the Witness discrete event simulation package is benchmarked against that of the optimiser used within the ProModel package. RTS is a new technique, based upon simulated annealing, which incorporates elements of tabu search into the SA process, by learning from its experience of the problem domain and modifying its search strategy accordingly