New multivariable capabilities of the INCA program

The INteractive Controls Analysis (INCA) program was developed at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center to provide a user friendly, efficient environment for the design and analysis of control systems, specifically spacecraft control systems. Since its inception, INCA has found extensive use in the design, development, and analysis of control systems for spacecraft, instruments, robotics, and pointing systems. The (INCA) program was initially developed as a comprehensive classical design analysis tool for small and large order control systems. The latest version of INCA, expected to be released in February of 1990, was expanded to include the capability to perform multivariable controls analysis and design

Bryophytes and their distribution in the Blue Mountains region of New South Wales

The bryophytes (mosses, liverworts and hornworts) that occur in the Blue Mountains region of New South Wales (latitude 33˚–34˚ S, longitude 151˚–151˚40’ E) are listed and information is provided on their distribution in the region. Species lists are based on herbarium specimens and field collections. 348 bryophyte taxa have been recorded from 70 families, including 225 moss taxa (in 108 genera from 45 families), 120 liverwort taxa (in 51 genera from 24 families) and 3 hornwort taxa (in 3 genera from one family). The moss families with most taxa are the Pottiaceae (with 23 taxa in 13 genera), Bryaceae (with 15 taxa in 3 genera) and Fissidentaceae (with 13 taxa). The largest genera are Fissidens (13 taxa), Campylopus (9) and Macromitrium (8). The liverwort family with the most taxa is Lepidoziaceae, with 29 taxa in 10 genera. The largest liverwort genera are Frullania (11 taxa) and Riccardia (8). The species lists include collections from both bushland and urban areas. Natural features of the Blue Mountains, including topography, altitude, climate and vegetation appear to be important factors influencing the number of bryophyte species recorded from each location. The number of collections from particular locations has been considerably influenced by ease of access, particularly proximity to roads, public transport and railway stations. The species lists include many records from areas that were not accessible to the early collectors of the late 19th and early 20th centuries such as Wollemi National Park, Gardens of Stone National Park, Newnes Plateau and Kanangra-Boyd National Park

Kinematically Redundant Octahedral Motion Platform for Virtual Reality Simulations

We propose a novel design of a parallel manipulator of Stewart Gough type for virtual reality application of single individuals; i.e. an omni-directional treadmill is mounted on the motion platform in order to improve VR immersion by giving feedback to the human body. For this purpose we modify the well-known octahedral manipulator in a way that it has one degree of kinematical redundancy; namely an equiform reconfigurability of the base. The instantaneous kinematics and singularities of this mechanism are studied, where especially "unavoidable singularities" are characterized. These are poses of the motion platform, which can only be realized by singular configurations of the mechanism despite its kinematic redundancy.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure

Design of a digital ride quality augmentation system for commuter aircraft

Commuter aircraft typically have low wing loadings, and fly at low altitudes, and so they are susceptible to undesirable accelerations caused by random atmospheric turbulence. Larger commercial aircraft typically have higher wing loadings and fly at altitudes where the turbulence level is lower, and so they provide smoother rides. This project was initiated based on the goal of making the ride of the commuter aircraft as smooth as the ride experienced on the major commercial airliners. The objectives of this project were to design a digital, longitudinal mode ride quality augmentation system (RQAS) for a commuter aircraft, and to investigate the effect of selected parameters on those designs

Sospechas y evidencia: revisión de las causas de la extinción local y del declive de los mejillones de agua dulce

Sospechas y evidencia: revisión de las causas de la extinción local y del declive de los mejillones de agua dulce La conservación de la biodiversidad requiere pruebas fiables de las causas de extinción local. Utilizando los mejillones de agua dulce como ejemplo, llevamos a cabo esta valoración sistemática, la primera que se ha realizado, de la evidencia de peligro para cualquier grupo de organismos. Revisamos artículos que publicaban conclusiones sobre las causas de las extinciones locales, evaluando la calidad de las pruebas según una escala objetiva. Encontramos que únicamente el 48% de los estudios presentaban relaciones plausibles entre la extinción local y sus causas. Los análisis carecían de resolución, dado que más del 75% de los estudios considerados (n = 124) sugerían múltiples causas de extinción local. Los estudios llevados a cabo en grandes áreas, y los que presentaban menos pruebas, son los que abogaban por un mayor número de causas. A pesar de las evidencias, que frecuentemente eran débiles, existía un acuerdo sustancial sobre la identidad de las causas; la más frecuente era la destrucción o alteración del hábitat, pero se postulaban muchas más. A pesar de que la extinción local de los mejillones de agua dulce es indudablemente una realidad, las pruebas podrían ser más consistentes. En estos animales y en muchos otros, la evidencia de las causas de su extinción local a menudo ha sido circunstancial. Presentamos aquí un estudio sistemático que pueden utilizar los ecólogos, para fortalecer las evidencias concernientes a las causas de las extinciones locales. También hemos reflejado la relación entre la fortaleza de la evidencia y las prioridades económicas de las investigaciones. Palabras clave: Evidencia, Extinción, Extinción local, Agua dulce, Mejillones.Conservation of biodiversity requires reliable evidence of the causes of extirpation. Using freshwater mussels as an example, we performed the first–ever systematic assessment of the evidence for endangerment of any group of organisms. We surveyed articles publishing conclusions about the cause of local extirpation by assessing the quality of evidence on an objective scale. We found that only 48% of studies presented plausible links between extirpation and causes. Analyses lacked resolution since more than 75% of all studies considered (n = 124) suggested multiple causes of extirpation. Studies performed over large areas and those presenting less evidence postulated the most causes. Despite the frequently weak evidence, there was substantial agreement on the identity of causes; the most frequent was habitat destruction or alteration but many others were postulated. Although mussel extirpation is undoubtedly real, the evidence could be stronger. In these animals and others, evidence of the causes of extirpation has often been circumstantial. We present a systematic approach ecologists can use to strengthen the evidence concerning the causes of extirpation. We also reflect on the link between the strength of evidence and research funding priorities. Key words: Evidence, Extinction, Extirpation, Freshwater, Mussels.La conservación de la biodiversidad requiere pruebas fiables de las causas de extinción local. Utilizando los mejillones de agua dulce como ejemplo, llevamos a cabo esta valoración sistemática, la primera que se ha realizado, de la evidencia de peligro para cualquier grupo de organismos. Revisamos artículos que publicaban conclusiones sobre las causas de las extinciones locales, evaluando la calidad de las pruebas según una escala objetiva. Encontramos que únicamente el 48% de los estudios presentaban relaciones plausibles entre la extinción local y sus causas. Los análisis carecían de resolución, dado que más del 75% de los estudios considerados (n = 124) sugerían múltiples causas de extinción local. Los estudios llevados a cabo en grandes áreas, y los que presentaban menos pruebas, son los que abogaban por un mayor número de causas. A pesar de las evidencias, que frecuentemente eran débiles, existía un acuerdo sustancial sobre la identidad de las causas; la más frecuente era la destrucción o alteración del hábitat, pero se postulaban muchas más. A pesar de que la extinción local de los mejillones de agua dulce es indudablemente una realidad, las pruebas podrían ser más consistentes. En estos animales y en muchos otros, la evidencia de las causas de su extinción local a menudo ha sido circunstancial. Presentamos aquí un estudio sistemático que pueden utilizar los ecólogos, para fortalecer las evidencias concernientes a las causas de las extinciones locales. También hemos reflejado la relación entre la fortaleza de la evidencia y las prioridades económicas de las investigaciones. Palabras clave: Evidencia, Extinción, Extinción local, Agua dulce, Mejillones

Evidencing a place for the hippocampus within the core scene processing network

Functional neuroimaging studies have identified several “core” brain regions that are preferentially activated by scene stimuli, namely posterior parahippocampal gyrus (PHG), retrosplenial cortex (RSC), and transverse occipital sulcus (TOS). The hippocampus (HC), too, is thought to play a key role in scene processing, although no study has yet investigated scene-sensitivity in the HC relative to these other “core” regions. Here, we characterised the frequency and consistency of individual scene-preferential responses within these regions by analysing a large dataset (n = 51) in which participants performed a one-back working memory task for scenes, objects, and scrambled objects. An unbiased approach was adopted by applying independently-defined anatomical ROIs to individual-level functional data across different voxel-wise thresholds and spatial filters. It was found that the majority of subjects had preferential scene clusters in PHG (max = 100% of participants), RSC (max = 76%), and TOS (max = 94%). A comparable number of individuals also possessed significant scene-related clusters within their individually defined HC ROIs (max = 88%), evidencing a HC contribution to scene processing. While probabilistic overlap maps of individual clusters showed that overlap “peaks” were close to those identified in group-level analyses (particularly for TOS and HC), inter-individual consistency varied across regions and statistical thresholds. The inter-regional and inter-individual variability revealed by these analyses has implications for how scene-sensitive cortex is localised and interrogated in functional neuroimaging studies, particularly in medial temporal lobe regions, such as the H

Towards lensfield: Data management, processing and semantic publication for vernacular e-science

Lensfield is a desktop and filesystem-based tool designed as a “personal data management assistant” for the scientist. It combines distributed version control (DVCS), software transaction memory (STM) and linked open data (LOD) publishing to create a novel data management, processing and publication tool. The application “just looks after” these technologies for the scientist, providing simple interfaces for typical uses. It is built with Clojure and includes macros which define steps in a common workflow. Functions and Java libraries provide facilities for automatic processing of data which is ultimately published as RDF in a web application. The progress of data processing is tracked by a fine-grained data structure that can be serialized to disk, with the potential to include manual steps and programmatic interrupts in largely automated processes through seamless resumption. Flexibility in operation and minimizing barriers to adoption are major design features.This paper was presented at the IEEE eScience conference 2009, hosted by the Oxford eResearch Centre and held at the Kassam Stadium outside Oxford