Status reports of the fisheries and aquatic resources of Western Australia 2018/19. State of the fisheries

The Status Reports of the Fisheries and Aquatic Resources of Western Australia (SRFAR) provide an annual update on the state of the fish stocks and other aquatic resources of Western Australia (WA). These reports outline the most recent assessments of the cumulative risk status for each of the aquatic resources (assets) within WA’s six Bioregions using an Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management (EBFM) approach.https://researchlibrary.agric.wa.gov.au/an_sofar/1011/thumbnail.jp

Status reports of the fisheries and aquatic resources of Western Australia 2016/17. State of the fisheries

The Status Reports of the Fisheries and Aquatic Resources of Western Australia (SRFAR) provide an annual update on the state of the fish stocks and other aquatic resources of Western Australia (WA). These reports outline the most recent assessments of the cumulative risk status for each of the aquatic resources (assets) within WA’s six Bioregions using an Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management (EBFM) approach.https://researchlibrary.agric.wa.gov.au/an_sofar/1009/thumbnail.jp

Formal Reports: Robotic Mouse Group

The purpose of this project is to design an autonomous robotic mouse that is able to navigate through a maze, locate a doll, and transport the doll to the beginning of the maze. This opportunity will provide students an application in everthing they have learned in their electrical, mechanical, and computer engineering courses. The concept for this project was originally taken from the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering) robotic mouse competition held ammally in Japan, which is a competition in how quickly a robotic mouse can solve a maze. We decided to add a realistic component to the design and simulate a search and rescue mission, hence including the need to rescue a doll and return it to the start of the maze. This project will also lay a foundation for fuhu-e Trinity engineers who wish to compete in IEEE Micromouse Competitions or in developing similar projects. The Micromouse itself is a three-tiered, circular robot (about 10 centimeters to a side) with two wheels on both sides and a single ball bearing located towards the back of the body which provides balance for the robot. The chassis is made of 118th inch Plexiglas and is cut into two tiered sheets in order to provide a body for the robot. The major hardware components of our design include sensors, servo motors, DC motors, encoders, wheels, a microcontroller, chassis, battery and a gripper. Three sensors are attached to the front of the robot in order to help locate the walls of the maze and orient the robot. The DC motors are tucked within the body of the robot and are used to power the wheels. The battery is stored within the body of the mouse and is positioned by the Plexiglas columns connecting the three tiers of the chassis. A project control board (PCB) is located in the middle tier and contains all of the electrical components that are necessary to complete our design. Encoders are located on either side of the middle tier and are also used to help the robot determine how far it has travelled in order to navigate the maze. The gripper will be attached to the top tier of the Micromouse and will rotate downwards to pick up the doll when it is within a certain range. Four prototypes have been developed in order to reach our final design. A wall follower was developed as the first prototype and worked properly. The second prototype failed because the hand soldered board was causing issues when all the components were co1mected to each other. Prototype #3 included a gripper circuit as well as a robotic circuit that was supposed to navigate the maze. The gripper circuit was developed and worked properly, but similar issues that had occurred with Prototype #2 were apparent within the robotic circuit of Prototype #3. These issues were eventually fixed by including encoders which would help the robot trace how far it has travelled while navigating the maze. Multiple microcontrollers were also destroyed in the process of developing prototype #3. It was determined that by hooking the motors up to the same power source as the microcontroller, a back-EMF voltage was being applied, which was causing the microcontroller to stop working. By isolating the power sources using two individual batteries, this problem was solved. After testing our final design, the robot was able to navigate the maze, locate the doll, pick up the doll and then return it to the start of the maze within 15 minutes. It was able to this autonomously without leaving any parts behind. Unfortunately, our design was not as robust as we would have liked. On average, the robot was able to complete the objective perfectly every fifth time it was tested. Because of this, we were not able to complete the objective three times in a row without fail. Nevertheless, our robot was able to accomplish four out of the five objectives that we initially stated in our project charter while adhering to all of the project constraints

Status reports of the fisheries and aquatic resources of Western Australia 2017/18. State of the fisheries

The Status Reports of the Fisheries and Aquatic Resources of Western Australia (SRFAR) provide an annual update on the state of the fish stocks and other aquatic resources of Western Australia (WA). These reports outline the most recent assessments of the cumulative risk status for each of the aquatic resources (assets) within WA’s six Bioregions using an Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management (EBFM) approach.https://researchlibrary.agric.wa.gov.au/an_sofar/1010/thumbnail.jp

Convergence science in the Anthropocene: Navigating the known and unknown

Rapidly changing ecological and social systems currently pose significant societal challenges. Navigating the complexity of social-ecological change requires ap- proaches able to cope with, and potentially solve, both foreseen and unforeseen societal challenges. The emergent field of convergence addresses the intricacies of such challenges, and is thus relevant to a broad range of interdisciplinary issues. This paper suggests a way to conceptualize convergence research. It discusses how it relates to two major societal challenges (adaptation, transformation), and to the generation of policy-relevant science. It also points out limitations to the further development of convergence research

Management of the South Coast Purse Seine Fishery

This paper has presented a strategy for moving the management of the small pelagics fishery off the south coast to management of the whole fishery, which facilitates a more biologically sound and economically stable fishery

Vapor Distribution above an Evaporating Sessile Drop

An experimental technique was developed that uses infrared tomography to measure the three-dimensional vapor distribution above an evaporating sessile drop. The technique was applied to measure the vapor distributions above evaporating drops of hexane and 3-methylpentane (3MP) at room temperature and pressure. The molecular masses of these two species are heavier than air and the vapor from the evaporating drop forms a flat, disk-shaped cloud. A Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR) was used to measure the spectral absorbance along a set of paths passing through the vapor cloud. From a set of path-averaged absorbance measurements, a two-dimensional spatial concentration distribution was determined using a computed tomography routine. A three-dimensional concentration distribution was obtained from multiple two-dimensional distributions obtained at different elevations above the drop. The vapor distributions for both hexane and 3MP differ significantly from the values predicted by the solutions for diffusion-limited evaporation and indicate the effect of buoyancy-induced convection of the vapor. These measurements are the first quantitative measurements of the vapor distribution above a sessile drop and are important for advancing the understanding of the vapor phase transport mechanisms, and thus sessile drop evaporation

Quantifying recreational fishing catch and effort: a pilot study of shore-based fishers in the Perth Metropolitan area

Recreational fishing is a popular activity throughout Western Australia, including adjacent to the populous Perth Metropolitan area. Understanding the level of catch and effort associated with this activity is essential for the sustainable management of fish stocks. Whilst the focus of recent surveys in the Perth Metropolitan area has been on boat-based fishers targeting demersal species, shore-based fishing has not been measured for many years. Recent changes to management controls for these demersal species, including the implementation of a fishing boat licence, may increase existing pressures on nearshore stocks by displacing fishing effort onto these resources. Therefore, a need exists for the collection of information on the behaviour and catch of recreational shore-based fishers to support management measures

Isolation and identification of cell-specific microRNAs targeting a messenger RNA using a biotinylated anti-sense oligonucleotide capture affinity technique.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that regulate expression by translational repression or messenger RNA (mRNA) degradation. Although numerous bioinformatic prediction models exist to identify miRNA-mRNA interactions, experimental validation of bona fide interactions can be difficult and laborious. Few methods can comprehensively identify miRNAs that target a single mRNA. We have developed an experimental approach to search for miRNAs targeting any mRNA using a capture affinity assay involving a biotinylated DNA anti-sense oligonucleotide. This method identifies miRNAs targeting the full length of the mRNA. The method was tested using three separate mRNA targets: alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT) mRNA, interleukin-8 mRNA and secretory leucoprotease inhibitor mRNA. AAT mRNA-specific and total miRNAs from three different cell lines (monocytic THP-1, bronchial epithelial 16HBE14o- and liver HepG2 cells) were profiled, and validation studies revealed that AAT mRNA-specific miRNAs functionally target the AAT mRNA in a cell-specific manner, providing the first evidence of innate miRNAs selectively targeting and modulating AAT mRNA expression. Interleukin-8 and secretory leucoprotease inhibitor mRNAs and their cognate miRNAs were also successfully captured using this approach. This is a simple and an efficient method to potentially identify miRNAs targeting sequences within the full length of a given mRNA transcript