Improving the validity of shod human footstrike modelling with dynamic loading conditions determined from biomechanical motion capture trials

This thesis presents and evaluates a number of finite element footstrike models developed to allow the performance of prospective athletic footwear designs to be evaluated in a virtual environment. Successful implementation of such models would reduce the industry’s traditional reliance on physical prototyping and therefore reduce the time and associated costs required to develop a product. All boundary conditions defined in each of the footstrike models reported were directly determined from biomechanical motion capture trials to ensure that the loading applied was representative of shod human running. Similarly, the results obtained with each model were compared to digitised high speed video footage of experimental trials and validated against biomechanical measures such as foot segment kinematics, ground reaction force and centre of pressure location. A simple model loaded with triaxial force profiles determined from the analysis of plantar pressure data was found to be capable of applying highly representative load magnitudes but the distribution of applied loading was found to be less accurate. Greater success at emulating the deformation that occurs in the footwear during an entire running footstrike was achieved with models employing kinematic foot segment boundary conditions although this approach was found to be highly sensitive to the initial orientation of the foot and footwear components, thus limiting the predictive capacity of such a methodology. A subsequent model was therefore developed to utilise exclusively kinetic load conditions determined from an inverse dynamic analysis of an experimental trial and demonstrated the greatest predictive capacity of all reported models. This was because the kinematics of the foot were allowed to adapt to the footwear conditions defined in the analysis with this approach. Finally, the reported finite element footstrike models were integrated with automated product optimisation techniques. A topology optimisation approach was first utilised to generate lightweight midsole components optimised for subject‐specific loading conditions whilst a similar shape optimisation methodology was subsequently used to refine the geometry of a novel footwear design in order to minimise the peak material strains predicted

Castleman disease and lymphocytic interstitial pneumonia: a complex diagnostic and management challenge

No abstract available

New legume capable of persisting in dry times

As major parts of Queensland are again in the grips of unusually dry conditions, Progardes, a recently released legume is demonstrating persistence in the harshest of conditions. The Progardes had received just two small rainfall events since December but was thriving. Agrimix General Manager Iain Hannah and JCU lecturer and researcher used the Richmond weigh-in as an opportunity to check on the progress of the Progardes trial plot. They are now extremely confident the Progardes will prove to be a fodder that can withstand some very tough conditions. The legume has proven extremely successful in central and southern Queensland where over 10,000ha have been successfully established. The Progardes has been proven to have 20 per cent protein content in the leaf and up to 12pc in the stem. Agrimix are now at the stage of commercial production in Central Queensland and with several trial plots across the north-west including a 250ha plot near Hughenden, Mr Hannah is confident it will prove to be a big plus to beef production in the north. Progardes (www.progardes.com.au ) is a perennial tropical legume developed over 20 years of research by Chris Gardiner from James Cook University and in recent years Agrimix, a Queensland based agriculture technology group. Progardes has been bred to be productive and persistent in clay soils and persist in low rainfall semi-arid conditions. The legume is a highly palatable legume, with high protein content, with good biomass potential, non-thorny and non-toxic, frost and grazing tolerant plant of around waist height. Progardes has the potential to make significant impacts on animal production and ecosystem function whether it is live weight gains, increased stocking rates, turn off weights and timing, improved wool production, reproductive performance, reduced methane production or sustaining grasslands. As testament to Progardes's strength, it was observed recently at the Richmond Beef challenge despite the 57mm of rain received all summer, to be about the only plant of value growing and providing protein and quality feed

Legume for semiarid clay sois: an update

Since writing the article "New pasture legumes for clay soils in dry environments" for the last issue of the Northern Muster some 10,000 ha of Progardes (www.progardes.com.au) has been sown across North, North West and Central Queensland on various land types including: Mitchell Grass Downs; cleared Gidgee/Boree; cleared Blackwood and Brigalow; and Barkly and Gulf land types. Agrimix Pty Ltd and various graziers undertook the planting of Progardes using numerous methods including: aerial seeding into dry native grass (Mitchell grass); aerial seeding into freshly pulled and/or old pulled Gidgee/Boree country; aerial seeding onto a fully cultivated seedbed; aerial seeded onto blade ploughed country,; aerial seeded into burnt country; fully disc cultivated and airseeded; and partially tyne cultivated and airseeded. The results of these various planting methods are pending

A new method of observing weak extended x-ray sources with RHESSI

We present a new method, fan-beam modulation, for observing weak extended x-ray sources with the Reuven Ramaty High-Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI). This space-based solar x-ray and gamma-ray telescope has much greater sensitivity than previous experiments in the 3-25 keV range, but is normally not well suited to detecting extended sources since their signal is not modulated by RHESSI's rotating grids. When the spacecraft is offpointed from the target source, however, the fan-beam modulation time-modulates the transmission by shadowing resulting from exploiting the finite thickness of the grids. In this paper we detail how the technique is implemented and verify its consistency with sources with clear known signals that have occurred during RHESSI offpointing: microflares and the Crab Nebula. In both cases the results are consistent with previous and complementary measurements. Preliminary work indicates that this new technique allows RHESSI to observe the integrated hard x-ray spectrum of weak extended sources on the quiet Sun.Comment: Publishe

Successful pasture development at Cungelella: a grazier, a researcher and a seed company's perspective

Describes the need for legumes in the Brigalow/Buffel grass landtypes of Central Queensland and the successful introduction of Progardes Desmanthus and the resulting beef productivity

Simulation of quiet-sun hard x-rays related to solar wind superhalo electrons

In this paper, we propose that the accelerated electrons in the quiet Sun could collide with the solar atmosphere to emit Hard X-rays (HXRs) via non-thermal bremsstrahlung, while some of these electrons would move upwards and escape into the interplanetary medium, to form a superhalo electron population measured in the solar wind. After considering the electron energy loss due to Coulomb collisions and the ambipolar electrostatic potential, we find that the sources of the superhalo could only occur high in the corona (at a heliocentric altitude ≳1.9 R⊙ (the mean radius of the Sun)), to remain a power-law shape of electron spectrum as observed by STEREO at 1AU near solar minimum (Wang et al., 2012). The modeled quiet-Sun HXRs related to the superhalo electrons fit well to a power-law spectrum, f∼ε−γ, with an index γ ≈ 2.0 - 2.3 (3.3 - 3.7) at 10 - 100 keV, for the warm/cold thick-target (thin-target) emissions produced by the downward-traveling (upward-traveling) accelerated electrons. These simulated quiet-Sun spectra are significantly harder than the observed spectra of most solar HXR flares. Assuming that the quiet-Sun sources cover 5% of the solar surface, the modeled thin-target HXRs are more than six orders of magnitude weaker than the RHESSI upper limit for quiet-Sun HXRs (Hannah et al., 2010). Using the thick-target model for the downward-traveling electrons, the RHESSI upper limit restricts the number of downward-traveling electrons to at most ≈3 times the number of escaping electrons. This ratio is fundamentally different from what is observed during solar flares associated with escaping electrons where the fraction of downward-traveling electrons dominates by a factor of 100 to 1000 over the escaping population

PROGARDES\u3csup\u3eTM\u3c/sup\u3e: A Legume for Tropical/Subtropical Semi-Arid Clay Soils

The range of available sown pasture legumes for the vast heavy clay soil regions of northern Australia has long been regarded as being deficient (Burt 1993; Jones and Clem 1997; Pengelly and Conway 2000). Indeed immense areas of northern Australia’s semi-arid clay soil regions have no sown pasture legume with proven adaptation and persistence through the long annual dry seasons (Gardiner and Swan 2008). The genus Desmanthus is a Mimosaceae legume containing some 24 species which are native to the Americas and range from being herbaceous to suffruticose in habit (Luckow 1993). Desmanthus is one of the very few legumes consistently observed to persist under heavy grazing on clay soils in their native environments (Pengelly and Conway 2000). Numerous accessions of Desmanthus were collected and introduced into Australia by various institutions, notably CSIRO and QDPI, over the past 50 years (Reid 1983; Pengelly and Liu 2001), as potential legumes for clay soils. After years of multi-site field evaluation of Desmanthus and other species, in 1991 QDPI released 3 Desmanthus cultivars, cvv. Marc (D. virgatus), Bayamo (D. leptophyllus) and Uman (D. pubescens), which were marketed as a blend named “Jaribu” (Cook et al. 1993). Currently, only cv. Marc is available commercially with a focus on southern subtropical Queensland markets. How-ever, Pengelly and Conway (2000) state that, owing to Marc’s low dry matter production, its contribution to animal diets and soil N is limited