Highly efficient Localisation utilising Weightless neural systems

Efficient localisation is a highly desirable property for an autonomous navigation system. Weightless neural networks offer a real-time approach to robotics applications by reducing hardware and software requirements for pattern recognition techniques. Such networks offer the potential for objects, structures, routes and locations to be easily identified and maps constructed from fused limited sensor data as information becomes available. We show that in the absence of concise and complex information, localisation can be obtained using simple algorithms from data with inherent uncertainties using a combination of Genetic Algorithm techniques applied to a Weightless Neural Architecture

The Incentive Effects of Tournaments: The PGA Australasian Tour 1991

This paper examines the relationship betlveen the structure of tournament incentives and individual performance. Although it follows recent research on Professional Golf Association tournaments in the United States and Europe, it concentrates on the PGA Australasian Tour in 1991 for which financial incentives on average are much less attractive than for tourna1nents in the northern hemisphere. The results strongly confirm that tournan1ents do have an incentive effect. The incentive effects that such tournament-type reward structures are clearly shown to have may be applicable not only to professional sport hut also to industrial wage structures. Tournament models can offer a different perspective on the extent to which pay influences performance at the firm level

Mediator Strategies in New Zealand: The Views of the Mediated

Mediation is a process in which an impartial neutral (or a chairman with no right of decision) assists the disputants in settling their differences. The mediator's role is to facilitate voluntary agreements by the parties themselves; the parties' final decision is their own and not the mediator's. A mediator (and, for that matter, a conciliator in a dispute of interest) tries to persuade the disputants to reach a voluntary agreement by using strategies that fall short of outright arbitration. Because the philosophy and practice of mediation tend often to be misunderstood, this paper examines some of these strategies and the importance attached to them by employers and union officers. It offers some insight into what industrial relations practitioners consider to be the strategies most likely to lead to successful mediation

Identification of Transmitting Antennas in Secure Internet of Things Networks

Bluetooth and WIFI channels are open to public users and have few security procedures. One security aspect is for a receiver to be able to verify the identity of the transmitter. This paper describes methods of identifying transmitters by the properties of their antennas

A prehistoric Native American pictograph that signals the summer solstice

The current article examines a 90 cm. tall, prehistoric Native American pictograph painted in red ochre which depicts a red Anthropomorph wearing a “V”-shaped headdress. For a seven-day period at the summer solstice the face and headdress of the red Anthropomorph are illuminated with sunlight. The authors proffer photographic, archaeological, and iconographic evidence confirming that the pictograph was made by the prehistoric, agriculturally-reliant Fremont culture of Utah (USA) circa AD 1100 – 1300, and that it was indeed a summer solstice indicator. Because genetic and cultural data verify that some Fremont people were ancestors to the Native Americans that occupy the modern pueblos in Arizona and New Mexico, we gather late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century ethnography from the latter pueblos to show that the summer solstice marked a major shift in agrarian practices—from field preparation and sowing to rain-making and crop fruition. Additional rock art iconography associates the red “Anthropomorph-with-V-shaped-headdress” motif with headhunting, a practice that, according to Pueblo Indian ethnography, was necessary for rain-making and abundant harvests. We then trace this historic Pueblo Indian conception to prehistoric head-taking pictographs aligned with the summer solstice and the seasonal shift it signaled towards rain-making through ritualized headhunting

Reviews

Review of Jurisdiction under the Industrial Relations Act 1973: Some Problems and Issues, Employment: Towards an Active Employment Policy, Labor in the American Economy, Strikes and Participation, Democracy in the Work Place

Genomic and transcriptomic signals of thermal tolerance in heat-tolerant corals (Platygyra daedalea) of the Arabian/Persian Gulf

© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Scleractinian corals occur in tropical regions near their upper thermal limits and are severely threatened by rising ocean temperatures. However, several recent studies have shown coral populations can harbour genetic variation in thermal tolerance. Here, we have extended these approaches to study heat tolerance of corals in the Persian/Arabian Gulf, where heat-tolerant local populations experience extreme summer temperatures (up to 36°C). To evaluate whether selection has depleted genetic variation in thermal tolerance, estimate potential future adaptive responses and understand the functional basis for these corals’ unusual heat tolerance, we conducted controlled crosses in the Gulf coral Platygyra daedalea. Heat tolerance is highly heritable in this population (h 2 = 0.487–0.748), suggesting substantial potential for adaptive responses to selection for elevated temperatures. To identify genetic markers associated with this variation, we conducted genomewide SNP genotyping in parental corals and tested for relationships between paternal genotype and offspring thermal tolerance. Resulting multilocus SNP genotypes explained a large fraction of variation in thermal tolerance in these crosses (69%). To investigate the functional basis of these differences in thermal tolerance, we profiled transcriptional responses in tolerant and susceptible families, revealing substantial sire effects on transcriptional responses to thermal stress. We also studied sequence variation in these expressed sequences, identifying alleles and functional groups of differentially expressed genes associated with thermal tolerance. Our findings demonstrate that corals in this population harbour extensive genetic variation in thermal tolerance, and heat-tolerant phenotypes differ in both gene sequences and transcriptional stress responses from their susceptible counterparts

Enhancing the heat tolerance of reef-building corals to future warming

Reef-building corals thriving in extreme thermal environments may provide genetic variation that can assist the evolution of populations to rapid climate warming. However, the feasibility and scale of genetic improvements remain untested despite ongoing population declines from recurrent thermal stress events. Here, we show that corals from the hottest reefs in the world transfer sufficient heat tolerance to a naïve population sufficient to withstand end-of-century warming projections. Heat survival increased up to 84% when naïve mothers were selectively bred with fathers from the hottest reefs because of strong heritable genetic effects. We identified genomic loci associated with tolerance variation that were enriched for heat shock proteins, oxidative stress, and immune functions. Unexpectedly, several coral families exhibited survival rates and genomic associations deviating from origin predictions, including a few naïve purebreds with exceptionally high heat tolerance. Our findings highlight previously uncharacterized enhanced and intrinsic potential of coral populations to adapt to climate warming

Corals in the hottest reefs in the world exhibit symbiont fidelity not flexibility

Reef-building corals are at risk of extinction from ocean warming. While some corals can enhance their thermal limits by associating with dinoflagellate photosymbionts of superior stress tolerance, the extent to which symbiont communities will reorganize under increased warming pressure remains unclear. Here we show that corals in the hottest reefs in the world in the Persian Gulf maintain associations with the same symbionts across 1.5 years despite extreme seasonal warming and acute heat stress (≥35°C). Persian Gulf corals predominantly associated with Cladocopium (clade C) and most also hosted Symbiodinium (clade A) and/or Durusdinium (clade D). This is in contrast to the neighbouring and milder Oman Sea, where corals associated with Durusdinium and only a minority hosted background levels of Cladocopium. During acute heat stress, the higher prevalence of Symbiodinium and Durusdinium in bleached versus nonbleached Persian Gulf corals indicates that genotypes of these background genera did not confer bleaching resistance. Within symbiont genera, the majority of ITS2 rDNA type profiles were unique to their respective coral species, confirming the existence of host-specific symbiont lineages. Notably, further differentiation among Persian Gulf sites demonstrates that symbiont populations are either isolated or specialized over tens to hundreds of kilometres. Thermal tolerance across coral species was associated with the prevalence of a single ITS2 intragenomic sequence variant (C3gulf), definitive of the Cladocopium thermophilum group. The abundance of C3gulf was highest in bleaching-resistant corals and at warmer sites, potentially indicating a specific symbiont genotype (or set of genotypes) that may play a role in thermal tolerance that warrants further investigation. Together, our findings indicate that co-evolution of host–Symbiodiniaceae partnerships favours fidelity rather than flexibility in extreme environments and under future warming