Flying challenges for the future: Aviation preparedness – in the face of cyber-terrorism

Transport has always been, and will continue to be, a means to serve to eradicate world inequalities bringing relief and salvation across the globe and no transport mode more so perhaps than aviation. However, aviation has served as both the salvation and the aggressor, having also itself been the victim of terrorist attacks. Arguably (to date) in 2016, the world could consider itself fortunate not to have witnessed a devastating cyber-terrorist attack on an aircraft. Certainly concerns were raised after the disappearance of MH370 in terms of cockpit tampering; and yet, these reports only touched upon the surface of an effervescing iceberg – set to erupt into a tsunami of devastation. The question inevitably remains ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ this will occur. This research reviews the vulnerability of air travel and the preparedness of the industry in terms of coordination (prevention and protection) from the perspective of policy, legislation (regulation) and organisation

Observation of Two New Excited Ξb0 States Decaying to Λb0 K-π+

Two narrow resonant states are observed in the Λb0K-π+ mass spectrum using a data sample of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, collected by the LHCb experiment and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 6 fb-1. The minimal quark content of the Λb0K-π+ system indicates that these are excited Ξb0 baryons. The masses of the Ξb(6327)0 and Ξb(6333)0 states are m[Ξb(6327)0]=6327.28-0.21+0.23±0.12±0.24 and m[Ξb(6333)0]=6332.69-0.18+0.17±0.03±0.22 MeV, respectively, with a mass splitting of Δm=5.41-0.27+0.26±0.12 MeV, where the uncertainties are statistical, systematic, and due to the Λb0 mass measurement. The measured natural widths of these states are consistent with zero, with upper limits of Γ[Ξb(6327)0]<2.20(2.56) and Γ[Ξb(6333)0]<1.60(1.92) MeV at a 90% (95%) credibility level. The significance of the two-peak hypothesis is larger than nine (five) Gaussian standard deviations compared to the no-peak (one-peak) hypothesis. The masses, widths, and resonant structure of the new states are in good agreement with the expectations for a doublet of 1D Ξb0 resonances

Characterising the acoustic emission from a simulated gear contact in mixed lubrication conditions

Acoustic Emission (AE) measurement has been long established as a sensitive tool for detecting damage and failure in engineering structures, where sensors are used to detect the elastic stress waves originating from crack growth, impact damage, plastic deformation and other failure mechanisms. This paper examines the sensitivity of AE to mixed lubrication conditions, in order to evaluate the technique for monitoring heavily loaded power transmission gear systems where roughness scale fatigue phenomena such as micro-pitting are a problem. Experiments were conducted using a power-recirculating twin disc rig designed to investigate elastohydrodynamic contacts. Speed and temperature were varied in order to instigate a range of lubrication conditions from full film to heavily mixed lubrication. The AE was found to be precisely dependent on the level of asperity contact and a general relationship between AE and the specific film thickness was determined for these results

Diversidade e métodos de amostragem de Hymenoptera na cultura da melancia no semiárido

Resumo: Os objetivos deste trabalho foram conhecer a fauna de Hymenoptera associada à cultura da melancia e avaliar a influência das armadilhas Pitfall, Moericke e McPhail na captura desses insetos, em ambiente semiárido no estado do Rio Grande do Norte. O levantamento foi realizado entre os meses de agosto e setembro de 2011, em área de produção comercial de melancia cv. Crimson Sweet. As coletas dos himenópteros foram realizadas, semanalmente, durante o ciclo da cultura. Para captura dos insetos, foram utilizados três tipos de armadilhas, Pitfall, Moericke e McPhail, na densidade de 20, 20 e 1 armadilha por hectare, respectivamente. As armadilhas foram instaladas sete dias após o plantio das sementes, e mantidas na área até a colheita dos frutos. Foram coletados um total de 3.123 himenópteros pertencentes a 10 superfamílias, distribuídas em 24 famílias. Formicidae foi a mais representativa, com abundância relativa total de 54,43%, seguida por Apidae com 17,96%. Foi observada também a presença de 18 famílias de himenópteros parasitoides (18,89%), com destaque para Platygastridae (6,60%), Encyrtidae (2,79%), Chalcididae (2,56%), Mymaridae (2,56%), Pompilidae (1,15%) e Trichogrammatidae (1,09%). Ressalta-se ainda a ocorrência das famílias de predadores Crabronidae (6,34%), Vespidae (2,24%) e Sphecidae (0,10%). Dentre as armadilhas, Moericke capturou a maior diversidade de Hymenoptera (24 famílias), seguida por Pitfall (11 famílias) e McPhail (sete famílias)