Simulation analysis of anti-rollover mechanism for vehicles

Rollover accidents are considered the most significant safety problems for all classes of light vehicles, especially pickups, Sport Utility Vehicles (SUV), Light Truck Vehicle (LTV) and vans. The main objective of the research is the design of a new mechanism able to keep the vehicle stable under various road conditions and high speeds, to prevent the vehicle from rolling over and to maintain the stability for the vehicle by creating an anti-rolling torque on the vehicle body capable of turning the vehicle smoothly to stable position

Development and use of Bacteroides 16S rRNA polymerase chain reaction assay for source tracking dog faecal pollution in bathing waters

Faecal pollution on bathing beaches poses a potential threat to human health and as a result may also negatively affect the local economy. In instances where the source of such pollution is not obvious, it may be necessary to track such sources using a host-specific genetic markers technique. Bacteroides species are potential indicators for source tracking of faecal pollution in bathing waters. This study designed specific primer sets to amplify sections of the 16S rRNA gene unique to Bacteroides from domestic dogs and used quantitative PCR (qPCR) to quantify such genetic markers in environmental samples. The sensitivity and specificity of the primer sets was determined; they were specific in silico against known dog Bacteroides sequences and in vitro against Bacteroides sequences originating from human and livestock faeces. Dog faecal Bacteroides contamination was then detected in sea water during the bathing season at a local beach where dogs are banned during the summer months, in spite of the fact that these waters had met EU directive standards based on the culture-based enumeration of faecal indicator bacteria. Quantitative PCR was used to determine the limit of detection (LOD) of the dog Bacteroides genetic markers in these water samples. The copy number of dog Bacteroides genetic markers in the water was low and the LOD of those markers was 4 copies per reaction. The use of these dog primers has the potential to supply important additional information when source tracking faecal pollution at bathing beaches and maintaining water quality

Exploration of Near-Horizon CFT Duality and AdS2/CFT1AdS_2/CFT_1 in Conformal Weyl Gravity

We compute near horizon black hole entropy via the N\"other current method within the conformal Weyl gravity paradigm for vacuum and non-vacuum spacetimes. We do this, in the vacuum case, for the near horizon near extremal Kerr metric and for the non-vacuum case we couple the conformal Weyl gravity field equations to a near horizon (linear) $U(1)$ gauge potential and analyze the respective found solutions. We highlight the non-universality of black hole entropy between black hole solutions of varying symmetries, yet their congruence with Wald's entropy formula for the respective gravity theory. Finally, we implement an $AdS_2/CFT_1$ construction to compute the full asymptotic symmetry group of one of the non-vacuum conformal Weyl black holes. We do this by performing a Robinson-Wilczek two dimensional reduction, thus enabling the construction of an effective quantum theory of the remaining field content. The effective stress energy tensor generates an asymptotic Virasoro algebra, to $s$-wave approximation, whose center in conjunction with their proper regularized lowest Virasoro eigen-mode is implemented to compute black hole entropy via the statistical Cardy formula. We additionally implement quantum holomorphic fluxes (of the dual CFT) in the near horizon to compute the Hawking temperature of the respective black hole spacetime. We conclude with a discussion and outlook for future work.Comment: 20 pages, no figure

Strong fisheries management and governance positively impact ecosystem status

Fisheries have had major negative impacts on marine ecosystems, and effective fisheries management and governance are needed to achieve sustainable fisheries, biodiversity conservation goals and thus good ecosystem status. To date, the IndiSeas programme (Indicators for the Seas) has focussed on assessing the ecological impacts of fishing at the ecosystem scale using ecological indicators. Here, we explore fisheries Management Effectiveness' and Governance Quality' and relate this to ecosystem health and status. We developed a dedicated expert survey, focused at the ecosystem level, with a series of questions addressing aspects of management and governance, from an ecosystem-based perspective, using objective and evidence-based criteria. The survey was completed by ecosystem experts (managers and scientists) and results analysed using ranking and multivariate methods. Results were further examined for selected ecosystems, using expert knowledge, to explore the overall findings in greater depth. Higher scores for Management Effectiveness' and Governance Quality' were significantly and positively related to ecosystems with better ecological status. Key factors that point to success in delivering fisheries and conservation objectives were as follows: the use of reference points for management, frequent review of stock assessments, whether Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) catches were being accounted for and addressed, and the inclusion of stakeholders. Additionally, we found that the implementation of a long-term management plan, including economic and social dimensions of fisheries in exploited ecosystems, was a key factor in successful, sustainable fisheries management. Our results support the thesis that good ecosystem-based management and governance, sustainable fisheries and healthy ecosystems go together.IOC-UNESCO; EuroMarine; European FP7 MEECE research project; European Network of Excellence Eur-Oceans; FRB EMIBIOS project [212085]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Forest patch conservation indicators.

This work presents indicators to assess the conservation status of forest patches in fragmented landscapes. However, how can we evaluate the conservation status of forest patches in order to compare it to a hypothetical situation of well-preserved vegetation without human disturbance? It is possible to measure some ecological processes, like nutrient cycling, canopy, edaphic, topographic and hydrological parameters, as well as landscape attributes, and associate them to conservation status. When the attributes of original well-preserved forest are unknown because they are seldom found, it is possible to compare patches by assessing the variability of their attributes. To this end, parameters related to canopy, soil, topography and landscape were analyzed to establish indicators and their integrated analysis was developed to assess the conservation status of forest patches and identify possible causes of shortcomings or obstacles to reach the conservation status. The study area is located in a Semidecidual Forest region, in Brazil. The methodology was developed considering plots distributed in sites within forest patches. The results allowed the identification of patches in different conditions of conservation and provided information of the factors that contribute to this status, in order to help guide and select the most appropriate measures to mitigate degradation and identify forest conservation strategies

Review of the mathematical foundations of data fusion techniques in surface metrology

The recent proliferation of engineered surfaces, including freeform and structured surfaces, is challenging current metrology techniques. Measurement using multiple sensors has been proposed to achieve enhanced benefits, mainly in terms of spatial frequency bandwidth, which a single sensor cannot provide. When using data from different sensors, a process of data fusion is required and there is much active research in this area. In this paper, current data fusion methods and applications are reviewed, with a focus on the mathematical foundations of the subject. Common research questions in the fusion of surface metrology data are raised and potential fusion algorithms are discussed