Wind and sky as compass cues in desert ant navigation

While integrating their foraging and homing paths, desert ants, Cataglyphis fortis, depend on external compass cues. Whereas recent research in bees and ants has focused nearly exclusively on the polarization compass, two other compass systems—the sun compass and the wind (anemo) compass—as well as the mutual interactions of all these compass systems have received little attention. In this study, we show that of the two visual compass systems, it is only the polarization compass that invariably outcompetes the wind compass, while the sun compass does so only under certain conditions. If the ants are experimentally deprived of their polarization compass system, but have access simultaneously to both their sun compass and their wind compass, they steer intermediate courses. The intermediate courses shift the more towards the wind compass course, the higher the elevation of the sun is in the sk

Improving the Resilience of Existing Housing to Severe Wind Events: annual project report 2014-2015

Damage investigations carried out by the Cyclone Testing Station (CTS) following severe wind storms have typically shown that Australian houses built prior to the mid-1980s do not offer the same level of performance and protection during windstorms as houses constructed to contemporary building standards. Given that these older houses will represent the bulk of the housing stock for many decades, practical structural upgrading solutions based on the latest research will make a significant improvement to housing performance and to the economic and social well-being of the community. Structural retrofitting details exist for some forms of legacy housing but the uptake of these details is limited. There is also evidence that retrofitting details are not being included into houses requiring major repairs following severe storm events, thus missing the ideal opportunity to improve resilience of the house and community. Hence, the issues of retrofitting legacy housing, including feasibility and hindrances on take-up, etc., must be analysed. The primary objective of this research is to develop cost-effective strategies for mitigating damage to housing from severe windstorms across Australia. These evidence-based strategies will be (a) tailored to aid policy formulation and decision making in government and industry, and (b) provide guidelines detailing various options and benefits to homeowners and the building community for retrofitting typical at-risk houses in Australian communities

Improving the Resilience of Existing Housing to Severe Wind Events: annual project report 2014-2015

Damage investigations carried out by the Cyclone Testing Station (CTS) following severe wind storms have typically shown that Australian houses built prior to the mid-1980s do not offer the same level of performance and protection during windstorms as houses constructed to contemporary building standards. Given that these older houses will represent the bulk of the housing stock for many decades, practical structural upgrading solutions based on the latest research will make a significant improvement to housing performance and to the economic and social well-being of the community. Structural retrofitting details exist for some forms of legacy housing but the uptake of these details is limited. There is also evidence that retrofitting details are not being included into houses requiring major repairs following severe storm events, thus missing the ideal opportunity to improve resilience of the house and community. Hence, the issues of retrofitting legacy housing, including feasibility and hindrances on take-up, etc., must be analysed. The primary objective of this research is to develop cost-effective strategies for mitigating damage to housing from severe windstorms across Australia. These evidence-based strategies will be (a) tailored to aid policy formulation and decision making in government and industry, and (b) provide guidelines detailing various options and benefits to homeowners and the building community for retrofitting typical at-risk houses in Australian communities

Camera-based spatter detection in laser welding with a deep learning approach

Laser welding, semantic segmentation, u-net, quality assurance, spatter detectio

Modelling the vulnerability of a high-set house roof structure to windstorms using VAWS

Modelling the vulnerability of houses in windstorms is important for insurance pricing, policy-making, and emergency management. Vulnerability models for Australian house types have been developed since the 1970s and have ranged from empirical models to more advanced reliability based structural engineering models, which provide estimates of damage for a range of wind speeds of interest. This paper describes recent developments in the engineering based vulnerability modelling software: ‘Vulnerability and Adaption to Wind Simulation’ (VAWS), which uses probability based reliability analysis and structural engineering for the loading and response coupled with an extensive test database and field damage assessments to calculate the damage experienced by selected Australian house types. A case study is presented to demonstrate the program's ability to model progressive failures, internal pressurization and debris impact

Formation of carbohydrate-functionalised polystyrene and glass slides and their analysis by MALDI-TOF MS

Glycans functionalised with hydrophobic trityl groups were synthesised and adsorbed onto polystyrene and glass slides in an array format. The adsorbed glycans could be analysed directly on these minimally conducting surfaces by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry analysis after aluminium tape was attached to the underside of the slides. Furthermore, the trityl group appeared to act as an internal matrix and no additional matrix was necessary for the MS analysis. Thus, trityl groups can be used as simple hydrophobic, noncovalently linked anchors for ligands on surfaces and at the same time facilitate the in situ mass spectrometric analysis of such ligands

VU-Grid – Integrationsplattform für Virtuelle Unternehmen

Das Projekt „Collaboration-Grid für Virtuelle Unternehmen“ (VU-Grid) ist ein Forschungsverbundprojekt, an dem die Fakultät Informatik der Technischen Universität Dresden sowie der mittelständische IT-Dienstleister SALT Solutions GmbH beteiligt sind. Das Vorhaben wird von der Sächsischen Aufbaubank gefördert. Ziel des Forschungsvorhabens ist die prototypische Entwicklung einer Integrationsplattform (Collaboration-Grid) für die Unterstützung der veränderlichen, unternehmensübergreifenden Geschäftsprozesse im Umfeld eines IT-Dienstleisters am Beispiel der SALT Solutions GmbH. Theoretische Basis der Realisierung ist dabei das Konzept des Virtuellen Informationssystems, das im Rahmen des Dissertationsvorhabens von D. Neumann erarbeitet wurde

Case studies of the wind field around Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, using unmanned aircraft

The wind field in Arctic fjords is strongly influenced by glaciers, local orography and the interaction between sea and land. Ny-Ålesund, an important location for atmospheric research in the Arctic, is located in Kongsfjorden, a fjord with a complex local wind field that influences measurements in Ny-Ålesund. Using wind measurements from UAS (unmanned aircraft systems), ground measurements, radiosonde and reanalysis data, characteristic processes that determine the wind field around Ny-Ålesund are identified and analysed. UAS measurements and ground measurements show, as did previous studies, a south-east flow along Kongsfjorden, dominating the wind conditions in Ny-Ålesund. The wind measured by the UAS in a valley 1 km west of Ny-Ålesund differs from the wind measured at the ground in Ny-Ålesund. In this valley, we identify a small-scale catabatic flow from the south to south-west as the cause for this difference. Case studies show a backing (counterclockwise rotation with increasing altitude) of the wind direction close to the ground. A katabatic flow is measured near the ground, with a horizontal wind speed up to 5 m s-1. Both the larger-scale south-east flow along the fjord and the local katabatic flows lead to a highly variable wind field, so ground measurements and weather models alone give an incomplete picture. The comparison of UAS measurements, ground measurements and weather conditions analysis using a synoptic model is used to show that the effects measured in the case studies play a role in the Ny-Ålesund wind field in spring