Exploring the intention of the South West of Western Australian residents to purchase solar panels using the theory of planned behaviour approach

Global warming is a concern for many people around the world (Lorenzoni, Pidgeon, 2006; Searle & Gow, 2010). The negative effect of climate change is increasingly apparent (Belluscio, 2010; Dunlop, 2010; Hirabayashi, Kanae, Emori, Oki & Kimoto, 2008; Oelemans, 1994). In response to growing public concern, governments are implementing legislation and carbon initiatives to decrease the impact of climate change (Crane, 2010; D’Souza, 2005). Although these government actions are important to implement environmental preservation among industries, this study focuses on the intentions of purchasing behaviour of the individual homeowner of the South West region of Western Australia. More specifically, the purchasing behaviour towards solar panels as they are the most commercially accessible form of renewable technology for homeowners. Increasing the intention of homeowners to purchase solar panels may subsequently reduce the impact of global warming. This study used Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to test three factors (behavioural beliefs, normative beliefs and control beliefs) that may influence the intention to purchase solar panels. A quantitative approach was used in this study, surveying 342 respondents. The results indicated that intention to purchase solar panels can be predicted by behavioural, normative and control beliefs, however, normative beliefs was the strongest predictor. In light of the findings attained by this study, marketing firms may use the results to add additional dimensions to future campaigns. This may have an effect of increasing the uptake of solar panels by homeowners in the South West region, which could reduce carbon emissions that are a side-effect of producing electricity. Reducing carbon emissions in the South West region could be the start of reducing the global impact of climate change

Two nonlinear systems from mathematical physics

The dissertation is divided into two chapters. In the first one, we consider the 2-Vortex problem for two point vortices in a complex domain. The Hamiltonian of the system contains the regular part of a hydrodynamic Green’s function, the Robin function h and two coefficinets which are the strengths of the point vortices. We prove the existence of infinitely many periodic solutions with minimal period T which are a superposition of a slow motion of the center of vorticity along a level line of h and of a fast rotation of the two vortices around their center of vorticity. These vortices move in a prescribed subset of the domain that has to satisfy a geometric condition. The minimal period can be any T in a certain interval. Subsets to which our results apply can be found in any generic bounded domain. The proofs are based on a recent higher dimensional version of the Poincaré-Birkhoff theorem due to Fonda and Ureña. In the second part, we study bifurcations of a multi-component Schrödinger system. We construct a solution branch synchronized to a positive solution of a simpler system. From this branch, we find a sequence of local bifurcation values in the one dimensional case and also in the general case provided that the positive solution is nondegenerate

Deep Learning Detection in the Visible and Radio Spectrums

Deep learning models with convolutional neural networks are being used to solve some of the most difficult problems in computing today. Complicating factors to the use and development of deep learning models include lack of availability of large volumes of data, lack of problem specific samples, and the lack variations in the specific samples available. The costs to collect this data and to compute the models for the task of detection remains a inhibitory condition for all but the most well funded organizations. This thesis seeks to approach deep learning from a cost reduction and hybrid perspective — incorporating techniques of transfer learning, training augmentation, synthetic data generation, morphological computations, as well as statistical and thresholding model fusion — in the task of detection in two domains: visible spectrum detection of target spacecraft, and radio spectrum detection of radio frequency interference in 2D astronomical time-frequency data. The effects of training augmentation on object detection performance is studied in the visible spectrum, as well as the effect of image degradation on detection performance. Supplementing training on degraded images significantly improves the detection results, and in scenarios with low factors of degradation, the baseline results are exceeded. Morphological operations on degraded data shows promise in reducing computational requirements in some detection tasks. The proposed Mask R-CNN model is able to detect and localize properly on spacecraft images degraded by high levels of pixel loss. Deep learning models such as U-Net have been leveraged for the task of radio frequency interference labeling (flagging). Model variations on U-Net architecture design such as layer size and composition are continuing to be explored, however, the examination of deep learning models combined with statistical tests and thresholding techniques for radio frequency interference mitigation is in its infancy. For the radio spectrum domain, the use of the U-Net model combined with various statistical tests and the SumThreshold technique in an output fusion model is tested against a baseline of SumThreshold alone, for the detection of radio frequency interference. This thesis also contributes an improved dataset for spacecraft detection, and a simple technique for the generation of synthetic channelized voltage data for simulating radio astronomy spectra recordings in a 2D time-frequency plot

Eveningness and seasonality are associated with the bipolar disorder vulnerability trait

Trait theories of vulnerability to bipolar disorder (BD) are increasingly common in the literature, yet poorly understood. The aim of the current study was to complement existing knowledge of trait theories by investigating two biological rhythm features often associated with BD – eveningness and seasonality – in a sample assessed as vulnerable to the disorder. Two hundred and thirteen participants completed an online survey consisting of the General Behavior Inventory, Seasonal Pattern Assessment Questionnaire, and Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire. Hierarchical regressions controlling for sex and age showed that greater levels of seasonality and a tendency towards an eveningness chronotype were weak, but significant predictors of the BD vulnerability trait. When the traits of vulnerability to depression and mania were investigated separately, seasonality and eveningness were significant predictors of the former, but only seasonality was a significant predictor of the latter. The Autumn/Winter pattern of seasonality was a weak predictor of trait vulnerability to mania but not depression. The current findings advance understanding of the BD vulnerability trait, and may have consequences for the behavioural management of those who are considered to be ‘at risk’ of the disorder

Nonholonomic control systems: from steering to stabilization with sinusoids

The authors present a control law for globally asymptotically stabilizing a class of controllable nonlinear systems without drift. The control law combines earlier work in steering nonholonomic systems using sinusoids at integrally related frequencies, with the ideas in recent results on globally stabilizing linear and nonlinear systems through the use of saturation functions. Simulation results for stabilizing a simple kinematic model of an automobile are included

Calculation of critical water flow rates for wildfire suppression

Predicting water suppression requirements and its impacts on firefighting strategies and logistics within the urban environment has been the subject of many previous studies, however the same level of research has yet to be applied in the realm of wildfire suppression. To work towards addressing this knowledge gap, this paper provides guidance for Incident Controllers in relation to critical water flow rates required to extinguish large wildfire across a wide range of forest fuel loads, fire weather and active fire front depths. This is achieved through mathematical empirical analysis of water flow rates required for head fire suppression during 540 simulated wildfires in forest vegetation. This research applies a fire engineering approach to wildfire suppression logistics and deterministically assess the suitability of appliance and aircraft based head fire suppression. The results highlight the limitations of offensive wildfire suppression involving direct head fire attacks by appliances once wildfires attain a quasi-steady state in forest fuels

A Multi-wavelength Study of the Host Environment of SMBHB 4C+37.11

4C+37.11, at z=0.055 shows two compact radio nuclei, imaged by VLBI at 7mas separation, making it the closest known resolved super-massive black hole binary (SMBHB). An important question is whether this unique object is young, caught on the way to a gravitational in-spiral and merger, or has `stalled' at 7pc. We describe new radio/optical/X-ray observations of the massive host and its surrounding X-ray halo. These data reveal X-ray/optical channels following the radio outflow and large scale edges in the X-ray halo. These structures are promising targets for further study which should elucidate their relationship to the unique SMBHB core.Comment: To appear in the Astrophysical Journa

Floral Neighborhood and Pollination Success in Four Hummingbird-Pollinated Cloud Forest Plant Species

In a cloud forest at Monteverde, Costa Rica, was examined pollen loads received by self—compatible flowers of two pairs of plant species pollinated by hummingbirds: Hansteinia blepharorachis and Razisea spicata (Acanthaceae), and Besleria triflora and Drymonia rubra (Gesneriaceae). Each pair consisted of one species (Hansteinia or Besleria) pollinated by short—billed hummingbirds and a related species (Razisea or Drymonia) pollinated by long—billed hummingbirds. At three different times per species, separated by 1—3 mo, we examined flowers on 28—40 focal plants from a wide variety of floral neighborhoods, ranging from plants isolated from conspecifics, either by distance or by other flowering species pollinated by the same hummingbirds, to plants surrounded by conspecifics. Because short—billed hummingbirds often restrict foraging to areas of high flower density, and because short—tubed flowers adapted for hummingbirds often have similar pollen placement, we predicted that short—tubed flowers isolated from conspecifics would receive fewer conspecific grains and more heterospecific grains than short—tubed flowers surrounded by conspecifics. Because long—billed hummingbirds often forage over large areas and because long—tubed flowers adapted for hummingbirds tend to diverge in pollen placement, we predicted that pollination of long—tubed flowers would be relatively unaffected by floral neighborhood. Effects on pollen loads of floral neighborhood (nearness to or isolation from other flowers) followed few patterns consistent with our prediction or with conventional theory. (1) There were no consistent effects of floral neighborhoods on numbers of heterospecific grains deposited on stigmas; in all four species, regardless of corolla length, effects of particular neighborhood variables (as determined with stepwise multiple regression) were as likely to run exactly counter to conventional models as to corroborate models. (2) In none of the 12 sampling runs did increases in absolute densities of neighboring heterospecific flowers adversely affect pollination. (3) However, in two runs, loads of conspecific grains increased with increases in the absolute density of neighboring conspecific flowers, and/or (in three runs) with increases in their relative density (proportion of conspecifics among neighboring flowers). These runs all involved short—flowered species rather than long—flowered species, tending confirm our initial prediction, but half the sampling runs, even of short—flowered species, failed to show any density—dependent effects from neighboring flowers pollinated by the same hummingbirds. Flowers frequently received fewer conspecific grains than they had ovules to be fertilized. Therefore the potential existed for floral neighborhoods to affect seed set and fitness of plants. Nevertheless, even though neotropical hummingbird—pollinated flowers have been cited as examples of species whose flowering peaks are displaced through competition for pollination, competitive effects from neighboring heterospecific plants were only sporadic in the species we examined, and were particularly infrequent in those species with long flowers adapted for long—billed hummingbirds