Distribution patterns, weed incursions and origins of terrestrial flora at the Capricorn-Bunker Islands, Great Barrier Reef, Australia

A checklist of vascular plants of the 15 Capricorn-Bunker Islands (CBI) (lat 23° 11’ to 24° 07’S; long 151° 43’ to 152° 43’E) compiled from 2007/08 surveys, recorded 131 vascular plant species including 44 (34%) native and 87 (66%) naturalized species from 55 families and 104 genera. New native records include Hernandia nymphaeifolia and Boerhavia sp. (Bargara L.Pedley 5382). An increase of about 35 exotic species over 23 years was recorded indicating a weed incursion rate of 1.5 species per annum. Cakile edentula (13 islands) and Solanum americanum (12 islands) are the most widespread exotic weeds. The naturalised flora ranged from 5% at Erskine Island (low disturbance) to 68% at Lady Elliot Island (very high disturbance). Achyranthes aspera, Argusia argentea and Pisonia grandis are the only species found on all 15 islands. Six indigenous species are limited to one island: Boerhavia sp. (Bargara L.Pedley 5382), Calophyllum inophyllum, Clerodendrum inerme, Hernandia nymphaeifolia, Stephania japonica and Ximenia americana. Patterns of plant distributions, diversity and origin are discussed. Eleven indigenous species reach their southern limit at the CBI, indicating connectivity with the Indo-Pacific region. PATN analyses using native flora generated two island groups. Tryon, Heron, North West, Masthead, Wilson, Wreck and Erskine Islands are the most closely related islands. Another group of related islands includes North Reef, Lady Musgrave, Fairfax Islands, Hoskyn and One Tree Islands. With the inclusion of the exotic flora, Lady Elliot Island separated into its own distinct group. Greater conservation management efforts are required to control and minimise the introduction of exotic weed species to islands with high human visitation

On theory integration: Toward developing affective components within cognitive architectures

In The Cognitive-Emotional Brain, Pessoa (2013) suggests that cognition and emotion should not be considered separately. We agree with this and argue that cognitive architectures can provide steady ground for this kind of theory integration and for investigating interactions among underlying cognitive processes. We briefly explore how affective components can be implemented and how neuroimaging measures can help validate models and influence theory development

On theory integration: Toward developing affective components within cognitive architectures

In The Cognitive-Emotional Brain, Pessoa (2013) suggests that cognition and emotion should not be considered separately. We agree with this and argue that cognitive architectures can provide steady ground for this kind of theory integration and for investigating interactions among underlying cognitive processes. We briefly explore how affective components can be implemented and how neuroimaging measures can help validate models and influence theory developmen

Advanced perception, navigation and planning for autonomous in-water ship hull inspection

Inspection of ship hulls and marine structures using autonomous underwater vehicles has emerged as a unique and challenging application of robotics. The problem poses rich questions in physical design and operation, perception and navigation, and planning, driven by difficulties arising from the acoustic environment, poor water quality and the highly complex structures to be inspected. In this paper, we develop and apply algorithms for the central navigation and planning problems on ship hulls. These divide into two classes, suitable for the open, forward parts of a typical monohull, and for the complex areas around the shafting, propellers and rudders. On the open hull, we have integrated acoustic and visual mapping processes to achieve closed-loop control relative to features such as weld-lines and biofouling. In the complex area, we implemented new large-scale planning routines so as to achieve full imaging coverage of all the structures, at a high resolution. We demonstrate our approaches in recent operations on naval ships.United States. Office of Naval Research (Grant N00014-06-10043)United States. Office of Naval Research (Grant N00014-07-1-0791

Australia and Other Nations are Failing to Meet Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines for Children: Implications and a Way Forward

BACKGROUND: Australia has joined a growing number of nations which have evaluated the physical activity and sedentary behaviour status of their children. Australia received a 'D minus' in the first Active Healthy Kids Australia Physical Activity Report Card. METHODS: An expert subgroup of the Australian Report Card Research Working Group iteratively reviewed available evidence to answer three questions: 1) What are the main sedentary behaviours of children?, 2) What are the potential mechanisms for sedentary behaviour to impact on child health and development? and, 3) What are the effects of different types of sedentary behaviours on child health and development? RESULTS: Neither sedentary time nor screen time are homogeneous activities likely to result in homogenous effects. There are several mechanisms by which various sedentary behaviours may positively or negatively affect cardiometabolic, neuro-musculoskeletal, and psycho-social health, though the strength of evidence varies. National surveillance systems, and mechanistic, longitudinal and experimental studies are needed for Australia and other nations to improve their grade. CONCLUSIONS: Despite limitations, available evidence is sufficiently convincing that the total exposure and pattern of exposure to sedentary behaviours are critical to the healthy growth, development and wellbeing of children. Nations therefore need strategies to address these common behaviours

IRVE-3 Post-Flight Reconstruction

The Inflatable Re-entry Vehicle Experiment 3 (IRVE-3) was conducted from the NASA Wallops Flight Facility on July 23, 2012. Launched on a Black Brant XI sounding rocket, the IRVE-3 research vehicle achieved an apogee of 469 km, deployed and inflated a Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD), re-entered the Earth's atmosphere at Mach 10 and achieved a peak deceleration of 20 g's before descending to splashdown roughly 20 minutes after launch. This paper presents the filtering methodology and results associated with the development of the Best Estimated Trajectory of the IRVE-3 flight test. The reconstructed trajectory is compared against project requirements and pre-flight predictions of entry state, aerodynamics, HIAD flexibility, and attitude control system performance

Development of reference transcriptomes for the major field insect pests of cowpea: a toolbox for insect pest management approaches in West Africa

Cowpea is a widely cultivated and major nutritional source of protein for many people that live in West Africa. Annual yields and longevity of grain storage is greatly reduced by feeding damage caused by a complex of insect pests that include the pod sucking bugs, Anoplocnemis curvipes Fabricius (Hemiptera: Coreidae) and Clavigralla tomentosicollis Stål (Hemiptera: Coreidae); as well as phloem-feeding cowpea aphids, Aphis craccivora Koch (Hemiptera: Aphididae) and flower thrips, Megalurothrips sjostedti Trybom (Thysanoptera: Thripidae). Efforts to control these pests remain a challenge and there is a need to understand the structure and movement of these pest populations in order to facilitate the development of integrated pest management strategies (IPM). Molecular tools have the potential to help facilitate a better understanding of pest populations. Towards this goal, we used 454 pyrosequencing technology to generate 319,126, 176,262, 320,722 and 227,882 raw reads from A. curvipes, A. craccivora, C. tomentosicollis and M. sjostedti, respectively. The reads were de novo assembled into 11,687, 7,647,10,652 and 7,348 transcripts for A. curvipes, A. craccivora, C. tomentosicollis and M. sjostedti, respectively.Functional annotation of the resulting transcripts identified genes putatively involved in insecticide resistance, pathogen defense and immunity. Additionally, sequences that matched the primary aphid endosymbiont, Buchneraaphidicola, were identified among A. craccivora transcripts. Furthermore, 742, 97, 607 and 180 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were respectively predicted among A. curvipes, A. craccivora, C. tomentosicollis and M.sjostedti transcripts, and will likely be valuable tools for future molecular genetic marker development. These results demonstrate that Roche 454-based transcriptome sequencing could be useful for the development of genomic resources for cowpea pest insects in West Africa

Precise implications for real-space pair distribution function modeling of effects intrinsic to modern time-of-flight neutron diffractometers

Total scattering and pair distribution function (PDF) methods allow for detailed study of local atomic order and disorder, including materials for which Rietveld refinements are not traditionally possible (amorphous materials, liquids, glasses and nanoparticles). With the advent of modern neutron time-of-flight (TOF) instrumentation, total scattering studies are capable of producing PDFs with ranges upwards of 100–200 Å, covering the correlation length scales of interest for many materials under study. Despite this, the refinement and subsequent analysis of data are often limited by confounding factors that are not rigorously accounted for in conventional analysis programs. While many of these artifacts are known and recognized by experts in the field, their effects and any associated mitigation strategies largely exist as passed-down `tribal' knowledge in the community, and have not been concisely demonstrated and compared in a unified presentation. This article aims to explicitly demonstrate, through reviews of previous literature, simulated analysis and real-world case studies, the effects of resolution, binning, bounds, peak shape, peak asymmetry, inconsistent conversion of TOF to d spacing and merging of multiple banks in neutron TOF data as they directly relate to real-space PDF analysis. Suggestions for best practice in analysis of data from modern neutron TOF total scattering instruments when using conventional analysis programs are made, as well as recommendations for improved analysis methods and future instrument design