Micromorphology and microstructural analysis of polyphase deformation of tills, West Runton

Glacially deformed sediments have been studied intensely since the 1970’s (van der Meer and Menzies, 2011), and with this, the use of micromorphology as a component technique (Menzies and Maltman, 1992; van der Meer, 1993; Menzies, 2000; Phillips and Auton, 2000; van der Wateren, 2000; Carr, 2001; Khatwa and Tulaczyk, 2001; van der Meer et al., 2003; Larsen et al., 2004; Menzies et al., 2006; Hiemstra, 2007; van der Meer and Menzies, 2011). Initially micromorphology was applied to differentiate between types of tills (van der Meer, 1987). However, it was realised that this was not possible and the majority of studies have since focused on subglacial conditions and its affect on glacier or ice sheet behaviour (van der Meer et al., 2003, Menzies et al., 2006). Until now micromorphology has generally consisted of creating an inventory of what microstructures exist and trying to comprehend where they occur and in what sub‐environments of the glacial system they form (McCaroll and Rijsdijk, 2003; van der Meer and Menzies, 2011). This descriptive technique is dated and although it is not assumed that all microstructures are known, the next stage of scientific development is towards interpretation and quantification (van der Meer and Menzies, 2011; Phillips et al., 2011). The recent introduction of a new microstructural mapping method has aided this method by determining a chronology of events that have lead to the development of the microstructures seen in thin section (Phillips et al., 2011)

The Sensing Endotracheal Tube

Current pulse oximetry sensors are not very wellsuited to use in anaesthetised patients as it has been shownthat during episodes of reduced peripheral circulation they donot function correctly or fail all together [1], [2]. To addressthis problem a new design for a photoplethysmography (PPG)endotracheal (ET) sensor to monitor pulse rate and oxygensaturation (SpO2) internally is presented. Flexible printedcircuit board (PCB) technology and miniature optoelectroniccomponents have been implemented and integrated with acustom instrumentation system [3]. The sensor adheres andconforms to the curvature of standard french-gauge 7 and 8ET tubes at the point just above the inflatable cuff within thelaryngeal positioning markings. A 3D-modelled, optically clear,soft silicon encapsulation electronically and thermally isolatesthe electronic components whilst providing a smooth surface toaid the insertion on the ET tube during standard intubationprocedures. A pilot study with 5 patients (3 Female, 2 Male),undergoing abdominal and limb laproscopic procedures hasdemonstrated the operation of the sensing ET tube, showinggood quality red and infra-red PPG signals. Preliminary signalanalysis reveals heart rate can be measured via PPG success-fully, with saturation (SpO2) readings in close agreement withthe commercial monitors of 97.9% (STD 0.2%) and 98.6% (STD 0.8%) respectivel

Marine benthic flora and fauna of Gourdon Bay and the Dampier Peninsula in the Kimberley region of North-Western Australia

Surveys undertaken to characterise the marine benthic habitats along the Dampier Peninsula and further south at Gourdon Bay in the Kimberley region of Western Australia were augmented with epibenthic sled sampling of soft and hard bottom habitats. This paper describes the species collected, their biomass and relative abundance for the main groups of marine macrophytes and invertebrates. Five localities were surveyed; Gourdon Bay, Quondong Point to Coulomb Point, Carnot Bay to Beagle Bay, Perpendicular Head and Packer Island. Sampling was limited to fifteen epibenthic dredge operations from a range of habitat types and was designed to target the most common habitat types and to obtain species identifications of the most important species and those which typified different habitat types. Surveys covered a total of 1,350 m 2 of seabed in depths between 11 and 23m. We identified 415 taxa comprising: 1 seagrass, 43 algae, 52 sponges, 30 ascidians, 10 hydroids, 14 scleractinian corals, 52 other cnidarians, 69 crustaceans, 73 molluscs and 71 echinoderms. Despite the limited nature of the sampling, a significant number of new species, range extensions and new records for Western Australia and Australia were recorded. Within the algae, one range extension (Halimeda cf. cuneata f. digitata not previously recorded in Western Australia) and one possible new species of Areschougia were recorded. Two range extensions were present in the ascidians; the solitary ascidian Polycarpa cf. intonata has previously only been recorded in Queensland and Cnemidocarpa cf. radicosa only in temperate Australian waters. There were several range extensions for the crustacea, for example, the sponge crab, Tumidodromia dormia, has only been recorded in Queensland. One species of holothurian of the genus Phyllophorus could not be identified from the literature available and may represent a new species. Similarly, a small species of the echinoid Gymnechinus could possibly be a new species. The collections of hydroids, hard corals, crinoids and molluscs contained no new species or range extensions. There was difficulty in identification of some groups to species level due to the status of the current taxonomic literature (e.g. Cnidaria, Porifera and ascidians) and there may be a number of new species among the material collected. Among the anthozoa, there is at least one new species of Chromonephthea and potentially 10 range extensions to Western Australia. Sinularia cf. acuta and Chromonephthea curvata are both new records for Australia with both previously recorded in Indonesia only. Among the better known taxa (e.g. molluscs, echinoderms, corals), most of the taxa identified to species level have been recorded to occur throughout north-western Australia, however the diversity recorded in this study is less than other parts of the Kimberley and this is almost certainly a result of the small overall area sampled and the single method of collection utilised. The most important species on soft bottom habitats in terms of biomass was the heart urchin Breynia desorii (up to 326 g.m -2). Sponges were the dominant fauna by biomass (up to 620 g.m -2) on hard bottom habitats and biomass was dominated a by a few large cup and massive sponge species (e.g. Pione velans and two unidentified Spheciospongia). The biomass of other filter feeders, especially ascidians (e.g. Aplidium cf. crateriferum), soft corals (e.g. Chromonephthea spp.), gorgonians (e.g. Junceella fragilis and Dichotella gemmacea) was also high, indicating the importance of these groups in characterising hard bottom habitats. Although low in biomass, crinoids such as Comaster multifidus and Comatula pectinata were abundant in samples that included a high biomass of other filter feeders

Redundancy Strategies for a High Splitting Optically Amplified Passive Optical Network

Copyright IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.High splitting, optically amplified, passive optical networks (SuperPONs) are investigated in terms of redundancy provision and protection mechanisms. Options for redundancy, including the important special case of dual homing, are detailed, and it is determined as to which of these options (duplication of the feeder and first distribution section, and N+1 protection of the optical amplifiers in the amplified splitter) would be required to be provided to all attached users to facilitate appropriate availability of the basic telephony service. The distributed amplified splitter dual homing solution is found to outperform the single amplified splitter solution in terms of its survivability. The protection mechanisms necessary to automatically switch to the redundant provision are discussed and it is seen that with the aid of suitable regular precautionary procedures protection switching can generally be provided rapidly (<50 ms). Finally, an availability, and cost versus availability, study confirms the aforementioned redundancy assessment for fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) implementations, but shows fiber-to-the-curb (FTTC) as needing additional redundancyPeer reviewe

Macrostructural analysis : unravelling polyphase glacitectonic histories

Many Pleistocene glacial profiles look extremely simple, comprising till, or glacitectonite, overlying older sediments or bedrock (Figure 4.1). In more complex sequences the till may itself be overlain by younger sediments laid down as the ice retreated or during a completely separate, later phase of advance. Macroscopically, subglacial traction tills (Evans et al., 2007) are typically massive, unstructured deposits suggesting that it should be relatively straightforward to unravel the glacitectonic deformation history recorded by the sequence. Many reconstructions do indeed look very simple, slabs of sediment have been tilted and stacked and then overridden by the glacier to cap the structure with till. Added to this is the use of vertical exaggeration which makes the whole structure look like alpine tectonics (for an example see fig. 5 in van Gijssel, 1987). Dropping the exaggeration led to the recognition that actually we were looking at much more horizontal structures, i.e. overriding nappes and not imbricated slabs (van der Wateren, 1987). Traditionally (van der Meer, 1987) glaciotectonics was thought to relate to large structures like big push moraines and not to smaller structures like drag structures underneath tills (Figure 4.2), let alone to the tills themselves. With the notion that deforming bed tills are tectonically and not sedimentologically structured and could be regarded as tectomicts (Menzies et al., 2006), comes the realisation that glacitectonics happens across a wide range of scales, from the microscopic to tens of kilometres. Only by realising the full range of glaciotectonic scales can we hope to understand the processes

Plasma Turbulence in the Local Bubble

Turbulence in the Local Bubble could play an important role in the thermodynamics of the gas that is there. The best astronomical technique for measuring turbulence in astrophysical plasmas is radio scintillation. Measurements of the level of scattering to the nearby pulsar B0950+08 by Philips and Clegg in 1992 showed a markedly lower value for the line-of-sight averaged turbulent intensity parameter $$than is observed for other pulsars, consistent with radio wave propagation through a highly rarefied plasma. In this paper, we discuss the observational progress that has been made since that time. At present, there are four pulsars (B0950+08, B1133+16, J0437-4715, and B0809+74) whose lines of sight seem to lie mainly within the local bubble. The mean densities and line of sight components of the interstellar magnetic field along these lines of sight are smaller than nominal values for pulsars, but not by as much expected. Three of the four pulsars also have measurements of interstellar scintillation. The value of the parameter$$ is smaller than normal for two of them, but is completely nominal for the third. This inconclusive status of affairs could be improved by measurements and analysis of ``arcs'' in ``secondary spectra'' of pulsars.Comment: Submitted to Space Science Reviews as contribution to Proceedings of ISSI (International Space Science Institute) workshop "From the Heliosphere to the Local Bubble". Refereed version accepted for publicatio

Very High Resolution Solar X-ray Imaging Using Diffractive Optics

This paper describes the development of X-ray diffractive optics for imaging solar flares with better than 0.1 arcsec angular resolution. X-ray images with this resolution of the \geq10 MK plasma in solar active regions and solar flares would allow the cross-sectional area of magnetic loops to be resolved and the coronal flare energy release region itself to be probed. The objective of this work is to obtain X-ray images in the iron-line complex at 6.7 keV observed during solar flares with an angular resolution as fine as 0.1 arcsec - over an order of magnitude finer than is now possible. This line emission is from highly ionized iron atoms, primarily Fe xxv, in the hottest flare plasma at temperatures in excess of \approx10 MK. It provides information on the flare morphology, the iron abundance, and the distribution of the hot plasma. Studying how this plasma is heated to such high temperatures in such short times during solar flares is of critical importance in understanding these powerful transient events, one of the major objectives of solar physics. We describe the design, fabrication, and testing of phase zone plate X-ray lenses with focal lengths of \approx100 m at these energies that would be capable of achieving these objectives. We show how such lenses could be included on a two-spacecraft formation-flying mission with the lenses on the spacecraft closest to the Sun and an X-ray imaging array on the second spacecraft in the focal plane \approx100 m away. High resolution X-ray images could be obtained when the two spacecraft are aligned with the region of interest on the Sun. Requirements and constraints for the control of the two spacecraft are discussed together with the overall feasibility of such a formation-flying mission

Towards a novel carbon device for the treatment of sepsis

Sepsis is a systemic inflammatory response to infection in which the balance of pro- andanti-inflammatory mediators, which normally isolate and eliminate infection, is disrupted[1]. Gram negative sepsis is initiated by bacterial endotoxin release which activatesmacrophages and circulating monocytes to release TNF and IL-1β followed by IL-6 andother inflammatory cytokines [2]. As the disease progresses, an unregulatedinflammatory response results in, tissue injury, haematological dysfunction and organdysfunction. Severe sepsis, involving organ hypoperfusion may be further complicatedby hypotension that is unresponsive to adequate fluid replacement, resulting in septicshock and finally death [3].Despite improvements in anti-microbial and supportive therapies, sepsis remains asignificant cause of morbidity and mortality in ICUs worldwide [4]. The complexity ofprocesses mediating the progression of sepsis suggests that an extracorporeal devicecombining blood filtration with adsorption of a wide range of toxins, and inflammatorymediators offers the most comprehensive treatment strategy. However, no such deviceexists at present. A novel, uncoated, polymer pyrolysed synthetic carbon device isproposed which combines the superior adsorption properties of uncoated activatedcarbons with the capacity to manipulate porous structure for controlled adsorption oftarget plasma proteins and polypeptides [5]. Preliminary haemocompatibility andadsorptive capacity was assessed using a carbon matrix prototype

A Novel Photoplethysmography Sensor for Vital Signs Monitoring from the Human Trachea

Current pulse oximeter sensors can be challenged in working accurately and continuously in situations of reduced periphery perfusion, especially among anaesthetised patients. A novel tracheal photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor has been developed in an effort to address the limitations of current pulse oximeters. The sensor has been designed to estimate oxygen saturation (SpO2) and pulse rate, and has been manufactured on a flexible printed circuit board (PCB) that can adhere to a standard endotracheal (ET) tube. A pilot clinical trial was carried out as a feasibility study on 10 anaesthetised patients. Good quality PPGs from the trachea were acquired at red and infrared wavelengths in all patients. The mean SpO2 reading for the ET tube was 97.1% (SD 1.0%) vs. the clinical monitor at 98.7% (SD 0.7%). The mean pulse rate for the ET sensor was 65.4 bpm (SD 10.0 bpm) vs. the clinical monitor at 64.7 bpm (SD 9.9 bpm). This study supports the hypothesis that the human trachea could be a suitable monitoring site of SpO2 and other physiological parameters, at times where the periphery circulation might be compromised