Holistic educational development integrated through mechatronics design

This paper presents an approach in educational development of resources and programs based on multidisciplinary concept. The development is built around the process of mechatronics program delivery that is currently introduced in tertiary education within RMIT University. Mechatronics is a multidisciplinary engineering area that incorporates mechanical, electrical, electronics, computer and information systems. Students studying Mechatronics Engineering expand their knowledge of various systems and scientific areas and integrate them in a working system. Through work integrated learning, students are encouraged to obtain new knowledge and skills by doing the job, not just learning from the textbooks and attending lectures. Subject material is delivered in variety of ways, started with face-to-face delivery, seminars, tutorials and lab sessions. The key component of this education is project work conducted in small teams. Finally, University conducts surveys after every single subject delivery and the results of the latest survey are presented here. According to the survey, students are extremely satisfied with the new approach that focuses on problem solving, project and exploration work

Forming norms: informing diagnosis and management in sports medicine

Clinicians aim to identify abnormalities, and distinguish harmful from harmless abnormalities. In sports medicine, measures of physical function such as strength, balance and joint flexibility are used as diagnostic tools to identify causes of pain and disability and monitor progression in response to an intervention. Comparing results from clinical measures against ‘normal’ values guides decision-making regarding health outcomes. Understanding ‘normal’ is therefore central to appropriate management of disease and disability. However, ‘normal’ is difficult to clarify and definitions are dependent on context. ‘Normal’ in the clinical setting is best understood as an appropriate state of physical function. Particularly as disease, pain and sickness are expected occurrences of being human, understanding ‘normal’ at each stage of the lifespan is essential to avoid the medicalisation of usual life processes. Clinicians use physical measures to assess physical function and identify disability. Accurate diagnosis hinges on access to ‘normal’ reference values for such measures. However our knowledge of ‘normal’ for many clinical measures in sports medicine is limited. Improved knowledge of normal physical function across the lifespan will assist greatly in the diagnosis and management of pain, disease and disability

A ZND-like detonation wave in the multi-temperature mixture

The detonation wave structure is analysed in a binary mixture undergoing a reversible chemical reaction represented by Ar = Ap. It is assumed that the flow satisfies the proper basic assumptions of the Zel’dovich–von Neumann–Döring (ZND) detonation model, namely the flow is one-dimensional and the shock is represented by a jump discontinuity, but the assumption of local thermodynamic equilibrium is disregarded. This allows us to deeply investigate the coupling between the detonation structure of overdriven detonations and its chemical kinetics. The thermodynamic non-equilibrium effects are taken into account in the mathematical description, using the model of a multi-temperature mixture developed within extended thermodynamics, which has been proved to be consistent with a kinetic theory approach. The reaction rate is then enriched with terms that take into account the temperatures of the constituents. The results show that the temperature difference between components within the detonation wave structure, which describes thermodynamic non-equilibrium, is driven by the chemical reaction. Numerical computations confirm the existence of non-monotonic profiles in the reaction zone of overdriven detonations which are sensitive to changes in the activation energy and reaction heat.This work was supported (D.M. & S.S.) by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Republic of Serbia, through the project “Mechanics of nonlinear and dissipative systems—contemporary models, analysis and applications”, Project No. ON174016 and (A.J.S.) by the Portuguese Funds FCT, Portugal, Project UID/MAT/00013/2013.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Event anisotropy in 4.2A GeV/c C+C collisions

The directed and elliptic flow of protons and negative pions in 4.2A GeV/c C+C collisions is studied using the Fourier analysis of azimuthal distributions. It is found that the protons exhibit pronounced directed flow, while the flow of pions is either non existent or too weak to be detected experimentally. Also, it is found that in the entire rapidity interval the elliptic flow is very small if not zero. These results are confirmed by the Quark-Gluon-String Model (QGSM) and the relativistic transport model (ART 1.0), except that these models predict very weak antiflow of pions. The more detailed comparison with the QGSM suggests that the decay of resonances and rescattering of secondaries dominantly determine the proton and negative pion flow at this energy.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, TeX file changed from double to single-spacin

Stark Broadening of Several Ne II, Ne III and O III Spectral Lines for the STARK-B Database

In order to complete Stark broadening data for Ne II, and O III lines, needed for analysis of stellar atmospheres, we determined, within the semiclassical perturbation method, the missing Stark broadening parameters for the broadening by collisions with protons and ionized helium, for 15 Ne II and 5 O III multiplets. Also, electron, proton, and ionized helium impact broadening parameters for an important Ne II multiplet in the visible part of the spectrum, and for three Ne III multiplets, were calculated. The obtained data will be included in the STARK-B database, which is a part of Virtual Atomic and Molecular Data Center

Asymptotic Level Density of the Elastic Net Self-Organizing Feature Map

Whileas the Kohonen Self Organizing Map shows an asymptotic level density following a power law with a magnification exponent 2/3, it would be desired to have an exponent 1 in order to provide optimal mapping in the sense of information theory. In this paper, we study analytically and numerically the magnification behaviour of the Elastic Net algorithm as a model for self-organizing feature maps. In contrast to the Kohonen map the Elastic Net shows no power law, but for onedimensional maps nevertheless the density follows an universal magnification law, i.e. depends on the local stimulus density only and is independent on position and decouples from the stimulus density at other positions.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures. Link to publisher under http://link.springer.de/link/service/series/0558/bibs/2415/24150939.ht

LIDAR and monocular based overhanging obstacle detection

This paper presents an improved method for the detection of obstacles in the trajectory of autonomous ground vehicle (AGV). The novel approach requires fewer calculations, i.e. less computational time. Obstacle detection algorithms were investigated, in order to perform safe motion control, in an environment with unknown overhanging obstacles. We describe a two dimensional (2D) laser sensor application, and optimal sensor configurations for mounting a monocular camera to monitor path ahead clearance. Two different sensors are used, a vision sensor and a scanning laser, Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR). While LIDAR measures the precise distance to the object, it cannot detect low objects and overhanging obstacles due to its predefined, constant, scanning height and angle. In contrast, vision sensor provides 2D scenery information with relatively poor distance information. To compensate for the drawbacks of these two sensors, the sensor fusion method for obstacle detection of AGV is proposed. Size expansion cue algorithm is deployed to achieve that goal. Proposed method is validated experimentally

Design of a system to monitor and control solar pond: A review

Salinity gradient solar ponds are green energy collectors. Energy is capturedby creating a temperature gradient across the depth of the pond. All energy is from the solar radiation incident at the surface. Salinity gradient,maintained and changed with the depth,contributes to the temperature differences of up to sixty degrees. The heat generated can be used directly for a wide range of purposes, or can be converted to electricity which can be used in the plant, or shipped to the grid. Number of solar pond parameters, i.e. physical quantities, important for the correct functionality of this type of energy production plants, is mainly monitored locally, at the pond sites. Remote data acquisition (DAQ), and following that, control of the solar pond energy production, is more convenient and this is the subject of our research, reported here. With the application of wireless, or wired networks, virtual private networks and Internet a solar pond control centre could be located anywhere in the world, while the pond's sites are selected at the best solar potential places

Dimensional structural constants from chiral and conformal bosonization of QCD

We derive the dimensional non-perturbative part of the QCD effective action for scalar and pseudoscalar meson fields by means of chiral and conformal bosonization. The related structural coupling constants L_5 and L_8 of the chiral lagrangian are estimated using general relations which are valid in a variety of chiral bosonization models without explicit reference to model parameters. The asymptotics for large scalar fields in QCD is elaborated, and model-independent constraints on dimensional coupling constants of the effective meson lagrangian are evaluated. We determine also the interaction between scalar quarkonium and the gluon density and obtain the scalar glueball-quarkonium potential.Comment: 21 pages, LaTe