The Australian Pastures Genebank

Australian grazing enterprises, including all food and fibre productions, as well as crop rotation, are worth $42 billion per annum to the Australian economy, employing around 693,000 Australian workers. Australia has been a major beneficiary from the introduction and utilization of genetic resources in pasture and forages. Assured access to plant genetic diversity underpins Australia’s ability to maintain agricultural productivity in the face of environmental and economic challenges. Australia is custodian of potentially the world’s largest and globally significant collection of pasture and forage genetic resources. Much of this is unique and held in state-based collections and represents an invaluable resource for plant research and improvement in Australia and internationally. These collections were built up progressively over the past 70 years and were at risk due to a reduction in funding from host agencies and industry groups and were becoming increasingly inaccessible to potential clients. Australia required a national approach to genetic resources of pastures and forages to benefit industry and the environment and to support the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (Treaty). Progress towards a national solution for pastures and forage genetic resources had been slow and difficult. In June 2014 an agreement was reached between relevant national Rural Research and Development Corporations and the Australian and State governments, for the establishment, funding and operation of the Australian Pastures Genebank (APG); Australia’s first national pasture and forage genetic resource centre

Prototype resupply scheduler

Resupply scheduling for the Space Station presents some formidable logistics problems. One of the most basic problems is assigning supplies to a series of shuttle resupply missions. A prototype logistics expert system which constructs resupply schedules was developed. This prototype is able to reconstruct feasible resupply plans. In addition, analysts can use the system to evaluate the impact of adding, deleting or modifying launches, cargo space, experiments, etc

General Mission Analysis Tool (GMAT) Mathematical Specifications

The General Mission Analysis Tool (GMAT) is a space trajectory optimization and mission analysis system developed by NASA and private industry in the spirit of the NASA Mission. GMAT contains new technology and is a testbed for future technology development

Integrated environmental modeling : the new DREAM for Geological Surveys

This paper summarises the British Geological Survey (BGS) plans for the development of integrated environmental models to address the grand challenges that face society. It describes a vision for an Environmental Modelling Platform (BGS 2009), that will allow integrated models to be built and describes case studies of emerging models in the United Kingdom. After an initial scoping phase (Giles et al. 2010), this activity is now being carried out under the DREAM (Data and Research for Environmental Applications and Modelling) cross-cutting project

General Mission Analysis Tool (GMAT) Acceptance Test Plan [Draft]

The information presented in this Acceptance Test Plan document shows the current status of the General Mission Analysis Tool (GMAT). GMAT is a software system developed by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in collaboration with the private sector. The GMAT development team continuously performs acceptance tests in order to verify that the software continues to operate properly after updates are made. The GMAT Development team consists of NASA/GSFC Code 583 software developers, NASA/GSFC Code 595 analysts, and contractors of varying professions. GMAT was developed to provide a development approach that maintains involvement from the private sector and academia, encourages collaborative funding from multiple government agencies and the private sector, and promotes the transfer of technology from government funded research to the private sector. GMAT contains many capabilities, such as integrated formation flying modeling and MATLAB compatibility. The propagation capabilities in GMAT allow for fully coupled dynamics modeling of multiple spacecraft, in any flight regime. Other capabilities in GMAT inclucle: user definable coordinate systems, 3-D graphics in any coordinate system GMAT can calculate, 2-D plots, branch commands, solvers, optimizers, GMAT functions, planetary ephemeris sources including DE405, DE200, SLP and analytic models, script events, impulsive and finite maneuver models, and many more. GMAT runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms. Both the Graphical User Interface (GUI) and the GMAT engine were built and tested on all of the mentioned platforms. GMAT was designed for intuitive use from both the GUI and with an importable script language similar to that of MATLAB

Understanding IS Evaluation as a Complex Social Process

There is an increasing concern that information systems (IS) are not delivering anticipated value and benefits. There is a push for the development and adoption of improved evaluation metrics in an attempt to better quantify IS benefits. This has led to a growing number of well-developed methods for assessing returns. In this paper we take stock of the current situation and ask whether improvement lies not with the development of better quantitative methods, but rather by better understanding the experiences of multiple IS stakeholders. Using case material and current literature in IS/IT evaluation we draw predominantly upon the work of Heidegger and Suchman to explore the concept of IS evaluation as a highly complex social process. The analysis leads to an understanding of situated (context dependent) IS evaluation which suggests that interpretive evaluation methods may play a key role in helping practitioners and academics understand the complexity surrounding this area

Analysis of electrical resonance distortion for inductive sensing applications

Resonating inductive sensors are increasingly popular for numerous measurement techniques, not least in non-destructive testing (NDT), due to the increased sensitivity obtained at frequencies approaching electrical resonance. The highly unstable nature of resonance limits the practical application of such methods while no comprehensive understanding exists of the resonance distorting behaviour in relation to typical measurements and environmental factors. In this paper, a study into the frequency spectrum behaviour of electrical resonance is carried out exploring the effect of key factors. These factors, known to distort the electrical resonance of inductive sensors, include proximity to (or lift-off from) a material surface, and the presence of discontinuities in the material surface. Critical features of resonance are used as metrics to evaluate the behaviour of resonance with lift-off and defects. Experimental results are compared to results from a 2D finite element analysis (FEA) model that geometrically mimics the inductive sensor used in the experiments, and to results predicted by an equivalent circuit transformer model. The findings conclusively define the physical phenomenon behind measurement techniques such as near electrical resonance signal enhancement (NERSE), and show that lift-off and defect resonance distortions are unique, measurable and can be equated to exclusive variations in the induced variables in the equivalence circuit model. The resulting understanding found from this investigation is critical to the future development and understanding of a complete model of electrical resonance behaviour, integral for the design of novel sensors, techniques and inversion models

The sub-millimeter properties of broad absorption line quasars

We have carried out the first systematic survey of the sub-millimeter properties of broad absorption line (BAL) quasars. 30 BAL quasars drawn from a homogeneously selected sample from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey at redshifts 2<z<2.6 were observed with the SCUBA array at the JCMT to a typical rms sensitivity of 2.5 mJy. Eight quasars were detected at > 2 sigma significance, four of which are at > 3 sigma significance. The far-infrared luminosities of these quasars are > 10^{13} L_solar. There is no correlation of sub-millimeter flux with either the strength of the broad absorption feature or with absolute magnitude in our sample. We compare the sub-millimeter flux distribution of the BAL quasar sample with that of a sample of quasars which do not show BAL features in their optical spectra and find that the two are indistinguishable. BAL quasars do not have higher sub-millimeter luminosities than non-BAL quasars. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that all quasars would contain a BAL if viewed along a certain line-of-sight. The data are inconsistent with a model in which the BAL phenomenon indicates a special evolutionary stage which co-incides with a large dust mass in the host galaxy and a high sub-millimeter luminosity. Our work provides constraints on alternative evolutionary explanations of BAL quasars.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, ApJ, in pres