Quality assurance of aerial applications of larvicides for mosquito control : effects of granule and catch tray size on field monitoring programs

Aerial applications of granular insecticides are preferable because they can effectively penetrate vegetation, there is less drift, and no loss of product due to evaporation. We aimed to 1) assess the field efficacy ofVectoBac G to control Aedes vigilax (Skuse) in saltmarsh pools, 2) develop a stochastic-modeling procedure to monitor application quality, and 3) assess the distribution of VectoBac G after an aerial application. Because ground-based studies with Ae. vigilax immatures found that VectoBac G provided effective control below the recommended label rate of 7 kg/ha, we trialed a nominated aerial rate of 5 kg/ha as a case study. Our distribution pattern modeling method indicated that the variability in the number of VectoBac G particles captured in catch-trays was greater than expected for 5 kg/ha and that the widely accepted contour mapping approach to visualize the deposition pattern provided spurious results and therefore was not statistically appropriate. Based on the results of distribution pattern modeling, we calculated the catch tray size required to analyze the distribution of aerially applied granular formulations. The minimum catch tray size for products with large granules was 4 m2 for Altosid pellets and 2 m2 for VectoBac G. In contrast, the minimum catch-tray size for Altosid XRG, Aquabac G, and Altosand, with smaller granule sizes, was 1 m2. Little gain in precision would be made by increasing the catch-tray size further, when the increased workload and infrastructure is considered. Our improved methods for monitoring the distribution pattern of aerially applied granular insecticides can be adapted for use by both public health and agricultural contractors.

On the design of power buffer and its applications

A power electronics-based buffer is examined in which through control of its PWM converters, the buffer-load combination is driven to operate under either constant power or constant impedance modes. A battery, incorporated within the buffer, provides the energy storage facility to facilitate the necessary power flow control. Real power demand from upstream supply is regulated under fault condition, and the possibility of voltage or network instability is reduced. The proposed buffer is also applied to a wind farm. It is shown that the buffer stabilizes the power contribution from the farm. Based on a battery cost-benefit analysis, a method is developed to determine the optimal level of the power supplied from the wind farm and the corresponding capacity of the battery storage system.

Robotic explosive charging in mining and construction applications

Describes the development and testing of a robotic system for charging blast holes in underground mining. The automation system supports four main tactical functions: detection of blast holes; teleoperated arm pose control; automatic arm pose control; and human-in-the-loop visual servoing. We present the system architecture, and analyse the major components, Hole detection is crucial for automating the process, and we discuss theoretical and practical aspects in detail. The sensors used are laser range finders and cameras installed in the end effector. For automatic insertion, we consider image processing techniques to support visual servoing the tool to the hole. We also discuss issues surrounding the control of heavy-duty mining manipulators, in particular, friction, stiction, and actuator saturation.

Efficiently capturing large, complex cultural heritage sites with a handheld mobile 3D laser mapping system

Accurate three-dimensional representations of cultural heritage sites are highly valuable for scientific study, conservation, and educational purposes. In addition to their use for archival purposes, 3D models enable efficient and precise measurement of relevant natural and architectural features. Many cultural heritage sites are large and complex, consisting of multiple structures spatially distributed over tens of thousands of square metres. The process of effectively digitising such geometrically complex locations requires measurements to be acquired from a variety of viewpoints. While several technologies exist for capturing the 3D structure of objects and environments, none are ideally suited to complex, large-scale sites, mainly due to their limited coverage or acquisition efficiency. We explore the use of a recently developed handheld mobile mapping system called Zebedee in cultural heritage applications. The Zebedee system is capable of efficiently mapping an environment in three dimensions by continually acquiring data as an operator holding the device traverses through the site. The system was deployed at the former Peel Island Lazaret, a culturally significant site in Queensland, Australia, consisting of dozens of buildings of various sizes spread across an area of approximately 400 × 250 m. With the Zebedee system, the site was scanned in half a day, and a detailed 3D point cloud model (with over 520 million points) was generated from the 3.6 hours of acquired data in 2.6 hours. We present results demonstrating that Zebedee was able to accurately capture both site context and building detail comparable in accuracy to manual measurement techniques, and at a greatly increased level of efficiency and scope. The scan allowed us to record derelict buildings that previously could not be measured because of the scale and complexity of the site. The resulting 3D model captures both interior and exterior features of buildings, including structure, materials, and the contents of rooms.

Food talks back : Exploring the role of mobile applications in reducing domestic food wastage

Mitigating domestic food waste reduces its environmental and economic impacts. In our study, we have identified the use of mobile technology to support behaviour change as a key tool to assist the process of reducing food waste. This paper reports on three mobile applications designed to reduce domestic food waste: Fridge Pal, LeftoverSwap and EatChaFood. The paper examines how each app can influence consumer knowledge of domestic food supply, location, and literacy. We discuss our findings with respect to three considerations: (i) assisting with the user’s food supply and location knowledge; (ii) improving the user’s food literacy; (iii) facilitating social food sharing of excess food. We present new insights for mobile interventions that encourage changes towards more sustainable behaviours to reduce food waste.

Book Review : "Statutory Will Applications : A practical Guide by Richard Williams and Sam McCullough"

The jurisdiction of Australian courts to make wills for those lacking testamentary capacity is relatively new, having been granted by legislation progressively enacted across the various states and territories between 1996 and 2010. Given increasing numbers of statutory will applications since the legislative reform, and a growing body of law, the publication of the specialist work, Statutory Will Applications: A Practical Guide, by Richard Williams and Sam McCullough, is timely and valuable. This work will be of great interest to those who act for individual clients, especially wills and estates practitioners, but also personal injury practitioners acting for incapacitated persons who have been awarded substantial damages.

Book Review : "Statutory will Applications in Australia : A Practical Guide by Richard Williams & Sam McCullough"

Although UK courts have, for many years, had power to make wills for those lacking testamentary capacity, this jurisdiction jurisdiction is relatively new in Australia, having been granted by legislation enacted between 1996 and 2010.

Health information literacy and ageing Australians : applications for practice

This practice framework is designed for health practitioners and allied health care workers. The framework provides empirically-based descriptions of ageing Australians’ experiences of health information literacy and suggests how these may provide a foundation for helping ageing Australians enhance their health information literacy. Health information literacy is understood here to be people’s use of relevant information to learn about health.

Quantifying economic values of coastal and marine ecosystem services and assessing their use in decision-making : applications in New Caledonia and Australia

This thesis deals with the issues of quantifying economic values of coastal and marine ecosystem services and assessing their use in decision-making. The first analytical part of the thesis focuses on estimating non-market use and non-use values, with an application in New-Caledonia using Discrete Choice Experiment. The second part examines how and to what extent the economic valuation of ecosystem services is used in coastal management decision-making with an application in Australia. Using a multi-criteria analysis, the relative importance of ecological, social and economic evaluation criteria is also assessed in the context of coastal development.

Proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Theory and Applications of Process Visualization

This is the third TAProViz workshop being run at BPM. The intention this year is to consolidate on the results of the previous successful workshops by further developing this important topic, identifying the key research topics of interest to the BPM visualization community. We note this year the continuing interest in the visualisation of process mining data and resultant process models. More info at: http://wst.univie.ac.at/topics/taproviz14/

Graph theory based representation of building information models for access control applications

Building information models are increasingly being utilised for facility management of large facilities such as critical infrastructures. In such environments, it is valuable to utilise the vast amount of data contained within the building information models to improve access control administration. The use of building information models in access control scenarios can provide 3D visualisation of buildings as well as many other advantages such as automation of essential tasks including path finding, consistency detection, and accessibility verification. However, there is no mathematical model for building information models that can be used to describe and compute these functions. In this paper, we show how graph theory can be utilised as a representation language of building information models and the proposed security related functions. This graph-theoretic representation allows for mathematically representing building information models and performing computations using these functions.