Time-dependency of Rocks and Implications Associated with Tunnelling

The formulation of a geotechnical model and the associated prediction of the mechanical behaviour is a challenge engineers need to overcome in order to optimize tunnel design and meet project requirements. Special challenges arise in cases where rocks and rockmasses are susceptible to time-effects and time-dependent processes govern. Progressive rockmass deformation and instability, time-dependent overloading of support and delayed failures are commonly the result of time-dependent phenomena. The research work presented in this thesis serves as an attempt to provide more insight into the time-dependent behaviour of rocks. Emphasis is given on investigating and analyzing creep deformation and time-dependent stress relaxation phenomenon at the laboratory scale and in-depth analyses are presented. This thesis further develops the understanding of these phenomena and practical yet scientific tools for estimating and predicting the long-term strength and the maximum stress relaxation of rock materials are proposed. The identification of the existence of three distinct behavioural stages during stress relaxation is presented and discussed. The main observations associated with time-dependent behaviour are employed in numerical analyses and applied at the tunnel scale. A new approach for simulating and capturing the time-dependent behaviour coupled with the tunnel advancement effect is also developed and analyzed. Guidance is provided to increase the understanding of the support-rockmass interaction and the main implications and significance of time-dependent behaviour associated with rock tunnelling are discussed. The work presented in this thesis advances the scientific understanding of time-dependent rock and rockmass behaviour, increases the awareness of how such phenomena are captured numerically, and lays out a framework for dealing with such deformations when predicting tunnel deformations. Practical aspects of this thesis are also presented, which will increase their usage in the associated industries and close the gap between the scientific and industry communities.

Visual Dependency and Dizziness after Vestibular Neuritis

Symptomatic recovery after acute vestibular neuritis (VN) is variable, with around 50% of patients reporting long term vestibular symptoms; hence, it is essential to identify factors related to poor clinical outcome. Here we investigated whether excessive reliance on visual input for spatial orientation (visual dependence) was associated with long term vestibular symptoms following acute VN. Twenty-eight patients with VN and 25 normal control subjects were included. Patients were enrolled at least 6 months after acute illness. Recovery status was not a criterion for study entry, allowing recruitment of patients with a full range of persistent symptoms. We measured visual dependence with a laptop-based Rod-and-Disk Test and severity of symptoms with the Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI). The third of patients showing the worst clinical outcomes (mean DHI score 36–80) had significantly greater visual dependence than normal subjects (6.35° error vs. 3.39° respectively, p = 0.03). Asymptomatic patients and those with minor residual symptoms did not differ from controls. Visual dependence was associated with high levels of persistent vestibular symptoms after acute VN. Over-reliance on visual information for spatial orientation is one characteristic of poorly recovered vestibular neuritis patients. The finding may be clinically useful given that visual dependence may be modified through rehabilitation desensitization techniques.

Vestibular and oculomotor influences on visual dependency

The degree to which a person relies on visual stimuli for spatial orientation is termed visual dependency (VD). VD is considered a perceptual trait or cognitive style influenced by psychological factors and mediated by central re-weighting of the sensory inputs involved in spatial orientation. VD is often measured using the rod-and-disk test, wherein participants align a central rod to the subjective visual vertical (SVV) in the presence of a background that is either stationary or rotating around the line of sight - dynamic SVV. Although this task has been employed to assess VD in health and vestibular disease, it is unknown what effect torsional nystagmic eye movements may have on individual performance. Using caloric ear irrigation, 3D video-oculography and the rod-and-disk test, we show that caloric torsional nystagmus modulates measures of visual dependency and demonstrate that increases in tilt after irrigation are positively correlated with changes in ocular torsional eye movements. When the direction of the slow phase of the torsional eye movement induced by the caloric is congruent with that induced by the rotating visual stimulus, there is a significant increase in tilt. When these two torsional components are in opposition there is a decrease. These findings show that measures of visual dependence can be influenced by oculomotor responses induced by caloric stimulation. The findings are of significance for clinical studies as they indicate that VD, which often increases in vestibular disorders, is not only modulated by changes in cognitive style but also by eye movements, in particular nystagmus.

Between path dependency and contingency: new challenges for the geography of port system evolution.

Seaports play a critical role as gateways and facilitators of economic interchange and logistics processes and thus have become crucial nodes in globalised production networks andmobility systems. Both the physical port infrastructure and its operational superstructure have undergone intensive evolution processes in an effort to adapt to changing economic environments, technological advances,maritime industry expectations and institutional reforms. The results, in terms of infrastructure, operator models and the role of an individual port within the port system, vary by region, institutional and economic context. While ports have undoubtedly developed in scale to respond to the changing volumes and structures in geographies of trade (Wilmsmeier, 2015), the development of hinterland access infrastructure, regulatory systems and institutional structures have in many instances lagged behind. The resulting bottlenecks reflect deficits in the interplay between the economic system and the factors defining port development (e.g. transport demand, the structure of trade, transport services, institutional capacities, etc. cf. Cullinane and Wilmsmeier, 2011). There is a wide range of case study approaches and analyses of individual ports, but analyses from a port system perspective are less common, and those that exist are seldom critical of the dominant discourse assuming the efficiency of market competition (cf. Debrie et al., 2013). This special section aims to capture the spectrum of approaches in current geography research on port system evolution. Thus, the papers reach from the traditional spatial approach (Rodrigue and Ashar, this volume) to network analysis (Mohamed-Chérif and Ducruet, this volume) to institutional discussions (Vonck and Notteboom, this volume; Wilmsmeier and Monios, this volume). The selection of papers allows an opening of discussion and reflection on current research, necessary critical analysis of the influences on port systemevolution and,most importantly, future directions. The remainder of this editorial aims to reflect on these challenges and identify the potential for future research.

Pre-announcement of symbiotic guests: transcriptional reprogramming by mycorrhizal lipochitooligosaccharides shows a strict co-dependency on the GRAS transcription factors NSP1 and RAM1

BACKGROUND: More than 80 % of all terrestrial plant species establish an arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) symbiosis with Glomeromycota fungi. This plant-microbe interaction primarily improves phosphate uptake, but also supports nitrogen, mineral, and water aquisition. During the pre-contact stage, the AM symbiosis is controled by an exchange of diffusible factors from either partner. Amongst others, fungal signals were identified as a mix of sulfated and non-sulfated lipochitooligosaccharides (LCOs), being structurally related to rhizobial nodulation (Nod)-factor LCOs that in legumes induce the formation of nitrogen-fixing root nodules. LCO signals are transduced via a common symbiotic signaling pathway (CSSP) that activates a group of GRAS transcription factors (TFs). Using complex gene expression fingerprints as molecular phenotypes, this study primarily intended to shed light on the importance of the GRAS TFs NSP1 and RAM1 for LCO-activated gene expression during pre-symbiotic signaling. RESULTS: We investigated the genome-wide transcriptional responses in 5 days old primary roots of the Medicago truncatula wild type and four symbiotic mutants to a 6 h challenge with LCO signals supplied at 10(-7/-8) M. We were able to show that during the pre-symbiotic stage, sulfated Myc-, non-sulfated Myc-, and Nod-LCO-activated gene expression almost exclusively depends on the LysM receptor kinase NFP and is largely controled by the CSSP, although responses independent of this pathway exist. Our results show that downstream of the CSSP, gene expression activation by Myc-LCOs supplied at 10(-7/-8) M strictly required both the GRAS transcription factors RAM1 and NSP1, whereas those genes either co- or specifically activated by Nod-LCOs displayed a preferential NSP1-dependency. RAM1, a central regulator of root colonization by AM fungi, controled genes activated by non-sulfated Myc-LCOs during the pre-symbiotic stage that are also up-regulated in areas with early physical contact, e.g. hyphopodia and infecting hyphae; linking responses to externally applied LCOs with early root colonization. CONCLUSIONS: Since both RAM1 and NSP1 were essential for the pre-symbiotic transcriptional reprogramming by Myc-LCOs, we propose that downstream of the CSSP, these GRAS transcription factors act synergistically in the transduction of those diffusible signals that pre-announce the presence of symbiotic fungi.

Context dependency of trait repeatability and its relevance for management and conservation of fish populations

Repeatability of behavioural and physiological traits is increasingly a focus for animal researchers, for which fish have become important models. Almost all of this work has been done in the context of evolutionary ecology, with few explicit attempts to apply repeatability and context dependency of trait variation toward understanding conservation-related issues. Here, we review work examining the degree to which repeatability of traits (such as boldness, swimming performance, metabolic rate and stress responsiveness) is context dependent. We review methods for quantifying repeatability (distinguishing between within-context and across-context repeatability) and confounding factors that may be especially problematic when attempting to measure repeatability in wild fish. Environmental factors such temperature, food availability, oxygen availability, hypercapnia, flow regime and pollutants all appear to alter trait repeatability in fishes. This suggests that anthropogenic environmental change could alter evolutionary trajectories by changing which individuals achieve the greatest fitness in a given set of conditions. Gaining a greater understanding of these effects will be crucial for our ability to forecast the effects of gradual environmental change, such as climate change and ocean acidification, the study of which is currently limited by our ability to examine trait changes over relatively short time scales. Also discussed are situations in which recent advances in technologies associated with electronic tags (biotelemetry and biologging) and respirometry will help to facilitate increased quantification of repeatability for physiological and integrative traits, which so far lag behind measures of repeatability of behavioural traits.

The social construction of “Feeling of Burden”: Narrative on dependency and care in old age

In a society in which ambivalent positions of old age coexist, suffering from limitations in the basic functions of the human being disrupts the identity of old people and the social perception that is held of them. The impact of the deterioration and the physical incapacity affects not only old adults but also those who take care of them; it entails repercussions of instrumental, emotional and social types. Within the social and subjective dimension of aging arise stereotypes and negative images from being considered dependent subjects; one of most important of these is the “feeling of being a burden”. During the in-depth interviews, the diverse implications of this negative image in advanced old age are identified in old adults and their carers in the city of Durango, Mexico. The analysis of narratives shows results pertaining to the interrelation between the subjective aspects of the identity, the beliefs, and the power of social discourses.

Dependency in selfcare in the institutionalized elder: A descriptive study

Introduction.– Autonomy in the performance of daily living activities (DLA) are of extreme importance to the elder’s life. On pair with aging, the institutionalized elder, suffers a transition process from the changes of context from home to institution. This fact increases the elder’s dependency on self-care. By so, it is important to study the dependency degree in self-care in institutionalized elders, in order to rethink interventions to answer context changes and improve transition. Objective.– Identify the dependency degree in the institutionalized elder; explore the use of support products (SP) in self care and existance of structural barriers. Methods.– An exploratory-descriptive study, with a nonprobabilistic convinience sample was developed in two nursing homes. Instrument used was Hernâni’s Form (2009). Results.– In a total of 84 elders, averaging 87 years, with a minimum of 68 and maximum of 102 years, 45% widows, 17% analphabets, being the majority women (84%), 39% refered dependency of others as the motive for institutionalization. Bath self-care dependency was the highest self-care with dependency of the evaluated, with 79%presentedsomedegree of dependency. Eating self-careshowed the least degree of dependency (43%). Structural barriers found were steps with ramp, the SPs found were almost inexistence, being lateral support bars the most common. Conclusions.– The dependency degree of some self-cares lack interventions that target autonomy. As so, we consider that nurses should evaluate the elder’s potential for learning of new skills in order to reconstruct the process of autonomy, decreasing levels of dependency and increasing quality life.

Leakage Temperature Dependency Aware Real-Time Scheduling for Power and Thermal Optimization

Catering to society’s demand for high performance computing, billions of transistors are now integrated on IC chips to deliver unprecedented performances. With increasing transistor density, the power consumption/density is growing exponentially. The increasing power consumption directly translates to the high chip temperature, which not only raises the packaging/cooling costs, but also degrades the performance/reliability and life span of the computing systems. Moreover, high chip temperature also greatly increases the leakage power consumption, which is becoming more and more significant with the continuous scaling of the transistor size. As the semiconductor industry continues to evolve, power and thermal challenges have become the most critical challenges in the design of new generations of computing systems. In this dissertation, we addressed the power/thermal issues from the system-level perspective. Specifically, we sought to employ real-time scheduling methods to optimize the power/thermal efficiency of the real-time computing systems, with leakage/ temperature dependency taken into consideration. In our research, we first explored the fundamental principles on how to employ dynamic voltage scaling (DVS) techniques to reduce the peak operating temperature when running a real-time application on a single core platform. We further proposed a novel real-time scheduling method, “M-Oscillations” to reduce the peak temperature when scheduling a hard real-time periodic task set. We also developed three checking methods to guarantee the feasibility of a periodic real-time schedule under peak temperature constraint. We further extended our research from single core platform to multi-core platform. We investigated the energy estimation problem on the multi-core platforms and developed a light weight and accurate method to calculate the energy consumption for a given voltage schedule on a multi-core platform. Finally, we concluded the dissertation with elaborated discussions of future extensions of our research.

Investigating the mesh dependency and upscaling of 3D grain-based models for the simulation of brittle fracture processes in low-porosity crystalline rock

The application of 3D grain-based modelling techniques is investigated in both small and large scale 3DEC models, in order to simulate brittle fracture processes in low-porosity crystalline rock. Mesh dependency in 3D grain-based models (GBMs) is examined through a number of cases to compare Voronoi and tetrahedral grain assemblages. Various methods are used in the generation of tessellations, each with a number of issues and advantages. A number of comparative UCS test simulations capture the distinct failure mechanisms, strength profiles, and progressive damage development using various Voronoi and tetrahedral GBMs. Relative calibration requirements are outlined to generate similar macro-strength and damage profiles for all the models. The results confirmed a number of inherent model behaviors that arise due to mesh dependency. In Voronoi models, inherent tensile failure mechanisms are produced by internal wedging and rotation of Voronoi grains. This results in a combined dependence on frictional and cohesive strength. In tetrahedral models, increased kinematic freedom of grains and an abundance of straight, connected failure pathways causes a preference for shear failure. This results in an inability to develop significant normal stresses causing cohesional strength dependence. In general, Voronoi models require high relative contact tensile strength values, with lower contact stiffness and contact cohesional strength compared to tetrahedral tessellations. Upscaling of 3D GBMs is investigated for both Voronoi and tetrahedral tessellations using a case study from the AECL’s Mine-by-Experiment at the Underground Research Laboratory. An upscaled tetrahedral model was able to reasonably simulate damage development in the roof forming a notch geometry by adjusting the cohesive strength. An upscaled Voronoi model underestimated the damage development in the roof and floor, and overestimated the damage in the side-walls. This was attributed to the discretization resolution limitations.

A data dependency based strategy for intermediate data storage in scientific cloud workflow systems

Many scientific workflows are data intensive where large volumes of intermediate data are generated during their execution. Some valuable intermediate data need to be stored for sharing or reuse. Traditionally, they are selectively stored according to the system storage capacity, determined manually. As doing science in the cloud has become popular nowadays, more intermediate data can be stored in scientific cloud workflows based on a pay-for-use model. In this paper, we build an intermediate data dependency graph (IDG) from the data provenance in scientific workflows. With the IDG, deleted intermediate data can be regenerated, and as such we develop a novel intermediate data storage strategy that can reduce the cost of scientific cloud workflow systems by automatically storing appropriate intermediate data sets with one cloud service provider. The strategy has significant research merits, i.e. it achieves a cost-effective trade-off of computation cost and storage cost and is not strongly impacted by the forecasting inaccuracy of data sets' usages. Meanwhile, the strategy also takes the users' tolerance of data accessing delay into consideration. We utilize Amazon's cost model and apply the strategy to general random as well as specific astrophysics pulsar searching scientific workflows for evaluation. The results show that our strategy can reduce the overall cost of scientific cloud workflow execution significantly.

Guidelines on building design and operation to minimize air quality impacts from major roads in transit oriented development

Poor air quality has a huge detrimental effect, both economic and on the quality of life, in Australia. Transit oriented design (TOD), which aims to minimise urban sprawl and lower dependency on vehicles, leads to an increasing number of buildings close to transport corridors. This project aims at providing guidelines that are appropriate to include within City Plan to inform future planning along road corridors, and provide recommendations on when mitigation measures should be utilised.

A balanced scorecard approach to enterprise systems performance measurement

A range of influences, both technical and organisational, has encouraged the wide spread adoption of Enterprise Systems (ES). Nevertheless, there is a growing consensus that Enterprise Systems have in many cases failed to provide expected benefits. The increasing role of, and dependency on ES (and IT in general), and the ‘uncertainty’ of these large investments, have created a strong need to monitor and measure ES performance. This paper reports on a research project aimed at deriving an ‘Enterprise Systems benefits measurement instrument’. The research seeks to identify how Enterprise Systems benefits can be usefully measured, with a ‘balance’ between qualitative and quantitative factors.

What are we waiting for?

The clinical education of Australia’s aged care nurses can no longer be treated as the Cinderella of nursing’s specialities. It is urgent that ways be agreed and measures taken to bring this branch of the profession, and residential aged care nursing in particular, into mainstream health care services. There should be no need to describe again the evolving shape of Australia’s demographic profile between now and the middle of this century; and no need to prove here that the ageing bulge is already placing a severe strain on staffing in the sector. A substantial percentage of the aged care nursing workforce is nearing retirement and the ratio of departures to recruits seems set to worsen at the same time as demand for high quality nursing care escalates. Important indicators – the number of the most highly dependent residents has doubled in the past seven years; compounding co-morbidities are increasingly common and an estimated 60-80% of residents in residential aged care facilities (RACFs) have a dementing illness – reveal the rapidly rising levels of frailty and dependency in the RACF population.