A vibrational spectroscopic study of the arsenate mineral bayldonite (Cu,Zn)3Pb(AsO3OH)2(OH)2 : a comparison with other basic arsenates

We have studied the vibrational spectra of the mineral bayldonite, a hydroxy arsenate of copper and lead of formula Cu3Pb(AsO3OH)2(OH)2 from the type locality, the Penberthy Croft Mine, St Hilary, Mount's Bay District, Cornwall, England.and relate the spectra to the mineral structure. Raman bands at 896 and 838 cm-1are assigned to the (AsO4)3- ν1 symmetric stretching mode and the second to the (AsO4)3- ν3 antisymmetric stretching mode. It is noted that the position of the symmetric stretching mode is at a higher position than the antisymmetric stretching mode. It is proposed that the Raman bands at 889 and 845 cm-1 are symmetric and antisymmetric stretching modes of the (HOAsO3)2- units. Raman bands of bayldonite at 490 and 500 cm-1 are assigned to the (AsO4)3- ν4 bending modes. Raman bands for bayldonite are noted at 396, 408 and 429 cm-1 and are assigned to the (AsO4)3- ν2 bending modes. A comparison is made with spectra of the other basic copper arsenate minerals, namely cornubite, olivenite, cornwallite.

Sex hormone regulation of innate immunity in the female reproductive tract : the role of epithelial cells in balancing reproductive potential with protection against sexually transmitted pathogens

The immune system in the female reproductive tract (FRT) does not mount an attack against HIV or other sexually transmitted infections (STI) with a single endogenously produced microbicide or with a single arm of the immune system. Instead, the body deploys dozens of innate antimicrobials to the secretions of the female reproductive tract. Working together, these antimicrobials along with mucosal antibodies attack many different viral, bacterial and fungal targets. Within the FRT, the unique challenges of protection against sexually transmitted pathogens coupled with the need to sustain the development of an allogeneic fetus have evolved in such a way that sex hormones precisely regulate immune function to accomplish both tasks. The studies presented in this review demonstrate that estradiol and progesterone secreted during the menstrual cycle act both directly and indirectly on epithelial cells and other immune cells in the reproductive tract to modify immune function in a way that is unique to specific sites throughout the FRT. As presented in this review, studies from our laboratory and others demonstrate that the innate immune response is under hormonal control, varies with the stage of the menstrual cycle, and as such is suppressed at mid-cycle to optimize conditions for successful fertilization and pregnancy. In doing so, a window of STI vulnerability is created during which potential pathogens including HIV enter the reproductive tract to infect host targets.

Acoustic emission condition monitoring : an application for wind turbine fault detection

Low speed rotating machines which are the most critical components in drive train of wind turbines are often menaced by several technical and environmental defects. These factors contribute to mount the economic requirement for Health Monitoring and Condition Monitoring of the systems. When a defect is happened in such system result in reduced energy loss rates from related process and due to it Condition Monitoring techniques that detecting energy loss are very difficult if not possible to use. However, in the case of Acoustic Emission (AE) technique this issue is partly overcome and is well suited for detecting very small energy release rates. Acoustic Emission (AE) as a technique is more than 50 years old and in this new technology the sounds associated with the failure of materials were detected. Acoustic wave is a non-stationary signal which can discover elastic stress waves in a failure component, capable of online monitoring, and is very sensitive to the fault diagnosis. In this paper the history and background of discovering and developing AE is discussed, different ages of developing AE which include Age of Enlightenment (1950-1967), Golden Age of AE (1967-1980), Period of Transition (1980-Present). In the next section the application of AE condition monitoring in machinery process and various systems that applied AE technique in their health monitoring is discussed. In the end an experimental result is proposed by QUT test rig which an outer race bearing fault was simulated to depict the sensitivity of AE for detecting incipient faults in low speed high frequency machine.

The geographical co-distribution and socio-ecological drivers of childhood pneumonia and diarrhoea in Queensland, Australia

This study aimed to explore the spatiotemporal patterns, geographic co-distribution, and socio-ecological drivers of childhood pneumonia and diarrhea in Queensland. A Bayesian conditional autoregressive model was used to quantify the impacts of socio-ecological factors on both childhood pneumonia and diarrhea at a postal area level. A distinct seasonality of childhood pneumonia and diarrhea was found. Childhood pneumonia and diarrhea mainly distributed in northwest of Queensland. Mount Isa was the high-risk cluster where childhood pneumonia and diarrhea co-distributed. Emergency department visits (EDVs) for pneumonia increased by 3% per 10-mm increase in monthly average rainfall, in wet seasons. In comparison, a 10-mm increase in monthly average rainfall may increase 4% of EDVs for diarrhea. Monthly average temperature was negatively associated with EDVs for childhood diarrhea, in wet seasons. Low socioeconomic index for areas (SEIFA) was associated with high EDVs for childhood pneumonia. Future pneumonia and diarrhea prevention and control measures in Queensland should focus more on Mount Isa.

A high frequency, low voltage stackable full bridge module for modular multilevel cascade converter (MMCC) research

A new small full bridge module for MMCC research is presented. Each full bridge converter cell is a single small (65 × 30 mm) multilayer PCB with two low voltage high current (22 V, 40 A) integrated half bridge ICs and the necessary isolated control signals and auxiliary power supply (2500 V isolation). All devices are surface mount, minimising cell height (4 mm) and parasitic inductance. Each converter cell can be physically stacked with PCB connectors propagating the control signals and inter-cell power connections. Many cells can be trivially stacked to create a large multilevel converter leg with isolated auxiliary power and control signals. Any of the MMCC family members is then easily formed. With a change in placement of stacking connector, a parallel connection of bridges is also possible. Operation of a nine level parallel full bridge is demonstrated at 12 V and 384 kHz switching frequency delivering a 30 W 2 kHz sinewave into a resistive load. A number of new applications for this novel module aside from MMCC development are listed.

A high cell count cascade full bridge converter for wide bandwidth ultrasonic transducer excitation

A nine level modular multilevel cascade converter (MMCC) based on four full bridge cells is shown driving a piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer at 71 and 39 kHz, in simulation and experimentally. The modular cells are small stackable PCBs, each with two fully integrated surface mount 22 V, 40 A MOSFET half-bridge converters, and include all control signal and power isolation. In this work, the bridges operate at 12 V and 384 kHz, to deliver a 96 Vpp 9 level waveform with an effective switching frequency of 3 MHz. A 9 pH air cored inductor forms a low pass filter in conjunction with the 3000 pF capacitance of the transducer load. Eight equally phase-displaced naturally sampled pulse width modulation (PWM) drive signals, along with the modulating sinusoid, are generated using phase accumulation techniques in a dedicated FPGA. Experimental time domain and FFT plots of the multilevel and transducer output waveforms are presented and discussed.

Suppression of mRNAs encoding tegument tetraspanins from schistosoma mansoni results in impaired tegument turnover

Schistosomes express a family of integral membrane proteins, called tetraspanins (TSPs), in the outer surface membranes of the tegument. Two of these tetraspanins, Sm-TSP-1 and Sm-TSP-2, confer protection as vaccines in mice, and individuals who are naturally resistant to S. mansoni infection mount a strong IgG response to Sm-TSP-2. To determine their functions in the tegument of S. mansoni we used RNA interference to silence expression of Sm-tsp-1 and Sm-tsp-2 mRNAs. Soaking of parasites in Sm-tsp dsRNAs resulted in 61% (p = 0.009) and 74% (p = 0.009) reductions in Sm-tsp-1 and Sm-tsp-2 transcription levels, respectively, in adult worms, and 67%–75% (p = 0.011) and 69%–89% (p = 0.004) reductions in Sm-tsp-1 and Sm-tsp-2 transcription levels, respectively, in schistosomula compared to worms treated with irrelevant control (luciferase) dsRNA. Ultrastructural morphology of adult worms treated in vitro with Sm-tsp-2 dsRNA displayed a distinctly vacuolated and thinner tegument compared with controls. Schistosomula exposed in vitro to Sm-tsp-2 dsRNA had a significantly thinner and more vacuolated tegument, and morphology consistent with a failure of tegumentary invaginations to close. Injection of mice with schistosomula that had been electroporated with Sm-tsp-1 and Sm-tsp-2 dsRNAs resulted in 61% (p = 0.005) and 83% (p = 0.002) reductions in the numbers of parasites recovered from the mesenteries four weeks later when compared to dsRNA-treated controls. These results imply that tetraspanins play important structural roles impacting tegument development, maturation or stability.

What works and why? Early childhood professionals' perspectives on effective early childhood education and care services for Indigenous families

Investment in early childhood education and care (ECEC) programs is a cornerstone policy of the Australian Government directed toward increasing the educational opportunities and life chances made available to Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Indigenous) children. Yet, ECEC programs are not always effective in supporting sustained attendance of Indigenous families. A site-case analysis of Mount Isa, Queensland was conducted to identify program features that engage and support attendance of Indigenous families. This first study, reports the perspectives of early childhood professionals from across the entire range of group-based licensed (kindergarten and long day care) and non-licensed (playgroups, parent-child education) programs (n=19). Early childhood professionals reported that Indigenous families preferred non-licensed over licensed programs. Reasons suggested for this choice were that non-licensed services provided integration with family supports, were responsive to family circumstance and had a stronger focus on relationship building. Implications for policy and service provision are discussed.

A simple vehicle for the transportation of a humanoid Nao robot

Locomotion and autonomy in humanoid robots is of utmost importance in integrating them into social and community service type roles. However, the limited range and speed of these robots severely limits their ability to be deployed in situations where fast response is necessary. While the ability for a humanoid to drive a vehicle would aide in increasing their overall mobility, the ability to mount and dismount a vehicle designed for human occupants is a non-trivial problem. To address this issue, this paper presents an innovative approach to enabling a humanoid robot to mount and dismount a vehicle by proposing a simple mounting bracket involving no moving parts. In conjunction with a purpose built robotic vehicle, the mounting bracket successfully allowed a humanoid Nao robot to mount, dismount and drive the vehicle.

Desynchronization and Traceability Attacks on RIPTA-DA Protocol

Recently Gao et al. proposed a lightweight RFID mutual authentication protocol [3] to resist against intermittent position trace attacks and desynchronization attacks and called it RIPTA-DA. They also verified their protocol’s security by data reduction method with the learning parity with noise (LPN) and also formally verified the functionality of the proposed scheme by Colored Petri Nets. In this paper, we investigate RIPTA-DA’s security. We present an efficient secret disclosure attack against the protocol which can be used to mount both de-synchronization and traceability attacks against the protocol. Thus our attacks show that RIPTA-DA protocol is not a RIPTA-DA.

A place carved out by time

A travel story about South Dakota. "Time travel is much easier in life than in the movies. Driving out of Rapid City in South Dakota, you cover 500,000 years in the first hour. That journey brings you to the Badlands, a vast natural excavation site that has been created by water and wind. At the same time, you’re deposited into the deep past..."--publisher website

Automation of underground LHD and truck haulage

This paper reviews the state-of-the-art in the automation of underground mining vehicles and reports on the development of an autonomous navigation system under development through the CMTE with sponsorship arranged by AMIRA. Past attempts at automating LHDs and haul trucks are described and their particular strengths and weaknesses are discussed. The auto-guidance system being developed overcomes some of the limitations of state-of-the-art prototype æcommercialÆ systems. It can be retrofitted to existing remote controlled vehicles, uses minimum installed infrastructure and is flexible enough for rapid relocation to alternate routes. The navigation techniques use data fusion of two separate sets of sensors combining natural feature recognition, nodal maps and inertial navigation techniques. Collision detection is incorporated and people and other traffic are excluded from the tramming area. This paper describes the work being done by the group with regard to auto-tramming and also outlines the future goals.

Field and Service Robotics: Results of the 9th International Conference

The Field and Service Robotics (FSR) conference is a single track conference with a specific focus on field and service applications of robotics technology. The goal of FSR is to report and encourage the development of field and service robotics. These are non-factory robots, typically mobile, that must operate in complex and dynamic environments. Typical field robotics applications include mining, agriculture, building and construction, forestry, cargo handling and so on. Field robots may operate on the ground (of Earth or planets), under the ground, underwater, in the air or in space. Service robots are those that work closely with humans, importantly the elderly and sick, to help them with their lives. The first FSR conference was held in Canberra, Australia, in 1997. Since then the meeting has been held every 2 years in Asia, America, Europe and Australia. It has been held in Canberra, Australia (1997), Pittsburgh, USA (1999), Helsinki, Finland (2001), Mount Fuji, Japan (2003), Port Douglas, Australia (2005), Chamonix, France (2007), Cambridge, USA (2009), Sendai, Japan (2012) and most recently in Brisbane, Australia (2013). This year we had 54 submissions of which 36 were selected for oral presentation. The organisers would like to thank the international committee for their invaluable contribution in the review process ensuring the overall quality of contributions. The organising committee would also like to thank Ben Upcroft, Felipe Gonzalez and Aaron McFadyen for helping with the organisation and proceedings. and proceedings. The conference was sponsored by the Australian Robotics and Automation Association (ARAA), CSIRO, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Defence Science and Technology Organisation Australia (DSTO) and the Rio Tinto Centre for Mine Automation, University of Sydney.

Can GRI light up the future of mankind?

There is strong evidence across the media that humanity has finally come to recognize the certainty and imminence of a global environmental crisis due to man-triggered ecological alterations. This widespread recognition of what is happening around us has matured even further as studies acknowledging that everything on Earth is interconnected begin to mount across various branches of learning. The appreciation of this simple linear and two-dimensional relationship implies enormous consequences for economic and management studies, as alternative business models will eventually have to supersede the old practices that still govern major industry sectors (e.g. energy, cement, agriculture, automotive, pharmaceutical, etc.). This paper argues that traditional knowledge found in developing countries can sometimes harness the potential of sparking genuine alternatives to established business practices. With a focus on the most fundamental geochemical cycles on Earth − nitrogen, water, and carbon − and the primary resources they govern (soil, water, and air), three case studies are presented to illustrate how traditional knowledge in the context of GRI (Grassroots Innovation) projects can lead to challenge the dominant logic, when allowed to thrive in terms of adoption and scalability.