Development and evaluation of hydrocarbon sorbent materials with the aid of chemometrics

Hydrocarbon spills on roads are a major safety concern for the driving public and can have severe cost impacts both on pavement maintenance and to the economy through disruption to services. The time taken to clean-up spills and re-open roads in a safe driving condition is an issue of increasing concern given traffic levels on major urban arterials. Thus, the primary aim of the research was to develop a sorbent material that facilitates rapid clean-up of road spills. The methodology involved extensive research into a range of materials (organic, inorganic and synthetic sorbents), comprehensive testing in the laboratory, scale-up and field, and product design (i.e. concept to prototype). The study also applied chemometrics to provide consistent, comparative methods of sorbent evaluation and performance. In addition, sorbent materials at every stage were compared against a commercial benchmark. For the first time, the impact of diesel on asphalt pavement has been quantified and assessed in a systematic way. Contrary to conventional thinking and anecdotal observations, the study determined that the action of diesel on asphalt was quite rapid (i.e. hours rather than weeks or months). This significant finding demonstrates the need to minimise the impact of hydrocarbon spills and the potential application of the sorbent option. To better understand the adsorption phenomenon, surface characterisation techniques were applied to selected sorbent materials (i.e. sand, organo-clay and cotton fibre). Brunauer Emmett Teller (BET) and thermal analysis indicated that the main adsorption mechanism for the sorbents occurred on the external surface of the material in the diffusion region (sand and organo-clay) and/or capillaries (cotton fibre). Using environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM), it was observed that adsorption by the interfibre capillaries contributed to the high uptake of hydrocarbons by the cotton fibre. Understanding the adsorption mechanism for these sorbents provided some guidance and scientific basis for the selection of materials. The study determined that non-woven cotton mats were ideal sorbent materials for clean-up of hydrocarbon spills. The prototype sorbent was found to perform significantly better than the commercial benchmark, displaying the following key properties: • superior hydrocarbon pick-up from the road pavement; • high hydrocarbon retention capacity under an applied load; • adequate field skid resistance post treatment; • functional and easy to use in the field (e.g. routine handling, transportation, application and recovery); • relatively inexpensive to produce due to the use of raw cotton fibre and simple production process; • environmentally friendly (e.g. renewable materials, non-toxic to environment and operators, and biodegradable); and • rapid response time (e.g. two minutes total clean-up time compared with thirty minutes for reference sorbents). The major outcomes of the research project include: a) development of a specifically designed sorbent material suitable for cleaning up hydrocarbon spills on roads; b) submission of patent application (serial number AU2005905850) for the prototype product; and c) preparation of Commercialisation Strategy to advance the sorbent product to the next phase (i.e. R&D to product commercialisation).

Publishing Engineering Education Resources: A Collaborative Web Project.

Web is a powerful hypermedia-based information retrieval mechanism that provides a user-friendly access across all major computer platforms connected over Internet. This paper demonstrates the application of Web technology when used as an educational delivery tool. It also reports on the development of a prototype electronic publishing project where Web technology was used to deliver power engineering educational resources. The resulting hyperbook will contain diverse teaching resources such as hypermedia-based modular educational units and computer simulation programs that are linked in a meaningful and structured way. The use of Web for disseminating information of this nature has many advantages that cannot possibly be achieved otherwise. PREAMBLE The continual increase of low-cost functionality available in desktop computing has opened up a new possibility in learning within a wider educational framework. This technology also is supported by enhanced features offered by new and ...

Algebraic attacks on clock-controlled stream ciphers

Stream ciphers are encryption algorithms used for ensuring the privacy of digital telecommunications. They have been widely used for encrypting military communications, satellite communications, pay TV encryption and for voice encryption of both fixed lined and wireless networks. The current multi year European project eSTREAM, which aims to select stream ciphers suitable for widespread adoptation, reflects the importance of this area of research. Stream ciphers consist of a keystream generator and an output function. Keystream generators produce a sequence that appears to be random, which is combined with the plaintext message using the output function. Most commonly, the output function is binary addition modulo two. Cryptanalysis of these ciphers focuses largely on analysis of the keystream generators and of relationships between the generator and the keystream it produces. Linear feedback shift registers are widely used components in building keystream generators, as the sequences they produce are well understood. Many types of attack have been proposed for breaking various LFSR based stream ciphers. A recent attack type is known as an algebraic attack. Algebraic attacks transform the problem of recovering the key into a problem of solving multivariate system of equations, which eventually recover the internal state bits or the key bits. This type of attack has been shown to be effective on a number of regularly clocked LFSR based stream ciphers. In this thesis, algebraic attacks are extended to a number of well known stream ciphers where at least one LFSR in the system is irregularly clocked. Applying algebriac attacks to these ciphers has only been discussed previously in the open literature for LILI-128. In this thesis, algebraic attacks are first applied to keystream generators using stop-and go clocking. Four ciphers belonging to this group are investigated: the Beth-Piper stop-and-go generator, the alternating step generator, the Gollmann cascade generator and the eSTREAM candidate: the Pomaranch cipher. It is shown that algebraic attacks are very effective on the first three of these ciphers. Although no effective algebraic attack was found for Pomaranch, the algebraic analysis lead to some interesting findings including weaknesses that may be exploited in future attacks. Algebraic attacks are then applied to keystream generators using (p; q) clocking. Two well known examples of such ciphers, the step1/step2 generator and the self decimated generator are investigated. Algebraic attacks are shown to be very powerful attack in recovering the internal state of these generators. A more complex clocking mechanism than either stop-and-go or the (p; q) clocking keystream generators is known as mutual clock control. In mutual clock control generators, the LFSRs control the clocking of each other. Four well known stream ciphers belonging to this group are investigated with respect to algebraic attacks: the Bilateral-stop-and-go generator, A5/1 stream cipher, Alpha 1 stream cipher, and the more recent eSTREAM proposal, the MICKEY stream ciphers. Some theoretical results with regards to the complexity of algebraic attacks on these ciphers are presented. The algebraic analysis of these ciphers showed that generally, it is hard to generate the system of equations required for an algebraic attack on these ciphers. As the algebraic attack could not be applied directly on these ciphers, a different approach was used, namely guessing some bits of the internal state, in order to reduce the degree of the equations. Finally, an algebraic attack on Alpha 1 that requires only 128 bits of keystream to recover the 128 internal state bits is presented. An essential process associated with stream cipher proposals is key initialization. Many recently proposed stream ciphers use an algorithm to initialize the large internal state with a smaller key and possibly publicly known initialization vectors. The effect of key initialization on the performance of algebraic attacks is also investigated in this thesis. The relationships between the two have not been investigated before in the open literature. The investigation is conducted on Trivium and Grain-128, two eSTREAM ciphers. It is shown that the key initialization process has an effect on the success of algebraic attacks, unlike other conventional attacks. In particular, the key initialization process allows an attacker to firstly generate a small number of equations of low degree and then perform an algebraic attack using multiple keystreams. The effect of the number of iterations performed during key initialization is investigated. It is shown that both the number of iterations and the maximum number of initialization vectors to be used with one key should be carefully chosen. Some experimental results on Trivium and Grain-128 are then presented. Finally, the security with respect to algebraic attacks of the well known LILI family of stream ciphers, including the unbroken LILI-II, is investigated. These are irregularly clock- controlled nonlinear filtered generators. While the structure is defined for the LILI family, a particular paramater choice defines a specific instance. Two well known such instances are LILI-128 and LILI-II. The security of these and other instances is investigated to identify which instances are vulnerable to algebraic attacks. The feasibility of recovering the key bits using algebraic attacks is then investigated for both LILI- 128 and LILI-II. Algebraic attacks which recover the internal state with less effort than exhaustive key search are possible for LILI-128 but not for LILI-II. Given the internal state at some point in time, the feasibility of recovering the key bits is also investigated, showing that the parameters used in the key initialization process, if poorly chosen, can lead to a key recovery using algebraic attacks.

Robot building for preschoolers

This paper describes Electronic Blocks, a new robot construction element designed to allow children as young as age three to build and program robotic structures. The Electronic Blocks encapsulate input, output and logic concepts in tangible elements that young children can use to create a wide variety of physical agents. The children are able to determine the behavior of these agents by the choice of blocks and the manner in which they are connected. The Electronic Blocks allow children without any knowledge of mechanical design or computer programming to create and control physically embodied robots. They facilitate the development of technological capability by enabling children to design, construct, explore and evaluate dynamic robotics systems. A study of four and five year-old children using the Electronic Blocks has demonstrated that the interface is well suited to young children. The complexity of the implementation is hidden from the children, leaving the children free to autonomously explore the functionality of the blocks. As a consequence, children are free to move their focus beyond the technology. Instead they are free to focus on the construction process, and to work on goals related to the creation of robotic behaviors and interactions. As a resource for robot building, the blocks have proved to be effective in encouraging children to create robot structures, allowing children to design and program robot behaviors.

Cerebellar augmented joint control for a humanoid robot

The joints of a humanoid robot experience disturbances of markedly different magnitudes during the course of a walking gait. Consequently, simple feedback control techniques poorly track desired joint trajectories. This paper explores the addition of a control system inspired by the architecture of the cerebellum to improve system response. This system learns to compensate the changes in load that occur during a cycle of motion. The joint compensation scheme, called Trajectory Error Learning, augments the existing feedback control loop on a humanoid robot. The results from tests on the GuRoo platform show an improvement in system response for the system when augmented with the cerebellar compensator.

Scaffolding children’s robot building and programming activities

Since 2001 the School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering (ITEE) at the University of Queensland has been involved in RoboCupJunior activities aimed at providing children with the Robot building and programming knowledge they need to succeed in RoboCupJunior competitions. These activities include robotics workshops, the organization of the State-wide RoboCupJunior competition, and consultation on all matters robotic with schools and government organizations. The activities initiated by ITEE have succeeded in providing children with the scaffolding necessary to become competent, independent robot builders and programmers. Results from state, national and international competitions suggest that many of the children who participate in the activities supported by ITEE are subsequently able to purpose- build robots to effectively compete in RoboCupJunior competitions. As a result of the scaffolding received within workshops children are able to think deeply and creatively about their designs, and to critique their designs in order to make the best possible creation in an effort to win.

Multi-robot control in highly dynamic, competitive environments

The control and coordination of multiple mobile robots is a challenging task; particularly in environments with multiple, rapidly moving obstacles and agents. This paper describes a robust approach to multi-robot control, where robustness is gained from competency at every layer of robot control. The layers are: (i) a central coordination system (MAPS), (ii) an action system (AES), (iii) a navigation module, and (iv) a low level dynamic motion control system. The multi-robot coordination system assigns each robot a role and a sub-goal. Each robots action execution system then assumes the assigned role and attempts to achieve the specified sub-goal. The robots navigation system directs the robot to specific goal locations while ensuring that the robot avoids any obstacles. The motion system maps the heading and speed information from the navigation system to force-constrained motion. This multi-robot system has been extensively tested and applied in the robot soccer domain using both centralized and distributed coordination.

Distributed control of gait for a humanoid robot

This paper describes a walking gait for a humanoid robot with a distributed control system. The motion for the robot is calculated in real time on a central controller, and sent over CAN bus to the distributed control system. The distributed control system loosely follows the motion patterns from the central controller, while also acting to maintain stability and balance. There is no global feedback control system; the system maintains its balance by the interaction between central gait and soft control of the actuators. The paper illustrates a straight line walking gait and shows the interaction between gait generation and the control system. The analysis of the data shows that successful walking can be achieved without maintaining strict local joint control, and without explicit global balance coordination.

Evolving a locus based gait for a humanoid robot

This paper describes a process for evolving a stable humanoid walking gait that is based around parameterised loci of motion. The parameters of the loci are chosen by an evolutionary process based on the criteria that the robot's ZMP (zero moment point) follows a desirable path. The paper illustrates the evolution of a straight line walking gait. The gait has been tested on a 1.2 m tall humanoid robot (GuRoo). The results, apart form illustrating a successful walk, illustrate the effectiveness of the ZMP path criterion in not only ensuring a stable walk, but also in achieving efficient use of the actuators.

Central and peripheral oxygen transmissibility thresholds to avoid corneal swelling during open eye soft contact lens wear

This study was designed to derive central and peripheral oxygen transmissibility (Dk/t) thresholds for soft contact lenses to avoid hypoxia-induced corneal swelling (increased corneal thickness) during open eye wear. Central and peripheral corneal thicknesses were measured in a masked and randomized fashion for the left eye of each of seven subjects before and after 3 h of afternoon wear of five conventional hydrogel and silicone hydrogel contact lens types offering a range of Dk/t from 2.4 units to 115.3 units. Curve fitting for plots of change in corneal thickness versus central and peripheral Dk/t found threshold values of 19.8 and 32.6 units to avoid corneal swelling during open eye contact lens wear for a typical wearer. Although some conventional hydrogel soft lenses are able to achieve this criterion for either central or peripheral lens areas (depending on lens power), in general, no conventional hydrogel soft lenses meet both the central and peripheral thresholds. Silicone hydrogel contact lenses typically meet both the central and peripheral thresholds and use of these lenses therefore avoids swelling in all regions of the cornea. ' 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater 92B: 361–365, 2010

Benchmarking framework to measure extent of ICT adoption for building project management

This project discusses a component of the research study conducted to provide construction organizations with a generic benchmarking framework to assess their extent of information communication technology (ICT) adoption for building project management processes. It defines benchmarking and discusses objectives of the required benchmarking framework and development of the framework. The study focuses on ICT adoption by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the construction industry and with respect to SMEs it is important to understand processes, their indicators, and measures in the local context. Structure of the suggested benchmarking framework has been derived after extensive literature survey and a questionnaire survey conducted in the Indian construction industry. The suggested benchmarking process is an iterative process divided into four stages. It can be implemented at organization and industry levels for rating the construction organizations for ICT adoption and performance measurement. The framework has a generic structure and can be generalized and applied for other countries with due considerations.

An empirical test of causal relationships of factors affecting ICT adoption for building project management : an Indian SME case study

Purpose - Building project management (BPM) requires effective coordination and collaboration between multiple project team organisations which can be achieved by real time information flow between all participants. In the present scenario, this can be achieved by the use of information communication technologies (ICT). The purpose of this paper is to present part of a research project conducted to study the causal relationships between factors affecting ICT adoption for BPM by small and medium enterprises. Design/methodology/approach - This paper discusses structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis conducted to test the causal relationships between quantitative factors. Data for quantitative analysis were gathered through a questionnaire survey conducted in the Indian construction industry. Findings - SEM analysis results help in demonstrating that an increased and matured use of ICT for general administration within the organisation would lead to: an improved ICT infrastructure within the organisation; development of electronic databases; and a staff that is confident of using information technology (IT) tools. In such a scenario, staff would use advanced software and IT technologies for project management (PM) processes and that would lead to an increased adoption of ICT for PM processes. But, for general administration also, ICT adoption would be enhanced if the organisation is interacting more with geographically separated agencies and senior management perceives that significant benefits would accrue by adoption of ICT. All the factors are inter-related and their effect cannot be maximized in isolation. Originality/value - The results provide direction to building project managements for strategically adopting the effective use of ICT within their organisations and for BPM general.

Optimal track access rights allocation for agent negotiation in an open railway market

In open railway access markets, a train service provider (TSP) negotiates with an infrastructure provider (IP) for track access rights. This negotiation has been modeled by a multi-agent system (MAS) in which the IP and TSP are represented by separate software agents. One task of the IP agent is to generate feasible (and preferably optimal) track access rights, subject to the constraints submitted by the TSP agent. This paper formulates an IP-TSP transaction and proposes a branch-and-bound algorithm for the IP agent to identify the optimal track access rights. Empirical simulation results show that the model is able to emulate rational agent behaviors. The simulation results also show good consistency between timetables attained from the proposed methods and those derived by the scheduling principles adopted in practice.

Response to the apology : Queenslanders reflect : a State Library of Queensland project

On the 13th February 2008 Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made an apology to Australia’s Indigenous Peoples on behalf of the Australian Parliament. The State Library of Queensland (SLQ) with assistance from Queensland University of Technology and Queensland’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, has captured responses to this historic event. ‘Responses to the 2008 Apology’ is a collection of digital stories created as part of this research initiative. Until recently, digital storytelling has not generally been treated as a necessary addition to the research collections of Australian libraries. However, libraries increasingly aim to promote new literacies and active audiences as they seek innovative ways to encourage life-long learning by their users, and digital storytelling is one methodology that can contribute to these goals. The State Library of Queensland is the only Australian State Library to have undertaken a major role in the collection of digital stories. They currently lead the way with their Queensland Stories digital storytelling program. This presentation will report findings and outcomes from this research project.

Telling tales, shaping stories : the creative practitioner and the artful life story

Norman K. Denzin (1989) claims that the central assumption of the biographical method—that a life can be captured and represented in a text—is open to question. This paper explores Denzin’s statement by documenting the role of creative writers in re-presenting oral histories in two case studies from Queensland, Australia. The first, The Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame, was a commercial research project commissioned by the State Library of Queensland (SLQ) in 2009, and involved semi-formal qualitative interviews and digital stories. The second is an on-going practice-led PhD project, The Artful Life: Oral History and Fiction, which investigates the fictionalisation of oral histories. Both projects enter into a dialogue around the re-presentation of oral and life histories, with attention given to the critical scholarship and creative practice in the process. Creative writers represent a life having particular preoccupations with techniques that more closely align with fiction than non-fiction (Hirsch and Dixon 2008). In this context, oral history resources are viewed not so much as repositories of historical facts, but as ambiguous and fluid narrative sources. The comparison of the two case studies also demonstrates that the aims of a particular project dictate the nature of the re-presentation, revealing that writing about another’s life is a complex act of artful ‘shaping’. Alistair Thomson (2007) notes the growing interdisciplinary nature of oral history scholarship since the 1980s; oral histories are used increasingly in art-based contexts to produce diverse cultural artefacts, such as digital stories and works of fiction, which are very different from traditional histories. What are the methodological implications of such projects? This paper will draw on self-reflexive practice to explore this question.