Datasets for the evaluation of multi-sensor perception in natural environments with challenging conditions

This paper presents large, accurately calibrated and time-synchronised datasets, gathered outdoors in controlled environmental conditions, using an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), equipped with a wide variety of sensors. It discusses how the data collection process was designed, the conditions in which these datasets have been gathered, and some possible outcomes of their exploitation, in particular for the evaluation of performance of sensors and perception algorithms for UGVs.

The Marulan data sets: multi-sensor perception in a natural environment with challenging conditions

In this paper we present large, accurately calibrated and time-synchronized data sets, gathered outdoors in controlled and variable environmental conditions, using an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), equipped with a wide variety of sensors. These include four 2D laser scanners, a radar scanner, a color camera and an infrared camera. It provides a full description of the system used for data collection and the types of environments and conditions in which these data sets have been gathered, which include the presence of airborne dust, smoke and rain.

Did socio-ecological factors drive the spatiotemporal patterns of pandemic influenza A (H1N1)?

BACKGROUND Pandemic influenza A (H1N1) has a significant public health impact. This study aimed to examine the effect of socio-ecological factors on the transmission of H1N1 in Brisbane, Australia. METHODOLOGY We obtained data from Queensland Health on numbers of laboratory-confirmed daily H1N1 in Brisbane by statistical local areas (SLA) in 2009. Data on weather and socio-economic index were obtained from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology and the Australian Bureau of Statistics, respectively. A Bayesian spatial conditional autoregressive (CAR) model was used to quantify the relationship between variation of H1N1 and independent factors and to determine its spatiotemporal patterns. RESULTS Our results show that average increase in weekly H1N1 cases were 45.04% (95% credible interval (CrI): 42.63-47.43%) and 23.20% (95% CrI: 16.10-32.67%), for a 1 °C decrease in average weekly maximum temperature at a lag of one week and a 10mm decrease in average weekly rainfall at a lag of one week, respectively. An interactive effect between temperature and rainfall on H1N1 incidence was found (changes: 0.71%; 95% CrI: 0.48-0.98%). The auto-regression term was significantly associated with H1N1 transmission (changes: 2.5%; 95% CrI: 1.39-3.72). No significant association between socio-economic indexes for areas (SEIFA) and H1N1 was observed at SLA level. CONCLUSIONS Our results demonstrate that average weekly temperature at lag of one week and rainfall at lag of one week were substantially associated with H1N1 incidence at a SLA level. The ecological factors seemed to have played an important role in H1N1 transmission cycles in Brisbane, Australia.

The Use of Ecological Design to Achieve Sustainable Development in Queensland, Australia

This series of technical papers arose out of the action by a private entrepreneur to initiate a process beyond mere regulatory compliance in order to achieve best environmental practice at proposed large new visitor gateways to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Because of the complexity of issues involved at such urbanized downstream sites, the range of topics covered is wide – though still only those considered at this juncture to be of management priority. Included on this platform is one introductory paper reviewing the history of environmental management in the field in Queensland, and three papers which seek to appreciate the main techniques by which government contributes to the solutions viz. through the national park, threatened species list, and environmental impact assessment. The history paper was designed to allow the present series to be considered in broad context as well as performance to date. The work emphasizes that much of the fertile land that must be sustained nowadays lies in the province of the private sector, and that the initiative to create any new cost-effective paradigm in ecologically-sustainable practices lies mostly in their hands. In all instances, this strategic approach to large-scale property planning is through ecological design – using field case studies around the immediate biophysical catchment of the development, with attendant focus on the associated legal catchment (the actual development site) and the social catchment (the effective land managers). The first of these has given rise to a document termed a Regional Landscape Strategy, its implementation planned in concert with an Environmental Impact Assessment of the site and with a Strategic Regional Initiative (still being tested in the field) for community engagement. The first document takes into account the aspirations of government as expressed in its broad-scale regional plans.

Agricultural production and the ecological question

Environmental degradation is a worldwide phenomenon. It is manifested in the clearing of forests, polluted waterways, soil erosion, the loss of biodiversity, the presence of chemicals in the ecosystem and a host of other concerns. Modern agricultural practices have been implicated in much of this degradation. This chapter explores the connections between the form of agricultural production undertaken in advanced nations – so called ‘productivist’ or ‘high-tech’ farming – and environmental degradation. It is argued, first, that the entrenchment of productivist agriculture has placed considerable, and continuing, pressures on the environment and, second, that while there are both new options for a more sustainable agriculture and new policies being proposed to tackle the existing problem, the underlying basis of productivist agriculture remains largely unchallenged. The prediction is that environmental degradation will continue unabated until more dramatic (and possibly less palatable) measures are taken to alter the behaviour of producers and the trajectory of farming and grazing industries throughout the world.

Mesenchymal stem cell therapies for bone and tendon conditions

Bone, tendon, and cartilage are highly specialized musculoskeletal connective tissues that are subject to injury and degeneration. These tissues have relatively poor healing capabilities, and coupled with their variable response to established medical treatments, produce significant morbidity. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are capable of regenerating skeletal tissues and therefore offer great promise in the treatment of connective tissue pathologies. Adult MSCs are multipotent cells that possess the properties of proliferation and differentiation into all connective tissues. Furthermore, they can be gene modified to secrete growth factors and utilized in connective tissue engineering. Potential MSC-based therapies for bone and tendon conditions are reviewed in this chapter.

Exact series solutions of reactive transport models with general initial conditions

Exact solutions of partial differential equation models describing the transport and decay of single and coupled multispecies problems can provide insight into the fate and transport of solutes in saturated aquifers. Most previous analytical solutions are based on integral transform techniques, meaning that the initial condition is restricted in the sense that the choice of initial condition has an important impact on whether or not the inverse transform can be calculated exactly. In this work we describe and implement a technique that produces exact solutions for single and multispecies reactive transport problems with more general, smooth initial conditions. We achieve this by using a different method to invert a Laplace transform which produces a power series solution. To demonstrate the utility of this technique, we apply it to two example problems with initial conditions that cannot be solved exactly using traditional transform techniques.

Conditions for Successful Reforms : Characteristics of the Organisation and Culture in Chinese Schools in a Global Context

Reforms to the basic education system in China have reflected an increasing awareness of and openness to new ideas from the global education sphere. Many of the concepts involved in the development and implementation of these reforms, including adopting holistic perspectives of student development; decentralising school governance to facilitate local decision-making to address local needs; and, an increased focus on practical, lifelong learning for all involved in schools, have been promoted in research and policies throughout the world. While working within this global context, the system of schooling in China has retained a unique character that is quite different from education in the West. Drawing on an international project on school transformation, this chapter aims to examine how five secondary schools in Chongqing, a municipality in Southwestern China, have harnessed and aligned their resources to provide effective school governance following the curriculum reforms. Furthermore, the chapter will examine the similarities and differences between the organisational structures and cultures of these schools in China and successful schools in Australia, England, Finland, Wales and the United States.

Ecological design with respect to the environment of large-scale marina developments in Queensland

Ecological principles have been employed to assist in the sustainability of a suite of 'gateway' marinas currently being developed in Queensland. Tasks included (a) location and fostering of core remnant native vegetation areas, (b) understanding the dynamic patterns of region behaviour using the ecological strategies employed by key flora and fauna species, (c) promoting those native wildlife species best characterising the region, and (d) allocating management actions along elongated buffer zones to the catchment headwaters (rather than only peripheral to the property). The design of infrastructure and its relationship to sustainable landscape development is lacking such a response int eh planning and detailing of new marinas. This paper distinguishes between the practice of landscape ecology and the design of ecological landscapes, offering examples of the principles of the latter in support of the concept of ecological landscape practice.

Ecological consequences of fragmentation and deforestation in an urban landscape : a case study

Landscape change is an ongoing process even within established urban landscapes. Yet, analyses of fragmentation and deforestation have focused primarily on the conversion of non-urban to urban landscapes in rural landscapes and ignored urban landscapes. To determine the ecological effects of continued urbanization in urban landscapes, tree-covered patches were mapped in the Gwynns Falls watershed (17158.6 ha) in Maryland for 1994 and 1999 to document fragmentation, deforestation, and reforestation. The watershed was divided into lower (urban core), middle (older suburbs), and upper (recent suburbs) subsections. Over the entire watershed a net of 264.5 of 4855.5 ha of tree-covered patches were converted to urban land use-125 new tree-covered patches were added through fragmentation, 4 were added through reforestation, 43 were lost through deforestation, and 7 were combined with an adjacent patch. In addition, 180 patches were reduced in size. In the urban core, deforestation continued with conversion to commercial land use. Because of the lack of vegetation, commercial land uses are problematic for both species conservation and derived ecosystem benefits. In the lower subsection, shape complexity increased for tree-covered patches less than 10 ha. Changes in shape resulted from canopy expansion, planted materials, and reforestation of vacant sites. In the middle and upper subsections, the shape index value for tree-covered patches decreased, indicating simplification. Density analyses of the subsections showed no change with respect to patch densities but pointed out the importance of small patches (≤5 ha) as "stepping stone" to link large patches (e. g., ≥100 ha). Using an urban forest effect model, we estimated, for the entire watershed, total carbon loss and pollution removal, from 1994 to 1999, to be 14,235,889.2 kg and 13,011.4 kg, respectively due to urban land-use conversions.

Impacts of climatic factors on evolution of molecular diversity and the natural distribution of wild stocks of the giant freshwater prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii)

Natural distributions of most freshwater taxa are restricted geographically, a pattern that reflects dispersal limitation. Macrobrachium rosenbergii is unusual because it occurs naturally in rivers from near Pakistan in the west, across India and Bangladesh to the Malay Peninsula, and across the Sunda Shelf and Indonesian archipelago to western Java. Individuals cannot tolerate full marine conditions, so dispersal between river drainage basins must occur at limited geographical scales when ecological or climatic factors are favorable. We examined molecular diversity in wild populations of M. rosenbergii across its complete natural range to document patterns of diversity and to relate them to factors that have driven evolution of diversity in this species. We found 3 clades in the mitochondrial deoxyribonucleic acid (mtDNA) data set that corresponded geographically with eastern, central, and western sets of haplotypes that last shared a common ancestor 1 × 106 y ago. The eastern clade was closest to the common ancestor of all 3 clades and to the common ancestor with its congener, Macrobrachium spinipes, distributed east of Huxley's Line. Macrobrachium rosenbergii could have evolved in the western Indonesian archipelago and spread westward during the early to mid-Pleistocene to India and Sri Lanka. Additional groups identified in the nuclear DNA data set in the central and western clades probably indicate secondary contact via dispersal between regions and modern introductions that have mixed nuclear and mtDNA genes. Pleistocene sea-level fluctuations can explain dispersal across the Indonesian archipelago and parts of mainland southeastern Asia via changing river drainage connections in shallow seas on wide continental shelves. At the western end of the modern distribution where continental shelves are smaller, intermittent freshwater plumes from large rivers probably permitted larval dispersal across inshore areas of lowered salinity.

Climate change and dengue: a critical and systematic review of quantitative modelling approaches

Background Many studies have found associations between climatic conditions and dengue transmission. However, there is a debate about the future impacts of climate change on dengue transmission. This paper reviewed epidemiological evidence on the relationship between climate and dengue with a focus on quantitative methods for assessing the potential impacts of climate change on global dengue transmission. Methods A literature search was conducted in October 2012, using the electronic databases PubMed, Scopus, ScienceDirect, ProQuest, and Web of Science. The search focused on peer-reviewed journal articles published in English from January 1991 through October 2012. Results Sixteen studies met the inclusion criteria and most studies showed that the transmission of dengue is highly sensitive to climatic conditions, especially temperature, rainfall and relative humidity. Studies on the potential impacts of climate change on dengue indicate increased climatic suitability for transmission and an expansion of the geographic regions at risk during this century. A variety of quantitative modelling approaches were used in the studies. Several key methodological issues and current knowledge gaps were identified through this review. Conclusions It is important to assemble spatio-temporal patterns of dengue transmission compatible with long-term data on climate and other socio-ecological changes and this would advance projections of dengue risks associated with climate change. Keywords: Climate; Dengue; Models; Projection; Scenarios

Social ecological influences on preferences for care provided at the end of life amongst Taiwanese city-dwelling adults

Social and cultural elements are an essential part of the contexts within which people understand their word and make end-of-life decisions. A developmental social ecological model was used in this thesis to provide a comprehensive framework for examining influences on end-of-life preferences. The findings support claims made by social ecologists that individual's health-related choices can be influenced by cultural, social contextual and environmental factors over the course of life. The results of this study have implications for health professionals and the practices they can adopt to enhance end-of-life care.

Effect of culture conditions and calcium phosphate coating on ectopic bone formation

This study investigated the effect of a calcium phosphate (CaP) coating onto a polycaprolactone melt electrospun scaffold and in vitro culture conditions on ectopic bone formation in a subcutaneous rat model. The CaP coating resulted in an increased alkaline phosphatase activity (ALP) in ovine osteoblasts regardless of the culture conditions and this was also translated into higher levels of mineralisation. A subcutaneous implantation was performed and increasing ectopic bone formation was observed over time for the CaPcoated samples previously cultured in osteogenic media whereas the corresponding non-coated samples displayed a lag phase before bone formation occurred from 4 to 8 weeks post-implantation. Histology and immunohistochemistry revealed bone fill through the scaffolds 8 weeks post-implantation for coated and non-coated specimens and that ALP, osteocalcin and collagen 1 were present at the ossification front and in the bone tissues. Vascularisation in the vicinity of the bone tissues was also observed indicating that the newly formed bone was not deprived of oxygen and nutrients.We found that in vitro osteogenic induction was essential for achieving bone formation and CaP coating accelerated the osteogenic process. We conclude that high cell density and preservation of the collagenous and mineralised extracellular matrix secreted in vitro are factors of importance for ectopic bone formation.