A safe system-based approach to selection of clear zones, safety barriers and other roadside treatments

On average, 560 fatal run-off-road crashes occur annually in Australia and 135 in New Zealand. In addition, there are more than 14,000 run-off-road crashes causing injuries each year across both countries. In rural areas, run-off-road casualty crashes constitute 50-60% of all casualty crashes. Their severity is particularly high with more than half of those involved sustaining fatal or serious injuries. This paper reviews the existing approach to roadside hazard risk assessment, selection of clear zones and hazard treatments. It proposes a modified approach to roadside safety evaluation and management. It is a methodology based on statistical modelling of run-off-road casualty crashes, and application of locally developed crash modification factors and severity indices. Clear zones, safety barriers and other roadside design/treatment options are evaluated with a view to minimise fatal and serious injuries – the key Safe System objective. The paper concludes with a practical demonstration of the proposed approach. The paper is based on findings from a four-year Austroads research project into improving roadside safety in the Safe System context.

A new feedback ANC system approach

We propose a new active noise control (ANC) technique. The technique has a feedback structure to have a simple configuration in practical implementation. In this approach, the secondary path is modelled online to ensure convergence of the system as the secondary paths are practically time varying or non-linear. The proposed method consists of two steps: a noise controller which is based on a modified FxLMS algorithm, and a new variable step size (VSS) LMS algorithm which is used to adapt the modelling filter with the secondary path. The proposed algorithm stops injection of the white noise at the optimum point and reactivate the injection during the operation, if needed, to maintain performance of the system. Eliminating continuous injection of the white noise increases the performance of the proposed method significantly and makes it more desirable for practical ANC systems. The computer simulations are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

A hierarchical decomposition approach for coordinated dispatch of plug-in electric vehicles

Plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) are increasingly popular in the global trend of energy saving and environmental protection. However, the uncoordinated charging of numerous PEVs can produce significant negative impacts on the secure and economic operation of the power system concerned. In this context, a hierarchical decomposition approach is presented to coordinate the charging/discharging behaviors of PEVs. The major objective of the upper-level model is to minimize the total cost of system operation by jointly dispatching generators and electric vehicle aggregators (EVAs). On the other hand, the lower-level model aims at strictly following the dispatching instructions from the upper-level decision-maker by designing appropriate charging/discharging strategies for each individual PEV in a specified dispatching period. Two highly efficient commercial solvers, namely AMPL/IPOPT and AMPL/CPLEX, respectively, are used to solve the developed hierarchical decomposition model. Finally, a modified IEEE 118-bus testing system including 6 EVAs is employed to demonstrate the performance of the developed model and method.

Intrusion detection in distributed systems, an approach based on taint marking

This paper presents a new framework for distributed intrusion detection based on taint marking. Our system tracks information flows between applications of multiple hosts gathered in groups (i.e., sets of hosts sharing the same distributed information flow policy) by attaching taint labels to system objects such as files, sockets, Inter Process Communication (IPC) abstractions, and memory mappings. Labels are carried over the network by tainting network packets. A distributed information flow policy is defined for each group at the host level by labeling information and defining how users and applications can legally access, alter or transfer information towards other trusted or untrusted hosts. As opposed to existing approaches, where information is most often represented by two security levels (low/high, public/private, etc.), our model identifies each piece of information within a distributed system, and defines their legal interaction in a fine-grained manner. Hosts store and exchange security labels in a peer to peer fashion, and there is no central monitor. Our IDS is implemented in the Linux kernel as a Linux Security Module (LSM) and runs standard software on commodity hardware with no required modification. The only trusted code is our modified operating system kernel. We finally present a scenario of intrusion in a web service running on multiple hosts, and show how our distributed IDS is able to report security violations at each host level.

Distribution feeder reconfiguration for loss minimization based on modified honey bee mating optimization algorithm

This paper presents an efficient algorithm for multi-objective distribution feeder reconfiguration based on Modified Honey Bee Mating Optimization (MHBMO) approach. The main objective of the Distribution feeder reconfiguration (DFR) is to minimize the real power loss, deviation of the nodes’ voltage. Because of the fact that the objectives are different and no commensurable, it is difficult to solve the problem by conventional approaches that may optimize a single objective. So the metahuristic algorithm has been applied to this problem. This paper describes the full algorithm to Objective functions paid, The results of simulations on a 32 bus distribution system is given and shown high accuracy and optimize the proposed algorithm in power loss minimization.

Investigation of the gas phase reactivity of the 1-adamantyl radical using a distonic radical anion approach

The gas phase reactions of the bridgehead 3-carboxylato-1-adamantyl radical anion were observed with a series of neutral reagents using a modified electrospray ionisation linear ion trap mass spectrometer. This distonic radical anion was observed to undergo processes suggestive of radical reactivity including radical-radical combination reactions, substitution reactions and addition to carbon-carbon double bonds. The rate constants for reactions of the 3-carboxylato-1-adamantyl radical anion with the following reagents were measured ( in units 10(-12) cm(3) molecule(-1) s(-1)): O-18(2) ( 85 +/- 4), NO ( 38.4 +/- 0.4), I-2 ( 50 +/- 50), Br-2 ( 8 +/- 2), CH3SSCH3 ( 12 +/- 2), styrene ( 1.20 +/- 0.03), CHCl3 ( H abstraction 0.41 +/- 0.06, Cl abstraction 0.65 +/- 0.1), CDCl3 ( D abstraction 0.035 +/- 0.01, Cl abstraction 0.723 +/- 0.005), allyl bromide (Br abstraction 0.53 +/- 0.04, allylation 0.25 +/- 0.01). Collision rates were calculated and reaction efficiencies are also reported. This study represents the first quantitative measurement of the gas phase reactivity of a bridgehead radical and suggests that distonic radical anions are good models for the study of their elusive uncharged analogues.

‘Click’ functionalised polymer resins : a new approach to the synthesis of surface attached bipyridinium and naphthalene diimide [2]rotaxanes

Herein we describe the design and synthesis of a series of solid-tethered [2]rotaxanes utilising crown ether-naphthalene diimide or crown ether- bipyridinium host guest interactions. TentaGel polystyrene resins were initially modified in a two-stage procedure to azide functionalised beads before the target supramolecular architectures were attached using a copper catalysed “click” procedure. The final assembly was examined using IR spectroscopy and gel-phase 1H High Resolution Magic Angle Spinning (HR MAS) NMR spectroscopy. The HR MAS technique enabled a direct comparison between the solid-tethered architectures and the synthesis and characterisation of analogous solution-based [2]rotaxanes to be made.

A general approach to tune the vibration properties of the mounting system in the high-speed and heavy-duty engine

Majority of the current research on the mounting system has emphasised on the low/medium power engine, rare work has been reported for the high-speed and heavy-duty engine, the vibration characteristics of which exhibits significantly increased complexity and uncertainty. In this work, a general dynamics model was firstly established to describe the dynamic properties of a mounting system with various numbers of mounts. Then, this model was employed for the optimization of the mounting system. A modified Powell conjugate direction method was developed to improve the optimization efficiency. Basing on the optimization results obtained from the theoretical model, a mounting system was constructed for a V6 diesel engine. The experimental measurement of the vibration intensity of the mounting systems shows excellent agreement with the theoretical calculations, indicating the validity of the model. This dynamics model opens a new avenue in assessing and designing the mounting system for a high-speed and heavy-duty engine. On the other hand, the delineated dynamics model, and the optimization algorithm should find wide applications for other mounting systems, such as the power transmission system which usually has various uncertain mounts.

A novel 15N tracer approach for the quantification of N2 and N2O emissions from soil incubations in a completely automated laboratory set up

The microbial mediated production of nitrous oxide (N2O) and its reduction to dinitrogen (N2) via denitrification represents a loss of nitrogen (N) from fertilised agro-ecosystems to the atmosphere. Although denitrification has received great interest by biogeochemists in the last decades, the magnitude of N2lossesand related N2:N2O ratios from soils still are largely unknown due to methodical constraints. We present a novel 15N tracer approach, based on a previous developed tracer method to study denitrification in pure bacterial cultures which was modified for the use on soil incubations in a completely automated laboratory set up. The method uses a background air in the incubation vessels that is replaced with a helium-oxygen gas mixture with a 50-fold reduced N2 background (2 % v/v). This method allows for a direct and sensitive quantification of the N2 and N2O emissions from the soil with isotope-ratio mass spectrometry after 15N labelling of denitrification N substrates and minimises the sensitivity to the intrusion of atmospheric N2 at the same time. The incubation set up was used to determine the influence of different soil moisture levels on N2 and N2O emissions from a sub-tropical pasture soil in Queensland/Australia. The soil was labelled with an equivalent of 50 μg-N per gram dry soil by broadcast application of KNO3solution (4 at.% 15N) and incubated for 3 days at 80% and 100% water filled pore space (WFPS), respectively. The headspace of the incubation vessel was sampled automatically over 12hrs each day and 3 samples (0, 6, and 12 hrs after incubation start) of headspace gas analysed for N2 and N2O with an isotope-ratio mass spectrometer (DELTA V Plus, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Bremen, Germany(. In addition, the soil was analysed for 15N NO3- and NH4+ using the 15N diffusion method, which enabled us to obtain a complete N balance. The method proved to be highly sensitive for N2 and N2O emissions detecting N2O emissions ranging from 20 to 627 μN kg-1soil-1hr-1and N2 emissions ranging from 4.2 to 43 μN kg-1soil-1hr-1for the different treatments. The main end-product of denitrification was N2O for both water contents with N2 accounting for 9% and 13% of the total denitrification losses at 80% and 100%WFPS, respectively. Between 95-100% of the added 15N fertiliser could be recovered. Gross nitrification over the 3 days amounted to 8.6 μN g-1 soil-1 and 4.7 μN g-1 soil-1, denitrification to 4.1 μN g-1 soil-1 and 11.8 μN g-1 soil-1at 80% and 100%WFPS, respectively. The results confirm that the tested method allows for a direct and highly sensitive detection of N2 and N2O fluxes from soils and hence offers a sensitive tool to study denitrification and N turnover in terrestrial agro-ecosystems.

No-reference image quality assessment using modified extreme learning machine classifier

In this paper, we present a machine learning approach to measure the visual quality of JPEG-coded images. The features for predicting the perceived image quality are extracted by considering key human visual sensitivity (HVS) factors such as edge amplitude, edge length, background activity and background luminance. Image quality assessment involves estimating the functional relationship between HVS features and subjective test scores. The quality of the compressed images are obtained without referring to their original images ('No Reference' metric). Here, the problem of quality estimation is transformed to a classification problem and solved using extreme learning machine (ELM) algorithm. In ELM, the input weights and the bias values are randomly chosen and the output weights are analytically calculated. The generalization performance of the ELM algorithm for classification problems with imbalance in the number of samples per quality class depends critically on the input weights and the bias values. Hence, we propose two schemes, namely the k-fold selection scheme (KS-ELM) and the real-coded genetic algorithm (RCGA-ELM) to select the input weights and the bias values such that the generalization performance of the classifier is a maximum. Results indicate that the proposed schemes significantly improve the performance of ELM classifier under imbalance condition for image quality assessment. The experimental results prove that the estimated visual quality of the proposed RCGA-ELM emulates the mean opinion score very well. The experimental results are compared with the existing JPEG no-reference image quality metric and full-reference structural similarity image quality metric.

Modified Stranski–Krastanov growth in Ge/Si heterostructures via nanostenciled pulsed laser deposition

The combination of nanostenciling with pulsed laser deposition (PLD) provides a flexible, fast approach for patterning the growth of Ge on Si. Within each stencilled site, the morphological evolution of the Ge structures with deposition follows a modified Stranski–Krastanov (SK) growth mode. By systematically varying the PLD parameters (laser repetition rate and number of pulses) on two different substrate orientations (111 and 100), we have observed corresponding changes in growth morphology, strain and elemental composition using scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy and μ-Raman spectroscopy. The growth behaviour is well predicted within a classical SK scheme, although the Si(100) growth exhibits significant relaxation and ripening with increasing coverage. Other novel aspects of the growth include the increased thickness of the wetting layer and the kinetic control of Si/Ge intermixing via the PLD repetition rate.

Certain Aspects Related To Computation By Modified Crack Closure Integral(MCCI)

This paper presents the proper computational approach for the estimation of strain energy release rates by modified crack closure integral (MCCI). In particular, in the estimation of consistent nodal force vectors used in the MCCI expressions for quarter-point singular elements (wherein all the nodal force vectors participate in computation of strain energy release rates by MCCI). The numerical example of a centre crack tension specimen under uniform loading is presented to illustrate the approach.

A Novel Approach for Designing Generator Excitation controllers Using the IDA-PBC Technique

This paper presents a novel approach for designing of generator excitation controllers using Interconnection and Damping Assignment Passivity Based Control (IDA-PBC) technique for a Single Machine Infinite Bus (SMIB) system that can also be directly used in a multi-machine environment. The generator system equations are modified by referencing the rotor angle with respect to the secondary of the transformer bus instead of the infinite bus. For the modified system equations, IDA-PBC is applied to stabilize the system around an operating condition. The IDA-PBC design results in a Lyapunov function for the modified system. The new control law is practically feasible and can be applied directly to multi-machine system without referring to external system parameters. The effectiveness of the proposed controller is tested on a SMIB and a 10 generator 39 bus test system for a range of operating conditions. The Proposed excitation controller has shown good performance for both small and large disturbances when compared to the performance of a conventional static exciter with power system stabilizer.

Selecting replacements for invasive plants to support frugivores in highly modified sites: a case study focusing on Lantana camara

Invasive plants are regarded as a major threat to biodiversity worldwide. Yet, in some cases, invasive plants now perform important ecological functions. For example, fleshy-fruited invasive plants provide food that supports indigenous frugivore populations. How can the disparate goals of conservation versus invasive weed control be managed? We suggest using the fruit characteristics of the invasive plant to select replacement indigenous plants that are functionally similar from the perspective of frugivores. These could provide replacement food resources at sites where plants with these characteristics are part of the goal plant community and where such plants would not otherwise regenerate. Replacement plants could also redirect seed dispersal processes to favour indigenous, rather than invasive, plant species. We investigated the utility of this approach by ranking all indigenous fleshy-fruited plant species from a region using a simple model that scored species based upon measures of fruit phenology, morphology, conspicuousness and accessibility relative to a target invasive species, Lantana (Lantana camara). The model successfully produced high scores for indigenous plant species that were used by more of the frugivores of Lantana than a random selection of plants, suggesting that this approach warrants further investigation.

Why the Constraints-Led Approach is not teaching games for understanding: A clarification

Background There is some apparent confusion regarding similarities and differences between two popular physical education (PE) pedagogical frameworks, that is, the Constraints-Led Approach (CLA) and Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU). Purpose Our aim in this commentary is to detail important theoretical and pedagogical concepts that distinguish these approaches, as well as to recognise where commonalities exist. Findings In particular, we note that TGfU had its roots in the 1960s in the absence of a substantial theoretical framework, although several attempts to retrospectively scaffold theories around TGfU have subsequently emerged in the literature. TGfU is a learner-centred approach to PE in which teachers are encouraged to design modified games to develop the learner's understanding of tactical concepts. In contrast, the CLA has arisen more recently from the umbrella of Nonlinear Pedagogy (NLP), emerging from the empirically rich theoretical framework of ecological dynamics. The CLA adopts a ‘learner–environment’ scale of analysis in which practitioners are encouraged to identify and modify interacting constraints (of task, environment and learner) to facilitate the coupling of each learner's perceptual and action systems during learning. The CLA is a broader framework which has been adapted for the design of (re)learning environments in PE, sport and movement therapy. Other key distinctions between the approaches include: the overall goals; the way in which the learner and the learning process are modelled; the use of questioning as a pedagogical tool; the focus on individual differences vs. generic concepts; and how progressions and skill interjections are planned and implemented. Conclusions Despite such distinctions, the two approaches are somewhat harmonious and key similarities include: their holistic perspective of the learner; the proposed role of the teacher and the design characteristics of learning tasks in each. Both TGfU and the CLA have a powerful central focus on the nature of learning activities undertaken by each individual learner. This clarification of TGFU and the CLA is intended to act as a catalyst for more empirical work into the complementarity of these juxtaposed pedagogical approaches to learning design.