Seasonal shelf-sea front mapping using satellite ocean colour and temperature to support development of a marine protected area network

Front detection and aggregation techniques were applied to 300m resolution MERIS satellite ocean colour data for the first time, to describe frequently occurring shelf-sea fronts near to the Scottish coast. Medium resolution (1km) thermal and colour data have previously been used to analyse the distribution of surface fronts, though these cannot capture smaller frontal zones or those in close proximity to the coast, particularly where the coastline is convoluted. Seasonal frequent front maps, derived from both chlorophyll and SST data, revealed a number of key frontal zones, a subset of which were based on new insights into the sediment and plankton dynamics provided exclusively by the higher-resolution chlorophyll fronts. The methodology is described for applying colour and thermal front data to the task of identifying zones of ecological importance that could assist the process of defining marine protected areas. Each key frontal zone is analysed to describe its spatial and temporal extent and variability, and possible mechanisms. It is hoped that these tools can provide guidance on the dynamic habitats of marine fauna towards aspects of marine spatial planning and conservation.

Design, construction and testing of an air-cycle refrigeration system for road transport

The environmental attractions of air-cycle refrigeration are considerable. Following a thermodynamic design analysis, an air-cycle demonstrator plant was constructed within the restricted physical envelope of an existing Thermo King SL200 trailer refrigeration unit. This unique plant operated satisfactorily, delivering sustainable cooling for refrigerated trailers using a completely natural and safe working fluid. The full load capacity of the air-cycle unit at -20 °C was 7,8 kW, 8% greater than the equivalent vapour-cycle unit, but the fuel consumption of the air-cycle plant was excessively high. However, at part load operation the disparity in fuel consumption dropped from approximately 200% to around 80%. The components used in the air-cycle demonstrator were not optimised and considerable potential exists for efficiency improvements, possibly to the point where the air-cycle system could rival the efficiency of the standard vapour-cycle system at part-load operation, which represents the biggest proportion of operating time for most units.

Prediction- and simulation-error based perceptron training: Solution space analysis and a novel combined training scheme

Previous papers have noted the difficulty in obtaining neural models which are stable under simulation when trained using prediction-error-based methods. Here the differences between series-parallel and parallel identification structures for training neural models are investigated. The effect of the error surface shape on training convergence and simulation performance is analysed using a standard algorithm operating in both training modes. A combined series-parallel/parallel training scheme is proposed, aiming to provide a more effective means of obtaining accurate neural simulation models. Simulation examples show the combined scheme is advantageous in circumstances where the solution space is known or suspected to be complex. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

University space planning and space-type profiles

Universities planning the provision of space for their teaching requirements need to do so in a fashion that reduces capital and maintenance costs whilst still providing a high-quality level of service. Space plans should aim to provide sufficient capacity without incurring excessive costs due to over-capacity. A simple measure used to estimate over-provision is utilisation. Essentially, the utilisation is the fraction of seats that are used in practice, or the ratio of demand to supply. However, studies usually find that utilisation is low, often only 20–40%, and this is suggestive of significant over-capacity.

Our previous work has provided methods to improve such space planning. They identify a critical level of utilisation as the highest level that can be achieved whilst still reliably satisfying the demand for places to allocate teaching events. In this paper, we extend this body of work to incorporate the notions of event-types and space-types. Teaching events have multiple ‘event-types’, such as lecture, tutorial, workshop, etc., and there are generally corresponding space-types. Matching the type of an event to a room of a corresponding space-type is generally desirable. However, realistically, allocation happens in a mixed space-type environment where teaching events of a given type are allocated to rooms of another space-type; e.g., tutorials will borrow lecture theatres or workshop rooms.

We propose a model and methodology to quantify the effects of space-type mixing and establish methods to search for better space-type profiles; where the term “space-type profile” refers to the relative numbers of each type of space. We give evidence that these methods have the potential to improve utilisation levels. Hence, the contribution of this paper is twofold. Firstly, we present informative studies of the effects of space-type mixing on utilisation, and critical utilisations. Secondly, we present straightforward though novel methods to determine better space-type profiles, and give an example in which the resulting profiles are indeed significantly improved.

A Royal Encounter: space, spectacle and the Queen’s visit to Ireland 2011

This commentary reflects on the first official visit made by a British monarch to Ireland since its independence. Focusing on three key moments of Queen Elizabeth's itinerary – the Garden of Remembrance, the Irish National War Memorial, Islandbridge, and the state banquet, Dublin Castle – I suggest that efforts to simultaneously honour rebels/soldiers in acts of public remembrance sought to re-position the past between these two islands in ways which recognised conflict but also aspired towards reconciled understandings of how that past could be more peacefully calibrated.

Joint complex diversity coding and channel coding over space, time and frequency

This study provides a general diversity analysis for joint complex diversity coding (CDC) and channel coding-based space-time-frequency codeing is provided. The mapping designs from channel coding to CDC are crucial for efficient exploitation of the diversity potential. This study provides and proves a sufficient condition of full diversity construction with joint three-dimensional CDC and channel coding, bit-interleaved coded complex diversity coding and symbol-interleaved coded complex diversity coding. Both non-iterative and iterative detections of joint channel code and CDC transmission are investigated. The proposed minimum mean-square error-based iterative soft decoding achieves the performance of the soft sphere decoding with reduced complexity.

Nonclassicality Criteria from Phase-Space Representations and Information-Theoretical Constraints Are Maximally Inequivalent

We consider two celebrated criteria for defining the nonclassicality of bipartite bosonic quantum systems, the first stemming from information theoretic concepts and the second from physical constraints on the quantum phase space. Consequently, two sets of allegedly classical states are singled out: (i) the set C composed of the so-called classical-classical (CC) states—separable states that are locally distinguishable and do not possess quantum discord; (ii) the set P of states endowed with a positive P representation (P-classical states)—mixtures of Glauber coherent states that, e.g., fail to show negativity of their Wigner function. By showing that C and P are almost disjoint, we prove that the two defining criteria are maximally inequivalent. Thus, the notions of classicality that they put forward are radically different. In particular, generic CC states show quantumness in their P representation, and vice versa, almost all P-classical states have positive quantum discord and, hence, are not CC. This inequivalence is further elucidated considering different applications of P-classical and CC states. Our results suggest that there are other quantum correlations in nature than those revealed by entanglement and quantum discord.

Design and testing of transonic linear cascade tunnel with optimized slotted walls

In linear cascade wind tunnel tests, a high level of pitchwise periodicity is desirable to reproduce the azimuthal periodicity in the stage of an axial compressor or turbine. Transonic tests in a cascade wind tunnel with open jet boundaries have been shown to suffer from spurious waves, reflected at the jet boundary, that compromise the flow periodicity in pitch. This problem can be tackled by placing at this boundary a slotted tailboard with a specific wall void ratio s and pitch angle a. The optimal value of the s-a pair depends on the test section geometry and on the tunnel running conditions. An inviscid two-dimensional numerical method has been developed to predict transonic linear cascade flows, with and without a tailboard, and quantify the nonperiodicity in the discharge. This method includes a new computational boundary condition to model the effects of the tailboard slots on the cascade interior flow. This method has been applied to a six-blade turbine nozzle cascade, transonically tested at the University of Leicester. The numerical results identified a specific slotted tailboard geometry, able to minimize the spurious reflected waves and regain some pitchwise flow periodicity. The wind tunnel open jet test section was redesigned accordingly. Pressure measurements at the cascade outlet and synchronous spark schlieren visualization of the test section, with and without the optimized slotted tailboard, have confirmed the gain in pitchwise periodicity predicted by the numerical model. Copyright © 2006 by ASME.