The hydrogeological landscape (HGL) framework provides a landscape characterisation method that identifies areas of similar physical, hydrogeological, hydrological, chemical and biological properties, referred to as HGL units. The underlying principle of the HGL framework is that water distribution and movement is controlled by climate, landform, geology, regolith, soil and vegetation properties. By understanding the patterns of variability in the setting and controls of atmospheric, surface and groundwater systems for a given landscape, the developed HGL units, and associated landscape element-based management areas, can be used for hazard assessment and natural resource management centred on water availability, quality, sustainability and associated ecological systems. Existing wetland frameworks also demonstrate that it is the hydrogeomorphological or hydrogeological characteristics of the landscape that will determine the variability in water inputs and outputs for a wetland water balance, a principle shared with the HGL framework. It is therefore logical that HGL units and management areas can be used as planning units for wetland hazard assessment and management. This paper presents an assessment of climate change vulnerability for 1296 wetlands across the Australian Capital Territory using indicators representing current anthropogenic pressure, future ecological change and future hydrological change. The use of management areas for the hazard assessment allows understanding of the patterns of variability in the chosen indicators and hazard assessment outcomes specifically for the areas to be managed. This approach allows consideration of the landscape setting when identifying suitable locations to undertake on-ground management actions to address the hazards identified.

In Tasmania, most salts in the landscape originate from rainfall and accumulate in landscapes after evaporation occurs. The distribution and quantity of salt in rainfall from an array of bulk deposition collectors in the Greater Tamar Catchment were assessed for the period September 2013 to August 2014. The bulk deposition samples were analysed for pH, electrical conductivity, major ions (Ca, Mg, Na, SO4 and Cl) and a selection of trace ions. The average salt flux across the study area was 79 +/- 10 kg/ha/yr region, ranging from 170 +/- 12 kg/ha/yr near the coast in the north to 42 +/- 6 kg/ha/yr inland. Deposition of most ions decreased from the northwest to the south and east, and peaked in winter and spring. Geomorphic factors such as elevation and topography have an important effect on the volume of rainfall and flux of salt from windblown dust and oceanic aerosols. A comparison of measured chloride and salt deposition in Tasmania with other Australian atmospheric studies indicates that continental-scale models of salt flux are not appropriate for Tasmania. New models are proposed that take into account the influence of the Southern Ocean, Tasman Sea and topographic variation in the study area. The results provide improved estimates of rainfall-derived salt inputs to catchments in northeast Tasmania and enable more accurate salt budget modelling. Improved understanding of volumes and distribution of salts has implications for the management of soils and infrastructure that degrade as a result of dryland salinity in Tasmania.

The Hydrogeological Landscape (HGL) Framework is a landscape-characterisation tool that is used to discern areas of similar physical, hydrogeological, hydrological, chemical and biological properties, referred to as HGL Units. The HGL Framework facilitates prioritisation of natural-resource management investment by identifying current and potential hazards in the landscape. Within prioritised regions, on-ground management actions are tailored for specific Management Areas within individual HGL Units. The HGL Unit boundaries are determined through expert interpretation of spatial and field based datasets, such as climate, landform, geology, regolith, soil, stream network, groundwater flow systems, water quality and vegetation assemblages. The resulting HGL Units are validated by an interdisciplinary team using field assessment and biophysical testing. The use of the HGL Framework for new applications creates opportunities for refinement of the existing methodology and products for end users. This paper uses an application in the Australian Capital Territory as a case study to illustrate two enhanced techniques for the landscape characterisation component of the HGL Framework: use of an unsupervised statistical learning algorithm, Self-Organising Maps (SOM), to further validate HGL Units; and landform modelling to assist in delineation of Management Areas. The combined use of SOM and landform modelling techniques provides statistical support to the existing expert and field-based techniques, ensuring greater rigour and confidence in determination of landscape patterns. This creates a more refined HGL Framework landscape-characterisation tool, facilitating more precise hazard assessment and strategic natural-resource management by end users.

In Australia, salinity has the potential to affect up to 17million hectares of agricultural and pastoral land. For many degraded sites, biophysical hazards are often poorly understood and consequently poorly managed. Attempts to remediate areas affected by salinity have met with varying degrees of success. The New South Wales (NSW) Office of Environment and Heritage, NSW Department of Primary Industries, University of Canberra and Geoscience Australia have collaborated to develop a biophysical expert-based approach for the assessment and management of salinity within landscapes. The Hydrogeological Landscape (HGL) framework provides a structure for understanding how salinity manifests in the landscape, how differences in salinity are expressed across the landscape and how salinity may best be managed. The HGL framework merges the flow dynamics of the groundwater flow system with the landscape elements of the soil landscape or regolith landform approaches. This is the first approach to specifically address all three manifestations of salinity: land salinity, in-stream salt load and in-stream salt concentration. The HGL framework methodology recognises the interplay between surface and subsurface flow systems, as well as the capacity for water to interact with salt stores in the landscape, and identifies biophysical landscape characteristics (e.g. amount and type of vegetation cover, typical land use practice) that affect these interactions. The HGL framework is an expert system that integrates the spatial variability of landscape characteristics and salinity processes to produce a salinity hazard assessment for any given area.

The Islands of Ponza and Gavi (western Pontine Archipelago, Italy) preserve parts of a subaqueously emplaced, high‐silica (75–77% SiO2) rhyolitic lava flow that overlies the margins of three older domes. Exposures of the lava alone cover 24 km2, and with a thickness of 150 m exposed in the cliffs, the preserved volume of the lava flow is 3.6 km3, and the original volume is likely to have exceeded 7 km3. The lava flow consists of coherent obsidian and several hyaloclastite facies, including in situ and clast‐rotated breccias and sandstones, which all exhibit gradational relationships. The coherent obsidian occurs as separate domains and is often flow banded. Although flow folds occur, the banding is generally subhorizontal, dipping gently to the NNE. The hyaloclastite, representing 90% of the lava by volume, has a diffuse layering varying from 0.5 to 2 m in thickness. This layering also dips gently to the NNE and is marked in places by alternation of some coherent horizons, coarse and finely fragmented in situ hyaloclastite, pumiceous hyaloclastite, and clast‐rotated hyaloclastite. The layering is laterally continuous and consistent in orientation over most of the 13 km length of Ponza: the subhorizontal orientation of the flow banding and presence of resedimented deposits in the upper parts of the sequence indicate that the unit is a lava flow. The resedimented deposits comprise both proximal and distal deposits of debris flows and turbidity currents initiated by gravitational instability of the upper and marginal parts of the lava flow and include stratified monomictic obsidian breccias and bedded vitric siltstones and sandstones. The lava flow has been intruded and crosscut by rhyolitic bodies of various ages, including discordant, coherent to internally fractured contemporaneous rhyolite bodies, and late, penecontemporaneous dikes with glassy margins and alteration haloes.

This article introduces three areas of study: 1 telefunctioning; 2 a control method for producing telefunctioning; and 3 an analysis of human-robot interaction when telefunctioning governs the system behavior. Telefunctioning facilitates the maneuvering of loads by creating a perpetual sense of the load dynamics for the operator. Telefunctioning is defined as a robotic manipulation method in which the dynamic behaviors of the slave robot and the master robot are functions of each other; these functions are the designer’s choice and depend on the application. (In a subclass of telefunctioning currently referred to as telepresence, these functions are specified as “unity” so that the master and slave variables (e.g., position, velocity) are dynamically equal.) To produce telefunctioning, this work determines a minimum number of functions relating the robots’ variables, and then develops a control architecture which guarantees that the defined functions govern the dynamic behavior of the closed-loop system. The stability of the closed-loop system (i.e., master robot, slave robot, human, and the load being manipulated) is analyzed and sufficient conditions for stability are derived.

The research investigates a new method of control for telemanipulators called bilateral impedance control. This new method differs from previous ap"roaches in that interaction forces are used as the communication signals betWeen the master and slave rooots. The main advantage of bilateral impedance control is that it permits the arbitrary specification of desired system performance characteristics. Performance c!'n be described by a set of three independent parameters that relate the robot forces and positions. nis set of parameters may includ.: the force ratio, the position ratio, .lid the robot impedances. The s)stem stability is analyzed with the Nyquist Criterion to obtain two conditions that are sufficient to guarantee closed-loop stabilit)'. This control architecture is implemented on a telemanipulator having seven degrees of freedom. The theoretical predictions for performance and stability are experimentally verified. Teleoperation is greatly C Ihanced if the forces acting on the slave robot are fed back to the op,~rator. This gives the operator the feeling that she is manipulating the remote environment directly. Systems that provide force reflxtion from the environment are called bilateral because infom ation travels in both directions between the master and slave. In c~ntly used telerobotic control methods, the slave robot is driven by position or velocity s.gnals from the master robot (1-4). Force reflection is implemented i'1 several ways. The master robot may be back driven by position signals from the slave robot. The position error generated when the slave contacts the environment allows the operator to feel the interaction (2). Alternately, the interaction force may be sensed directly by a force sensor on the slave, and the resulting force signal is used to back drive the master (2). A comparison of common control methods is given in (5:. This paper proposes a new method of telerobotic contr:>l that is based solely on the exchange of force signals. The prc')Osed control architecture has several advantages over pre lious approaches. It permits the arbitr.u-y specification of desired system performance characteristics. The relationship between force and position can be modulated at bC'th ends of the system to suit the requirements of the task. The master and slave robots can be stabilized independently without becoming involved in the overall system dynamics. Finally, thr: new control method allows the human to overcome the master rLbot's resistance to motion if it has high friction, inertia, or gear reduction.

The present work is concerned with the development of geometric models for draped fabric surfaces. The concepts of intrinsic geometry have been used to define the geometric nature of such surfaces. Drape is an important consideration in apparel design. In the present paper it is proposed to define the shape of a draped fabric using intrinsic geometry parameters such as curvature and are length. Furthermore the relation between intrinsic geometry parameters and fabric mechanical properties such as bending and shearing has also been investigated. The shape of a draped fabric surface depends on the support geometry also. This aspect has been investigated by considering different types of support geometries. The geometric model developed has been used to render several types of draped fabric surfaces. The proposed approach will serve as a useful predictive tool in apparel design.

This article introduces three concepts: 1) "telefunctioning", 2) a control method for achieving telefunctioning, and 3) an approach to the analysis of human-robot interaction when telefunctioning governs the system behavior. Telefunctioning facilitates maneuvering of loads by creating a perpetual sense of the load dynamics for the operator. We define telefunctioning as a robotic manipulation method in which the dynamic behaviors of the slave robot and the master robot are functions of each other; these functions are the designer's choice and depend on the application. In a subclass of telefunctioning called telepresence, all of the relationships between the master and the slave are specified as "unity" so that all of the master and slave variables (e.g., position, velocity) are dynamically equal. To create telefunctioning, we arrive at a minimum number of functions relating the robots' variables. We then develop a control architecture which guarantees that the defined functions govern the dynamic behavior of the system. The stability of the closed-loop system (master robot, slave robot, human, and the load being manipulated) is analyzed and sufficient conditions for stability are derived.

Administered four screening instruments--Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Form A (PPVT-A), Riley Preschool Developmental Screening Inventory-Designs (RPDD), Riley Make-A-Boy (RMB) and the McCarthy Scales of Children's Ability Designs (MSCD)--to 23 normal children with no evidence of neurological impairment and 23 neurologically impaired children under 6 years of age. The children were matched for age and sex and were from a day-care program for working parents and a therapeutic preschool program, respectively. Significant differences were found between the two groups on all instruments. The highest positive correlation for the impaired group was between the PPVT-A and the RPDD, while for the control group the highest positive correlation was between the RPDD and MSCD.

23 preschool boys and girls with developmental delays were administered the Peabody-A, Riley Design, McCarthy Designs, and the Riley human figure. Correlations among scores ranged from .58 to .80 suggesting preliminary screening might be undertaken by a qualified teacher though this sample was very small and special.

Operant conditioning procedures (food reward immediately following a desired response) seldom have been applied to the study of learning ability in dairy cattle, and yet they offer the dairy researcher unique opportunities to study and control important behavioral responses. The method provides the animal with a means of communicating with the control system, a system for the setting up of problems, and a mechanism for reinforcement (food reward). Seven Jersey cows were trained to press a lever with food as the reinforcer. Response patterns under fixed ratio, variable ratio, fixed interval, and variable interval schedules of reinforcement were studied. Fixed ratio performance, in which a response is reinforced upon completion of a fixed number of responses, followed the typical pattern with frequent pressing. The length of the post-reinforcement pause (animal eating) increased as the ratio increased. Fixed interval tasks, in which a response is reinforced after a given interval, exhibited relatively long post-reinforcement pauses followed by a rapid rate of responding to a stable level. Variable ratio (reward after a variable number of presses) showed a high rate of response and comparatively short pauses before feeding. Variable interval (reward on first press after variable seconds) showed a coarse, uneven pattern of presses. All schedules were typical of those of other species. This study illustrates how well the experimentally naive cow responds to learning procedures with a food reinforcement.

Two unusual electrophoretic variants of serum albumin occurring along with normal albumin were found in Asians. One (albumin Gombak), a slowly migrating variant discovered in 2 Malayan aborigine sisters, was not distinguishable from a rare variant previously reported in a French family. The other (albumin Medan), a rapidly migrating variant found in an Indonesian family in Northern Sumatra, is distinguishable from 4 other rapidly migrating variants. At least 18 different electrophoretically detectable variants of human serum albumin have now been reported.

Regolith is of great importance from a land management perspective, as it is the dominant media through which shallow fluid flow takes place and its characteristics help determine the types of agricultural practices that can be sustained (Southwell 2001). The make-up of regolith materials also has an influence on the types of landforms that are observed in an area (Ollier & Pain 1996). This means that the composition of the regolith influences geomorphology.