Aerial Component Research Articles

Chest CT scan for the screening of air anomalies at risk of pulmonary barotrauma for the initial medical assessment of fitness to dive in a military population.

Introduction: The presence of intra-pulmonary air lesions such as cysts, blebs and emphysema bullae, predisposes to pulmonary barotrauma during pressure variations, especially during underwater diving activities. These rare accidents can have dramatic consequences. Chest radiography has long been the baseline examination for the detection of respiratory pathologies in occupational medicine. It has been replaced since 2018 by the thoracic CT scan for military diving fitness in France. The objective of this work was to evaluate the prevalence of the pulmonary abnormalities of the thoracic CT scan, and to relate them to the characteristics of this population and the results of the spirometry. Methods: 330 records of military diving candidates who underwent an initial assessment between October 2018 and March 2021 were analyzed, in a single-center retrospective analysis. The following data were collected: sex, age, BMI, history of respiratory pathologies and smoking, treatments, allergies, diving practice, results of spirometry, reports of thoracic CT scans, as well as fitness decision. Results: The study included 307 candidates, mostly male, with a median age of 25 years. 19% of the subjects had abnormal spirometry. We identified 25% of divers with CT scan abnormalities. 76% of the abnormal scans were benign nodules, 26% of which measured 6 mm or more. Abnormalities with an aerial component accounted for 13% of the abnormal scans with six emphysema bullae, three bronchial dilatations and one cystic lesion. No association was found between the presence of nodules and the general characteristics of the population, whereas in six subjects emphysema bullae were found statistically associated with active smoking or abnormal spirometry results. Conclusion: The systematic performance of thoracic CT scan in a young population free of pulmonary pathology revealed a majority of benign nodules. Abnormalities with an aerial component are much less frequent, but their presence generally leads to a decision of unfitness. These results argue in favor of a systematic screening of aeric pleuro-pulmonary lesions during the initial assessment for professional divers.

Evaluation of Phytochemicals and Histochemicals of Cyperus rotandus and Its Thrombolytic Activity

Plants are one of the most abundant sources of potentially useful chemical compounds and medicinal properties. As a result, over the last few decades, the market for plant research has been steadily increasing all over the world. The future pharmacological behaviours of Cyperus rotundus Linn. are assessed using a literature review as a basis. Extracts from various sections of the plant (aerial component, tuber, rhizomes, etc.) produce significant amounts of medicinal active compounds, as well as the chemical structures of phytochemical constituents. The aim of this analysis was to look into the thrombolytic action of Cyperus rotandus methanolic extracts. The fraction's thrombolytic effect was studied in clot lysis experiment. In a thrombolytic activity test, the extract caused 60 % lysis of the blood clot, compared to 70.10 % and 4.70 % lysis for the positive control (streptokinase) and negative control (saline water), respectively. As a result, the extract possessed significant thrombolytic activity. To determine which compounds are responsible for the current pharmacological activities, detailed pharmacological and phytochemical studies are needed. The phytochemical research revealed the presence of phytochemical constituents in various solvent fractions. The presence of these phytochemicals was found to be responsible for the plants' in-vitro thrombolytic action.

Hordeum murinum aspiration revealed by a pneumopleurocutaneous fistula in a 15-month-old infant

BackgroundHordeum murinum is a specie of grass rarely reported among the aspirated foreign body. It has high tissue penetration power and may cause lung damages.Case presentationWe report the case of a 15-month-old girl who choke while playing in the grass without any evident cause. This episode was immediately followed by vomiting and coughing with traces of blood. While she was fine during the following week, she relapsed at day (D) 7 with fever. At D10, she was finally hospitalized for signs of respiratory distress. The chest CT-scan revealed a voluminous right sub pleural empyema with an aerial component, responsible for the collapse of the right lower lobe, and complicated by a pneumopleurocutaneous fistula to the right paravertebral muscles. Intravenous antibiotics were prescribed, but no invasive procedure was performed. At D18, the spikelet of a false barley spontaneously externalized through the fistula. Evolution was favorable thereafter with disappearance of the fever and progressive decrease of the biological inflammatory syndrome. The follow-up at 4 months was reassuring, with normal clinical evaluation, and complete regression of the empyema on the chest X-rays.ConclusionsHordeum murinum is a rare type of foreign body, and the aspiration often goes unnoticed. In these peculiar cases, CT-scans can be as informative as bronchoscopies, and the evolution is usually favorable after fistulization.

Adaptive UAV-Assisted Geographic Routing With Q-Learning in VANET

The Q-learning based geographic routing approaches suffer from problems of low converging speed and inefficient resources utilization in VANET due to the dynamic scale of Q-value table. In addition, the next hop selection based on local information can not always be conducive to the global message forwarding. In this letter, we propose an adaptive unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) assisted geographic routing with Q-Learning. The routing scheme is divided into two components. In the aerial component, the global routing path is calculated by the fuzzy-logic and depth-first-search (DFS) algorithm using the UAV-collected information like the global road traffic, which is then forwarded to the ground requesting vehicle. In the ground component, the vehicle maintains a fix-sized Q-table converged with a well-designed reward function and forwards the routing request to the optimal node by looking up the Q-table filtered according to the global routing path. The simulation results show the proposed approach performs remarkably well in packet delivering and end-to-end delay.

Energy aware endurance framework for mission critical aerial networks

Recently, aerial networks have been offered as assistant communication infrastructures against some temporary operations especially in mission critical events. However, the lifetime of an aerial component is much less than the estimated operational time because of power supply capacity restrictions. Thus, there should be some replenishment processes between Aerial Base Stations (ABSs) to maintain the physical presence of the topology, i.e. the endurance. During a replenishment process, the relation between energy consumption and flight characteristic of a drone should be carefully taken in to account, because motional energy consumption is much more than the communicational and computational ones. For this purpose, we provide an energy aware endurance framework by modeling an energy consumption digraph model, representing an Aerial Pickup and Delivery Problem (APDP) for flight planning and implementing a novel algorithmic solution. Moreover, replenishment factor (γ) and flight planning cost (δ) parameters are presented to compare the evaluation of the proposed method with a simple replenishment approach. A social event in a stadium is selected as the evaluation environment, and is simulated for three scenarios using Software in the Loop (SITL) simulator with MAVLink Proxy drone controller. According to the evaluation results obtained from simulation logs, our design provides 13% more endurance per ABS (η), an average of 15% less energy consumption w.r.t. δ parameter and 11% less γ value compared to the simple replenishment strategy.

The eradication of ungulates (sheep and goats) from Dirk Hartog Island, Shark Bay World Heritage Area, Australia

The eradication of ungulates from offshore islands has now become achievable for island managers, with the size and complexity of an island no longer a major impediment to the desired outcome. Here, we report on a whole-of-island eradication campaign of ungulates (sheep Ovis aries and goats Capra hircus) from the semi-arid Dirk Hartog Island (63,300 ha) off the western Australian coast. The motive behind this campaign was to contribute towards the ecological restoration of this former grazing lease. From 2005, a concerted effort to remove ungulates began with regular destocking, and from 2010 a methodical aerial and ground shooting campaign was undertaken. Long-term commitments of funding and departmental support, staff with diverse skills, and an advisory network of professional people, have been critical components to this large-scale exercise. From 2005 to 2017 a total of 16,318 ungulates (5185 sheep and 11,133 goats) were removed from Dirk Hartog Island: 6839 by mustering, 2422 by ground shooting, 7040 by aerial shooting, and finally 17 by follow-up aerial monitoring and ground shooting. The island was declared free of ungulates in November 2017. To determine the success of the whole-of-island eradication campaign, multiple methods were adopted to locate remaining animals: use of ‘Judas’ goats, monitoring by motion-sensor cameras at water sources and across the island, and recording of tracks and fresh scats to locate any remaining animals. We estimated the likelihood that sheep and goats have been successfully eradicated from the island is 99.9% and 96.9%, respectively. The total cost (AUS$) of the aerial component of the eradication was $1,055,184, an average of $150/goat or $16/ha. The monitoring phase of the campaign (aerial detection and ground shoot) cost the least in terms of actual expenses (approximately $187,000) but the most is terms of cost per remaining goat (approximately $14,400). Ecosystem recovery following the eradication is already apparent with increased vegetation cover and reduced erosion. We conclude with some shared lessons that may assist similar large-scale eradication campaigns of islands. To date, Dirk Hartog Island is the largest island in the world where whole-of-island goat (and sheep) eradication has been achieved.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems for Remote Estimation of Flooded Areas Based on Complex Image Processing.

Floods are natural disasters which cause the most economic damage at the global level. Therefore, flood monitoring and damage estimation are very important for the population, authorities and insurance companies. The paper proposes an original solution, based on a hybrid network and complex image processing, to this problem. As first novelty, a multilevel system, with two components, terrestrial and aerial, was proposed and designed by the authors as support for image acquisition from a delimited region. The terrestrial component contains a Ground Control Station, as a coordinator at distance, which communicates via the internet with more Ground Data Terminals, as a fixed nodes network for data acquisition and communication. The aerial component contains mobile nodes—fixed wing type UAVs. In order to evaluate flood damage, two tasks must be accomplished by the network: area coverage and image processing. The second novelty of the paper consists of texture analysis in a deep neural network, taking into account new criteria for feature selection and patch classification. Color and spatial information extracted from chromatic co-occurrence matrix and mass fractal dimension were used as well. Finally, the experimental results in a real mission demonstrate the validity of the proposed methodologies and the performances of the algorithms.

The “Subtile Aereal Spirit of Fountains”: Mineral Waters and the History of Pneumatic Chemistry

The standard history of pneumatic chemistry is dominated by a landmark-discoverers-type narrative stretching from Robert Boyle, through Stephen Hales, Joseph Black, and Joseph Priestley, to Antoine Lavoisier. This article challenges this view by demonstrating the importance of the study of mineral waters - and their "aerial component" - to the evolution of pneumatic chemistry, from around van Helmont to the period before Black (1640s-1750s). Among key figures examined are Joan Baptista van Helmont, Johann Joachim Becher, Robert Boyle, Friedrich Hoffmann, and William Brownrigg.

Antifeedant and repellent activities of Melia azedarach L. fruit extracts on fall armyworm

The aim of this study was to evaluate the appetite suppression and insecticidal activity of Melia azedarach aerial component extracts on the larvae of Spodoptera frugiperda obtained from the maceration by solvent, ultrasound and supercritical CO 2 extraction. Extracts of aerial components of M. azedarach were obtained by three different extraction methods (maceration, ultrasound and supercritical extraction) using different solvents (ethanol, n-hexane, ethyl acetate and CO 2 ) for use in testing appetite suppression activity in S. frugiperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). Extracts were sprayed on third instar larvae, which were then placed on corn seedlings. Extracts prepared by ethanol maceration of the fruits and branches showed appetite suppression and repellent activity, extracts of fruits obtained with n-hexane solvent and supercritical CO 2 resulted in significantly reduced leaf damage in the corn, with a result equivalent to the positive control (commercial insecticide). Regarding larvae mortality, the supercritical CO 2 extract of fruits resulted in the highest S. frugiperda mortality among the tested extracts, equivalent to treatment with positive control. This extract appears to be the most promising for controlling this corn crop insect pest.

Adjusting for undercoverage of access-points in creel surveys with fewer overflights.

Creel surveys are used in recreational fisheries to estimate angling effort, catch, and harvest. Aerial-access creel surveys rely on two components: (1) a ground component in which fishing parties returning from their trips are interviewed at some access-points of the fishery; (2) an aerial component in which the number of fishing parties is counted. A common practice is to sample fewer aerial survey days than ground survey days. This is thought by practitioners to reduce the cost of the survey, but there is a lack of sound statistical methodology for this case. In this article, we propose various estimation methods to handle this situation and evaluate their asymptotic properties from a design-based perspective. We also propose formulas for the optimal allocation of the effort between the ground and the aerial portion of the survey, for given costs and budget. A simulation study investigates the performance of the estimators. Finally, we apply our methods to data from an annual Kootenay Lake survey (Canada).

TEMPERATURE AND SUBSTRATE INFLUENCES ON SEED GERMINATION AND SEEDLING FORMATION IN Callisthene fasciculata Mart. (VOCHYSIACEAE) IN THE LABORATORY1

ABSTRACTCallisthene fasciculata Mart. is a tree belonging to the Vochysiaceae family. Its wood is moderately heavy and resistant and used to make poles, beams, and other structures. The aim of this work was to evaluate seed germination and the initial growth of seedlings of C. fasciculata at different temperatures and in different substrates. Seeds were collected from fruits in the Pantanal de Miranda, Mato Grosso do Sul state, Brazil. In one experiment, the seeds were subjected to constant temperatures of 20, 25, 30 and 35 °C and to alternating temperatures of 20-30 and 25-35 °C (on paper substrate). In another experiment, the seeds were subjected to temperatures of 20 and 25 °C on three substrates (sand, vermiculite and between paper) in a germinator. The experiment had a randomized design, with four replicates of 25 seeds per treatment. The F-values obtained for germination indicated no significant effect of substrate or temperature on the final germination percentage. The analyses revealed no effect of a treatment interaction (temperature x substrate) on either germination or average germination time; however, a treatment interaction effect was observed on the germination speed index. The treatment combinations yielding the best performance were between paper substrate at 20 °C and sand substrate at 25 °C. There was a significant effect of the interaction between temperature and substrate on seedling growth, with increased root growth observed in the between paper substrate at 25 °C and increased aerial component growth in both sand at 20 °C and vermiculite at 25 °C. The between paper treatment at 25 °C yielded the greatest final seedling size. Between paper is the most recommended substrate for the production of seedlings due to its ease of handling and lower probability of contamination.

A Single-End Method for Fault Section Estimation in Distribution Network Using Wavelets

The paper presents a method for identify fault section in distribution network, which uses the traveling wave data recorded at the substation only. After modal transformation, the aerial mode component is in stable velocity and low attenuation and utilized in the method. Compared to the first wave head, subsequent wave heads of aerial mode component have some particular characteristics with time delay and wavelet transform modulus maxima (WTMM) ratio. The number of characteristic wave heads (CWHs) which are judged by characteristic time delays (CTDs) is the criteria to identify the fault section. The simulation results verify that the method has high accuracy.

A New Algorithm of Phase to Ground Fault Location for Electric Power Feeder

t is a great significance for power supply reliability and smart grid to locate feeder fault quickly and accurately for distribution network. A new ground fault traveling-wave signal time-frequency analysis method is proposed, which decomposes the aerial mode component and zero mode component of fault current based on EMD to get multi-stage stable intrinsic mode function (IMF). The first IMF contains high frequency components which can reflect the mutation of signal. Hilbert-Huang transformation is done for the first IMF to get the instantaneous frequency of signal. And then check the moment of traveling wave arrival by the instantaneous frequency in the figure of IMF time-frequency. The fault distance is computed based on the time difference between the moments of wave arrived of aerial mode component and zero mode components. Simulation shows that this method is able to accurately give the distance of fault without the influence of the random fault condition such as fault transition resistance and the moment of fault.

Pollen source areas of lakes with inflowing rivers: modern pollen influx data from Lake Baiyangdian, China

Comparing pollen influx recorded in traps above the surface and below the surface of Lake Baiyangdian in northern China shows that the average pollen influx in the traps above the surface is much lower, at 1210 grains cm−2 a−1 (varying from 550 to 2770 grains cm−2 a−1), than in the traps below the surface which average 8990 grains cm−2 a−1 (ranging from 430 to 22310 grains cm−2 a−1). This suggests that about 12% of the total pollen influx is transported by air, and 88% via inflowing water. If hydrophyte pollen types are not included, the mean pollen influx in the traps above the surface decreases to 470 grains cm−2 a−1 (varying from 170 to 910 grains cm−2 a−1) and to 5470 grains cm−2 a−1 in the traps below the surface (ranging from 270 to 12820 grains cm−2 a−1), suggesting that the contribution of waterborne pollen to the non-hydrophyte pollen assemblages in Lake Baiyangdian is about 92%. When trap assemblages are compared with sediment–water interface samples from the same location, the differences between pollen assemblages collected using different methods are more significant than differences between assemblages collected at different sample sites in the lake using the same trapping methods. We compare the ratios of terrestrial pollen and aquicolous pollen types (T/A) between traps in the water and aerial traps, and examine pollen assemblages to determine whether proportions of long-distance taxa (i.e. those known to only grow beyond the estimated aerial source radius); these data suggest that the pollen source area of this lake is composed of three parts, an aerial component mainly carried by wind, a fluvial catchment component transported by rivers and another waterborne component transported by surface wash. Where the overall vegetation composition within the ‘aerial catchment’ is different from that of the hydrological catchment, the ratio between aerial and waterborne pollen influx offers a method for estimating the relative importance of these two sources, and therefore a starting point for defining a pollen source area for a lake with inflowing rivers.

Balloon Based Oil Spill Surveillance

Abstract: Spill response vessels are currently guided by aircraft over flights and ability of the crew to see oil on the water. The aerial component can be limited by weather, daylight, and fuel capacity. Autonomous aircraft could provide a broader aerial operating window, but obtaining permits to fly the vehicles has been difficult. We present another approach to providing continuous aerial observations for spill response vessels. This approach is based on using a visible and infrared surveillance camera below a tethered balloon. This approach has simple permitting requirements: if deployed more than five miles from an airport and below 500 feet a permit is not required. It can remain airborne continuously. It transmits images to the mother ship and surrounding vessels. The cameras can be controlled by the mother ship. And it provides a means to view a large area around a vessel. We present a description of a system and results from field testing in Alaska. The system tested used off-the-shelf components...

The role of vegetation in determining patterns of the accretion of salt marsh sediment

Abstract Vegetation contributes to the stability of the salt marsh surface both through the soil reinforcement provided by the root mass and by the ability of the aerial component of plant growth to increase the rates of sediment deposition. Salt marsh vegetation is variable in height, thickness and also in stiffness. These characteristics can all modify the role of the vegetation in trapping sediment. As the height of the vegetation increases so also does Manning’s ‘ n ’, coefficient of roughness, but the taller vegetation is more easily flattened by moving water. It is not necessarily, therefore, more effective in slowing water flow and increasing sediment deposition. Shorter vegetation (mean height = 50 mm) has been shown to be quite effective, particularly if it is stiff enough to resist being flattened by the water at the rates of flow experienced. The interplay of rates of sediment deposition is discussed with reference to data relating vegetation structure and pattern to local variations in accretion rates in salt marshes at Stiffkey, Norfolk, and Tollesbury, Essex, over a period of three years. At Tollesbury the mean annual rate of accretion was estimated to be 4.27 mm a −1 but there was no correlation between the vegetation height (mean height = 148 mm) and changes in surface level. At Stiffkey however the annual rate of accretion was estimated to be 3.08 mm a −1 , but there was a significant positive correlation between vegetation height (mean height = 75 mm) and accretion. There is evidence that the relationship between effective vegetation height and the process of sediment accumulation is complex. Factors that can affect the relationship include the nature of the sediment, the height and composition of the vegetation and the microtopography and elevation of the marsh itself.

HYMENOPTERA OF THE WAGNER NATURAL AREA, A BOREAL SPRING FEN IN CENTRAL ALBERTA

AbstractThe Wagner Natural Area, located 8 km west of Edmonton, Alberta (53°34′N 113°47′W), contains a boreal spring fen estimated to be 4700 years old. The site was selected in 1985 for a survey of its arthropod fauna. A transect of the site from marl pools through fen, edge effect, and treed swamp was sampled for arthropods using pan and Malaise traps. Specialized microhabitats outside the transect were identified and sampled using pan traps. The Wagner fen samples contain 2181 species of arthropods contributing to a total known biota of 2905 species in the peatland. Of those, 1410 are Hymenoptera. Although seven other peatland studies are known, the inability of systematists to name most species prevents direct comparisons among peatlands. Data obtained from the Hymenoptera collections at Wagner demonstrate a progression in species richness as one approaches the forest–fen edge from either fen or forest. A large proportion [30% (382 species)] of Hymenoptera species, termed the aerial component, is active both in the forest–fen edge and in the fen. The aerial component is a highly mobile, at least locally transient, but often uncollected component of peatland ecosystems. Presence of the aerial component is probably associated with habitat structure. Those peatlands possessing more complex vegetation architecture have greater proportions of aerial species. About 80% of Hymenoptera at Wagner are parasitoids, most of which attack larva of holometabolous hosts. Based on the host groups sought by parasitoids and the ratio of parasitoid species per host species, the fen is estimated to contain about 6000 species of arthropods.

Apple Photosynthesis: Microclimate of The Tree and Orchard1

Abstract The growth and cropping of apple trees, as with other crops, is dependent largely upon environment. The environment consists of two distinct components, the soil and the atmosphere, which, while sharply divided by the surface of the earth, interact with each other. The aerial component’s influence on production can be considered on three scales. The macro scale and hence macro climate is a regional climate, e.g. the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia. The next scale is the individual farm, or less, where the macroclimate can be modified by factors such as exposure, altitude, slope and aspect. The resultant local climate is the mesoclimate. Microclimate, the third scale, includes detailed studies close to the earth’s surface, and within the orchard and tree.

Transport of a Noncohesive Sandy Mixture in Rainfall and Runoff Experiments

AbstractRainfall intensities of 45, 100, and 150 mm/hr with systematically varied kinetic energies were applied to a saturated noncohesive, sandy bed 3 m long and set at slopes of 0.5 and 5%. Detailed size analyses of solids discharged showed that the <31‐µm fraction was most readily mobilized and behaved as a suspended load; the 31‐ to 250‐µm fraction was transported slowly, much apparently as saltating bed load; the 0.25‐ to 4‐mm fraction was transported rapidly, grains tending to move as rolling bed load; the >4‐mm fraction behaved as a lag gravel. The sedimentary properties of bed deposits also reflected the differentiation of various size fractions and minerals in the original mixture. The effects of raindrop impacts within the flow were more important in promoting transport of solids than the aerial component of splash. Under conditions where overland flow had developed, transport of solids was related directly to rainfall intensity and variations in rainfall energy that were associated with variations in raindrop impact frequency. Increases in rainfall energy due to increasing raindrop sizes did not result in increases in solids discharged.