Ground pangolins Smutsia temminckii are inconspicuous, mainly nocturnal mammals that occur at low population densities. As a result, there is scant information available on the ecology and physiology of this species. To date the handful of studies focussing on this species were centred in the mesic eastern regions of its range, with no attention being given to ecological and biological traits in arid environments. To address these data shortfalls, a study was undertaken in the Kalahari Desert in northwestern South Africa. Very High Frequency (VHF) transmitters or Global Positioning System (GPS) loggers were fitted to 16 ground pangolins and their ecology and physiology studied over a period of three years. Throughout its range the ground pangolin is increasingly endangered, predominantly due to anthropogenic threats. Previous studies have identified threats facing this species, but very few of these studies included quantitative data as to the extent of these threats. The present study suggests that the main threats to ground pangolins in southern Africa are electrocution on electrified fences, the traditional medicine trade, habitat loss, road mortalities and capture in gin traps. Although accidental poisoning has previously been viewed as a threat, a review of the available literature suggests that this is not the case and that these views stemmed from two isolated incidents of captive animals. Electrocutions probably pose the greatest threat to ground pangolins, with mortality rates of one pangolin per 11 km of electrified fence per year recorded during this study. Home range sizes of this arid-zone population are comparable to the home range sizes recorded in mesic populations. Study animals in the Kalahari had Minimum Convex Polygon (MCP) home range values of 10.0 ± 8.9 km² SD for adults and 7.1 ± 1.1 km² SD for juveniles, in comparison to the 0.17 – 23.38 km² MCP in Zimbabwe and 1.3 – 7.9 km2 MCP in mesic north-eastern South Africa. These results are surprising as arid-zone animals usually have larger home ranges than do their mesic counterparts. It is hypothesised that this discrepancy is due to the fact that ground pangolins in the Kalahari are on average 25 – 30 % smaller than their mesic counterparts. This smaller body size means that individuals require a smaller home range to meet their dietary requirements, which could be counteracting the trend of arid-zone individuals requiring larger home ranges. This research also found ground pangolins to be more active during the day in winter and nearly entirely nocturnal during summer. These changes in photoperiodicity are likely driven by adaptations to the extreme climatic conditions present at the study site rather than predation pressure or changes in food resources, although the latter may be playing a role as well. By being diurnal in winter, individuals avoid the extremely cold night-time temperatures, thus saving energy that would otherwise be spent on maintaining their body temperature. By contrast, becoming nocturnal in summer allows them to avoid the extreme daytime temperatures, thus conserving water. The results of this study reiterate previous findings that ground pangolins are entirely myrmecophagous and highly selective of the species that they eat. Study animals were recorded feeding on only four ant and two termite species, representing 7.5 % and 50 % of the total species richness of each of these families. This is similar to previous research in mesic savannahs where five ant one termite species constituted 97 % of the ground pangolin’s diet. No seasonal differences in prey selection were observed, although the species consumed did depend on the habitats that were available to individual ground pangolins. This study is the first to investigate the core body temperature (Tb) of a free-ranging pangolin. These data indicated that Tb fluctuated cyclically between 32 – 35 °C and reflected the activity periods of the animal, peaking when the animal was active. When the individual was inactive, Tb steadily decreased, suggesting that it used daily heterothermy to cope with the low food availability in this unpredictable environment. In summary, ecological parameters between arid and mesic ground pangolin populations are similar in some respects, but divergent in others. Arid-zone populations are smaller overall and show a higher degree of diurnal activity. Despite this smaller body size, home range values appear to be similar between arid and mesic populations. Although the prey species eaten by ground pangolins in the Kalahari differ from prey species in eastern South Africa and Zimbabwe, they belonged to the same genera and were of similar morphology and ecology. The core body temperature results confirm findings from previous captive studies that pangolin body temperatures are lower than those of other eutherian mammals of a similar size. Furthermore, these data indicate that core body temperature is a lot more variable than previously believed, and thus warrants further study. Overall ground pangolin densities in the Kalahari appear to be double those in eastern South Africa and Zimbabwe, although it is unclear whether this is genuine or whether it is an artefact of individuals being easier to locate in the Kalahari. This study also confirmed that electrocutions are probably the greatest threat to this species, and new threats such as accidental capture in gin traps and road mortalities have also come to light. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Zoology and Entomology / unrestricted

No / Technology application to agricultural productivity is thought to be the solution to meet food demand of the growing population. In a rapidly changing world, with the prospect of decreasing arable land due to urbanization and industrialization, agricultural output requires a 70 % increase in production levels and efficient growth in the harvesting, distribution and consumption of the resources, to meet demand. There are innovations in Information and Communications Technology that can be applied to the agricultural sector in areas of precision farming, use of farm management software, wireless sensors, and use of agricultural machinery. Remote sensing technology is playing a key role through precision agriculture. This paper highlights ways in which precision agriculture is impacting on agriculture with the use of unmanned aerial vehicles for image capturing, processing and analysis.

No description available.

ITC/USA 2007 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Third Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 22-25, 2007 / Riviera Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / The Joint Advanced Missile Instrumentation (JAMI) Program’s main thrust has been the integration of Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking technology into the Department of Defense (DoD) Missile Test Ranges. This technology could be used for Time, Space, Position, and Information (TSPI), Flight Termination (FTS), or End Game Scoring purposes. However the Program’s main goal is to develop Proof-of-Concept components only. Transitioning Missile technology developed by the Government to Private Industry, so that it can be economically mass produced, has been quite a challenge. Traditionally, private industry has had to bid on proposals without much detailed information on how these components have been designed and fabricated. These unknown risks, Non-Recurring Engineering (NRE) and Missile Flight Qualification costs, routinely have significantly increased the price of these procurement contracts. In order so that the Fleet can economically utilize these components in the field, Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADA) between the Government and Private Industry have been used to successfully transition Government developed technology to mass production. They can eliminate the NRE and flight qualification costs to provide for an economical and low risk method of providing the Fleet with the latest advances in GPS Tracking Technology. This paper will discuss how this is currently being accomplished in the development of a conformal wraparound instrumentation antenna for a five-inch diameter Missile Telemetry (TM) Section.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 28-31, 1996 / Town and Country Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / A system was developed using capabilities from the Range Applications Joint Program Office (RAJPO) GPS tracking system and the ACMI Interface System (ACINTS) to provide tracking data and visual cues to experimenters. The Mobile Advanced Range Data System (ARDS) Control System (MACS) outputs are used to provide research data in support of advanced project studies. Enhanced from a previous system, the MACS expands system capabilities to allow researchers to locate where Digital Terrain Elevation Data (DTED) is available for incorporation into a reference data base. The System Integration Group at Veda Incorporated has been supporting Wright Laboratories in the ground-based tracking and targeting arena since 1989 with the design, development, and integration of four generations of real-time, telemetry-based tracking aids. Commencing in Q3 1995, Veda began developing a mobile, transportable system based on the RAJPO GPS tracking system. The resulting system architecture takes advantage of the front end processor (FEP) used in the three previous generations of interface systems built for Wright Laboratories, thus maximizing hardware and software reuse. The FEP provides a computational interface between the GPS tracking system and the display (operator) system. The end product is a powerful, flexible, fully mobile testbed supporting RDT&E requirements for Wright Laboratories, as well as to other U.S. and foreign research organizations. The system is rapidly reconfigurable to accommodate ground-based tracking systems as well as GPS-based systems, and its capabilities can be extended to include support for mission planning tools, insertion of virtual participants such as DIS entities, and detailed post-mission analysis.

<p>In this study, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is used to check the integrity of the Global Positioning Recommended Minimum (GPRMC) sentences. The GPRMC sentences are the most common sentences transmitted by the Global Positioning System (GPS) devices. This sentence contains nearly every thing a GPS application needs. The data integrity is compared on the basis of the classification accuracy and the minimum error obtained using the ANN. The ANN requires data to be presented in a certain format supported by the learning process of the network. Therefore a certain amount of data processing is needed before training patterns are presented to the network. The data pre processing is done by the design and development of different algorithms in C# using Visual Studio.Net 2003. This study uses the BackPropagation (BP) feed forward multilayer ANN algorithm with the learning rate and the momentum as its parameters. The results are analyzed based on different ANN architectures, classification accuracy, Sum of Square Error (SSE), variables sensitivity analysis and training graph. The best obtained ANN architecture shows a good performance with the selection classification of 96.79 % and the selection sum of square error 0.2022. This study uses the ANN tool Trajan 6.0 Demonstrator.</p>

Les grands réseaux électriques sont utilisés de plus en plus près de leur limite de stabilité Ceci est dû aux contraintes économiques, politiques et écologiques obligent tes opérateurs1 à exploiter leurs réseaux à la limite de sécurité. Cependant faire fonctionner un réseau trop près de ses limites crée des oscillations de puissance entre les différentes centrales et parties des réseaux liées par des interconnexions assez faibles (en, terme de nombre de lignes d'interconnexion). Ces oscillations " inter-régions " se manifestent sur les arbres des machines concernées (oscillations électro-mécaniques) et affectent la stabilité du réseau. Un moyen efficace pour remédier à ce problème consiste en une utilisation d'un correcteur dit RFC (Remote Feedback Controller). Ce correcteur utilise comme signaux d'entrée des grandeurs provenant de machines distantes du point d'installation du correcteur Ces signaux sont synchronisés par des satellites GPS (Global Positioning System). Les outils d'analyse et de calcul comme l'optimisation convexe avec contraintes LMI (inégalités matricielles linéaires), peuvent permettre le réglage de ce correcteur. Dans te cadre de cette thèse, le travail réalisé traite du problème de la conception et de l'emplacement d'un correcteur RFC utilisant des signaux d'entrée locaux et lointains synchronisés. par les satellites GPS. Les. techniques de programmation convexe avec des contraintes LMÏ sont utilisées pour le réglage de ce correcteur pour l'amortissement des oscillations inter-régions dans lés réseaux électriques. Les correcteurs réalisés sont ensuite implantés dans deux réseaux tests à 4 à 29 machines. Grâce aux techniques LMI les correcteurs sont robustes dans une grande plage de points de fonctionnement des réseaux tests et sont plus performants que les correcteurs traditionnels. De plus, ces correcteurs ne sont pas perturbés par d'éventuels problèmes dus à l'éloignement des signaux, notamment par un retard du signal ou par sa perte éventuelle.

In this study, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is used to check the integrity of the Global Positioning Recommended Minimum (GPRMC) sentences. The GPRMC sentences are the most common sentences transmitted by the Global Positioning System (GPS) devices. This sentence contains nearly every thing a GPS application needs. The data integrity is compared on the basis of the classification accuracy and the minimum error obtained using the ANN. The ANN requires data to be presented in a certain format supported by the learning process of the network. Therefore a certain amount of data processing is needed before training patterns are presented to the network. The data pre processing is done by the design and development of different algorithms in C# using Visual Studio.Net 2003. This study uses the BackPropagation (BP) feed forward multilayer ANN algorithm with the learning rate and the momentum as its parameters. The results are analyzed based on different ANN architectures, classification accuracy, Sum of Square Error (SSE), variables sensitivity analysis and training graph. The best obtained ANN architecture shows a good performance with the selection classification of 96.79 % and the selection sum of square error 0.2022. This study uses the ANN tool Trajan 6.0 Demonstrator.

Present land vehicle positioning and navigation relies mostly on the Global Positioning System (GPS). However, in urban canyons, tunnels, and other GPS-denied environments, the GPS positioning solution may be interrupted or suffer from deterioration in accuracy due to satellite signal blockage, poor satellite geometry or multipath effects. In order to achieve continuous positioning services, GPS is augmented with complementary systems capable of providing additional sources of positioning information, like inertial navigation systems (INS). Kalman filtering (KF) is traditionally used to provide integration of both INS and GPS utilizing linearized dynamic system and measurement models. Targeting low cost solution for land vehicles, Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) based inertial sensors are used. Due to the inherent errors of MEMS inertial sensors and their stochastic nature, which is difficult to model, KF has limited capabilities in providing accurate positioning in challenging GPS environments. This research aims at developing reliable integrated navigation system capable of demonstrating accurate positioning during long periods of challenging GPS environments. Towards achieving this goal, Mixture Particle filtering (MPF) is suggested in this research as a nonlinear filtering technique for INS/GPS integration to accommodate arbitrary inertial sensor characteristics, motion dynamics and noise distributions. Since PF can accommodate nonlinear models, this research develops total-state nonlinear system and measurement models without any linearization, thus enabling reliable integrated navigation and mitigating one of the major drawbacks of KF. Exploiting the capabilities of PF, Parallel Cascade Identification (PCI), which is a nonlinear system identification technique, is used to obtain efficient stochastic models for inertial sensors instead of the currently utilized linear models, which are not adequate for MEMS-based sensors. Moreover, this research proposes a method to update the stochastic bias drift of inertial sensors from GPS data when the GPS signal is adequately received. Furthermore, a technique for automatic detection of GPS degraded performance is developed and led to improving the performance in urban canyons. The performance is examined using several road test experiments conducted in downtown cores to verify the adequacy and the benefits of the methods suggested. The results obtained demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed methods over conventional techniques. / Thesis (Ph.D, Electrical & Computer Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2010-07-23 20:27:02.12

Orientador: Zacarias Xavier de Barros / Banca: José Milton Arana / Banca: Osmar Delmanto Junior / Banca: Lincoln Gering Cardoso / Banca: Vilmar Antonio Rodrigues / Resumo: Neste trabalho, foram realizados levantamentos topográficos para a avaliação do efeito da cobertura vegetal, na recepção de sinais GPS, para obtenção de posicionamento tri-dimensional, considerando os estudos realizados em diferentes tipos de uso do solo. Vértices foram implantados em diferentes tipos de uso do solo; em área com pastagem, com plantação de seringueiras e com eucaliptos, e as suas posições determinadas com estação total, nivelamento geométrico e com receptores GPS. Na avaliação do posicionamento altimétrico adotou-se como valores de referência os desníveis determinados com o nivelamento geométrico para avaliação dos dados obtidos com receptores GPS. As coordenadas planimétricas obtidas com receptores GPS foram analisadas utilizando-se com valores de referência os dados obtidos com a estação total. No levantamento topográfico com estação total foram adotadas as prescrições estabelecidas nas Normas da Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas (ABNT) NBR 13.133, Execução de Levantamentos Topográficos, para poligonais do tipo IVP. Foi realizada a análise de exatidão e de precisão do posicionamento tridimensional, adotando como padrão a NBR 13133 da ABNT para a classe do levantamento executado. Para aplicações do GPS na altimetria há necessidade do conhecimento da ondulação geoidal (N), que neste trabalho, para a sua determinação foram coletados dados com receptor na referência de nível (RN). Os resultados obtidos indicam que cuidados especiais devem ser tomados nos levantamentos com receptores GPS em áreas com cobetura vegetal, pois estas interferem na propagação das ondas eletromagnéticas provenientes dos satélites podendo inviabilizar o posicionamento. / In this work, topographic surveys were carried out in order to evaluate the effect of vegetal cover, on the reception of GPS signals, for 3D positioning, considering studies to be made in different types of land use. Points were set up on different types of land use, in areas containing grass, rubber trees and eucalyptus, which had their positions defined using a total station, geometric leveling and GPS receivers In the evaluation of height positioning it was adopted as reference values the height differences determined by geometric levelling in order to evaluate data obtained through GPS receivers. Planimetric coordinates obtained by using GPS receivers were analysed using as reference values the data obtained using a total station. During the topographic survey using a total station the recommendations set up by the Brazilian Association for Technical Rules (ABNT) NBR 13.133, regarding the execution of topographic surveys, for transverses of type IVP. Accuracy and precision analysis was made on the 3D positioning, also considering ABNT NBR 13.133, for the class of topographic survey which was carried out. In order to apply GPS on height positiong it is necessary to know the geoidal ondulation (N) and, in this work, N was computed based upon data acquired employing receivers at the level reference (RN). The results obtained indicate that special care must be taken during the surveys carried out with the use of GPS receivers on areas with vegetal cover, because it causes interference in the propagation of electromagnetic waves from the satellite which can even make the positioning become unviable. / Doutor