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Thesis (M. Phil.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in electronic version. Access restricted to campus users.

Thesis--University of Florida. / Description based on print version record. Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 196-211).

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Entomology / Alberto B. Broce / Ludek Zurek / Stable fly, Stomoxys calcitrans (L.), and house fly, Musca domestica L., are two major pests affecting both confined and pastured livestock in the United States. It costs livestock producers millions of dollars annually to reduce populations of these two pests. Control of stable flies and house flies based on chemical insecticides is only marginally effective and unsustainable in the long term due to the development of insecticide resistance. This has created a demand for alternative methods which are environmentally friendly and cost effective for the management of these pests. Information on stable fly and house fly oviposition behavior and the aggregation and segregation of their immatures may help in an integrated pest management control program for these pests. This research identified specific bacterial species from the surface of stable fly eggs which are suspected of releasing chemical cues used to induce gravid females to oviposit at sites where eggs have been deposited and inhibit additional deposition of eggs in the same habitat when it is already colonized. My research also showed that stable fly and house fly larvae tend to be aggregated in distribution, even in apparently homogenous habitats, and to be spatially segregated from each other. Finally, I evaluated the vector competence of stable flies for an emerging food-borne pathogen, Enterobacter sakazakii, showing that this fly species is potentially a good vector for this pathogen.

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Fly-by-wire flight control systems are becoming more common in both civil and military aircraft. These systems give many benefits, but also present a new set of problems due to their increased complexity compared to conventional systems and the larger choice of options that they provide. The work presented here considers the application of fly-by-wire to a generic regional transport aircraft. The flying qualities criteria used for typical flying qualities evaluations are described briefly followed by analysis of several past transport aircraft flying qualities programmes against these criteria. From these results, some control law independent design requirements are formulated for a civil aircraft for the approach and landing task. These control law independent flying qualities criteria are intended to be used with any generic rate-like control law for a transport aircraft and enabled a number of different control laws to be designed. The results of a number of flying qualities evaluations are presented. Both an ILS approach task and a formation flying task were used. The effects of windshear were also considered. It was found that control laws which maintain flight path are suitable for the ILS approach task, while most rate-like response characteristics give good flying qualities for the formation flying task. Finally, the conclusions drawn from these evaluations are presented, and both the Civil and Military current airworthiness requirements are assessed. In addition to the flying qualities work, a study is made of the management issues associated with fly-by-wire design. A fly-by-wire aircraft design programme was proposed and the project management issues associated with this were considered. A timescale was proposed for the design process for a generic regional aircraft, and the critical path for this process is presented.

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