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This thesis is an investigation of the reproductive performance of dairy herds managed using automated activity monitoring systems for heat detection (AHD) in comparison to herds using timed artificial insemination programs (TAI). Two approaches were taken: a randomized clinical trial and a retrospective cross-sectional study. In the field trial, pregnancy risk (PR) was not different between the AHD (14.6%) and TAI program (15.9%). Overall, time to pregnancy, time to 1st service and time to 2nd service were not different between breeding programs. In the observational study, annual herd-summary reproductive performance in farms using AHD and TAI were not different. Finally, a retrospective analysis in herds that were using AHD for more than one year compared the years before and after adoption of the system. A significant increase of PR and insemination risk was found. In conclusion, AHD systems had comparable reproductive performance to TAI-based programs. / Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. Gencor and SCR Engineers Ltd.

Master of Science / Department of Biological & Agricultural Engineering / Danny H. Rogers / Recent innovations in the irrigation industry indicate a transition to more water efficient and uniform systems. This transition is necessary to preserve limited aquifer resources used by irrigation systems in the U.S. Great Plains where center pivot irrigation has become the dominant irrigation method. New in-canopy sprinkler packages have allowed these center pivot systems to operate more efficiently and uniformly, however, these in-canopy sprinklers hang low in the canopy and have the potential to become entangled in crop biomass and detach from the center pivot. Detached in-canopy sprinklers can impact the uniformity of the irrigation system resulting in decreased crop yields by disrupting the designed flow and pressure requirements of the sprinkler package. Therefore, it is crucial that producers detect and replace missing in-canopy sprinklers immediately. The current method to detect missing in-canopy sprinklers is manual inspection along the center pivot which uses significant time and labor. A monitoring system to alert the user of any detachments can eliminate unnecessary exploration and direct the user to the specific location of the detached in-canopy sprinkler. A prototype in-canopy sprinkler monitoring system was designed to monitor in-canopy sprinklers on a center pivot irrigation system and alerts the user when and where an in-canopy sprinkler becomes detached from the center pivot span. The system utilizes three major components to accomplish this task: a master controller node, a series of sprinkler nodes, and a digital compass node. The master controller node requests the status of in-canopy sprinklers from each connected sprinkler node, which constantly monitors its connected in-canopy sprinkler, and if a sprinkler is found to be missing alerts the user via an SMS text message sent to their cell phone that the in-canopy sprinkler is missing and can be found at specific geographic coordinates. The master controller node calculates the geographic coordinates of the detached in-canopy sprinkler by requesting the current compass bearing angle of the center pivot span from the digital compass node. This angle, combined with the known coordinates of the pivot point of the center pivot system and radius of the detached in-canopy sprinkler from the pivot point can be used to calculate the coordinates of the detached in-canopy sprinkler. To test the performance of the designed system, it was connected to a demonstration center pivot and several trials were performed. The demonstration center pivot consisted of a rotatable span with eight detachable drop hoses and in-canopy sprinklers. Trials performed were designed to test the system’s ability to react to detached in-canopy sprinklers and drop hoses, detect and identify issues that might arise during normal operation, and respond to user’s SMS text messages with the proper system information as part of the user interface. The system successfully passed each set of trials ensuring that this prototype will accurately detect when and where an in-canopy sprinkler becomes detached and promptly alert the user.

Underground Residential Distribution (URD) power cables are aged due to electrical, thermal, mechanical, and environmental stresses during their service. The recent dielectric conditions of the cables are of much interest for utilities. The existing offline diagnostic method requires forceful disconnection of the URD cable for maintenance. Online recording and Fast Fourier Transform analysis of intentionally created transients in URD is one of the promising method to assess the current condition of the cable. For the bigger goal of developing an online power cable condition assessment, the measurement techniques which are required to be implemented has to be evaluated. In order for implementing the online measurement system, the requirements of the measurement system have to be identified at first. URD system model was simulated using Electro Magnetic Transient Program to identify the characteristics of induced transients. A list of requirements of the measurement system was created based on the simulation results

The purpose of this study was to determine if there were differences in MCT2 scores between students who attended a school district that used MSPMS and students who attended a school district that did not use MSPMS. The data for this study were archived and consisted of math and language arts MCT2 scores for two groups of students. The independent variable was the use of MSPMS for progress monitoring and the dependent variable was student scores on the MCT2. All data were analyzed using the Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) statistical procedure. In this study the 2008-2009 math and language arts MCT2 scores were the covariate. Hypothesis one stated that there was no statistically significant difference in the MCT2 language scores of students in Grades 4-8 in a school district using MSPMS and MCT2 language scores of students in Grades 4-8 in a district not using MSPMS while controlling for pre-test differences. The results of the first hypothesis indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between the 2009-2010 language arts MCT2 scores of a school district that used MSPMS and a district that did not use MSPMS. The district that did not use the MSPMS had higher MCT2 Language Arts overall and higher scores in fourth and sixth grades. Hypothesis two stated that there was no statistically significant difference in the MCT2 math scores of students in grades 4-8 in a school district that used the MSPMS and MCT2 math scores of students in grades 4-8 in a district that did not use the MSPMS while controlling for pre-test differences. The results of the second hypothesis indicated that there was not a significant difference in the 2009-2010 math MCT2 scores of the school district that used the MSPMS and the school district that did not use the MSPMS. The district that did not use the MSPMS had higher MCT2 Math scores overall and higher scores in sixth grade. The district that did use the MSPMS had higher MCT2 math scores in eighth grade. Further study should explore larger populations, assessment instruments of different lengths and fidelity of teacher implementation.

Yes / -

ITC/USA 2011 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Seventh Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 24-27, 2011 / Bally's Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada / Although the wireless data transmission technologies have evolved significantly, data recording devices are still being used because of the limitations of data rates and reliability issues over wireless environment in the avionics, military, space etc. Payload has limitation of weight. In addition, storage has limitation of capacity. So, we need to research about a data recording structure within a limited amount of memory. In this paper, we propose a new data recording structure through a condition necessary for efficient use of memory. The proposed structure has an equivalent function as other recording systems. But, it uses less memory than the other equivalent recording structures.

This report describes how a new and modern monitoring system is crea- ted for a wind turbine. Elvira Vind AB is a company that has an old operating surveillance system manufactured in 1992. A need has arisen with the owner of the company and are looking for a simple and smooth system that monitors the situation in a wind turbine. Therefore, a system is created that can transmit data wireless- ly through a GSM-module. The system must be able to sense temperature, vibration and sound levels. Also a camera has to take a picture when it de- tects vibration and display the values of the sensors in a web site. The system must also be powered during a power failure, therefore a voltage regulator and a charging circuit was made in the circuit board. The goal of this project is to create a sensor-based monitoring system for a wind turbine and to see the sensor readings wirelessly and displayed in a web site. The report describes how the electronic circuit board has been created and which methods have been used for each sensor in this project. There is also a description of how to use the system for both software and hardware. / Övervakningssystem för vindkraftverk

Falls are a cause of concern for the elderly since it can render a person immobile. A monitoring system can summon immediate aid by the automatic detection of fall events. The application of ultra-wideband (UWB) signals for a monitoring system was chosen due to its unique characteristics such as wide spectrum, immunity to interference, penetrability, and application for the detection of people. Part of this monitoring system is boundary detection with the purpose of isolating the location of fall events and to function as a mask to define an area of interest. A study of various localizing methods using measurements such as power, distance, and angle with ultra-wideband is presented. A frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) based system is an acceptable solution for boundary detection. A FMCW system measures distance with UWB signals. With the addition of a unique reflector, the system is able to identify the reflector via the return frequency-spectrum fingerprint. With distance and the addition angle measurements, the system can determine the boundary with a sensor located at a single location.

The rangelands or semi-arid and arid regions of Western Australia occupy about 87 percent of the land area. Pastoral grazing of managed livestock, mainly sheep and cattle, occurs over much of this area, with an increasing proportion being allocated to the state conservation estate. Rangeland monitoring began at the local scale in the 1950s and since then has been closely tied to the needs of the pastoral industry. By 1992 a regional-scale, ground-based system was in place after two decades of trialling precursor techniques. The state-wide pastoral monitoring programme, known as the Western Australian Rangeland Monitoring System (WARMS), helps to monitor the state’s natural vegetation and soil resources. Change in soil and vegetation attributes through time, in response to climatic conditions, herbivore grazing, fire and other natural and anthropogenic drivers in the rangelands is known as change in range condition or range trend. When range condition is used in an ecological context, as it is in this research, an improving trend implies an improvement in ecological integrity or ecosystem health. In contrast, a declining trend implies a reduction in integrity, otherwise known as natural resource degradation. The principal objective of this study is to produce a regional-scale, long-term quantitative assessment of range condition change in the southern rangelands of Western Australia, using WARMS transect data. Previous analyses of the WARMS database have examined selected vegetation parameters, but this study is the first to calculate a single integrated range condition index. The assessment covers an area of approximately 760,000 km2, stretching southeast from the southern Pilbara region through the Gascoyne-Murchison and Goldfields regions to the Nullarbor region on the Great Australia Bight. / WARMS is designed to provide data and information for assessing regional and long-term changes in rangeland ecological condition. It consists of two principal parts: (1) numerous permanent field monitoring sites and (2) a large relational database. By the end of 2006, there were 980 WARMS sites located on 377 pastoral leases (stations) in the southern rangelands of Western Australia. Average lease size is 202,190 ha and the largest is 714,670 ha. The total area occupied by leases (pastoral plus leases converted to the conservation estate) is approximately 76,250,000 ha. WARMS sites are at an average density of 2.6 sites per lease or 1 site per 77,780 ha of pastoral rangeland. Field-recorded metrics include 11 soil surface parameters and four plant parameters (location on belt-transect, species, height and maximum canopy extent). The field data collection protocol has remained essentially unchanged since 1992 and new field data are captured at each site on a 5-year cycle. This is the most extensive quantitative, ground-based rangeland monitoring system in Australia. This assessment of range condition is based a suite of soil and vegetation indices derived from the WARMS transect field metrics. Seven basic indices have been derived and algorithmically combined into three higher-order indices, one for each of three components of ecological integrity: composition, function and structure. The three indices are then combined into an overall index of ecological health called the Shrubland Range Condition (SRC) Index. In addition, the indices have been assigned to particular time-slices based on the field acquisition date of their component metrics, allowing the calculation of change through time. / The combination of the hierarchical index framework, the use of time-slices and GIS mapping techniques provided a suitable analysis platform for the elucidation of spatial and temporal change in rangeland ecological integrity or health at WARMS sites. The nature of change in the SRC Index and the landscape function, vegetation structure and vegetation composition sub-indices has enabled possible causes to be inferred. The patterns of range condition and change are complex at all landscape scales. However, based on analysis of the WARMS sites, range condition is considerably more variable, in space and time, in the northern parts of the southern rangelands compared to the southern parts, with the exception of the Nullarbor region. Through time, the Ashburton and Gascoyne regions consistently demonstrate the largest area (site clusters) of change and the greatest magnitude of change. For many areas, range trend has fluctuated markedly between improvement and decline since the mid-1990s. However, there are two large clusters of sites which show continuing decline through more than two decades. The legacy of historical degradation and ongoing poor land stewardship (principally through over-stocking) is hindering the widespread recovery in range condition, despite more than a decade of good rainfall seasons. An uncommon exception to this sad story is a group of sites located in the upper region of the Gascoyne catchment, where there has been almost continuous improvement over the same period. This work also provides empirical evidence of a fundamental difference in the behaviour of surface water-flows in different catchment types. / Using the Landscape Function Factor (LFF), there is conspicuous regional differentiation of sites located in exorheic catchments from those located in endorheic-arheic catchments. In general, sites located in the coastal draining exorheic catchments exhibit greater rates of soil erosion compared to sites located in the other internally draining catchment types; the different erosional regimes are probably related to the nature of the ultimate and local base-levels associated with each catchment type. This has important implications for the long-term management of the rangelands of Western Australia.