Engineering

Publication Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 56
  • (1998) Bradley, Peter; Rozenfeld, Anatoly; Lee, Kevin; Jamieson, Dana; Heiser, Gernot; Satoh, S
    Journal Article
    The first results obtained using a SOI device for microdosimetry applications are presented. Microbeam and broadbeam spectroscopy methods are used for determining minority carrier lifetime and radiation damage constants. A spectroscopy model is presented which includes the majority of effects that impact spectral resolution. Charge collection statistics were found to substantially affect spectral resolution. Lateral diffusion effects significantly complicate charge collection

  • (1998) Heiser, Gernot; Elphinstone, Kevin; Vochteloo, J; Russell, Stephen; Liedtke, Jochen
    Journal Article
    Single-address-space operating systems (SASOS) are an attractive model for making the best use of the wide address space provided by the latest generations of microprocessors. SASOS remove the address space boundaries which make data sharing between processes difficult and expensive in traditional operating systems. They offer the potential of significant performance advantages for applications where sharing is important, such as object-oriented databases or persistent programming systems. We have built the Mungi system to demonstrate that a SASOS can offer these performance advantages without resorting to special hardware. Mungi is a very `pure` SASOS, featuring an unintrusive protection model based on sparse capabilities, a fast protected procedure call mechanism, and uses shared memory as the exclusive inter-process communication mechanism, as well as for I/O. The simplicity of our model makes it easy to implement it efficiently on conventional architectures. Our implementation of Mungi for the MIPS R4600 64-bit microprocessor is presented, which is based on our port of the L4 microkernel. Mungi is shown to outperform, in some instances by more than an order of magnitude, two UNIX operating systems, Irix and Linux, in several important operations, such as task creation and inter-process communications, and on the OO1 object-oriented database benchmark. As well, we describe how our approach to key issues in SASOS design provides better performance than other systems, such as Opal. Our experience shows that the SASOS concept is viable, and that a well-designed microkernel is an excellent base on which to build high-performance operating systems.

  • (1999) Peters, G; Maher, WA; Jolley, D; Carroll, BI; Jenkinson, AV; McOrist, GD
    Journal Article
    This paper examines the history of selenium pollution in Lake Macquarie, NSW, Australia, and three factors that may affect the redistribution and remobilisation of particle bound selenium: changes in redox state, bioturbation, and bioaccumulation by macrobenthos and bacteria. Sediment cores were taken from Nords Wharf, a relatively unpolluted area, and from Mannering Bay near the Vales Point coal-fired power station. The age profile at the unpolluted site seems to indicate that mild selenium pollution has been occurring for over 100 years, however, some mixing of the sediments has occurred. At the polluted site, the age profile indicated that major contamination has occurred in the last 30 years, due to an ash dam associated with nearby electric power generation facilities. The contamination chronology suggests that remobilisation and reduction processes have affected the selenium profile. Changing the redox state of Lake Macquarie sediment results in a release of selenium under oxidising conditions and immobilisation under reducing conditions. The sediment-bound selenium was associated with the operationally defined `organic/sulfide' fraction under reducing conditions, and as the redox potential increases this moves into the `exchangeable' and `iron/manganese oxyhydroxide' phases to a limited extent. Bioturbation by the animals Marphysa sanguinea and Spisula trigonella caused increases in the redox potential and pore water selenium concentrations in surfcial sediments relative to unbioturbated controls. Both animals accumulated significantly more selenium when exposed to contaminated sediment than when exposed to uncontaminated control sediments. Selenium concentrations in molluscs from Mannering Bay were all significantly higher than those collected from Nords Wharf. Most of the selenium in the mollusc tissues was found to be associated with the protein fraction. Selenium isolated from hydrolysed muscle tissue was not present as selenate or selenite but as selenomethionine and an unidentified compound. Seven types of bacteria were isolated from Lake Macquarie sediment. All seven isolates were able to transform selenite quantitatively to elemental selenium as evidenced by a red precipitate and identified by X-ray diffraction. Six isolates grew on media containing selenate but no elemental selenium was formed. Mass balances showed that for three isolates total selenium was conserved, selenate decreased and selenium (0; II-) increased indicating the production of non-volatile organic selenium compounds. For two isolates both total selenium and selenate decreased with no increase in selenium (0; II-), therefore, loss of selenium occurred from the media. Selenium is immobile in anoxic reduced sediments but may become available to benthos and fish as a consequence of sediment oxidation associated with bioturbation leading to bioaccumulation and transformation by macrobenthos and bacteria. These mechanisms can be invoked as possible transport pathways to explain the presence of selenium above background concentrations in preindustrial sediments, but further work dating the sediments in which elevated concentrations of selenium are found is needed to confirm this hypothesis.

  • (1999) Peters, G; Maher, WA; Krikowa, F; Roach, AC; Jeswani, HK; Barford, JP; Gomes, VG; Reible, DD
    Journal Article
    Measurements of selenium in sediments and benthic infauna of Lake Macquarie, an estuary on the east coast of Australia, indicate that sediments are a significant source of selenium in the lake's food web. Analysis of surficial sediment samples indicated higher selenium con- concentrations near what are believed to be the main industrial sources of selenium to the lake: a smelter and a power station. Sediment cores taken from sediments in Mannering Bay, near a power station at Vales Point, contained an average of 12 times more selenium in surficial sections than sediment cores from Nord's Wharf, a part of the lake remote from direct inputs of selenium. The highest selenium concentration found in Mannering Bay sediments (17.2 mg/g) was 69 times the apparent background concentration at Nord's Wharf (0.25 mg/g). Pore water concentrations in Mannering Bay were also high, up to 5 mg/l compared to those at Nord's Wharf which were below detection limits (0.2 mg/l). Selenium concentrations in muscle tissues of three benthic-feeding fish species (Mugil cephalus, Platycephalus fuscus, Acanthopagrus australis) were significantly correlated ( p < 0:05) with surficial sediment selenium concentra- tion. Selenium concentrations in polychaetes and molluscs of Mannering Bay were up to 58 times higher than those from Nord's Wharf. Two benthic organisms, the eunicid polychaete Marphysa sanguinea and the bivalve mollusc Spisula trigonella, were maintained at different densities in selenium-spiked sediments. Both animals accumulated selenium from the spiked sediment, confirming that bioaccumulation from contaminated sediments occurs. Collectively, these data suggest that benthic food webs are important sources of selenium to the fish of Lake Macquarie.


  • (1998) Gu, Genda; Han, Shaowei; Lin, Zheng; Zhao, Yong; Russell, Graeme
    Journal Article

  • (1998) Walsh, Andrew; Burton, Michael; Robinson, Garry; Nyland, A
    Journal Article

  • (1998) Helmore, Phillip
    Journal Article
    A recent publication says that the primary spelling of the word for the depth of water required to float a ship is draught, with draft as the secondary spelling. A survey of thirty practising naval architects was made to check the claim, and found that a large majority of Australian-educated naval architects spell it draft. The overall results are interesting and are given here.

  • (1998) Helmore, Phillip
    Journal Article
    The two types of marine hydrometer commonly used by naval architects and surveyors measure two distinct, but related, properties. The properties have different units and are used for different purposes. Some users may not be aware of the two types of hydrometer, the properties measured, or the errors which can significantly affect the end result. The relationships between the measured properties are discussed, together with the specific applications of the two types of hydrometer. The conversion of measurements made on one type of hydrometer to the other type is given, with examples of the conversions. Application of the principles presented here will prevent confusion and ensure the use, rather than abuse, of the two types of marine hydrometer.

  • (1999) Han, Shaowei; Zhao, Yong; Choi, C; Andrikidis, C
    Journal Article
    Flux pinning force and irreversibility lines have been investigated for melt-textured YBa2Cu3Oy crystals containing Y2BaCuO5 (211) particles with an average size ranging from 20 to 0.02 microns. We found that the irreversibility lines are increasingly improved and that the pinning force as well as the Jc is greatly enhanced as the average size of the 211 particles decreases. The Fp-H curve exhibits two peaks in the samples containing very fine 211 particles (nanometer size particles), which suggests that an addition pinning mechanism is involved in this type of samples. The experimental results can be well explained with combining the interface-pinning mechanism and the match effect.