Griffith University

About: Griffith University is a education organization based out in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 13830 authors who have published 49318 publications receiving 1420865 citations.

Moth assemblages as indicators of environmental quality in remnants of upland Australian rain forest

Abstract: Summary 1. Despite great concern about the effects of fragmentation on biodiversity, quantitative studies are still scarce with respect to many major groups and important environments. Well-studied natural reference sites are few. 2. Extensive light trapping surveys for moths were thus carried out in both dry and wet seasons in nine remnants of complex notophyll vine forest on basalt on the Atherton Tablelands in tropical north Queensland, Australia. Three sites had never been cleared, three secondary sites had substantial regrowth, and three sites were newly cleared. 3. A total of 15 632 moths of 835 species was collected, counted and identified. These represent more than 17% of the named Australian fauna of our target families. 4. A principal components analysis (PCA) indicated clear discrimination among assemblages based on forest type. This discrimination did not differ qualitatively between seasons (although abundance levels of moths did) but the pattern was most evident in the smaller dry season samples. 5. Taxa, the relative abundance of which increased significantly with disturbance, were the Arctiinae, Amphipyrinae, Catocalinae, Hadeninae, Heliothinae, Hypeninae, Noctuinae, Plusiinae, Hermeniidae and Phycitinae. In contrast, a number of subfamilies showed a marked decrease in relative abundance with increased disturbance, namely Ennominae, Geometrinae, Larentiinae, Oenochrominae, Epipaschiinae, Lymantriidae and Anthelidae. 6. A weighted sum with importance values based on the eigenvalues associated with each of these taxa derived from the PCA is a powerful predictor set of forest quality. 7. These differential responses may be explained on the basis of broad known and expected host-plant patterns. The results show how moth assemblages are powerful indicators of forest disturbance, and should prompt parallel studies elsewhere in the world.

Direct adaptive fuzzy-neural control with state observer and supervisory controller for unknown nonlinear dynamical systems

Abstract: In this paper, an observer-based direct adaptive fuzzy-neural network (FNN) controller with supervisory mode for a certain class of high order unknown nonlinear dynamical system is presented. The direct adaptive control (DAC) has the advantage of less design effort by not using FNN to model the plant. By using an observer-based output feedback control law and adaptive law, the free parameters of the adaptive FNN controller can be tuned on-line based on the Lyapunov synthesis approach. A supervisory controller is appended into the FNN controller to force the state to be within the constraint set. Therefore, if the FNN controller cannot maintain the stability, the supervisory controller starts working to guarantee stability. On the other hand, if the FNN controller works well, the supervisory controller will be de-activated. The overall adaptive scheme guarantees the global stability of the resulting closed-loop system in the sense that all signals involved are uniformly bounded. Simulation results also show that our initial control effort is much less than those in previous works, while preserving the tracking performance.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa Biofilms

Abstract: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic human pathogen causing devastating acute and chronic infections in individuals with compromised immune systems. Its highly notorious persistence in clinical settings is attributed to its ability to form antibiotic-resistant biofilms. Biofilm is an architecture built mostly by autogenic extracellular polymeric substances which function as a scaffold to encase the bacteria together on surfaces, and to protect them from environmental stresses, impedes phagocytosis and thereby conferring the capacity for colonization and long-term persistence. Here we review the current knowledge on P. aeruginosa biofilms, its development stages, and molecular mechanisms of invasion and persistence conferred by biofilms. Explosive cell lysis within bacterial biofilm to produce essential communal materials, and interspecies biofilms of P. aeruginosa and commensal Streptococcus which impedes P. aeruginosa virulence and possibly improves disease conditions will also be discussed. Recent research on diagnostics of P. aeruginosa infections will be investigated. Finally, therapeutic strategies for the treatment of P. aeruginosa biofilms along with their advantages and limitations will be compiled.

Education and sustainability : responding to the global challenge

Abstract: A publication from IUCN’s Commission on Education and Communication (CEC), this book tells the stories of people who work with communities to motivate them to create a more sustainable future. The accounts range from engaging communities through theatre to a revival of indigenous stories to pass on good environmental practice. The publication was produced both to share what educators around the world have learnt and to give them a platform to tell their stories.