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The State Department of Conservation, Forests and Lands (CFL) administers legislation relating to the management of pest animals and plants throughout Victoria. CFL conducts control work on public land and assists landholders with programs on freehold land. To provide an information base for the management of CFL's pest control programs, the Pest Management Information System (PMIS) was developed. The PMIS captures descriptions of pest infestations, details of planned and actual treatments, and evaluations of treatments. The first version of the PMIS, developed for microcomputers, was released in 1987 and underwent minor revision during 1988 in the light of field experience. During 1989 the PMIS was redeveloped using in-house computer prototyping tools on CFL's statewide computer network. It is currently being trialled in two regions prior to wider implementation. Initial results from the pilot trials indicate that the PMIS will in time become a valuable tool in the management of pest animal and plant problems in Victoria.

With the increasing demand for new materials, analytical techniques which are able to rapidly characterize a large number of samples are becoming indispensable. Thin film technology has the potential to improve the amount of information contained on as-deposited samples by creating compositionally graded libraries. Conventionally, raster scan methods are used to interrogate such libraries but, in this paper, a different approach is presented to provide a method of high-throughput data collection and analysis using an X-ray diffraction (XRD) probe. An extended X-ray beam was used to illuminate the libraries, and a large area detector was used to collect the data. A new algorithm 'Bandit' has been employed to analyze the collected data and extract the crystallographic information. The results of the technique have been compared with the raster scans showing that the algorithm provides reliable data at a significantly increased data acquisition speed. 10.1021/ac100572h

Disaster victim identification following a mass fatality incident is focussed on identifying the deceased and returning them to their families as quickly as possible, while gathering as much information as practical to aid investigators in establishing the cause of the incident. Ante-mortem data is gathered and compared with the post-mortem data obtained in order to positively identify the deceased. This paper presents results from a study concerned with the first part of the process of identifying the deceased—the triage or Primary Survey and how this can be done without access to hospital facilities such as conventional X-ray imaging or computed tomography. In particular, this study focuses on the imaging undertaken prior to the opening of the body bag by a multidisciplinary team, and how this imaging can assist particularly when forensic anthropologists are involved in the identification process. There are several advantages to imaging the body bags before they are opened and one of the most important is safety. Thus, this paper examines the viability of using a baggage scanner as a practical resource for X-ray imaging, as many regions worldwide may not be able to access conventional imaging equipment. Baggage scanners are readily available and found in airports and various government buildings. The baggage scanner is particularly suited to this task and produces images that can be used by forensic anthropologists to distinguish between human and non-human remains, identify items of evidence and personal effects, and even perform a preliminary or partial biological profile. When considering their response plans, emergency responders should consider including baggage scanners as a contingency for screening body bags if no other imaging system is available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has indicated that coded masks with open fractions <0.5 are optimal for imaging some types of far-field scenes. The open fraction, in this case, refers to the ratio of open elements in the mask, with values <0.5 considered as low open fraction. Research is limited by the sparsity of <0.5 open fractions masks; thus a further 94 lower open fraction arrays are calculated and presented. These include the dilute uniformly redundant array and singer set, along with information on imaging potential, array sizes, and open fractions. Signal-to-noise ratio reveals the 0.5 open fraction modified uniformly redundant array to be the optimal coded mask for near-field x-ray backscatter imaging, over the lower open fraction singer set, dilute uniformly redundant and random array. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coded masks (CM) often lack a self-supporting structure that is difficult to manufacture without recourse to drilled holes in place of ideal square apertures, degrading imaging properties. An alternative approach is presented with three-dimensional (3-D) printed CM molds cast with a radio-opaque material that allows square elements to be retained. Two methods are presented; hot casting a bismuth alloy (density 8.6 gcm-3) and cold casting with tungsten powder/epoxy resin (densities 9.6 and 10.6 gcm-3). A critical review of 3-D printed-CM fabrication along with some typical x-ray backscatter images is presented. A signal-to-noise ratio from both the machined tungsten and cold cast 3-D printed mask were comparable, with the former having a slight advantage. Also, 3-D printed cold cast masks were found to be more economical and easier to rapid prototype over traditional drilled tungsten masks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]