The north-eastern coast of Venezuela hosts a high diversity of megafauna, particularly related with high productivity due to coastal upwelling. This area is mainly characterized by the existence of the primary fisheries in Venezuela, mostly supported by a great abundance of small pelagic species. This would explain why the area supports a wide range of marine top predators, including cetaceans. The current status of cetacean populations off north-eastern Venezuela is uncertain, mainly because research efforts have been very sparse. There are still many gaps of information in cetacean biology to establish a solid baseline that can be used for management decisions. Common dolphins (Delphinus spp.) are widely dispersed over the whole northeast basin, including waters off Araya and Paria Peninsula and around Margarita, Coche and Cubagua Islands. Areas of higher densities for Delphinus spp. coincide with the focal location of sardine fisheries and the most-active upwelling on the north-eastern coast. Therefore, a scheme of management should consider the areas of major productivity along the coast as potential critical habitat for the species. Further data collection is recommended, increasing aspects such as trophic ecology and the continuity of behavioural sampling, paired with systematic line transect estimation.
The speed of technological change, the increase in social exigencies, and the need to take good care of the environment, has made evident that engineering graduates must have generic skills of a holistic nature in order to successfully meet future professional challenges. This paper explains the impact of a project-based learning methodology on the improvement of generic skills. The methodology was used in an undergraduate industrial engineering project management course. Measurements of student knowledge and mastery of technical, contextual and behavioral skills were performed at the beginning and end of the course. Written questionnaires that measured the three dimensions were employed; the collected data was used in a statistical and a consistency analysis. The results indicate a significant improvement in student skills that can be attributed to the use of project based learning (PBL). It is known that PBL is only one of the many possible ways to improve generic skills, but it is a powerful tool that balances and complements an engineering curriculum that strives to develop the generic skills of engineering students.
Complex space missions involving large angle maneuvers and rapid attitude control, require new non-linear control techniques to design the Satellite Control System (SCS) in order to have reliability and adequate performance. In that context, one investigates a new SCS technique based on the State Dependent Riccati Equation (SDRE) methodology which can be considered as an adaptive form of the Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) but which allows to deal with the non linearities of the system. A nonlinear mathematical model of a flexible rotatory beam is built through the Lagrangian formulation where the flexible displacement is modelled using the assumed modes theory and a structural damping is added applying the Rayleigh technique. The SDRE controller objectives are to control the hub angular position and simultaneously to damp the flexible displacements. A computational procedure is developed which allows drawing a performance map of the system showing all SDRE reachable performances. Using this control algorithm one can obtain the Pareto's border representing the set of optimal performances. On the other hand, analyzing the influence of the weight matrixes terms, it is shown that it is possible to get the Pareto's border performances using only a few terms of the SDRE weight matrixes. On the basis of this analysis, a control law enabling to get weight matrixes' values as a function of a required performance is developed. Last of all, state dependent weight matrixes are used to show that they can improve the system performance. Based on the results, it turned out that the SDRE's performance is better than the LQR's one, not only because it can deal with non linearities, but also because its design is more flexible and permits to control the rigid-flexible satellite in the same time interval and spending less energy.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.