Species of eye flies and eye gnats (Diptera: Chloropidae) are severe and persistent pests of man, domestic and wild animals, and potential vectors of pathogens. The species prevailing in the Oriental region belong to the genus Siphunculina, while those in the Neotropic and Nearctic regions belong to Liohippelates and Hippelates. These are small insects of 1-2 mm that feed on wounds, lacerations...

Background: In this study, the toxicity of the different xenobiotics was tested on the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster model system.  Methods: Fly larvae were raised on food supplemented with xenobioticsat different concentrations (sodium nitroprusside (0.1-1.5 mM), S-nitrosoglutathione (0.5-4 mM), and potassium ferrocyanide (1 mM)). Emergence of flies, food intake by larvae, and pupation h...

We investigate the dynamics of rigid bodies (hollow ‘pyramids’) placed within a background airflow, oscillating with zero mean. The asymmetry of the body introduces a net upward force. We find that when the amplitude of the airflow is above a threshold, the net lift exceeds the weight and the object starts to hover. Our results show that the objects hover at far smaller air amplitudes than woul...

Computational aerodynamic analyses of rotorcraft main rotor blades are performed in both hover and forward flight. The open-source SU2 code is used for performance prediction. core the set RANS equations, which solved determining flow. In hover, steady-state time-accurate modelling techniques varying complexity assessed. Simulation specific parameters have a significant influence on solution al...

The aim of this paper is to present a mini tilt-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle which is capable to perform hover flight. Unlike conventional full-scale tiltrotors, in our design we avoid the use of swashplate and we propose a simpler mechanical design which use only the tilting rotors to stabilize the vehicle dynamics. A detailed mathematical model is derived via the Newton-Euler formalism. A no...

A computational approach to generate real-time, optimal trajectories for a flight control experiment is presented. Minimum time trajectories are computed for hover-to-hover and forward flight maneuvers. Instantaneous changes in the trajectory constraints that model obstacles and threats are also investigated. Experimental results using the Nonlinear Trajectory Generation software package show g...

This paper details the developments to date of an unmanned air vehicle (UAV) based on a standard size 60 model helicopter. The design goal is to have the helicopter achieve stable hover with the aid of an INS and monocular vision. The focus of this paper is on the development of an artificial neural network that makes use of this data to generate hover command, which are used to directly manipu...

Phoomyia Naglis & Grootaert gen. nov. is described to include two new species of beach-dwelling dolichopodine flies from coastal Sri Lanka and Thailand: Phoontyia srilankensis Naglis & Brooks sp. nov. and Phoomnyia thailandensis Naglis & Grootaert sp. nov. The new genus is closely related to the genera Argyrochlamys Lamb and Pseudargyrochlamys Grichanov, and is distinguished based on characters...