Identifying a low-frequency oscillation in Galileo IOV pseudorange rates

Galileo, the European global navigation satellite system, is in its in-orbit validation phase and the four satellites which have been available for some months now have allowed a preliminary analysis of the system performance. Previous studies have showed that Galileo will be able to provide pseudorange measurements more accurate than those provided by GPS. However, a similar improvement was not found for pseudorange rate observations in the velocity domain. This fact stimulated additional analysis of the velocity domain, and, in particular, an unintended oscillatory component was identified as the main error source in the velocity solution. The magnitude of such oscillation is less than 10 cm/s, and its period is in the order of few minutes. A methodology was developed to identify oscillatory components in the Galileo IOV pseudorange rate observables, and it was verified that the measurements from Galileo IOV PFM and Galileo IOV FM2 are affected by a small oscillatory disturbance. This disturbance stems from the architecture adopted for combining the frequency references provided by the two active clocks present in the Galileo satellites. The issue has been solved in Galileo IOV FM3 and Galileo IOV FM4, and the oscillatory component has been eliminated. We also propose a methodology for removing this unwanted component from the final velocity solution and for determining the performance that Galileo will be able to achieve. The analysis shows that Galileo velocity solution will provide a root-mean-square error of about 8 cm/s even in the limited geometry conditions achieved using only four satellites. This shows the potential of Galileo also in the determination of user velocity.     

Climate change scepticism and public support for mitigation: Evidence from an Australian choice experiment

Public scepticism surrounding climate change is an obstacle for implementing climate change mitigation measures in many countries. However, very little is known about: (1) the nature and sources of climate change scepticism; and (2) its influence on preferences for climate change mitigation policies. In this paper, we investigate these two issues using evidence and analysis from an Australian public survey and choice experiment. The study has three key findings. First, the intensity of scepticism varies depending on its type; we observed little scepticism over the cause, trend and impact of climate change and widespread scepticism over the effectiveness of mitigation measures and global co-operation. Second, cause and mitigation scepticism play significant roles in determining public support for climate change abatement. Respondents who believed in human-induced climate change were significantly more supportive of mitigation. Likewise, respondents who believed that mitigation would be successful in slowing down climate change were significantly more likely to be supportive. Third, the general public tend to give the benefit of the doubt to supporting mitigation. Those who expressed higher uncertainty about climate outcomes were more supportive of mitigation than others with similar expectations but lower uncertainty.     

The development of a rapid screening technique to measure antibiotic activity in effluents and surface water samples

Use of antibiotics in medicine, farming and aquaculture results in a continual supply of these pharmaceuticals and their breakdown products reaching the environment. A method has been developed to use for screening environmental samples to establish whether they contain antibiotics. The assay is based on a commercially available test kit and uses some modifications of the test procedure and SPE techniques to deliver a fast, semi-quantifiable result. Development of the assay and results from spiked and environmental samples are discussed.