Report of the sensor readout electronics panel

The findings of the Sensor Readout Electronics Panel are summarized in regard to technology assessment and recommended development plans. In addition to two specific readout issues, cryogenic readouts and sub-electron noise, the panel considered three advanced technology areas that impact the ability to achieve large format sensor arrays. These are mega-pixel focal plane packaging issues, focal plane to data processing module interfaces, and event driven readout architectures. Development in each of these five areas was judged to have significant impact in enabling the sensor performance desired for the Astrotech 21 mission set. Other readout issues, such as focal plane signal processing or other high volume data acquisition applications important for Eos-type mapping, were determined not to be relevant for astrophysics science goals

Islam and Natural Resources Technology

This paper aims to understand the Islamic view of advanced technology and also presents examples of technology and its application in natural resource management.This paper uses secondary data from reference books, proceedings, national and international journals.The emphasis of the analysis is qualitative descriptive.The results of the analysis showed that Islam is a religion that does not reject the existence of modernity.Even Islam strongly encourages its people to master science and technology.One of these advanced technologies is remote sensing technology.The integration of remote sensing technology and geographic information systems has many benefits and uses for human life, such as for detect potential fish distribution area, mapping habitat benthic in small island, forest landcover change,large scale topographic mapping,and others.Science and technology developed in the order of the Islamic system will provide mercy for the whole world

Advanced crime scene mapping and technology course design

The purpose of this project is to develop an Advanced Crime Scene Mapping and Technology course that aims to strengthen crime scene documentation and mapping skills, enhance cognitive abilities, and introduce students to advanced digital technologies that are gaining popularity in several forensic science disciplines. In particular, recent advancements in 3D laser scanning, mapping, and drone technology have presented the fields of crime scene investigation and reconstruction with many exciting new possibilities for potential uses. However, due to several limitations regarding the cost of equipment and training, the availability of resources, time constraints, and limited knowledge, it is often difficult for agencies to integrate new tools into their investigative processes. This course endeavors to help alleviate some of these issues by providing students with a basic knowledge and understanding of relevant new technologies while keeping them firmly grounded in the fundamental principles of crime scene processing and reconstruction. The content and structure of this course are designed to be flexible so it can accommodate rapid changes in technological advancements and device regulations. As such, complete instructions and tutorials are not included for specific brands of equipment and software, but instead focus on general concepts and procedures that can be generally applied to most similar devices

EPOBF: Energy Efficient Allocation of Virtual Machines in High Performance Computing Cloud

Cloud computing has become more popular in provision of computing resources under virtual machine (VM) abstraction for high performance computing (HPC) users to run their applications. A HPC cloud is such cloud computing environment. One of challenges of energy efficient resource allocation for VMs in HPC cloud is tradeoff between minimizing total energy consumption of physical machines (PMs) and satisfying Quality of Service (e.g. performance). On one hand, cloud providers want to maximize their profit by reducing the power cost (e.g. using the smallest number of running PMs). On the other hand, cloud customers (users) want highest performance for their applications. In this paper, we focus on the scenario that scheduler does not know global information about user jobs and user applications in the future. Users will request shortterm resources at fixed start times and non interrupted durations. We then propose a new allocation heuristic (named Energy-aware and Performance per watt oriented Bestfit (EPOBF)) that uses metric of performance per watt to choose which most energy-efficient PM for mapping each VM (e.g. maximum of MIPS per Watt). Using information from Feitelson's Parallel Workload Archive to model HPC jobs, we compare the proposed EPOBF to state of the art heuristics on heterogeneous PMs (each PM has multicore CPU). Simulations show that the EPOBF can reduce significant total energy consumption in comparison with state of the art allocation heuristics.Comment: 10 pages, in Procedings of International Conference on Advanced Computing and Applications, Journal of Science and Technology, Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology, ISSN 0866-708X, Vol. 51, No. 4B, 201

Mapping Creative Spaces in Omaha, NE: Resident Perceptions versus Creative Firm Locations

In an era increasingly shaped by automation and globalization, industries that rely on creativity, innovation, and knowledge-generation are considered key drivers of economic growth in the U.S. and other advanced capitalist economies. This study examines the spatial distribution of creative firms and how they might align with perceptions of creativity in Omaha, Nebraska, a mid-sized U.S. urban area. Utilizing a survey, participant mapping exercise, and geospatial analyses, the primary goal was to identify formal and informal spaces of creative production and consumption, and determine to what extent the location of creative firms (both arts/mediaand science/technology-focused) may shape perceptions of creativity across the urban landscape. The results suggest that local area residents primarily view dense, vibrant, mixed-use, and often historic urban neighborhoods as particularly creative, whether or not there exists a dense concentration of creative firms. Similarly, creative firms were more spatially diffuse than the clusters of “creative locations” identified by residents, and were more frequently found in suburban locations. Furthermore, while there was no discernible difference among “creative” and “non-creative” workers, science/technology firms were more likely than arts/media firms to be found in suburban locations, and less likely to be associated with perceptions of creativity in Omaha

Conceptual Design of a High-Resolution, Low Cost Topographic Mapping Mission

There is a need for space-based topographic mapping missions which are an order-of-magnitude less costly than the $100M-class missions currently planned by NASA and the commercial community. The Stereo Imaging Long-Look Satellite (STILLSAT), having a mass of approximately 100 kg, is designed for 5m instantaneous field of view (IFOV) to meet most of the topographic requirements of both the science and cartography community. The resulting Digital Elevation Models (DEM) are predicted to have 10m (absolute) contour intervals, geo-corrected by ground datum. Frame and panoramic cameras from Apollo 15, 16, and 17, as well as ESA\u27s Metric Cameras and the U.S. Large Format Camera have been cited by photogrammetrists as advantageous for topographic map production. The use of a CCD framing camera for stereo imaging was discussed by JPL in 1979 but dismissed because CCD technology was not yet mature enough. By capitalizing on recent advances in CCD technology and instituting a concept of shared stability and pointing responsibility between the bus and payload, it is now possible to consider such an advanced mission. This paper will focus on the system engineering trades resulting from mission requirements that dictate earth/satellite motion compensation to achieve very high spatial resolution, as well as off-axis cross track imaging to maximize target acquisition. The mission is approached from an integrated design paradigm wherein science, instrument, bus, and ground operations objectives are simultaneously weighed to achieve extremely low cost, low power, and reliable mission elements. The initial STILLSAT mission operations plan is to obtain multiple stereo images at base height ratios of 1.0 within targets-of-opportunity of 100km in diameter to support specific science objectives. STILLSAT is designed for line-of-sight pointing to within 0.1 degree and can image off-axis up to 20 degrees in the cross track direction. The total spacecraft and mission operations cost is expected to be well under$5M (not including launch) and is being initially proposed as a Student Explorer Development Initiative (STEDI) project to the Universities Space Research Association\u27s Advanced Design Program. A launch could occur within 24 months of go-ahead. Progressively advanced concepts of this approach will be discussed, those which can map much larger regions of the Earth through use of larger detector arrays and mosaicked images. It is even conceivable that a STILLSAT-derived single global mapping satellite or constellation of simpler satellites could provide worldwide coverage. This approach holds promise for both scientific and commercial applications

Rapid topography mapping of scalar fields: Large molecular clusters

The following article appeared in Journal of Chemical Physics 137.7 (2012): 074116 and may be found at http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jcp/137/7/10.1063/1.4746243An efficient and rapid algorithm for topography mapping of scalar fields, molecular electron density (MED) and molecular electrostatic potential (MESP) is presented. The highlight of the work is the use of fast function evaluation by Deformed-atoms-in-molecules (DAM) method. The DAM method provides very rapid as well as sufficiently accurate function and gradient evaluation. For mapping the topography of large systems, the molecular tailoring approach (MTA) is invoked. This new code is tested out for mapping the MED and MESP critical points (CP's) of small systems. It is further applied to large molecular clusters viz. (H 2O) 25, (C 6H 6) 8 and also to a unit cell of valine crystal at MP26-31G(d) level of theory. The completeness of the topography is checked by extensive search as well as applying the Poincaré-Hopf relation. The results obtained show that the DAM method in combination with MTA provides a rapid and efficient route for mapping the topography of large molecular systemsAuthors thank the Center for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Pune for financial and computational support. S.R.G. is grateful to the Department of Science and Technology (DST) for the award of J. C. Bose National Fellowship. R. López acknowledges partial funding from the CAM (S2009_PPQ-1545, LIQUORGAS) and MICINN (CTQ2010-19232). Authors are also thankful to Dr. Graeme M. Day, University of Cambridge, for providing the coordinates of unit cell of valine crystal and to Dr. V. Subramanian, CLRI, Chennai for providing some test run

Advanced Artificial Intelligence: Policy and Strategy

AI technology has the potential to bring huge benefits to society. It is also possible that advanced Artificial General Intelligence – AI capable of performing at or above human level on a wide range of tasks – could be highly destructive, as discussed by an increasing number of experts in the field. There are many misconceptions about the field of AI and its potential dangers. The problem is not that an AI system will suddenly develop human-like emotions of anger or resentment and ‘rebel’. Rather the issues are more subtle. How can we reliably predict the behaviour of an AI system? How can we specify the goals of a system such that we avoid unanticipated side-effects? How do we ensure that those developing advanced AI are paying sufficient attention to ensuring safety, and avoid arms-race dynamics? Current technology is still a long way from human-level general intelligence, but with high stakes involved we cannot afford to proceed via trial and error and must begin to engage with these issues now. Actions that can be taken immediately include: increasing research in relevant areas of policy and computer science; setting up structures such as regular conferences to improve information flow between policymakers, academia and industry on this topic; mapping possible future scenarios and planning appropriate responses; and investing in technologies that improve our ability to forecast future events such as prediction markets