Satellites to the Seafloor: Autonomous Science to Forge a Breakthrough in Quantifying the Global Ocean Carbon Budget

Understanding the global carbon budget and its changes is crucial to current and future life on Earth. The marine component represents the largest reservoir of the global carbon cycle. In addition to physical processes that govern carbon fluxes at the air-sea interface and regulate the atmospheric carbon budget, complex internal sources and sinks, including inorganic, geologic, microbiological and biological processes also impact carbon distributions and storage. Therefore, it is essential to observe and understand the whole system. This is a daunting task, as many of the processes are distributed throughout the ocean, laterally and vertically over scales ranging from centimeters to thousands of kilometers. Ship and satellite observations both offer a partial view but, for ships, are either too short term and localized and satellites, despite their large spatial coverage, lack the spatial resolution. Ocean robots, such as deep diving autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and gliders, provide in-situ observations of the seafloor and water column while the surface can be observed in-situ by autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs). Presently, these assets are used disparately with each operating independently and requiring direct human intervention for data interpretation and mission retasking. This paradigm is insufficient for the task of obtaining the millions of in-situ and remote measurements necessary for quantifying the ocean’s contribution to the global carbon cycle. This study brings together scientists, who understand the imperative and scope of quantifying the global carbon budget, with technologists, who may be able to glimpse a possible way of solving it. A coordinated network of ocean robots and satellites that autonomously interpret data and communicate sampling strategies could significantly advance our ability to monitor the marine carbon (and other biogeochemical) cycles. The principal goal of this study is to determine whether emerging technologies could enable crucial oceanographic and space science investigations to be coordinated to address this scientific challenge and may be the way to address others. Specifically, we will: establish a lingua franca between the participants’ different research communities that will enable increased communication; identify the observational capabilities required to quantify the carbon cycle; assess the present capabilities of the ocean robotics, autonomous science, and satellite communities to provide these capabilities; investigate if coordinated ocean robots and satellites using autonomous science can obtain those observations; and develop a collaborative research agenda aimed at solving these problems

Underwater Vehicles

For the latest twenty to thirty years, a significant number of AUVs has been created for the solving of wide spectrum of scientific and applied tasks of ocean development and research. For the short time period the AUVs have shown the efficiency at performance of complex search and inspection works and opened a number of new important applications. Initially the information about AUVs had mainly review-advertising character but now more attention is paid to practical achievements, problems and systems technologies. AUVs are losing their prototype status and have become a fully operational, reliable and effective tool and modern multi-purpose AUVs represent the new class of underwater robotic objects with inherent tasks and practical applications, particular features of technology, systems structure and functional properties

PICES Press, Vol. 28, No. 1, Winter 2020

PICES science in 2019: Notes from the Science Board Chair. 2019 PICES awards. Working Group 37 organizes Phase 2 of a Practical Workshop. Communicating science. Integrating biological research, fisheries science and management of Pacific halibut and other widely distributed fish species across the North Pacific. Two decades of the North Pacific CPR program. PICES calendar of events for 2020. PICES/ICES collaborative research initiative. PICES/NPFC collaborative research. The 2019 International Gulf of Alaska Expedition. GlobalHAB: Evaluating, reducing and mitigating the cost of Harmful Algal Blooms. PICES on the cloud. New leadership in PICES. PICES Interns. PICES Special Project: Sea turtle ecology in relation to environmental stressors in North Pacific regions. Regional Consultative and Planning Workshop towards the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. Towards an integrated approach to understanding ecosystem predictability in the North Pacific. Shellfish –Resources and invaders of the North. Highlights of the 2019 FAO International Symposium on Fisheries Sustainability. The Bering Sea: Current status and recent trends. Copepod responses to, and recovery from, the recent marine heatwave in the Northeast Pacific . The western North Pacific during the 2019 warm season. Northeast Pacific juvenile salmon summer surveys in 2019

Human Traders need new Tools

This thesis proposes new methods and tools for helping human traders to compete in a highfrequency trading environment. Human traders have difficulty trading against predatory algorithms and the thesis proposes methods that support the creation of assistive tools that can help human traders to compete profitably. It also develops further understanding of classical decision-making theory in a realtime trading context demonstrating that human traders improve decision-making biases when linked together in groups or with an assistive machine. As described in the thesis human traders are monitored, and their data is captured, in realtime and in situ. The trading performance and behavioural characteristics of the traders are studied in this context in order to determine if they can be positively modified. The thesis presents a new model for studying human trading behaviour in realtime and in situ using unique software. It also describes the basis for the development of a range of interventionist and assistive tools that are designed to augment trading performance. The approach put forward is unique in its application. It also provides evidence that human traders are willing to allow machines to augment their trading decisions. The contributions of this thesis are that it overcomes the problem of assessing human trader risk-taking behaviour in realtime and in situ, it makes sense of human trading behaviour at realtime speeds and then it shows that, with new approaches to human-machine collaboration, trading performance improves and classic decision-making biases are reduced

NASA Tech Briefs, April 1990

Topics: New Product Ideas; NASA TU Services; Electronic Components and Circuits; Electronic Systems; Physical Sciences; Materials; Computer Programs; Mechanics; Machinery; Fabrication Technology; Mathematics and Information Sciences

Learning Environmental Models With Multi-Robot Teams Using A Dynamical Systems Approach

Robots monitoring complex, spatiotemporal phenomena require rich, meaningful representations of the environment. This thesis presents methods for representing the environment as a dynamical system with machine learning techniques. Specifically, we formulate machine learning methods that lend to data-driven modeling of the phenomena. The data-driven modeling explicitly leverages theoretical foundations of dynamical systems theory. Dynamical systems theory offers mathematical and physically interpretable intuitions about the environmental representation. The contributions presented include distributed algorithms, online adaptation, uncertainty quantification, and feature extraction to allow for the actualization of these techniques on-board robots. The environmental representations guide robot behavior in developing strategies such as optimal sensing and energy-efficient navigation. The methods and procedures provided in this thesis were verified across complex, spatiotemporal environments and on experimental robots

Developing a Framework for a Configuration of an Irrigation System for Small-scale Farmers

Industrial Engineerin

PROGRAM, THE NEBRASKA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES: One Hundred-Thirty-First Annual Meeting, APRIL 23-24, 2021. ONLINE

AFFILIATED SOCIETIES OF THE NEBRASKA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, INC. 1.American Association of Physics Teachers, Nebraska Section: Web site: http://www.aapt.org/sections/officers.cfm?section=Nebraska 2.Friends of Loren Eiseley: Web site: http://www.eiseley.org/ 3.Lincoln Gem & Mineral Club: Web site: http://www.lincolngemmineralclub.org/ 4.Nebraska Chapter, National Council for Geographic Education 5.Nebraska Geological Society: Web site: http://www.nebraskageologicalsociety.org Sponsors of a $50 award to the outstanding student paper presented at the Nebraska Academy of SciencesAnnual Meeting, Earth Science /Nebraska Chapter, National Council Sections 6.Nebraska Graduate Women in Science 7.Nebraska Junior Academy of Sciences: Web site: http://www.nebraskajunioracademyofsciences.org/ 8.Nebraska Ornithologists’ Union: Web site: http://www.noubirds.org/ 9.Nebraska Psychological Association: http://www.nebpsych.org/ 10.Nebraska-Southeast South Dakota Section Mathematical Association of America: Web site: http://sections.maa.org/nesesd/ 11.Nebraska Space Grant Consortium: Web site: http://www.ne.spacegrant.org/ CONTENTS AERONAUTICS & SPACE SCIENCE ANTHROPOLOGY APPLIED SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY BIOLOGICAL & MEDICAL SCIENCES COLLEGIATE ACADEMY: BIOLOGY COLLEGIATE ACADEMY: CHEMISTRY & PHYSICS EARTH SCIENCES ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES GENERAL CHEMISTRY GENERAL PHYSICS TEACHING OF SCIENCE & MATHEMATICS 2020-2021 PROGRAM COMMITTEE 2020-2021 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE FRIENDS OF THE ACADEMY NEBRASKA ACADEMY OF SCIENCS FRIEND OF SCIENCE AWARD WINNERS FRIEND OF SCIENCE AWARD TO DR PAUL KAR