Land Grant Application- Cook, Noah (West Hampton)

Land grant application submitted to the Maine Land Office on behalf of Noah Cook for service in the Revolutionary War, by their widow Paulina.https://digitalmaine.com/revolutionary_war_mass/1097/thumbnail.jp

The emergence of commercial genomics: analysis of the rise of a biotechnology subsector during the Human Genome Project, 1990 to 2004.

BackgroundDevelopment of the commercial genomics sector within the biotechnology industry relied heavily on the scientific commons, public funding, and technology transfer between academic and industrial research. This study tracks financial and intellectual property data on genomics firms from 1990 through 2004, thus following these firms as they emerged in the era of the Human Genome Project and through the 2000 to 2001 market bubble.MethodsA database was created based on an early survey of genomics firms, which was expanded using three web-based biotechnology services, scientific journals, and biotechnology trade and technical publications. Financial data for publicly traded firms was collected through the use of four databases specializing in firm financials. Patent searches were conducted using firm names in the US Patent and Trademark Office website search engine and the DNA Patent Database.ResultsA biotechnology subsector of genomics firms emerged in parallel to the publicly funded Human Genome Project. Trends among top firms show that hiring, capital improvement, and research and development expenditures continued to grow after a 2000 to 2001 bubble. The majority of firms are small businesses with great diversity in type of research and development, products, and services provided. Over half the public firms holding patents have the majority of their intellectual property portfolio in DNA-based patents.ConclusionsThese data allow estimates of investment, research and development expenditures, and jobs that paralleled the rise of genomics as a sector within biotechnology between 1990 and 2004

The Modern History of Global Food

Can we trace the long history of globalization through the movement of foods around the world? History students Leland Cook, Margaret Dickinson, Natalie Fulk, and Noah Switalski will share their insights from collaborative research with Dr. Lauren Janes during the summer of 2016. Each global food--potatoes, sugar, curry, and rice--tells a story of connectivity across continents and cultures, showing how our lives, diets, and economies were shaped by centuries of meaningful interactions around food

Where science starts: Spontaneous experiments in preschoolers’ exploratory play

Probabilistic models of expected information gain require integrating prior knowledge about causal hypotheses with knowledge about possible actions that might generate data relevant to those hypotheses. Here we looked at whether preschoolers (mean: 54 months) recognize “action possibilities” (affordances) in the environment that allow them to isolate variables when there is information to be gained. By manipulating the physical properties of the stimuli, we were able to affect the degree to which candidate variables could be isolated; by manipulating the base rate of candidate causes, we were able to affect the potential for information gain. Children’s exploratory play was sensitive to both manipulations: given unambiguous evidence children played indiscriminately and rarely tried to isolate candidate causes; given ambiguous evidence, children both selected (Experiment 1) and designed (Experiment 2) informative interventions.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (NSF Faculty Early Career Development Award)Templeton Foundation (Award)James S. McDonnell Foundation (Collaborative Interdisciplinary Grant on Causal Reasoning

Mini Baja CVT Optimization

The goal of this project is to design and optimize an eCVT setup for The University of Akron’s Zips Baja SAE car. The current CVT is a centrifugal CVT which changes its gear ratio through a series of weights and springs, while an eCVT uses a motor to change the gear ratio.The advantage of an eCVT is that the motor can be programmed to adjust in real-time based on the engine rpm. A centrifugal CVT can only be tuned ahead of time. It is necessary to compare the new acceleration performance to a tuned centrifugal CVT to determine if it would be an improvement over the Baja team’s current CVT design

STP-H7-CASPR: A Transition from Mission Concept to Launch

The Configurable and Autonomous Sensor Processing Research (CASPR) project is a university-led experiment developed by student and faculty researchers at the NSF Center for Space, High-performance, and Resilient Computing (SHREC) at the University of Pittsburgh for the Space Test Program – Houston 7 (STP-H7) mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Autonomous sensor processing, the mission theme of the CASPR experiment, is enabled by combining novel sensor technologies with innovative computing techniques on resilient and high-performance flight hardware in a small satellite (SmallSat) form-factor. CASPR includes the iSIM-90, an innovative, high-resolution optical payload for Earth-observation missions developed by SATLANTIS MICROSATS SL. For the CASPR mission, the opto-mechanics of iSIM-90 will be mounted atop a gimbal-actuated platform for agile, low-GRD (ground-resolved distance), and multispectral Earth-observation imaging. This mission will also feature the Prophesee Sisley neuromorphic, event-driven sensor for space situational awareness applications. The CASPR avionics system consists of the following: three radiation-tolerant, reconfigurable space computers, including one flight-proven CSP and two next-gen SSPs; one μCSP Smart Module; one power card; and one backplane. CASPR also features a sub-experiment with an AMD GPU to evaluate new accelerator technologies for space. CASPR is a highly versatile experiment combining a variety of compute and sensor technologies to demonstrate on-orbit capabilities in onboard data analysis, mission operations, and spacecraft autonomy. As a research sandbox, CASPR enables new software and hardware to be remotely uploaded to further enhance mission capabilities. Finally, as a university-led mission, cost is a limiting constraint, leading to budget-driven design decisions and the use of affordable methods and procedures. Other factors, such as a power budget and limited equipment, facilities, and engineering resources, pose additional challenges to the CASPR mission. To address these challenges, we describe cost-effective procedures and methods used in the assembly, integration, and testing of the CASPR experiment

CASPR: Autonomous Sensor Processing Experiment for STP-H7

As computing technologies improve, spacecraft sensors continue to increase in fidelity and resolution, their dataset sizes and data rates increasing concurrently. This increase in data saturates the capabilities of spacecraft-to-ground communications and necessitates the use of powerful onboard computers to process data as it is collected. The pursuit of onboard, autonomous sensor processing while remaining within the power and memory restrictions of embedded computing becomes vital to prevent the saturation of data downlink capabilities. This paper presents a new ISS research experiment to study and evaluate novel technologies in sensors, computers, and intelligent applications for SmallSat-based sensing with autonomous data processing. Configurable and Autonomous Sensor Processing Research (CASPR) is being developed to evaluate autonomous, onboard processing strategies on novel sensors and is set to be installed on the ISS as part of the DoD/NASA Space Test Program –Houston 7(STP-H7) mission. CASPR features a flight-qualified CSP space computer as central node and two flight-ready SSP space computers for apps execution, both from SHREC, a telescopic, multispectral imager from Satlantis Inc., an event-driven neuromorphic vision sensor, an AMD GPU subsystem, and Intel Optane phase-change memory. CASPR is a highly versatile ISS experiment meant to explore many facets of autonomous sensor processing in space

Moon Zoo: citizen science in lunar exploration

The Moon Zoo Team describe how citizen scientists can get involved and explore the Moon online