Phantom Signals: Erroneous Perception Observed During The Audification Of Radio Astronomy Data

Presented at the 19th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD2013) on July 6-9, 2013 in Lodz, Poland.This paper describes the work in progress of an investigation into utilizing audification techniques upon radio astronomy data, generated by the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). The proposed system involves subjects listening to the data presented as background noise. The initial tests established that subjects are able to detect the presence of simulated signals when presented with white noise; however it was observed that there were significant reports of signals that were not present in the test files. Subjects regularly reported perceiving these “phantom signals”. Further experimentation confirmed that phantoms were reported when listeners were presented with pure white noise and were asked to identify signals with this data. Exposing subjects to examples of potential signals prior to the test has a heavy influence on the prevalence and sonic characteristics of the illusory signals reported

A Comparison of Student-Athlete and Non-Athletes Perceptions of Academic Advisement Services

The purpose of this study was to examine academic advisement expectations of student-athletes. Participants in this study included 189 graduate and undergraduate students enrolled in a variety of courses offered through the Health, Physical Education, Recreation, & Sport program at a large Southeastern University. Thirty-eight percent (N=71) of the participants identified themselves as collegiate athletes. The students completed a survey instrument addressing expectations of their academic advisor. Student-athletes surveyed in this study demonstrated advisement expectations similar to those of the general student population. Mean responses to survey items indicated non-athletes placed more importance on individual survey items than did the student-athletes. Advisor's knowledge of course offerings within the department was considered important by 92.5% of all students. These findings assisted in identifying specifc elements useful in improving the academic advisement process and meeting student expectations. Student-athletes surveyed in this study demonstrated advisement expectations similar to those of the general student population. The authors asked, "Given that the levels of importance were similar for both groups, is there a need for separate academic advisement for student-athletes" (p. 89)

Assisted Living: Domestic Power Monitoring utilising Home Automation Products and Cloud Storage

This paper describes the development of a system for taking measurements of electrical power consumption in a domestic situation and using a web service to store the measurements in a cloud hosted database. This is part of a larger project to evaluate the potential for using power monitoring as a proxy for wellness as part of the assisted living projects at Wintec

The spatiotemporal structure of precipitation in Indian monsoon depressions

Indian monsoon depressions are synoptic scale events typically spun up in the Bay of Bengal. They usually last 4–6 days, during which they propagate northwestward across the Indian subcontinent before dissipating over northwest India or Pakistan. They can have a significant effect on monsoon precipitation, particularly in primarily agrarian northern India, and therefore quantifying their structure and variability and evaluating these in NWP models and GCMs is of critical importance. In this study, satellite data from the CloudSat and recently concluded TRMM missions are used in conjunction with an independently evaluated tracking algorithm to form a three-dimensional composite image of cloud structure and precipitation within monsoon depressions. The composite comprises 34 depressions from the 1998–2014 TRMM mission and 12 from the 2007-present CloudSat mission, and is statistically robust enough to allow significant probing of the spatiotemporal characteristics of moisture and hydrometeor fields. Among the key results of this work are the discovery and characterisation of a bimodal, diurnal cycle in surface precipitation; the first picture of the structure of cloud type and density in depressions, showing that deep convection dominates south of the centre and prominent cirrus throughout; the first composite picture of vertical hydrometeor structure in depressions, showing significant precipitation for hundreds of kilometres outside the centre and well past the mid-troposphere; and novel discussion of drop size distributions (showing significant uniformity across the depression) and resulting latent heat profiles, showing average heating rates near the centre can reach 2K/hr

Orion: Design of a system for assured low-cost human access to space

In recent years, Congress and the American people have begun to seriously question the role and importance of future manned spaceflight. This is mainly due to two factors: a decline in technical competition caused by the collapse of communism, and the high costs associated with the Space Shuttle transportation system. With these factors in mind, the ORION system was designed to enable manned spaceflight at a low cost, while maintaining the ability to carry out diverse missions, each with a high degree of flexibility. It is capable of performing satellite servicing missions, supporting a space station via crew rotation and resupply, and delivering satellites into geosynchronous orbit. The components of the system are a primary launch module, an upper stage, and a manned spacecraft capable of dynamic reentry. For satellite servicing and space station resupply missions, the ORION system utilizes three primary modules, an upper stage, and the spacecraft, which is delivered to low earth orbit and used to rendezvous, transfer materials, and make repairs. For launching a geosynchronous satellite, one primary module and an upper stage are used to deliver the satellite, along with an apogee kick motor, into orbit. The system is designed with reusability and modularity in mind in an attempt to lower cost

Numerical modelling of rock anchor uplift capacity for offshore applications

Mooring and anchoring represent a significant part of the cost of wave energy converter (WEC) systems. The most common offshore embedded anchor solutions are inapplicable to rocky seabeds, which are likely in zones of strong currents/waves of interest for WECs. A new type of anchor was recently proposed for hard seabeds. It is composed a self-drilling head, which leads the anchor shaft into the rocky seabed. The anchor is then mechanically locked into the rock by applying a pre-tension. This work investigates the rock failure mechanism around the anchor, while subjected to uplift (axial) loading, and for which few models exist. Limit analysis was undertaken to calculate the failure load of the anchor in different configurations (3 rock types, varying depths and anchor geometries). The results indicate that the anchor capacity increases with depth until a certain limit is reached, corresponding to the creation of a local failure mechanism around the anchor, while a wedge failure type takes place at shallower depth. The underreamed contact area must be carefully controlled to maximise the uplift capacity related to the local failure mechanism

A minimally intrusive monitoring system that utilizes electricity consumption as a proxy for wellbeing

The purpose of this work was to test the hypothesis: `Off-the-shelf domestic electricity meters can be utilised to assist in monitoring the wellbeing of elderly people` Many studies have shown that it is, in theory, possible to use domestic electricity consumption to determine `activities of daily living` but the availability of systems for actual use is very limited. This work followed the Design Science Research Methodology to create a Java application running on the Google App Engine cloud service that interfaced with both electricity meters and voice and text services. The system was implemented and tested over a three month period with one older person and their carer. Results demonstrated that the technology readily succeeds in meeting the study`s initial objectives. The need for more sophisticated decision logic was apparent and a method to determine whether a home is currently occupied is likely to improve the ability to create more timely alerts

Off-the-shelf Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring Devices Utilised in a Low Activity Detection Service

There is a growing awareness for the need to provide low cost solutions for the care of the elderly and in particular to allow them to keep living independent lives. In parallel to this there has also been significant advances in a number of technical areas including 1) monitoring electricity consumption for the purpose of reducing power costs, 2) non-intrusive load monitoring (NILM), 3) using sensors to determine activities of daily living and 4) cloud computing. The purpose of this work was to demonstrate that it is possible to use a readily available consumer off the shelf electricity monitor to provide a low intrusive activity monitor for older persons. This work uses the Design Science Research Methodology and builds on the results of our previous work that used raw electricity usage data. In this work we are trailing the use of a meter that uses NILM to identify individual appliances in the home. The information on appliance use was analysed by a cloud base program and alerts were sent to the carer when lower than expected activity was detected. Participants both in this work and those reported in the literature have mentioned the annoyance of having multiple sensors in a home, especially if they emit either constant or flashing light. In contrast NILM allows the use of multiple electrical appliances to be monitored without the need for a large number of sensors to be deployed – just one sensor at the meter or fuse board. The confluence of a number of technologies has enabled the creation of a low intrusive and low cost monitoring system to have become a reality. The initial trial of the system has been shown to be a mostly reliable alternative to a system built on multiple sensors. Based on previous work that involved the deployment of multiple sensors, the new system is expected to be more acceptable as it has the desired attribute of becoming invisible to the user

Reducing uncertainty in small-catchment flood peak estimation

Every year in the UK, many flood risk assessments are carried out on small catchments, typically draining areas of less than 25 km2. Standard hydrological practice in all UK catchments is to apply the methods presented in the Flood Estimation Handbook (FEH) and its subsequent updates. FEH methods are practical, relatively easy to apply and based on extensive statistical analyses. However, uncertainties can be large, especially in atypical catchments, and small catchments can present unique challenges in terms of heavy urbanisation and rapid flood responses. Compared to larger catchments, small catchment flood data are limited. In this study, we use a dataset of annual maxima and digital catchment descriptors at 205 small catchments to benchmark the QMED and Q100 estimation performance of current UK flood estimation methods: the FEH statistical method, ReFH2 and MacDonald and Fraser’s method, in rural and urbanised catchments separately. All methods perform similarly in rural catchments overall, although MacDonald and Fraser’s method underestimates QMED in urbanised catchments. The methods show a larger factorial standard error against this small catchment dataset than they do against typical datasets of mixed-size catchments. Further work will evaluate the performance of ReFH2 in combination with the latest FEH13 rainfall model

Chemical spectral analysis through sonification

Presented at the 21st International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD2015), July 6-10, 2015, Graz, Styria, Austria.Chemical spectra are an important part of how research chemists analyse the outcomes of experiments. However these complex spectra can be very difficult and time consuming to analyse. This paper outlines an investigation into using sonification to improve the understanding and ease of analysis of chemical spectral data. The project specifically uses sonification techniques to display Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectra. Two sonification methods were designed to offer different perspectives on the data; “Spectral Audification” allows a quick overview of the data while maintaining its subtleties whereas a simple parameter mapping method allows more in-depth analysis of the spectra such as the use of rhythmic patterns to make sets of peaks easily identifiabl