The Smart Clock

Modern technology continues to change and improve constantly as people find ways to make things faster, smaller, and better - but these changes often leave the elderly behind. This year’s Innovation Challenge asked groups to focus on how to create and improve technology geared towards the aging generations. For our initial research, the Grant High School team and mentors visited an elderly care center and interviewed a few of the residents, asking what types of technology currently improve their lives, and what types of technology could potentially improve their lives. The Problem: After the interviews, we were able to identify similarities in the needs of our target market, and use those similar needs to design a product. We noticed when we visited the elderly care facility that many of the residents we talked to had issues with eyesight; some residents were unable to see when a cell phone started going off across the desk in front of them, or were unable to make out pictures on the wall. Residents told us that they prefer using an analog clock to a digital one because that is what they had used most of their lives, but they could no longer clearly make out the positions of the hands. People who cannot see the time have a harder time staying on schedule, and staying independent in general, as they cannot stick to their personal daily routine without the time. A separate issue we noted was that many of the elders we visited had trouble with mobility. They had less mobility in their limbs, and had difficulties controlling their fingers. In addressing these problems in our project, we focused primarily on the issue of sight, but made sure to accommodate those with limited mobility as well. The Solution: After taking into account the needs we found, we came up with a idea to combine wall clocks with the technology found in many smart phones to create a smart clock. This clock will allow users with and without mobility and sight disabilities to keep track of time and tasks. This would allow the aging generations to more easily stay on track with their essential and nonessential routines and plans by making the benefits of newer technology much more accessible and easy to understand

Smarter Cycling

With the current trend of urbanization, the populations of major cities such as Portland are steadily increasing. This is causing a variety of problems, both within the city and in rural areas. In regards to the city, the major challenges facing city planners are the need for the expansion of residential neighborhoods and a rise in traffic throughout the city. One way to tackle the issue of an abundance of traffic, is to make alternate means of transportation more appealing to residents. We chose to focus on bicycling because of the bike‐friendly culture already in place in Portland. An increase on the biking population would reduce the number of cars on the road, decreasing pollution, and cause drivers to be more aware of the bikes that ride beside them. The potential of our project to track bike theft throughout the city allows the bikers to feel more confident about their ability to avoid dangerous parking locations

Photochemical Mineralization of Terrigenous DOC to Dissolved Inorganic Carbon in Ocean

When terrigenous dissolved organic carbon (tDOC) rich in chromophoric dissolved organic matter (tCDOM) enters the ocean, solar radiation mineralizes it partially into dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC). This study addresses the amount and the rates of DIC photoproduction from tDOC and the area of ocean required to photomineralize tDOC. We collected water samples from 10 major rivers, mixed them with artificial seawater, and irradiated them with simulated solar radiation to measure DIC photoproduction and the photobleaching of tCDOM. The linear relationship between DIC photoproduction and tCDOM photobleaching was used to estimate the amount of photoproduced DIC from the tCDOM fluxes of the study rivers. Solar radiation was estimated to mineralize 12.5 +/- 3.7 Tg C yr(-1) (10 rivers)(-1) or 18 +/- 8% of tDOC flux. The irradiation experiments also approximated typical apparent spectral quantum yields for DIC photoproduction (phi(lambda)) over the entire lifetime of the tCDOM. Based on phi(lambda)s and the local solar irradiances in river plumes, the annual areal DIC photoproduction rates from tDOC were calculated to range from 52 +/- 4 (Lena River) to 157 +/- 2 mmol C m(-2) yr(-1) (Mississippi River). When the amount of photoproduced DIC was divided by the areal rate, 9.6 +/- 2.5 x 10(6) km(2) of ocean was required for the photomineralization of tDOC from the study rivers. Extrapolation to the global tDOC flux yields 45 (31-58) Tg of photoproduced DIC per year in the river plumes that cover 34 (25-43) x 10(6) km(2) of the ocean.Peer reviewe

Variability in organic carbon reactivity across lake residence time and trophic gradients

The transport of dissolved organic carbon from land to ocean is a large dynamic component of the global carbon cycle. Inland waters are hotspots for organic matter turnover, via both biological and photochemical processes, and mediate carbon transfer between land, oceans and atmosphere. However, predicting dissolved organic carbon reactivity remains problematic. Here we present in situ dissolved organic carbon budget data from 82 predominantly European and North American water bodies with varying nutrient concentrations and water residence times ranging from one week to 700 years. We find that trophic status strongly regulates whether water bodies act as net dissolved organic carbon sources or sinks, and that rates of both dissolved organic carbon production and consumption can be predicted from water residence time. Our results suggest a dominant role of rapid light-driven removal in water bodies with a short water residence time, whereas in water bodies with longer residence times, slower biotic production and consumption processes are dominant and counterbalance one another. Eutrophication caused lakes to transition from sinks to sources of dissolved organic carbon. We conclude that rates and locations of dissolved organic carbon processing and associated CO2 emissions in inland waters may be misrepresented in global carbon budgets if temporal and spatial reactivity gradients are not accounted for

Inter-laboratory differences in the apparent quantum yield for the photochemical production of dissolved inorganic carbon in inland waters and implications for photochemical rate modeling

Solar radiation initiates photochemical oxidation of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) to dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) in inland waters, contributing to their carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere. Models can determine photochemical DIC production over large spatiotemporal scales and assess its role in aquatic C cycling. The apparent quantum yield (AQY) spectrum for photochemical DIC production, defined as mol DIC produced per mol chromophoric dissolved organic matter-absorbed photons, is a critical model parameter. In previous studies, the principle for the determination of AQY spectra is the same but methodological specifics differ, and the extent to which these differences influence AQY spectra and simulated aquatic DIC photoproduction is unclear. Here, four laboratories determined AQY spectra from water samples of eight inland waters that are situated in Alaska, Finland, and Sweden and span a nearly 10-fold range in DOM absorption coefficients. All AQY values fell within the range previously reported for inland waters. The inter-laboratory coefficient of variation (CV) for wavelength-integrated AQY spectra (300-450 nm) averaged 38% +/- 3% SE, and the inter-water CV averaged 63% +/- 1%. The inter-laboratory CV for simulated photochemical DIC production (conducted for the five Swedish lakes) averaged 49% +/- 12%, and the inter-water CV averaged 77% +/- 10%. This uncertainty is not surprising given the complexities and methodological choices involved in determining DIC AQY spectra and needs to be considered when applying photochemical rate modeling. Thus, we also highlight current methodological limitations and suggest future improvements for DIC AQY determination to reduce inter-laboratory uncertainty