Nutritional ecology of moose in an urban landscape

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2012Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER), Alaska supports a large population of moose that lives in and around the urban and industrial development of Anchorage. This study evaluates the body condition of adult female moose on JBER and calculates the relative nutritional value of habitat for planning development and for mitigating the effects of development on this population. Body condition of moose on JBER was similar to that of other populations of moose in Alaska. Our nutritional model predicted that shrublands could support 11-81 times more moose than any other habitat on JBER. Activity patterns of JBER moose were similar to those published for non-urban moose, indicating habituation to human activity. Activity levels increased as moose moved through higher quality habitats. Sustained production of this heavily utilized population requires maintaining shrublands in undeveloped portions of the base where moose-vehicle collisions can be minimized

Circumstances in the lives of Tennyson and his friends as reflected in his poetry.

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston Universit

Bicarbonate or Carbonate Processes for Coupling Carbon Dioxide Capture and Electrochemical Conversion

Designing a scalable system to capture CO₂ from the air and convert it into valuable chemicals, fuels, and materials could be transformational for mitigating climate change. Climate models predict that negative greenhouse gas emissions will be required by the year 2050 in order to stay below a 2 °C change in global temperature. The processes of CO₂ capture, CO₂ conversion, and finally product separation all require significant energy inputs; devising a system that simultaneously minimizes the energy required for all steps is an important challenge. To date, a variety of prototype or pilot-level CO₂ capture and/or conversion systems have been designed and built targeting the individual objectives of either capture or conversion. One approach has focused on CO₂ removal from the atmosphere and storage of pure pressurized CO₂. Other efforts have concentrated on CO₂ conversion processes, such as electrochemical reduction or fermentation. Only a few concepts or analyses have been developed for complete end-to-end processes that perform both CO₂ capture and transformation

A 4.8 kbps code-excited linear predictive coder

A secure voice system STU-3 capable of providing end-to-end secure voice communications (1984) was developed. The terminal for the new system will be built around the standard LPC-10 voice processor algorithm. The performance of the present STU-3 processor is considered to be good, its response to nonspeech sounds such as whistles, coughs and impulse-like noises may not be completely acceptable. Speech in noisy environments also causes problems with the LPC-10 voice algorithm. In addition, there is always a demand for something better. It is hoped that LPC-10's 2.4 kbps voice performance will be complemented with a very high quality speech coder operating at a higher data rate. This new coder is one of a number of candidate algorithms being considered for an upgraded version of the STU-3 in late 1989. The problems of designing a code-excited linear predictive (CELP) coder to provide very high quality speech at a 4.8 kbps data rate that can be implemented on today's hardware are considered

Method of remotely characterizing thermal properties of a sample

A sample in a wind tunnel is radiated from a thermal energy source outside of the wind tunnel. A thermal imager system, also located outside of the wind tunnel, reads surface radiations from the sample as a function of time. The produced thermal images are characteristic of the heat transferred from the sample to the flow across the sample. In turn, the measured rates of heat loss of the sample are characteristic of the flow and the sample

Inaugural Review Prize 2023: The exercise hyperpnoea dilemma:A 21st‐century perspective

During mild or moderate exercise, alveolar ventilation increases in direct proportion to metabolic rate, regulating arterial CO2 pressure near resting levels. Mechanisms giving rise to the hyperpnoea of exercise are unsettled despite over a century of investigation. In the past three decades, neuroscience has advanced tremendously, raising optimism that the ‘exercise hyperpnoea dilemma’ can finally be solved. In this review, new perspectives are offered in the hope of stimulating original ideas based on modern neuroscience methods and current understanding. We first describe the ventilatory control system and the challenge exercise places upon blood‐gas regulation. We highlight relevant system properties, including feedforward, feedback and adaptive (i.e., plasticity) control of breathing. We then elaborate a seldom explored hypothesis that the exercise ventilatory response continuously adapts (learns and relearns) throughout life and ponder if the memory ‘engram’ encoding the feedforward exercise ventilatory stimulus could reside within the cerebellum. Our hypotheses are based on accumulating evidence supporting the cerebellum's role in motor learning and the numerous direct and indirect projections from deep cerebellar nuclei to brainstem respiratory neurons. We propose that cerebellar learning may be obligatory for the accurate and adjustable exercise hyperpnoea capable of tracking changes in life conditions/experiences, and that learning arises from specific cerebellar microcircuits that can be interrogated using powerful techniques such as optogenetics and chemogenetics. Although this review is speculative, we consider it essential to reframe our perspective if we are to solve the till‐now intractable exercise hyperpnoea dilemma

Coding to Develop Early Mathematical and Computational Thinking in Kindergarten: A Case Study

An emerging method of integrating science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in elementary settings is through the use of coding robot tasks. These coding robot tasks have the potential to enhance elementary students\u27 mathematics learning and computational thinking (CT) skills. Research documenting how CT skills develop in young children is limited. The purpose of this case study is to examine one student\u27s progression of mathematics and CT skills as they engage in tasks with a coding robot. This investigation documents the progression of a 5-year-old kindergarten student who attends a small, private elementary school. The student and a peer participated in five, 30-minute tasks that involved using a coding robot called Code-a-Pillar. These tasks were structured to elicit early math and CT knowledge and abilities and embedded concepts such as spatial reasoning, sequencing, debugging, decomposition, abstraction, and problem solving. Each of the tasks were video-recorded for analysis and coding purposes. Iterative coding was then used to describe the student\u27s progression through the tasks and identify when and how math and CT skills were demonstrated. Using an initial framework of Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs), researchers will present a case study of one student\u27s development of KSAs over five tasks. Evidence from the video data is then used to describe how the tasks that may have provoked these shifts in the student\u27s ability to exhibit the identified skills. This case study provides insight into how coding robot tasks may enhance young children\u27s math and CT skills

Optical Excitation of a Nanoparticle Cu/p-NiO Photocathode Improves Reaction Selectivity for CO₂ Reduction in Aqueous Electrolytes

We report the light-induced modification of catalytic selectivity for photoelectrochemical CO₂ reduction in aqueous media using copper (Cu) nanoparticles dispersed onto p-type nickel oxide (p-NiO) photocathodes. Optical excitation of Cu nanoparticles generates hot electrons available for driving CO₂ reduction on the Cu surface, while charge separation is accomplished by hot-hole injection from the Cu nanoparticles into the underlying p-NiO support. Photoelectrochemical studies demonstrate that optical excitation of plasmonic Cu/p-NiO photocathodes imparts increased selectivity for CO₂ reduction over hydrogen evolution in aqueous electrolytes. Specifically, we observed that plasmon-driven CO₂ reduction increased the production of carbon monoxide and formate, while simultaneously reducing the evolution of hydrogen. Our results demonstrate an optical route toward steering the selectivity of artificial photosynthetic systems with plasmon-driven photocathodes for photoelectrochemical CO₂ reduction in aqueous media

Autonomous Navigation Error Propagation Assessment for Lunar Surface Mobility Applications

The NASA Vision for Space Exploration is focused on the return of astronauts to the Moon. While navigation systems have already been proven in the Apollo missions to the moon, the current exploration campaign will involve more extensive and extended missions requiring new concepts for lunar navigation. In this document, the results of an autonomous navigation error propagation assessment are provided. The analysis is intended to be the baseline error propagation analysis for which Earth-based and Lunar-based radiometric data are added to compare these different architecture schemes, and quantify the benefits of an integrated approach, in how they can handle lunar surface mobility applications when near the Lunar South pole or on the Lunar Farside

Development of the ITACA Network Loading Analysis Tool's Scheduling Techniques

NASA's SCENIC project aims to simplify and reduce the cost of space mission planning by creating analysis capabilities which are integrated with relevant analysis parameters specific to SCaN assets and SCaN supported user missions. The Integrated Tradespace Analysis of Communications Architectures (ITACA) will provide an all-in-one package for various analysis capabilities that normally require add-ons or multiple tools to complete. The ITACA tool will be responsible for assessing the given network architecture and generating a schedule for the missions as well as the assets. ITACA will allow users to evaluate the quality of service of a given network and determine whether or not the network will satisfy the mission's requirements. ITACA is currently under development, and during the spring of 2018 major development in the tools scheduling techniques were completed. A total of seven different techniques were completed