Estimating underwater light diffuse attenuation with low-cost devices: optimal sensor configuration analysis using radiative transfer models

Peer Reviewe

Human management of a robotic swarm

This paper proposes a management algorithm that allows a human operator to organize a robotic swarm via a robot leader. When the operator requests a robot to become a leader, nearby robots suspend their activities. The operator can then request a count of the robots, and assign them into subgroups, one for each task. Once the operator releases the leader, the robots perform the tasks they were assigned to. We report a series of experiments conducted with up to 30 e-puck mobile robots. On average, the counting and allocation algorithm correctly assigns 95 % of the robots in the swarm. The time to count the number of robots increases, on average, linearly with the number of robots, provided they are arranged in random formation

Using Google Glass in human-robot swarm interaction

We study how a human operator can guide a swarm of robots when transporting a large object through an environment with obstacles. The operator controls a leader robot that influences the other robots of the swarm. Follower robots push the object only if they have no line of sight of the leader. The leader represents a way point that the object should reach. By changing its position over time, the operator effectively guides the transporting robots towards the final destination. The operator uses the Google Glass device to interact with the swarm. Communication can be achieved via either touch or voice commands and the support of a graphical user interface. Experimental results with 20 physical e-puck robots show that the human–robot interaction allows the swarm to transport the object through a complex environment

Revising the retrieval technique of a long-term stratospheric HNO3 data set: from a constrained matrix inversion to the optimal estimation algorithm

The Ground-Based Millimeter-wave Spectrometer (GBMS) was designed and built at the State University of New York at Stony Brook in the early 1990s and since then has carried out many measurement campaigns of stratospheric O3, HNO3, CO and N2O at polar and mid-latitudes. Its HNO3 data set shed light on HNO3 annual cycles over the Antarctic continent and contributed to the validation of both generations of the satellite-based JPL Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS). Following the increasing need for long-term data sets of stratospheric constituents, we resolved to establish a long-term GMBS observation site at the Arctic station of Thule (76.5 N, 68.8 W), Greenland, beginning in January 2009, in order to track the long- and short-term interactions between the changing climate and the seasonal processes tied to the ozone depletion phenomenon. Furthermore, we updated the retrieval algorithm adapting the Optimal Estimation (OE) method to GBMS spectral data in order to conform to the standard of the Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC) microwave group, and to provide our retrievals with a set of averaging kernels that allow more straightforward comparisons with other data sets. The new OE algorithm was applied to GBMS HNO3 data sets from 1993 South Pole observations to date, in order to produce HNO3 version 2 (v2) profiles. A sample of results obtained at Antarctic latitudes in fall and winter and at mid-latitudes is shown here. In most conditions, v2 inversions show a sensitivity (i.e., sum of column elements of the averaging kernel matrix) of 100±20% from 20 to 45 km altitude, with somewhat worse (better) sensitivity in the Antarctic winter lower (upper) stratosphere. The 1 uncertainty on HNO3 v2 mixing ratio vertical profiles depends on altitude and is estimated at 15% or 0.3 ppbv, whichever is larger. Comparisons of v2 with former (v1) GBMS HNO3 vertical profiles, obtained employing the constrained matrix inversion method, show that v1 and v2 profiles are overall consistent. The main difference is at the HNO3 mixing ratio maximum in the 20–25 km altitude range, which is smaller in v2 than v1 profiles by up to 2 ppbv at mid-latitudes and during the Antarctic fall. This difference suggests a better agreement of GBMS HNO3 v2 profiles with both UARS/ and EOS Aura/MLS HNO3 data than previous v1 profiles

On the cryogenic removal of NOy from the Antarctic polar stratosphere

We review current knowledge about the annual cycle of transport of nitrogen oxides to, and removal from, the polar stratosphere, with particular attention to Antarctica where the annual winter denitrifi cation process is both regular in occurrence and severe in effect. Evidence for a large downward fl ux of NOy from the mesosphere to the stratosphere, fi rst seen briefl y in the Limb Infrared Monitor of the Stratosphere (LIMS) data from the Arctic winter of 1978-1979, has been found during the 1990s in both satellite and ground-based observations, though this still seems to be omitted from many atmospheric models. When incorporated in the Stony Brook- St. Petersburg two dimensional (2D) transport and chemistry model, more realistic treatment of the NOy fl ux, along with sulfate transport from the mesosphere, sulfate aerosol formation where temperature is favorable, and the inclusion of a simple ion-cluster reaction, leads to good agreement with observed HNO3 formation in the mid-winter middle to upper stratosphere. To further emphasize the importance of large fl uxes of thermospheric and mesospheric NOy into the polar stratosphere, we have used observations, supplemented with model calculations, to defi ne new altitude dependent correlation curves between N2O and NOy. These are more suitable than those previously used in the literature to represent conditions within the Antarctic vortex region prior to and during denitrifi cation by Polar Stratospheric Cloud (PSC) particles. Our NOy -N2O curves lead to a 40% increase in the average amount of NOy removed during the Antarctic winter with respect to estimates calculated using NOy-N2O curves from the Atmospheric Trace Molecule Spectroscopy (ATMOS)/ATLAS-3 data set

La Suma de la doctrina cristiana de san Pedro Canisio: La universalización de la catequesis de Juan de Ávila

El artículo pone de manifiesto la importancia de la Suma Cristiana de san Pedro Canisio, y de la Doctrina de san Juan de Ávila una de sus fuentes principales, en la catequesis católica en el periodo que va desde el Concilio de Trento al Concilio Vaticano II. Tras un hacer resumen histórico de san Pedro Canisio y de la redacción de sus catecismos, se destaca la influencia de la Suma de la doctrina cristiana al quedar convertida en catecismo semioficial de la Compañía de Jesús y ser declarado obligatorio en parte del mundo católico. Se analiza brevemente la estructura de la Suma, su relación con la Doctrina Cristiana de san Juan de Ávila, y su influjo en los catecismos compuestos por jesuitas (Bellarmino, Marcos Jorge, Astete, Ripalda...).This paper’s aim is to establish the importance of St Peter Canisius’s Summa christianae –and St John of Avila’s Doctrina, one of its main sources– in the making of catholic catechisms during the period between the Council of Trento and the II Vatican Council. After a biographical account of St Peter Canisius and the writing of his catechisms, the influence of the Summa is analyzed, its text having become the semiofficial catechism of the Jesuit Company and its study having been declared compulsory in a greater part of the catholic world. The structure of the Summa is briefly analyzed. Also its relation with St John of Avila’s Doctrina Cristiana and the spreading of its use in teaching, especially through catechisms written by Jesuits (Bellarminus, Marcus Jorge, Astete, Ripalda...)

‘El primer blasón católico de España’

The present work gives a possible explanation for the disappearance of ‘El primer blasón católico de España’, a sacramental play of Calderón that was performed in 1662 and of which not a single trace is left. Parting from the title, and supposedly in contrast to similar works, we propose the story of Hermenegildo y Recaredo as the main theme, and we are making out the conflict provoked by the uncertain death of Felipe IV as related to the supposed political and dynastic conflict of the play. It is the author’s opinion that the struggle between queen Mariana and the bastard don Juan José de Austria and especially the untimely death of Prince Felipe Próspero have provoked the proscription of a text that, in a veiled way, referred to these persons.En este artículo se propone una explicación para la desaparición del texto de ‘El primer blasón católico’ de España, auto sacramental de Calderón representado en 1662 y del que no ha queda el menor rastro. Partiendo del título y por contraste con otras obras similares se propone la historia de san Hermenegildo y Recaredo como tema primario, al tiempo que se entrevé, bajo el drama político-dinástico que en esta historia se plantea, el conflicto sucesorio provocado por la incierta descendencia de Felipe IV. Las luchas entre la reina Mariana y el bastardo don Juan José de Austria, y sobre todo la prematura muerte del Infante Felipe Próspero provocan, en opinión del autor del artículo, la proscripción de un texto que mostraba veladamente las figuras de estos personajes

Las coplas descalzas: música y poesía en santa Teresa y sus carmelitas

Este artículo vuelve a poner en primer plano el relevante papel que tuvieron música y poesía en la vida del Carmelo reformado por santa Teresa de Jesús. La música fue simplificada al máximo en la liturgia para marcar su carácter sagrado y acabar, siguiendo los mandatos del Concilio de Trento, con los abusos que en ella se habían introducido. Sin embargo, bajo la forma de poesía cantada, de coplas, alcanzó un gran desarrollo en la vida diaria de las carmelitas, especialmente en las recreaciones, momentos centrales para la vida de fraternidad de las descalzas. Las carmelitas, siguiendo el modelo de santa Teresa, adaptaron a la vida en el convento toda la infinidad de coplas que marcaban el ritmo de la vida de la época, y crearon una escuela poética –viva hasta nuestro tiempo–, sin parangón en la poesía escrita por mujeres desde las trobairitz provenzales.This article returns to bring to the forefront the important role they played music and poetry in the life of Carmel reformed by St. Teresa of Jesus. Music was simplified to the maximum in the liturgy to mark its sacredness and end, following the mandates of the Council of Trent, the abuses it had been introduced. However, in the form of sung poetry, coplas, reached a great development in the daily life of the Carmelites Discalced, especially in recreation, central moments in the life of fraternity. The Carmelites, following the model of Santa Teresa, adapted to life in the convent across the countless songs that marked the rhythm of life at the time, and created a poetic school-alive timeuntil recently, unprecedented in the poetry written by women from the Provencal trobairitz