Ecologically Distinct Populations of Hawaiian Petrel (Pterodroma sandwichensis): Quantitative Isotopic Analysis to Explore the Uniqueness of Foraging Habits in Kauai and Hawaii Populations

Many topics from conservation biology, evolutionary biology, and ecology will be applied to help answer the question many conservation biologists ask: is this population both genetically and ecologically distinct enough to warrant an independent conservation approach? If the answer is yes, then more resources can be distributed to conserving that population. If the answer is no, more resources can be devoted to other conservation goals, such as conserving one of the other three breeding populations of Hawaiian petrel or generally trying to maximize the overall population size of the species and possibly saving the endangered Hawaiian petrel. This will be accomplished by observing the foraging efforts of Hawaiian petrels over time through the utilization of stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic analysis

The Real-Time Classification of Competency Swimming Activity Through Machine Learning

Every year, an average of 3,536 people die from drowning in America. The significant factors that cause unintentional drowning are people’s lack of water safety awareness and swimming proficiency. Current industry and research trends regarding swimming activity recognition and commercial motion sensors focus more on lap swimming utilized by expert swimmers and do not account for freeform activities. Enhancing swimming education through wearable technology can aid people in learning efficient and effective swimming techniques and water safety. We developed a novel wearable system capable of storing and processing sensor data to categorize competitive and survival swimming activities on a mobile device in real-time. This paper discusses the sensor placement, the hardware and app design, and the research process utilized to achieve activity recognition. For our studies, the data we have gathered comes from various swimming skill levels, from beginner to elite swimmers. Our wearable system uses angle-based novel features as inputs into optimal machine learning algorithms to classify flip turns, traditional competitive strokes, and survival swimming strokes. The machine-learning algorithm was able to classify all activities at .935 of an F-measure. Finally, we examined deep learning and created a CNN model to classify competitive and survival swimming strokes at 95% ac- curacy in real-time on a mobile device

An Analysis of ALMA Deep Fields and the Perceived Dearth of High-z Galaxies

Deep, pencil-beam surveys from ALMA at 1.1-1.3mm have uncovered an apparent absence of high-redshift dusty galaxies, with existing redshift distributions peaking around $z\sim1.5-2.5$. This has led to a perceived dearth of dusty systems at $z>4$, and the conclusion, according to some models, that the early Universe was relatively dust-poor. In this paper, we extend the backward evolution galaxy model described by Casey et al. (2018) to the ALMA regime (in depth and area) and determine that the measured number counts and redshift distributions from ALMA deep field surveys are fully consistent with constraints of the infrared luminosity function (IRLF) at $z<2.5$ determined by single-dish submillimeter and millimeter surveys conducted on much larger angular scales ($\sim1-10$deg$^{2}$). We find that measured 1.1-1.3mm number counts are most constraining for the measurement of the faint-end slope of the IRLF at $z4$. Recent studies have suggested that UV-selected galaxies at $z>4$ may be particularly dust-poor, but we find their millimeter-wave emission cannot rule out consistency with the Calzetti dust attenuation law even by assuming relatively typical, cold-dust ($T_{\rm dust}\approx30\,$K) SEDs. Our models suggest that the design of ALMA deep fields requires substantial revision to constrain the prevalence of $z>4$ early Universe obscured starbursts. The most promising avenue for detection and characterization of such early dusty galaxies will come from future ALMA 2mm blank field surveys covering a few hundred arcmin$^{2}$ and the combination of existing and future dual-purpose 3mm datasets.Comment: 21 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Metatranscriptome of human faecal microbial communities in a cohort of adult men

The gut microbiome is intimately related to human health, but it is not yet known which functional activities are driven by specific microorganisms\u27 ecological configurations or transcription. We report a large-scale investigation of 372 human faecal metatranscriptomes and 929 metagenomes from a subset of 308 men in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. We identified a metatranscriptomic \u27core\u27 universally transcribed over time and across participants, often by different microorganisms. In contrast to the housekeeping functions enriched in this core, a \u27variable\u27 metatranscriptome included specialized pathways that were differentially expressed both across participants and among microorganisms. Finally, longitudinal metagenomic profiles allowed ecological interaction network reconstruction, which remained stable over the six-month timespan, as did strain tracking within and between participants. These results provide an initial characterization of human faecal microbial ecology into core, subject-specific, microorganism-specific and temporally variable transcription, and they differentiate metagenomically versus metatranscriptomically informative aspects of the human faecal microbiome

Performance Testing of a Novel Off-plane Reflection Grating and Silicon Pore Optic Spectrograph at PANTER

An X-ray spectrograph consisting of radially ruled off-plane reflection gratings and silicon pore optics was tested at the Max Planck Institute for extraterrestrial Physics PANTER X-ray test facility. The silicon pore optic (SPO) stack used is a test module for the Arcus small explorer mission, which will also feature aligned off-plane reflection gratings. This test is the first time two off-plane gratings were actively aligned to each other and with a SPO to produce an overlapped spectrum. The gratings were aligned using an active alignment module which allows for the independent manipulation of subsequent gratings to a reference grating in three degrees of freedom using picomotor actuators which are controllable external to the test chamber. We report the line spread functions of the spectrograph and the actively aligned gratings, and plans for future development.Comment: Draft Version March 19, 201

Multi-Layer Cyber-Physical Security and Resilience for Smart Grid

The smart grid is a large-scale complex system that integrates communication technologies with the physical layer operation of the energy systems. Security and resilience mechanisms by design are important to provide guarantee operations for the system. This chapter provides a layered perspective of the smart grid security and discusses game and decision theory as a tool to model the interactions among system components and the interaction between attackers and the system. We discuss game-theoretic applications and challenges in the design of cross-layer robust and resilient controller, secure network routing protocol at the data communication and networking layers, and the challenges of the information security at the management layer of the grid. The chapter will discuss the future directions of using game-theoretic tools in addressing multi-layer security issues in the smart grid.Comment: 16 page