Using Robotics as an Educational Tool in 4-H

Although America is the world leader in science and technology innovation, the educational system is not preparing enough science and technology workers to maintain leadership. In an effort to prepare youth for the 21st century, Nebraska 4-H conducted a 2-day workshop using robotics to teach science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) concepts. A subsequent competition was held at the State Fair to debut robots to the community. The competition was popular with fair-goers and let youth experiment with their robot designs and programming. To engage more youth, Nebraska will pilot the 4-H CCS curriculum and expand the State Fair competition

Studying the impact of ocean eddies on the ecosystem of the Prince Edward Islands: DEIMEC ll

The Dynamics of Eddy Impacts on Marion’s Ecosystem Study (DEIMEC) programme was begun in 2002 with the aim of understanding the importance of the oceanic, upstream environment to the ecosystem of the Prince Edward Islands. This island group consists of two small volcanic islands and provides many opportunities for studying ecological and evolutionary processes, for monitoring ecological changes in relation to global climate change and for conserving a unique component of the planet’s biological diversity

Decadal-scale thermohaline variability in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean

An enhanced Altimetry Gravest Empirical Mode (AGEM), including both adiabatic and diabatic trends, is developed for the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) south of Africa using updated hydrographic CTD sections, Argo data, and satellite altimetry. This AGEM has improved accuracy compared to traditional climatologies and other proxy methods. The AGEM for the Atlantic Southern Ocean offers an ideal technique to investigate the thermohaline variability over the past two decades in a key region for water mass exchanges and transformation. In order to assess and attribute changes in the hydrography of the region, we separate the changes into adiabatic and diabatic components. Integrated over the upper 2000 dbar of the ACC south of Africa, results show mean adiabatic changes of 0.16 ± 0.11°C decade−1 and 0.006 ± 0.014 decade−1, and diabatic differences of −0.044 ± 0.13°C decade−1 and −0.01 ± 0.017 decade−1 for temperature and salinity, respectively. The trends of the resultant AGEM, that include both adiabatic and diabatic variability (termed AD-AGEM), show a significant increase in the heat content of the upper 2000 dbar of the ACC with a mean warming of 0.12 ± 0.087°C decade−1. This study focuses on the Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW) mass where negative diabatic trends dominate positive adiabatic differences in the Subantarctic Zone (SAZ), with results indicating a cooling (−0.17°C decade−1) and freshening (−0.032 decade−1) of AAIW in this area, whereas south of the SAZ positive adiabatic and diabatic trends together create a cumulative warming (0.31°C decade−1) and salinification (0.014 decade−1) of AAIW

Multiparticle production in the model with antishadowing

We discuss the role of absorbtion and antishadowing in particle production. We reproduce power-like energy behavior of the mean multiplicity in the model with antishadowing and discuss physical implications of such behavior for the hadron structure.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, extended version of the talk at the XXXII International Symposium on Multiparticle Dynamics September 7-13, 2002 Alushta, Crimea, Ukrain

Utilization of multifrequency permittivity measurements in addition to biomass monitoring

Heinrich C, Beckmann T, Büntemeyer H, Noll T. Utilization of multifrequency permittivity measurements in addition to biomass monitoring. BMC Proceedings. 2011;5(Suppl 8)

Utilization of multifrequency permittivity measurements in addition to biomass monitoring

Heinrich C, Beckmann T, Büntemeyer H, Noll T. Utilization of multifrequency permittivity measurements in addition to biomass monitoring. BMC Proceedings. 2011;5(Suppl 8)

Physical and biological coupling in eddies in the lee of the South-West Indian Ridge

Eddies have some decisive functions in the dynamics of the Southern Ocean ecosystems. This is particularly true in the Indian sector of the Southern Ocean, where a region of unusually high-mesoscale variability has been observed in the vicinity of the South-West Indian Ridge. In April 2003, three eddies were studied: eddy A, a recently spawned anticyclone south of the Antarctic Polar Front (APF),; eddy B, an anticyclone north of lying between the Subantarctic Front and the APF; and eddy C, a cyclone north of the APF west of the ridge. Elevated concentrations of total Chl-a coincided with the edges of the cyclonic eddy, whereas both anticyclonic eddies A and B were characterised by low total Chl-a concentrations. Biologically, the two anticyclonic eddies A and B were distinctly different in their biogeographic origin. The zooplankton community in the larger anticyclonic eddy A was similar in composition to the Antarctic Polar Frontal Zone (APFZ) community with an addition of some Antarctic species suggesting an origin just north of the APF. In contrast, the species composition within the second anticyclonic eddy B appeared to be more typical of the transitional nature of the APFZ, comprising species of both subantarctic and subtropical origin and thus influenced by intrusions of water masses from both north and south of the Subantarctic Front. Back-tracking of these features shows that the biological composition clearly demarcates the hydrographic origin of these features

Top-down contingent feature-specific orienting with and without awareness of the visual input

In the present article, the role of endogenous feature-specific orienting for conscious and unconscious vision is reviewed. We start with an overview of orienting. We proceed with a review of masking research, and the definition of the criteria of experimental protocols that demonstrate endogenous and exogenous orienting, respectively. Against this background of criteria, we assess studies of unconscious orienting and come to the conclusion that so far studies of unconscious orienting demonstrated endogenous feature-specific orienting. The review closes with a discussion of the role of unconscious orienting in action control