PolyPonics-- Living Lab

Aquaponics is a rapidly expanding field that requires research and development in engineering, biology, horticulture, architecture and business. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo lacks an adequate facility that can support the growing interest amongst the student population and faculty. A small flagship system has been constructed on campus, but the current layout is too small to support the growth potential for interdisciplinary collaboration. The funds that are being requested would be applied towards expanding the current operation and fostering interdepartmental relationships that will allow for aquaponics at Cal Poly to thrive. The aquaponic’s club constituents will serve as the designers, builders, and long-term stewards of the new facility deemed the “Living Lab.” Once completed, existing Cal Poly courses will be able to utilize the facility as an immersive, teaching platform to transform classroom concepts into tangible applications

Biology undergraduate research experience at the ERAU’s Space Microbiology Laboratory

The Aerospace Physiology program has created opportunities for students to not only get an education on the biological effects of flight and space but also to be trained in advanced research techniques using state-of-the-art equipment. The Space Microbiology Lab studies how “space” conditions regulate microbial physiology and gene expression using microgravity analogs and low activity radiation sources to simulate what space might feel like for bacteria that inhabit spacecraft components and humans. We have performed several experiments with Escherichia coli, Arthrospira platensis, Candida albicans, and Candida parapsilosis (isolated from a space station module and provided to the lab by NASA) using techniques such as microgravity simulation using the Eaglestat, generation of growth curves, chlorophyll extraction and measurement, and nucleic acids extraction, among others. Here we discuss how the results of these experiments contribute to the research objectives of the Space Microbiology Laboratory, to the curriculum of the Microbiology and Molecular and Cell Biology courses, and to our plans for future careers

Biology Research Experience at the ERAU’s Space Microbiology Laboratory

The Aerospace Physiology program has created opportunities for students to not only get an education on the biological effects of flight and space, but also to be trained in advanced research techniques using state-of-the-art equipment. The Space Microbiology Lab studies how “space” conditions regulate microbial physiology and gene expression using microgravity analogs and low activity radiation sources to simulate what space might feel like for bacteria that inhabit spacecraft components and humans. We have performed several experiments with Escherichia coli, Arthrospira platensis, Candida albicans, and Candida parasilopsis (isolated from a space station module and provided to the lab by NASA) using techniques such as microgravity simulation, generation of growth curves, chlorophyll extraction and measurement, and nucleic acids extraction, among others. Here we discuss how the results of these experiments, including statistically significant data on microgravity growth changes, contribute to the research objectives of the Space Microbiology Laboratory and to our plans for future careers

Achieving large stable vertical displacement in surface-micromachined microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2002.Includes bibliographical references (p. 77-80).This thesis describes electrostatic actuation techniques and mechanical design features for realizing large planar analog vertical travel in an electrostatically actuated diffractive mid-infrared optical device, which is robust, both to manufacture, and against pull-in during use. This device, called the Polychromator, is fabricated by polysilicon surface-micromachining and consists of many parallel elements, each 20 microns wide and a centimeter in length. Typically, achieving such a large travel would require prohibitively large gaps and actuation voltages. In order to reduce the actuation voltage and achieve greater travel before pull-in, thinner beams are used which exploit stress stiffening. This, in turn, creates a number of stress control hazards because tensile stress in one layer can induce buckling in a lower layer. These issues have been solved with detailed attention to supports and their compliance. A multi-layer nonlinear spring has been incorporated to make the device robust against pull-in. The electromechanical behavior of the device is simulated using Energy Methods, Finite Difference Methods, and the MEMCAD software. Excellent agreement between MEMCAD simulation and experimental measurements for this structure are reported. Each detail, stress control, support structure, and pull-in, must be addressed in order to achieve the combined effects of large travel, robustness against pull-in, and optically flat beams.(cont.) Controlled planar actuation over a large vertical range at low applied voltages is obtained by combining a robust electromechanical design with a manufacturable surface micromachining process. Covering a centimeter square area, the 512 grating elements achieved 3.8 microns vertical displacement at 72 Volts with a 0.5 Volt standard deviation, indicating uniform performance across the device. The development of the device has led to innovations in position control, fabrication processes, device design, and device testing.by Erik R. Deutsch.Ph.D

Revisiting rho 1 Cancri e: A New Mass Determination Of The Transiting super-Earth

We present a mass determination for the transiting super-Earth rho 1 Cancri e based on nearly 700 precise radial velocity (RV) measurements. This extensive RV data set consists of data collected by the McDonald Observatory planet search and published data from Lick and Keck observatories (Fischer et al. 2008). We obtained 212 RV measurements with the Tull Coude Spectrograph at the Harlan J. Smith 2.7 m Telescope and combined them with a new Doppler reduction of the 131 spectra that we have taken in 2003-2004 with the High-Resolution-Spectrograph (HRS) at the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) for the original discovery of rho 1 Cancri e. Using this large data set we obtain a 5-planet Keplerian orbital solution for the system and measure an RV semi-amplitude of K = 6.29 +/- 0.21 m/s for rho 1 Cnc e and determine a mass of 8.37 +/- 0.38 M_Earth. The uncertainty in mass is thus less than 5%. This planet was previously found to transit its parent star (Winn et al. 2011, Demory et al. 2011), which allowed them to estimate its radius. Combined with the latest radius estimate from Gillon et al. (2012), we obtain a mean density of rho = 4.50 +/- 0.20 g/cm^3. The location of rho 1 Cnc e in the mass-radius diagram suggests that the planet contains a significant amount of volitales, possibly a water-rich envelope surrounding a rocky core.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal (the 300+ RV measurements will be published as online tables or can be obtained from the author

Entreprenörskap i högre konstnärlig och kreativ utbildning i Norden

Architecture; Computer games; Design; Film and TV; Journalism; Art and Culture; Literature; Media; Music; Museums and cultural heritage; Performing arts; Visual arts; Adult education; Higher education; Innovation; Business; Creative industrie

Insular nestling growth and its relationship to parental care effort in Silvereyes, Zosterops lateralis

The rate at which avian offspring grow can have consequences for survival and reproductive output as an adult and is known to vary widely among and within species. This variation is thought to be an adaptive response to cope with environmental variation. The principal environmental factors affecting growth are food availability and predation risk, predominantly acting as constraints on parental care. Islands pose an interesting system to explore growth rate dynamics, because the characteristic insular features of high population densities and depauperate predator diversity translate into a potentially food limited environment with low predation risk. Insular environments typically produce populations with slower life history strategies and larger body size in small-bodied species, features that are likely to be mediated by growth rate. We describe the nestling growth of an insular population of Silvereyes and how it relates to parental size and parental care. Neither parental size nor parental care explained insular nestling growth rate, even though food acquisition is thought to underpin avian growth rates. This could be due to a mismatch between acquisition and allocation of resources by nestlings. Compared to a small number of mainland nestlings, the island growth curve asymptotes were significantly larger and inflection points much later, but insular growth rates were only marginally slower. This is in line with proposed insular adaptations required to produce larger body size on islands, however understanding the mechanism underlying this pattern will require data on the relationship between food quality and acquisition, and physiological allocation of resources within individuals

A Second Giant Planet in 3:2 Mean-Motion Resonance in the HD 204313 System

We present 8 years of high-precision radial velocity (RV) data for HD 204313 from the 2.7 m Harlan J. Smith Telescope at McDonald Observatory. The star is known to have a giant planet (M sin i = 3.5 M_J) on a ~1900-day orbit, and a Neptune-mass planet at 0.2 AU. Using our own data in combination with the published CORALIE RVs of Segransan et al. (2010), we discover an outer Jovian (M sin i = 1.6 M_J) planet with P ~ 2800 days. Our orbital fit suggests the planets are in a 3:2 mean motion resonance, which would potentially affect their stability. We perform a detailed stability analysis, and verify the planets must be in resonance.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap

Compact corrugated feedhorns with high Gaussian coupling efficiency and -60 dB sidelobes

We demonstrate that very high performance, extremely compact, scalar corrugated feedhorns can be designed and constructed by optimizing the excitation and phasing of the HE11, HE12 and HE13 modes near the throat of the horn whilst limiting excitation of higher order modes. We present the design and measurement of two families of dual-profiled horn, both with a directivity of 20 dBi that couple with very high efficiency to a fundamental Gaussian mode. The first was optimized for sidelobe performance and features sidelobes approaching -60 dB for a horn length of only 15.6λ. The second was designed to minimize horn length and achieves sidelobe levels below -35 dB for a horn which is only 4.8λ long. The horns exhibit excellent coupling to the fundamental free-space Gaussian mode, with LG00 power coupling of 99.92% and 99.75% respectively. We demonstrate excellent agreement between simulation and experiment at 94 GHz and simulate the performance over a 20% bandwidth. High performance compact scalar horns are of interest because they reduce manufacturing risk at high frequencies, and reduce size and weight at lower frequencies, which can be important in horn arrays and space applications, where horn arrays often have serious weight and size restrictions.PostprintPeer reviewe