ALBERT

Description: The fishery of octopus in the State of Ceará is being carried out in the coast of Fortaleza, Redonda Beach (Icapuí) and Itarema where 2 species can be found, Octopus insularis and O. vulgaris. The objective of this study was to investigate which prey species of mollusks were found inside the pots used in the octopus fishery. Unbaited octopus pots were set in Redonda Beach at 30 meters depth, in Fortaleza at 27 meters depth, and in Itarema at 30 meters depth. The species found inside the octopus pots that were consumed by Octopus vulgaris and O. insularis were mainly gastropods and bivalves. It was found 32 species of mollusks, being 17 of gastropods and 15 of bivalves. Redonda Beach presented the higher number of mollusk species in the octopus pots, with 85% of the total. The most preyed gastropod species was Aliger costatus (35.6%) and the most preyed bivalve species was Anadara notabilis (54.5%). Among the gastropods, 54% had a bore hole, the majority on the spire in the ventral side of the shell. This location is probably due to the presence of the columelar muscle, where it can inject the poison. Only 4.3 % of the bivalves found inside the octopus pots presented bore holes. Empty shells were censured in the field to indicate the magnitude of octopus predation relative to other sources of mortality and the percentage of empty shells with octopus drill holes ranged from 14% to 69%.

Description: Absolute abundances (concentrations) of dinoflagellate cysts are often determined through the addition of Lycopodium clavatum marker-grains as a spike to a sample before palynological processing. An interlaboratory calibration exercise was set up in order to test the comparability of results obtained in different laboratories, each using its own preparation method. Each of the 23 laboratories received the same amount of homogenized splits of four Quaternary sediment samples. The samples originate from different localities and consisted of a variety of lithologies. Dinoflagellate cysts were extracted and counted, and relative and absolute abundances were calculated. The relative abundances proved to be fairly reproducible, notwithstanding a need for taxonomic calibration. By contrast, excessive loss of Lycopodium spores during sample preparation resulted in non-reproducibility of absolute abundances. Use of oxidation, KOH, warm acids, acetolysis, mesh sizes larger than 15 μm and long ultrasonication (N1 min) must be avoided to determine reproducible absolute abundances. The results of this work therefore indicate that the dinoflagellate cyst worker should make a choice between using the proposed standard method which circumvents critical steps, adding Lycopodium tablets at the end of the preparation and using an alternative method.

Description: The recent Fermi detection of the globular cluster (GC) 47 Tucanae highlighted the importance of modeling collective gamma-ray emission of millisecond pulsars (MSPs) in GCs. Steady flux from such populations is also expected in the very high energy (VHE) domain covered by ground-based Cherenkov telescopes. We present pulsed curvature radiation (CR) as well as unpulsed inverse Compton (IC) calculations for an ensemble of MSPs in the GCs 47 Tucanae and Terzan 5. We demonstrate that the CR from these GCs should be easily detectable for Fermi, while constraints on the total number of MSps and the nebular B-field may be derived using the IC flux components.

Description: Surface mining and reclamation is the dominant driver of land cover land use change (LCLUC) in the Central Appalachian Mountain region of the Eastern U.S. Accurate quantification of the extent of mining activities is important for assessing how this LCLUC affects ecosystem services such as aesthetics, biodiversity, and mitigation of flooding.We used Landsat imagery from 1976, 1987, 1999 and 2006 to map the extent of surface mines and mine reclamation for eight large watersheds in the Central Appalachian region of West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. We employed standard image processing techniques in conjunction with a temporal decision tree and GIS maps of mine permits and wetlands to map active and reclaimed mines and track changes through time. For the entire study area, active surface mine extent was highest in 1976, prior to implementation of the Surface Mine Control and Reclamation Act in 1977, with 1.76% of the study area in active mines, declining to 0.44% in 2006. The most extensively mined watershed, Georges Creek in Maryland, was 5.45% active mines in 1976, declining to 1.83% in 2006. For the entire study area, the area of reclaimed mines increased from 1.35% to 4.99% from 1976 to 2006, and from 4.71% to 15.42% in Georges Creek. Land cover conversion to mines and then reclaimed mines after 1976 was almost exclusively from forest. Accuracy levels for mined and reclaimed cover was above 85% for all time periods, and was generally above 80% for mapping active and reclaimed mines separately, especially for the later time periods in which good accuracy assessment data were available. Among other implications, the mapped patterns of LCLUC are likely to significantly affect watershed hydrology, as mined and reclaimed areas have lower infiltration capacity and thus more rapid runoff than unmined forest watersheds, leading to greater potential for extreme flooding during heavy rainfall events.

Description: The Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science System (AEGIS) will soon provide automated targeting for remote sensing instruments on the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission, which currently which currently has two rovers exploring the surface of Mars. Currently, targets for rover remote-sensing instruments, especially narrow field-of-view instruments (such as the MER Mini- TES spectrometer or the 2011 Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Mission ChemCam Spectrometer), must be selected manually based on imagery already on the ground with the operations team. AEGIS enables the rover flight software to analyze imagery onboard in order to autonomously select and sequence targeted remote-sensing observations in an opportunistic fashion. In this paper, we first provide some background information on the larger autonomous science framework in which AEGIS was developed. We then describe how AEGIS was specifically developed and tested on the JPL FIDO rover. Finally we discuss how AEGIS will be uploaded and used on the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission in early 2009.

Description: An ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) is used in a suite of synthetic experiments to assimilate coarse-scale (25 km) snow water equivalent (SWE) observations (typical of satellite retrievals) into fine-scale (1 km) model simulations. Coarse-scale observations are assimilated directly using an observation operator for mapping between the coarse and fine scales or, alternatively, after disaggregation (re-gridding) to the fine-scale model resolution prior to data assimilation. In either case observations are assimilated either simultaneously or independently for each location. Results indicate that assimilating disaggregated fine-scale observations independently (method 1D-F1) is less efficient than assimilating a collection of neighboring disaggregated observations (method 3D-Fm). Direct assimilation of coarse-scale observations is superior to a priori disaggregation. Independent assimilation of individual coarse-scale observations (method 3D-C1) can bring the overall mean analyzed field close to the truth, but does not necessarily improve estimates of the fine-scale structure. There is a clear benefit to simultaneously assimilating multiple coarse-scale observations (method 3D-Cm) even as the entire domain is observed, indicating that underlying spatial error correlations can be exploited to improve SWE estimates. Method 3D-Cm avoids artificial transitions at the coarse observation pixel boundaries and can reduce the RMSE by 60% when compared to the open loop in this study.

Description: The catalog from the first high resolution U-band image of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, taken with Hubble s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 through the F300W filter, is presented. We detect 96 U-band objects and compare and combine this catalog with a Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS) B-selected catalog that provides B, V, i, and z photometry, spectral types, and photometric redshifts. We have also obtained Far-Ultraviolet (FUV, 1614 Angstroms) data with Hubble s Advanced Camera for Surveys Solar Blind Channel (ACS/SBC) and with Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX). We detected 31 sources with ACS/SBC, 28 with GALEX/FUV, and 45 with GALEX/NUV. The methods of observations, image processing, object identification, catalog preparation, and catalog matching are presented.

Description: We report on the design and estimated performance of a balloon-borne hard X-ray polarimeter called HX-POL. The experiment uses a combination of Si and Cadmium Zinc Telluride detectors to measure the polarization of 50 keV-400 keV X-rays from cosmic sources through the dependence of the angular distribution of Compton scattered photons on the polarization direction. On a one-day balloon flight, HX-POL would allow us to measure the polarization of bright Crab-like sources for polarization degrees well below 10%. On a longer (15-30 day) flight from Australia or Antarctica, HX-POL would be be able to measure the polarization of bright galactic X-ray sources down to polarization degrees of a few percent. Hard X-ray polarization measurements provide unique venues for the study of particle acceleration processes by compact objects and relativistic outflows. In this paper, we discuss the overall instrument design and performance. Furthermore, we present results from laboratory tests of the Si and CZT detectors. Index Terms Gamma-ray astronomy, gamma-ray astronomy detectors, polarization, semiconductor radiation detectors, X-ray astronomy, X-ray astronomy detectors.

Description: Measurement of-rays from the surface of objects can tell us about the chemical composition. Absorption of radiation causes characteristic fluorescence from material being irradiated. By measuring the spectrum ofthe radiation and identifying lines in the spectrum, the emitting element (s) can be identified.

Description: Over the past three years NASA Marshall Space Flight Center has been collaborating with Brookhaven National Laboratory to develop a modular Silicon Drift Detector (SDD) X-Ray Spectrometer (XRS) intended for fine surface mapping of the light elements of the moon. The value of fluorescence spectrometry for surface element mapping is underlined by the fact that the technique has recently been employed by three lunar orbiter missions; Kaguya, Chandrayaan-1, and Chang e. The SDD-XRS instrument we have been developing can operate at a low energy threshold (i.e. is capable of detecting Carbon), comparable energy resolution to Kaguya (〈150 eV at 5.9 keV) and an order of magnitude lower power requirement, making much higher sensitivities possible. Furthermore, the intrinsic radiation resistance of the SDD makes it useful even in radiation-harsh environments such as that of Jupiter and its surrounding moons.