Initial SuperCam Visible/Near-Infrared Spectra from the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover

<p>The SuperCam Instrument Suite [1-4], a US-French-Spanish-Danish collaboration, consists of three separate units: the Body Unit (BU) within the Rover [2], the Mast Unit (MU) at the top of the Perseverance Remote Sensing Mast [3], and Calibration Targets [4] located on the rover deck. SuperCam includes a passive visible/near-infrared (VISIR) spectroscopy system that will identify minerals near the rover (mm-scale) to distant outcrops (m-scale) over an extended wavelength range (0.385-0.465 µm, 0.536-0.853 µm, 1.3-2.6 µm) that is diagnostic for most mineral classes.</p><p>The infrared spectrometer (IRS) in the MU [5] uses an acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF) excited by a RF signal to successively diffract up to 256 different wavelengths ranging between 1.3 and 2.6 µm on one of two available photodiodes to produce a single spectrum in about 80 seconds at a spectral resolution of 5-20 nm. The field-of-view (FOV) of the IRS is 1.15 mrad and is co-aligned with the RMI boresight. The visible (VIS) system in the BU comprises three spectrometers covering the UV (245 – 340 nm), violet (385 – 465 nm), and visible and near-infrared (VNIR, 536–853 nm). The spectrometers are fed by light collected by the telescope in the MU through an optical fiber connecting the MU and BU. The violet spectrometer has a spectral resolution of 0.12 nm, and the VNIR transmission spectrometer has a spectral resolution of 0.35 – 0.70 nm. The VIS FOV is 0.74 mrad and co-aligned with the IR FOV.</p><p>Several SuperCam calibration targets (SCCT) are dedicated to VISIR spectroscopy, including an AluWhite white target, an Aeroglaze Z307 black target, and red, cyan, and green color targets [4]. Several of the other targets whose primary purpose is for other techniques exhibit useful VISIR spectral features and will be observed [5].</p><p>Raw data will be converted to radiance (W/m2/sr/µm) with calibrated wavelengths using the instrument transfer function [6-7]. Relative reflectance spectra will be generated by dividing the calibrated radiance spectrum by either (1) a Mars atmospheric transmission spectrum and then by a modeled solar irradiance spectrum; or (2) a radiance spectrum of the white SCCT taken close in time to the surface observation, as is done with Mastcam-Z calibration [8].</p><p>This poster will show initial VISIR data acquired on Mars, compared with test and performance data obtained at Paris Observatory, LANL, and JPL. As of this writing, the planned observations during the first ~30 sols include spectra of the white and black SCCTs, and at least one Mars target spectrum.</p><p>[1] Farley et al. (2020), Space Sci. Rev. 216, 142. [2] Wiens et al. (2020) Space Sci. Rev. 216, in press, [3] Maurice et al. (2020) Space Sci. Rev. 216,in press, [4] Manrique et al. (2020) Space Sci. Rev. 216, 8, 1-27; [5] Cousin et al. (2021) this meeting [6] Fouchet et al. (2021) Icarus, in prep. [7] Royer et al. (2020) Rev. Scient. Instrum. 91, 063105. [8] Bell, J.F. et al. (2021), Space Sci. Rev, in press.</p>

The Effects of Ambient Illumination, Color Combination, Sign Height, and Observation Angle on the Legibility of Wayfinding Signs in Metro Stations

Well-designed wayfinding signs play an important role in improving the service level of metro stations, ensuring the safety of passengers in evacuation, and promoting the sustainable development of public transport. This study explored the effects of ambient illumination, color combination, sign height, and observation angle on wayfinding signs’ legibility in metro stations. In the experiment, simulated metro-wayfinding signs were made to test legibility. As designed, the legibility was measured based on the following independent variables: two levels of ambient illumination (70 lux and 273 lux), two target/background color combinations (achromatic-white target on black background, chromatic-yellow target on black background), two sign heights (1.5 m and 2 m), and three observation angles (0°, 45°, 70°). The results showed that brighter ambient illumination provided passengers with higher legibility. Achromatic color combination was more legible than chromatic color combination, but not significantly. Different types of signs, set at different height, did not directly affect legibility. Observation angle had significant effects on legibility. Visibility catchment area of wayfinding signs was like an ellipse, with its short axis nearly equal to the legibility distance of the sign at 0 degrees. The findings will facilitate the layout and setting location of wayfinding signs in metro stations and improve the level of wayfinding service.

Forever Foreign? Asian Australians Assimilating to Australian Culture Are Still Perceived as Less Australian Than White Australians

Westerners of Asian descent emphasize their engagement with national culture to assert their national identity. The present research investigates whether this strategy effectively enhances observers’ perceptions of Asian Westerners’ national identity. In Study 1 ( N = 160), Australian participants evaluated an Asian or White target, manipulated to be either hyper-Australian or not. In Study 2 ( N = 440), targets were additionally manipulated to be either Australian-born or not. Across both studies, Asian targets depicted as hyper-Australian, Australian-born, or both, were considered more Australian than generic Asian targets. However, Asian targets were consistently rated as less Australian than White counterparts who were depicted equivalently apart from race. Thus, the strategy of heavy engagement with the national culture increases perceptions of Asian Westerners’ national identity, but not to the point that they are considered equivalently to White Westerners.

TLS Measurement during Static Load Testing of a Railway Bridge

Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) technology has become increasingly popular in investigating displacement and deformation of natural and anthropogenic objects. Regardless of the accuracy of deformation identification, TLS provides remote comprehensive information about the measured object in a short time. These features of TLS were why TLS measurement was used for a static load test of an old, steel railway bridge. The results of the measurement using the Z+F Imager 5010 scanner and traditional surveying methods (for improved georeferencing) were compared to results of precise reflectorless tacheometry and precise levelling. The analyses involved various procedures for the determination of displacement from 3D data (black & white target analysis, point cloud analysis, and mesh surface analysis) and the need to pre-process the 3D data was considered (georeferencing, automated filtering). The results demonstrate that TLS measurement can identify vertical displacement in line with the results of traditional measurements down to ±1 mm.

Directional biases for blink adaptation in voluntary and reflexive eye blinks

The oculomotor system is subject to noise, and adaptive processes compensate for consistent errors in gaze targeting. Recent evidence suggests that positional errors induced by eye blinks are also corrected by an adaptive process: When a fixation target is displaced during repeated blinks, subsequent blinks are accompanied by an automatic compensating eye movement anticipating the updated target location after the blink. Here, we further tested the extent of this “blink adaptation”. Participants were tasked to look at a white target dot on a black screen and encouraged to blink voluntarily, or air-puffs were used to elicit reflexive blinks. In separate runs, the target was displaced by 0.7° in either of the four cardinal directions during blinks. Participants adapted to positional changes during blinks, i.e., the post-blink gaze position was biased in the direction of the dot displacement. Adaptation occurred for both voluntary and reflexive blinks. However, adaptation was unequal across different adaptation directions: horizontally, temporal displacements experienced larger adaptation than nasal displacements; vertically, downward displacements were greater than upward displacements. Results paralleled anisotropies commonly found for saccade amplitudes, and thus it is likely that gaze corrections across eye blinks share general constraints of the oculomotor system with saccades.

Gatecrashing the visual cocktail party: How visual and semantic similarity modulate the own name benefit in the attentional blink

The “visual cocktail party effect” refers to superior report of a participant’s own name, under conditions of inattention. An early selection account suggests this advantage stems from enhanced visual processing. A late selection account suggests the advantage occurs when semantic information allowing identification as one’s own name is retrieved. In the context of inattentional blindness (IB), Mack and Rock showed that the advantage does not generalise to a minor modification of a participant’s own name, despite extensive visual similarity, supporting the late selection account. This study applied the name modification manipulation in the context of the attentional blink (AB). Participants were presented with rapid streams of names and identified a white target name, while also reporting the presence of one of two possible probes. The probe names appeared either close (the third item following the target: Lag 3) or far in time from the target (the eighth item following the target: Lag 8). The results revealed a robust AB; reports of the probe were reduced at Lag 3 relative to Lag 8. The AB was also greatly reduced for the own name compared to another name—a visual cocktail party effect. In contrast to the findings of Mack and Rock for IB, the reduced AB extended to the modified own name. The results suggest different loci for the visual cocktail party effect in the AB (word recognition) compared to IB (semantic processing).

Does Racial Resentment Predict Anti-Black Discrimination?

Racial resentment is a common social science measure for identifying the influence of racial attitudes on political phenomena. However, recent research has been mixed on whether racial resentment predicts racial discrimination in experiments. Data from three survey experiments from the archives of the Time-sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences indicated that the effect of racial resentment was not reliably higher in conditions with a black target than with a white target and that high levels of racial resentment did not reliably correlate with discrimination against black targets relative to white targets.

Validation and Application of the LS/CMI in Nebraska Probation

This study examined the validity of the Level of Service/Case Management Inventory (LS/CMI), as probation officers in the state of Nebraska use the tool. Study 1 evaluated the predictive validity of the LS/CMI by examining 19,344 probationer records over a 5.5-year period (January 2007-July 2013), and found that the LS/CMI total risk score demonstrated moderate predictive validity. Consistent with past findings, logistic regression showed that the total risk score predicted recidivism (return to probation) differently for nonminorities than for minorities. Furthermore, minorities scored higher than nonminorities on seven of the eight criminogenic factors. Study 2, a true randomized experiment, explored probation officer bias as an explanation for these findings, and found that training increased officers’ ratings of scores in some LS/CMI domains and decreased ratings in others. Most importantly, there was no evidence that officers demonstrated racial bias in administering the LS/CMI survey when scoring Black versus White target clients.

A STUDY ABOUT TERRESTRIAL LASER SCANNING FOR RECONSTRUCTION OF PRECAST CONCRETE TO SUPPORT QLASSIC ASSESSMENT

Nowadays, terrestrial laser scanning shows the potential to improve construction productivity by measuring the objects changes using real-time applications. This paper presents the process of implementation of an efficient framework for precast concrete using terrestrial laser scanning that enables contractors to acquire accurate data and support Quality Assessment System in Construction (QLASSIC). Leica Scanstation C10, black/white target, Autodesk Revit and Cyclone software were used in this study. The results were compared with the dimensional of based model precast concrete given by the company as a reference with the AutoDesk Revit model from the terrestrial laser scanning data and conventional method (measuring tape). To support QLASSIC, the tolerance dimensions of cast in-situ & precast elements is +10mm / -5mm. The results showed that the root mean square error for a Revit model is 2.972mm while using measuring tape is 13.687mm. The accuracy showed that terrestrial laser scanning has an advantage in construction jobs to support QLASSIC.