An intelligent ground operator support system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Goerlach, Thomas; Ohlendorf, Gerhard; Plassmeier, Frank; Bruege, Uwe

1994-01-01

This paper presents first results of the project 'Technologien fuer die intelligente Kontrolle von Raumfahrzeugen' (TIKON). The TIKON objective was the demonstration of feasibility and profit of the application of artificial intelligence in the space business. For that purpose a prototype system has been developed and implemented for the operation support of the Roentgen Satellite (ROSAT), a scientific spacecraft designed to perform the first all-sky survey with a high-resolution X-ray telescope and to investigate the emission of specific celestial sources. The prototype integrates a scheduler and a diagnosis tool both based on artificial intelligence techniques. The user interface is menu driven and provides synoptic displays for the visualization of the system status. The prototype has been used and tested in parallel to an already existing operational system.

Analysis and prediction of pest dynamics in an agroforestry context using Tiko'n, a generic tool to develop food web models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rojas, Marcela; Malard, Julien; Adamowski, Jan; Carrera, Jaime Luis; Maas, Raúl

2017-04-01

While it is known that climate change will impact future plant-pest population dynamics, potentially affecting crop damage, agroforestry with its enhanced biodiversity is said to reduce the outbreaks of pest insects by providing natural enemies for the control of pest populations. This premise is known in the literature as the natural enemy hypothesis and has been widely studied qualitatively. However, disagreement still exists on whether biodiversity enhancement reduces pest outbreaks, showing the need of quantitatively understanding the mechanisms behind the interactions between pests and natural enemies, also known as trophic interactions. Crop pest models that study insect population dynamics in agroforestry contexts are very rare, and pest models that take trophic interactions into account are even rarer. This may be due to the difficulty of representing complex food webs in a quantifiable model. There is therefore a need for validated food web models that allow users to predict the response of these webs to changes in climate in agroforestry systems. In this study we present Tiko'n, a Python-based software whose API allows users to rapidly build and validate trophic web models; the program uses a Bayesian inference approach to calibrate the models according to field data, allowing for the reuse of literature data from various sources and reducing the need for extensive field data collection. Tiko'n was run using coffee leaf miner (Leucoptera coffeella) and associated parasitoid data from a shaded coffee plantation, showing the mechanisms of insect population dynamics within a tri-trophic food web in an agroforestry system.

Analysis and prediction of agricultural pest dynamics with Tiko'n, a generic tool to develop agroecological food web models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Malard, J. J.; Rojas, M.; Adamowski, J. F.; Anandaraja, N.; Tuy, H.; Melgar-Quiñonez, H.

2016-12-01

While several well-validated crop growth models are currently widely used, very few crop pest models of the same caliber have been developed or applied, and pest models that take trophic interactions into account are even rarer. This may be due to several factors, including 1) the difficulty of representing complex agroecological food webs in a quantifiable model, and 2) the general belief that pesticides effectively remove insect pests from immediate concern. However, pests currently claim a substantial amount of harvests every year (and account for additional control costs), and the impact of insects and of their trophic interactions on agricultural crops cannot be ignored, especially in the context of changing climates and increasing pressures on crops across the globe. Unfortunately, most integrated pest management frameworks rely on very simple models (if at all), and most examples of successful agroecological management remain more anecdotal than scientifically replicable. In light of this, there is a need for validated and robust agroecological food web models that allow users to predict the response of these webs to changes in management, crops or climate, both in order to predict future pest problems under a changing climate as well as to develop effective integrated management plans. Here we present Tiko'n, a Python-based software whose API allows users to rapidly build and validate trophic web agroecological models that predict pest dynamics in the field. The programme uses a Bayesian inference approach to calibrate the models according to field data, allowing for the reuse of literature data from various sources and reducing the need for extensive field data collection. We apply the model to the cononut black-headed caterpillar (Opisina arenosella) and associated parasitoid data from Sri Lanka, showing how the modeling framework can be used to rapidly develop, calibrate and validate models that elucidate how the internal structures of food webs determine their behaviour and allow users to evaluate different integrated management options.

Participatory data collection and monitoring of agricultural pest dynamics for climate-resilient coffee production using Tiko'n, a generic tool to develop agroecological food web models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rojas, M.; Malard, J. J.; Adamowski, J. F.; Tuy, H.

2016-12-01

Climate variability impacts agricultural processes through many mechanisms. For example, the proliferation of pests and diseases increases with warmer climate and alternated wind patterns, as longer growing seasons allow pest species to complete more reproductive cycles and changes in the weather patterns alter the stages and rates of development of pests and pathogens. Several studies suggest that enhancing plant diversity and complexity in farming systems, such as in agroforestry systems, reduces the vulnerability of farms to extreme climatic events. On the other hand, other authors have argued that vegetation diversity does not necessarily reduce the incidence of pests and diseases, highlighting the importance of understanding how, where and when it is recommendable to diversify vegetation to improve pest and disease control, and emphasising the need for tools to develop, monitor and evaluate agroecosystems. In order to understand how biodiversity can enhance ecosystem services provided by the agroecosystem in the context of climatic variability, it is important to develop comprehensive models that include the role of trophic chains in the regulation of pests, which can be achieved by integrating crop models with pest-predator models, also known as agroecosystem network (AEN) models. Here we present a methodology for the participatory data collection and monitoring necessary for running Tiko'n, an AEN model that can also be coupled to a crop model such as DSSAT. This methodology aims to combine the local and practical knowledge of farmers with the scientific knowledge of entomologists and agronomists, allowing for the simplification of complex ecological networks of plant and insect interactions. This also increases the acceptability, credibility, and comprehension of the model by farmers, allowing them to understand their relationship with the local agroecosystem and their potential to use key agroecosystem principles such as functional diversity to mitigate climate variability impacts. Preliminary results of a study currently being conducted in a coffee agroforestry system in El Quebracho, Guatemala, will be presented, where the data was directly collected by farmers during eight consecutive months. Finally, future recommendations from lessons learnt during this study will be discussed.

Fi Investigations On Hp-Rocks From The Lower Engadine Window New Insights On Its Late Tectono-Metamorphic Evolution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bertle, R. J.; Götzinger, M. A.; Koller, F.

2003-04-01

Fluid inclusions studies in metamorphic rocks allow to reconstruct not only the chemistry of the fluids enabling and/or supporting metamorphic reactions but also the late metamorphic evolution of orogenesis. Therefore late, discordant quarz-calcite veins were investigated using FI-techniques. The Engadine Window which is exposed at the Swiss-Austrian-border exposes the penninic units of the Western Alps as a tectonic window within the Austroalpine nappes of the Eastern Alps. The nappes of the Engadine window underwent metamorphism and deformation during Tertiary times (THÖNI 1981, BERTLE 2000). The highest unit (Fimber unit) and the core of the window (= Zone of Pfunds) suffered HP-LT-metamorphism. P-T-conditions for parts of the Zone of Pfunds at the region of Piz Mundin are at 13-15 kbar at 380^oC (BOUSQUET et al. 2002) indicated by the occurrence of carpholite and glaucophane. The late metamorphic history is not very well constrained. There exist only a few FI-data published in an abstract by STÖCKHERT et al. 1990 and some unpublished data in RING 1989. During the ongoing mapping campaign of the first author samples from the Fimber unit and the Zone of Pfunds were collected and investigated using a LINKHAM freezing-cooling-stage. The investigated veins are discordant in respect to the main-foliation of the rocks and show nice cristalls of quarz, calcite and sometimes feldspar (adularia). Structural data implie that the investigated veins correspond to a set of ac-joints that correlate to the late updoming of the large "Engadiner Gewölbe" (Engadin anticlinal structure, MATTMÜLLER 1996). All investigated veins (from all tectonic units) show the same relationship to the anticlinal structure. FI-investigations show, that a large amount of the primary FI are decrepitated, however it was possible to find enough to provide a serious statistical data set. FI from Piz Mundin in the core of the Engadine window exhibit at the base of the vein quarz at the contact to the host rock (blueschist) epidote-clinozoisite cristalls. Futheron amphibole is visible. It is common at the base of the vein quarz and decreases towards the middle of the vein. FI are H2O-rich and indicate high pressure of trapping. Quarzes from the upper most part of the Zone of Pfunds from S of Zeblasjoch (W of Samnaun Dorf) show two main groups of primary FI which could be differentiated at room temperature: homogenous FI and such with a bubble. All FI were frozen at max. temperatures of ca. -56 ^oC. Bigger FI show cracking due to cristallisation pressure (build up of "wings"), the cracks however closed again during heating, so that the FI remained closed. Initial melting started between -20 ^oC (first recristallisation signs) and -9 ^oC, final melting was observable at -1 ^oC to 0 ^oC. Then the FI was a.) homogenous or b.) showed a bubble. Homogenisation Temp. of the inclusions with bubble were in the range of 70 to 150 ^oC , most of them between 70 and 80 ^oC and 110 - 125 ^oC. The data indicate a more or less pure H_2O-system for the FI under high pressure. Assuming a cristallisation temperature of the cristalls of about 200 to 250 ^oC and a density of the FI between 0,97 and 1,0 g/cm^3 pressures of 2,5 to 4,5 Kbar are indicated. The same P-T-conditions (same chemistry and melting & homog. Temp.) could be derived from FI in quarz from the Salaaser Kopf (Idalpe) for the late metamorphic evolution of the Fimber unit, indicating that the late metamorphic history of both units is the same. It is concluded that opening of the veins and first cristallisation of vein quarz corresponds to the first signs of updoming of the Engadine anticlinal structure. Updoming of the anticline started when the whole nappe stack was covered by the Austroalpine nappes. Therefore FI show such high pressures for trapping of the fluid. Acknowledgements: Data partly result from FWF-project P. 15278 "Bündnerschieferakkretion in the westlichen Ostalpen". Financal support is greatly acknowledged. References: BERTLE, R. J. 2000: Zur Geologie und Geochronologie um Alp Trida (Samnaun/Schweiz) einschließlich ingenieurgeologischer Fragen der Gebirgsauflösung und des Permafrosts. - Unpubl. Msc-Thesis. Univ. Wien, 395 S. BOUSQUET, R., GOFFÉ, B., VIDAL, O., OBERHÄNSLI, R. & PATRIAT, M. 2002: The tectono-metamorphic history of the Valaisan domain from the Western to the Central Alps: new constraints on the evolution of the Alps. - Geol. Soc. America Bull., 114/2, S. 207-225. KÜSTER, M. &STÖCKHERT, B. 1997: Density changes of fluid inclusions in high-pressure low-temperature metamorphic rocks from Crete: A thermobarometric approach based on the creep strength of the host minerals. Lithos, 41, S. 151-167. MATTMÜLLER, C. R. 1996: Geometrische Untersuchung des Inntalgewölbes. - Jahrb. Geol. B.-A., 139/1, S. 45-69, Wien 1996. RING, U. 1989: Tectonogenesis of the Penninic/Austroalpine Boundary Zone: The Arosa Zone (Grisons Rätikon area, Swiss-Austrian Alps). - Unpubl. Phd.-Thesis., 177 p., Tübingen. STOECKHERT, B., RÖSSNER, G., KÜSTER, M., HEIDER, M., GUNDLACH, K. &RICHTER, D.K. 1990: High-Pressure Metamorphism of the Mesozoic Sediments in the Lower Engadine Window, Eastern Alps. - Terra Abstracts, 2, S. 34, 1990. THÖNI, M. 1981: Degree and Evolution of the Alpine Metamorphism in the Austroalpine Unit W of the Hohe Tauern in the light of K/Ar and Rb/Sr Age Determinations on Micas. - Jahrb. Geol. B.-A., 124/1, S. 111-174, Wien 1981.