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Two algorithms are presented for omnidirectional bee counting from images to estimate forager traffic levels. An audio processing algorithm is also presented for digitizing bee buzzing signals with harmonic intervals into A440 piano note sequences. The three algorithms were tested on samples collected through four beehive monitoring devices deployed at different apiaries in Northern Utah over extended periods of time. On a sample of 378 images from a deployed beehive monitoring device, the first algorithm for omnidirectional bee counting achieved an accuracy of 73 percent. The second algorithm for omnidirectional bee counting achieved an accuracy of 80.5 percent on a sample of 1005 images with green pads and an accuracy of 85.5 percent on a sample of 776 images with white pads. The note range detected by the proposed audio processing algorithm on a sample of 3421.52 MB of wav data contained the first four octaves, with the lowest note being A0 and the highest note being F#4. Experimental results indicate that computer vision and audio analysis will play increasingly more significant roles in sustainable electronic beehive monitoring devices used by professional and amateur apiarists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigation of the process of the NO 3 - anion solvation is central to understanding the chemical and physical properties of its aqueous solutions. The importance of this topic can be seen in atmospheric chemistry, as well as in nuclear waste processing research. In this work, we used a particle swarm optimization technique driven by density functional theory to sample the potential energy surface of various microsolvated [NO 3 ·(H 2 O) n ] - ( n = 1-12) clusters. We found that the charge transfer plays a crucial role in the stabilization of the investigated species. Moreover, by conducting ab initio molecular dynamics simulations, we showed that at low concentrations (∼0.2 M) the NO 3 - species tend to be located on the surface of water solution. We also observed that the contact ion pair K + -NO 3 - undergoes a fast dissociation and each of the ions is solvated separately. As a result, from our calculations, we expect that at low concentration there could be oppositely signed concentration gradients for NO 3 - and K + ions in a thin water film.