Nuclear fusion during yeast mating occurs by a three-step pathway.

PubMed

Melloy, Patricia; Shen, Shu; White, Erin; McIntosh, J Richard; Rose, Mark D

2007-11-19

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, mating culminates in nuclear fusion to produce a diploid zygote. Two models for nuclear fusion have been proposed: a one-step model in which the outer and inner nuclear membranes and the spindle pole bodies (SPBs) fuse simultaneously and a three-step model in which the three events occur separately. To differentiate between these models, we used electron tomography and time-lapse light microscopy of early stage wild-type zygotes. We observe two distinct SPBs in approximately 80% of zygotes that contain fused nuclei, whereas we only see fused or partially fused SPBs in zygotes in which the site of nuclear envelope (NE) fusion is already dilated. This demonstrates that SPB fusion occurs after NE fusion. Time-lapse microscopy of zygotes containing fluorescent protein tags that localize to either the NE lumen or the nucleoplasm demonstrates that outer membrane fusion precedes inner membrane fusion. We conclude that nuclear fusion occurs by a three-step pathway.

Mass Producing Targets for Nuclear Fusion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wang, T. G.; Elleman, D. D.; Kendall, J. M.

1983-01-01

Metal-encapsulating technique advances prospects of controlling nuclear fusion. Prefilled fusion targets form at nozzle as molten metal such as tin flows through outer channel and pressurized deuterium/tritium gas flows through inner channel. Molten metal completely encloses gas charge as it drops off nozzle.

2014 Nuclear Fusion Prize Acceptance Speech 2014 Nuclear Fusion Prize Acceptance Speech

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Snyder, P. B.

2015-01-01

It is a great honor to receive the 2014 Nuclear Fusion Prize, here at the 25th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference. On behalf of everyone involved in this work, I would like to thank the IAEA, the Nuclear Fusion journal team, the IOP, and specifically Mitsuru Kikuchi, for their support of this important award. I would also like to acknowledge the many important contributions made by the other ten papers nominated for this prize. Our paper investigates the physics of the H-mode pedestal in tokamaks, specifically the development of a predictive understanding of the pedestal structure based on electromagnetic instabilities which constrain it, and the testing of the resulting theoretical model (EPED) against detailed observations on multiple devices. In addition to making pedestal predictions for existing devices, the paper also presents predictions for ITER, including methods for optimizing its pedestal height and fusion performance. What made this work possible, and indeed a pleasure to be involved with, was an extensive set of collaborations, including theory-experiment, multi-institutional, and international collaborations. Many of these collaborations have gone on for over a decade, and have been fostered in part by the ITPA Pedestal Group. The eight authors of this paper, from five institutions, all made important contributions. Rich Groebner, Tom Osborne and Tony Leonard carried out dedicated experiments and data analysis on the DIII-D tokamak, testing the EPED model over a very wide range of parameters. Jerry Hughes led dedicated experiments on Alcator C-Mod which tested the model at high magnetic field and pedestal pressure. Marc Beurskens carried out experiments and data analysis on the JET tokamak, testing the model at large scale. Xueqiao Xu conducted two-fluid studies of diamagnetic stabilization, which enabled a more accurate treatment of this important effect. Finally, Howard Wilson and I have been working together for many years to develop analytic formalism

ER-associated SNAREs and Sey1p mediate nuclear fusion at two distinct steps during yeast mating

PubMed Central

Rogers, Jason V.; Arlow, Tim; Inkellis, Elizabeth R.; Koo, Timothy S.; Rose, Mark D.

2013-01-01

During yeast mating, two haploid nuclei fuse membranes to form a single diploid nucleus. However, the known proteins required for nuclear fusion are unlikely to function as direct fusogens (i.e., they are unlikely to directly catalyze lipid bilayer fusion) based on their predicted structure and localization. Therefore we screened known fusogens from vesicle trafficking (soluble N-ethylmaleimide–sensitive factor attachment protein receptors [SNAREs]) and homotypic endoplasmic reticulum (ER) fusion (Sey1p) for additional roles in nuclear fusion. Here we demonstrate that the ER-localized SNAREs Sec20p, Ufe1p, Use1p, and Bos1p are required for efficient nuclear fusion. In contrast, Sey1p is required indirectly for nuclear fusion; sey1Δ zygotes accumulate ER at the zone of cell fusion, causing a block in nuclear congression. However, double mutants of Sey1p and Sec20p, Ufe1p, or Use1p, but not Bos1p, display extreme ER morphology defects, worse than either single mutant, suggesting that retrograde SNAREs fuse ER in the absence of Sey1p. Together these data demonstrate that SNAREs mediate nuclear fusion, ER fusion after cell fusion is necessary to complete nuclear congression, and there exists a SNARE-mediated, Sey1p-independent ER fusion pathway. PMID:24152736

Current situation: New enthusiasm. [Nuclear fusion

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

For decades the costly field of controlled nuclear fusion has been rocked by ups and downs, promise and problems. In spite of the many setbacks, scientists and DOE officials are determined to push ahead. [open quotes]We are very confident that by some time after the first decade of the next century, we will have a clear demonstration [of the technology] to give us unlimited energy....We are very excited about it,[close quotes] Energy Secretary Watkins said last spring in proposing a $360 million fusion energy budget for fiscal 1993. This article cites recent hey developments in terms of technical accomplishments, fundingmore » decisions, policy decisions, and efforts to collaborate internationally on controlled nuclear fusion. The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor is discussed also.« less

Z-Pinch fusion-based nuclear propulsion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miernik, J.; Statham, G.; Fabisinski, L.; Maples, C. D.; Adams, R.; Polsgrove, T.; Fincher, S.; Cassibry, J.; Cortez, R.; Turner, M.; Percy, T.

2013-02-01

Fusion-based nuclear propulsion has the potential to enable fast interplanetary transportation. Due to the great distances between the planets of our solar system and the harmful radiation environment of interplanetary space, high specific impulse (Isp) propulsion in vehicles with high payload mass fractions must be developed to provide practical and safe vehicles for human space flight missions. The Z-Pinch dense plasma focus method is a Magneto-Inertial Fusion (MIF) approach that may potentially lead to a small, low cost fusion reactor/engine assembly [1]. Recent advancements in experimental and theoretical understanding of this concept suggest favorable scaling of fusion power output yield [2]. The magnetic field resulting from the large current compresses the plasma to fusion conditions, and this process can be pulsed over short timescales (10-6 s). This type of plasma formation is widely used in the field of Nuclear Weapons Effects testing in the defense industry, as well as in fusion energy research. A Z-Pinch propulsion concept was designed for a vehicle based on a previous fusion vehicle study called "Human Outer Planet Exploration" (HOPE), which used Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF) [3] propulsion. The reference mission is the transport of crew and cargo to Mars and back, with a reusable vehicle. The analysis of the Z-Pinch MIF propulsion system concludes that a 40-fold increase of Isp over chemical propulsion is predicted. An Isp of 19,436 s and thrust of 3812 N s/pulse, along with nearly doubling the predicted payload mass fraction, warrants further development of enabling technologies.

Project Icarus: Nuclear Fusion Propulsion Concept Comparison

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stanic, M.

Project Icarus will use nuclear fusion as the primary propulsion, since achieving breakeven is imminent within the next decade. Therefore, fusion technology provides confidence in further development and fairly high technological maturity by the time the Icarus mission would be plausible. Currently there are numerous (over 2 dozen) different fusion approaches that are simultaneously being developed around the World and it is difficult to predict which of the concepts is going to be the most successful one. This study tried to estimate current technological maturity and possible technological extrapolation of fusion approaches for which appropriate data could be found. Figures of merit that were assessed include: current technological state, mass and volume estimates, possible gain values, main advantages and disadvantages of the concept and an attempt to extrapolate current technological state for the next decade or two. Analysis suggests that Magnetic Confinement Fusion (MCF) concepts are not likely to deliver sufficient performance due to size, mass, gain and large technological barriers of the concept. However, ICF and PJMIF did show potential for delivering necessary performance, assuming appropriate techno- logical advances. This paper is a submission of the Project Icarus Study Group.

Prm3p is a pheromone-induced peripheral nuclear envelope protein required for yeast nuclear fusion.

PubMed

Shen, Shu; Tobery, Cynthia E; Rose, Mark D

2009-05-01

Nuclear membrane fusion is the last step in the mating pathway of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We adapted a bioinformatics approach to identify putative pheromone-induced membrane proteins potentially required for nuclear membrane fusion. One protein, Prm3p, was found to be required for nuclear membrane fusion; disruption of PRM3 caused a strong bilateral defect, in which nuclear congression was completed but fusion did not occur. Prm3p was localized to the nuclear envelope in pheromone-responding cells, with significant colocalization with the spindle pole body in zygotes. A previous report, using a truncated protein, claimed that Prm3p is localized to the inner nuclear envelope. Based on biochemistry, immunoelectron microscopy and live cell microscopy, we find that functional Prm3p is a peripheral membrane protein exposed on the cytoplasmic face of the outer nuclear envelope. In support of this, mutations in a putative nuclear localization sequence had no effect on full-length protein function or localization. In contrast, point mutations and deletions in the highly conserved hydrophobic carboxy-terminal domain disrupted both protein function and localization. Genetic analysis, colocalization, and biochemical experiments indicate that Prm3p interacts directly with Kar5p, suggesting that nuclear membrane fusion is mediated by a protein complex.

Final Technical Report for "Nuclear Technologies for Near Term Fusion Devices"

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wilson, Paul P.H.; Sawan, Mohamed E.; Davis, Andrew

Over approximately 18 years, this project evolved to focus on a number of related topics, all tied to the nuclear analysis of fusion energy systems. For the earliest years, the University of Wisconsin (UW)’s effort was in support of the Advanced Power Extraction (APEX) study to investigate high power density first wall and blanket systems. A variety of design concepts were studied before this study gave way to a design effort for a US Test Blanket Module (TBM) to be installed in ITER. Simultaneous to this TBM project, nuclear analysis supported the conceptual design of a number of fusion nuclearmore » science facilities that might fill a role in the path to fusion energy. Beginning in approximately 2005, this project added a component focused on the development of novel radiation transport software capability in support of the above nuclear analysis needs. Specifically, a clear need was identified to support neutron and photon transport on the complex geometries associated with Computer-Aided Design (CAD). Following the initial development of the Direct Accelerated Geoemtry Monte Carlo (DAGMC) capability, additional features were added, including unstructured mesh tallies and multi-physics analysis such as the Rigorous 2-Step (R2S) methodology for Shutdown Dose Rate (SDR) prediction. Throughout the project, there were also smaller tasks in support of the fusion materials community and for the testing of changes to the nuclear data that is fundamental to this kind of nuclear analysis.« less

Cytosol-dependent membrane fusion in ER, nuclear envelope and nuclear pore assembly: biological implications.

PubMed

Rafikova, Elvira R; Melikov, Kamran; Chernomordik, Leonid V

2010-01-01

Endoplasmic reticulum and nuclear envelope rearrangements after mitosis are often studied in the reconstitution system based on Xenopus egg extract. In our recent work we partially replaced the membrane vesicles in the reconstitution mix with protein-free liposomes to explore the relative contributions of cytosolic and transmembrane proteins. Here we discuss our finding that cytosolic proteins mediate fusion between membranes lacking functional transmembrane proteins and the role of membrane fusion in endoplasmic reticulum and nuclear envelope reorganization. Cytosol-dependent liposome fusion has allowed us to restore, without adding transmembrane nucleoporins, functionality of nuclear pores, their spatial distribution and chromatin decondensation in nuclei formed at insufficient amounts of membrane material and characterized by only partial decondensation of chromatin and lack of nuclear transport. Both the mechanisms and the biological implications of the discovered coupling between spatial distribution of nuclear pores, chromatin decondensation and nuclear transport are discussed.

In vivo myomaker-mediated heterologous fusion and nuclear reprogramming.

PubMed

Mitani, Yasuyuki; Vagnozzi, Ronald J; Millay, Douglas P

2017-01-01

Knowledge regarding cellular fusion and nuclear reprogramming may aid in cell therapy strategies for skeletal muscle diseases. An issue with cell therapy approaches to restore dystrophin expression in muscular dystrophy is obtaining a sufficient quantity of cells that normally fuse with muscle. Here we conferred fusogenic activity without transdifferentiation to multiple non-muscle cell types and tested dystrophin restoration in mouse models of muscular dystrophy. We previously demonstrated that myomaker, a skeletal muscle-specific transmembrane protein necessary for myoblast fusion, is sufficient to fuse 10T 1/2 fibroblasts to myoblasts in vitro. Whether myomaker-mediated heterologous fusion is functional in vivo and whether the newly introduced nonmuscle nuclei undergoes nuclear reprogramming has not been investigated. We showed that mesenchymal stromal cells, cortical bone stem cells, and tail-tip fibroblasts fuse to skeletal muscle when they express myomaker. These cells restored dystrophin expression in a fraction of dystrophin-deficient myotubes after fusion in vitro. However, dystrophin restoration was not detected in vivo although nuclear reprogramming of the muscle-specific myosin light chain promoter did occur. Despite the lack of detectable dystrophin reprogramming by immunostaining, this study indicated that myomaker could be used in nonmuscle cells to induce fusion with muscle in vivo, thereby providing a platform to deliver therapeutic material.-Mitani, Y., Vagnozzi, R. J., Millay, D. P. In vivo myomaker-mediated heterologous fusion and nuclear reprogramming. © FASEB.

In vivo myomaker-mediated heterologous fusion and nuclear reprogramming

PubMed Central

Mitani, Yasuyuki; Vagnozzi, Ronald J.; Millay, Douglas P.

2017-01-01

Knowledge regarding cellular fusion and nuclear reprogramming may aid in cell therapy strategies for skeletal muscle diseases. An issue with cell therapy approaches to restore dystrophin expression in muscular dystrophy is obtaining a sufficient quantity of cells that normally fuse with muscle. Here we conferred fusogenic activity without transdifferentiation to multiple non–muscle cell types and tested dystrophin restoration in mouse models of muscular dystrophy. We previously demonstrated that myomaker, a skeletal muscle–specific transmembrane protein necessary for myoblast fusion, is sufficient to fuse 10T 1/2 fibroblasts to myoblasts in vitro. Whether myomaker-mediated heterologous fusion is functional in vivo and whether the newly introduced nonmuscle nuclei undergoes nuclear reprogramming has not been investigated. We showed that mesenchymal stromal cells, cortical bone stem cells, and tail-tip fibroblasts fuse to skeletal muscle when they express myomaker. These cells restored dystrophin expression in a fraction of dystrophin-deficient myotubes after fusion in vitro. However, dystrophin restoration was not detected in vivo although nuclear reprogramming of the muscle-specific myosin light chain promoter did occur. Despite the lack of detectable dystrophin reprogramming by immunostaining, this study indicated that myomaker could be used in nonmuscle cells to induce fusion with muscle in vivo, thereby providing a platform to deliver therapeutic material.—Mitani, Y., Vagnozzi, R. J., Millay, D. P. In vivo myomaker-mediated heterologous fusion and nuclear reprogramming. PMID:27825107

Distinct roles for key karyogamy proteins during yeast nuclear fusion.

PubMed

Melloy, Patricia; Shen, Shu; White, Erin; Rose, Mark D

2009-09-01

During yeast mating, cell fusion is followed by the congression and fusion of the two nuclei. Proteins required for nuclear fusion are found at the surface (Prm3p) and within the lumen (Kar2p, Kar5p, and Kar8p) of the nuclear envelope (NE). Electron tomography (ET) of zygotes revealed that mutations in these proteins block nuclear fusion with different morphologies, suggesting that they act in different steps of fusion. Specifically, prm3 zygotes were blocked before formation of membrane bridges, whereas kar2, kar5, and kar8 zygotes frequently contained them. Membrane bridges were significantly larger and occurred more frequently in kar2 and kar8, than in kar5 mutant zygotes. The kinetics of NE fusion in prm3, kar5, and kar8 mutants, measured by live-cell fluorescence microscopy, were well correlated with the size and frequency of bridges observed by ET. However the kar2 mutant was defective for transfer of NE lumenal GFP, but not diffusion within the lumen, suggesting that transfer was blocked at the NE fusion junction. These observations suggest that Prm3p acts before initiation of outer NE fusion, Kar5p may help dilation of the initial fusion pore, and Kar2p and Kar8p act after outer NE fusion, during inner NE fusion.

Dynamic Assembly of Brambleberry Mediates Nuclear Envelope Fusion during Early Development

PubMed Central

Abrams, Elliott W.; Zhang, Hong; Marlow, Florence L.; Kapp, Lee; Lu, Sumei; Mullins, Mary C.

2012-01-01

Summary To accommodate the large cells following zygote formation, early blastomeres employ modified cell divisions. Karyomeres are one such modification, a mitotic intermediate wherein individual chromatin masses are surrounded by nuclear envelope, which then fuse to form a single mononucleus. We identified brambleberry, a maternal-effect zebrafish mutant that disrupts karyomere fusion resulting in formation of multiple micronuclei. brambleberry is a previously unannotated gene homologous to Kar5p, which participates in nuclear fusion in yeast. We demonstrate that Brambleberry is required for pronuclear fusion following fertilization in zebrafish. As karyomeres form, Brambleberry localizes to the nuclear envelope with prominent puncta evident near karyomere-karyomere interfaces corresponding to membrane fusion sites. Our studies identify the first factor acting in karyomere fusion and suggest that specialized proteins are necessary for proper nuclear division in large dividing blastomeres. PMID:22863006

The 2014 Integrated Field Exercise of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty revisited: The case for data fusion

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Burnett, Jonathan L.; Miley, Harry S.; Bowyer, Theodore W.

The International Monitoring System of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) uses a global network of radionuclide monitoring stations to detect evidence of a nuclear explosion. The two radionuclide technologies employed—particulate and noble gas (radioxenon) detection—have applications for data fusion to improve detection of a nuclear explosion. Using the hypothetical 0.5 kT nuclear explosive test scenario of the CTBTO 2014 Integrated Field Exercise, the intrinsic relationship between particulate and noble gas signatures has been examined. This study shows that, depending upon the time of the radioxenon release, the particulate progeny can produce the more detectable signature.more » Thus, as both particulate and noble gas signatures are inherently coupled, the authors recommend that the sample categorization schemes should be linked.« less

Nuclear inner membrane fusion facilitated by yeast Jem1p is required for spindle pole body fusion but not for the first mitotic nuclear division during yeast mating.

PubMed

Nishikawa, Shuh-ichi; Hirata, Aiko; Endo, Toshiya

2008-11-01

During mating of budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, two haploid nuclei fuse to produce a diploid nucleus. The process of nuclear fusion requires two J proteins, Jem1p in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) lumen and Sec63p, which forms a complex with Sec71p and Sec72p, in the ER membrane. Zygotes of mutants defective in the functions of Jem1p or Sec63p contain two haploid nuclei that were closely apposed but failed to fuse. Here we analyzed the ultrastructure of nuclei in jem1 Delta and sec71 Delta mutant zygotes using electron microscope with the freeze-substituted fixation method. Three-dimensional reconstitution of nuclear structures from electron microscope serial sections revealed that Jem1p facilitates nuclear inner-membrane fusion and spindle pole body (SPB) fusion while Sec71p facilitates nuclear outer-membrane fusion. Two haploid SPBs that failed to fuse could duplicate, and mitotic nuclear division of the unfused haploid nuclei started in jem1 Delta and sec71 Delta mutant zygotes. This observation suggests that nuclear inner-membrane fusion is required for SPB fusion, but not for SPB duplication in the first mitotic cell division.

Cold nuclear fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsyganov, E. N.; Bavizhev, M. D.; Buryakov, M. G.; Dabagov, S. B.; Golovatyuk, V. M.; Lobastov, S. P.

2015-07-01

If target deuterium atoms were implanted in a metal crystal in accelerator experiments, a sharp increase in the probability of DD-fusion reaction was clearly observed when compared with the reaction's theoretical value. The electronic screening potential, which for a collision of free deuterium atoms is about 27 eV, reached 300-700 eV in the case of the DD-fusion in metallic crystals. These data leads to the conclusion that a ban must exist for deuterium atoms to be in the ground state 1s in a niche filled with free conduction electrons. At the same time, the state 2p whose energy level is only 10 eV above that of state 1s is allowed in these conditions. With anisotropy of 2p, 3p or above orbitals, their spatial positions are strictly determined in the lattice coordinate system. When filling out the same potential niches with two deuterium atoms in the states 2p, 3p or higher, the nuclei of these atoms can be permanently positioned without creating much Coulomb repulsion at a very short distance from each other. In this case, the transparency of the potential barrier increases dramatically compared to the ground state 1s for these atoms. The probability of the deuterium nuclei penetrating the Coulomb barrier by zero quantum vibration of the DD-system also increases dramatically. The so-called cold nuclear DD-fusion for a number of years was registered in many experiments, however, was still rejected by mainstream science for allegedly having no consistent scientific explanation. Finally, it received the validation. Below, we outline the concept of this explanation and give the necessary calculations. This paper also considers the further destiny of the formed intermediate state of 4He∗.

Dynamic assembly of brambleberry mediates nuclear envelope fusion during early development.

PubMed

Abrams, Elliott W; Zhang, Hong; Marlow, Florence L; Kapp, Lee; Lu, Sumei; Mullins, Mary C

2012-08-03

To accommodate the large cells following zygote formation, early blastomeres employ modified cell divisions. Karyomeres are one such modification, mitotic intermediates wherein individual chromatin masses are surrounded by nuclear envelope; the karyomeres then fuse to form a single mononucleus. We identified brambleberry, a maternal-effect zebrafish mutant that disrupts karyomere fusion, resulting in formation of multiple micronuclei. As karyomeres form, Brambleberry protein localizes to the nuclear envelope, with prominent puncta evident near karyomere-karyomere interfaces corresponding to membrane fusion sites. brambleberry corresponds to an unannotated gene with similarity to Kar5p, a protein that participates in nuclear fusion in yeast. We also demonstrate that Brambleberry is required for pronuclear fusion following fertilization in zebrafish. Our studies provide insight into the machinery required for karyomere fusion and suggest that specialized proteins are necessary for proper nuclear division in large dividing blastomeres. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Sensor Fusion for Nuclear Proliferation Activity Monitoring

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Adel Ghanem, Ph D

2007-03-30

The objective of Phase 1 of this STTR project is to demonstrate a Proof-of-Concept (PoC) of the Geo-Rad system that integrates a location-aware SmartTag (made by ZonTrak) and a radiation detector (developed by LLNL). It also includes the ability to transmit the collected radiation data and location information to the ZonTrak server (ZonService). The collected data is further transmitted to a central server at LLNL (the Fusion Server) to be processed in conjunction with overhead imagery to generate location estimates of nuclear proliferation and radiation sources.

The 2014 Integrated Field Exercise of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty revisited: The case for data fusion.

PubMed

Burnett, Jonathan L; Miley, Harry S; Bowyer, Theodore W; Cameron, Ian M

2018-09-01

The International Monitoring System of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) uses a global network of radionuclide monitoring stations to detect evidence of a nuclear explosion. The two radionuclide technologies employed-particulate and noble gas (radioxenon) detection-have applications for data fusion to improve detection of a nuclear explosion. Using the hypothetical 0.5 kT nuclear explosive test scenario of the CTBTO 2014 Integrated Field Exercise, the intrinsic relationship between particulate and noble gas signatures has been examined. This study shows that, depending upon the time of the radioxenon release, the particulate progeny can produce the more detectable signature. Thus, as both particulate and noble gas signatures are inherently coupled, the authors recommend that the sample categorization schemes should be linked. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Introduction to Nuclear Fusion Power and the Design of Fusion Reactors. An Issue-Oriented Module.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fillo, J. A.

This three-part module focuses on the principles of nuclear fusion and on the likely nature and components of a controlled-fusion power reactor. The physical conditions for a net energy release from fusion and two approaches (magnetic and inertial confinement) which are being developed to achieve this goal are described. Safety issues associated…

Inner/Outer nuclear membrane fusion in nuclear pore assembly: biochemical demonstration and molecular analysis.

PubMed

Fichtman, Boris; Ramos, Corinne; Rasala, Beth; Harel, Amnon; Forbes, Douglass J

2010-12-01

Nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) are large proteinaceous channels embedded in double nuclear membranes, which carry out nucleocytoplasmic exchange. The mechanism of nuclear pore assembly involves a unique challenge, as it requires creation of a long-lived membrane-lined channel connecting the inner and outer nuclear membranes. This stabilized membrane channel has little evolutionary precedent. Here we mapped inner/outer nuclear membrane fusion in NPC assembly biochemically by using novel assembly intermediates and membrane fusion inhibitors. Incubation of a Xenopus in vitro nuclear assembly system at 14°C revealed an early pore intermediate where nucleoporin subunits POM121 and the Nup107-160 complex were organized in a punctate pattern on the inner nuclear membrane. With time, this intermediate progressed to diffusion channel formation and finally to complete nuclear pore assembly. Correct channel formation was blocked by the hemifusion inhibitor lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC), but not if a complementary-shaped lipid, oleic acid (OA), was simultaneously added, as determined with a novel fluorescent dextran-quenching assay. Importantly, recruitment of the bulk of FG nucleoporins, characteristic of mature nuclear pores, was not observed before diffusion channel formation and was prevented by LPC or OA, but not by LPC+OA. These results map the crucial inner/outer nuclear membrane fusion event of NPC assembly downstream of POM121/Nup107-160 complex interaction and upstream or at the time of FG nucleoporin recruitment.

The Fight for Fusion: A Modern Nuclear War.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rogers, Adam; Sereda, David

1992-01-01

Describes the work of Bogdan Maglich with helium-based fusion and barriers to its development resulting from lack of government support, competition for funding, and political pet projects. Compares tritium-based to helium-based fusion and the potential for nonradioactive nuclear power to supply the world's energy requirements with no negative…

Oral cancer/endothelial cell fusion experiences nuclear fusion and acquisition of enhanced survival potential.

PubMed

Song, Kai; Song, Yong; Zhao, Xiao-Ping; Shen, Hui; Wang, Meng; Yan, Ting-Lin; Liu, Ke; Shang, Zheng-Jun

2014-10-15

Most previous studies have linked cancer-macrophage fusion with tumor progression and metastasis. However, the characteristics of hybrid cells derived from oral cancer and endothelial cells and their involvement in cancer remained unknown. Double-immunofluorescent staining and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) were performed to confirm spontaneous cell fusion between eGFP-labeled human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and RFP-labeled SCC9, and to detect the expression of vementin and cytokeratin 18 in the hybrids. The property of chemo-resistance of such hybrids was examined by TUNEL assay. The hybrid cells in xenografted tumor were identified by FISH and GFP/RFP dual-immunofluoresence staining. We showed that SCC9 cells spontaneously fused with cocultured endothelial cells, and the resultant hybrid cells maintained the division and proliferation activity after re-plating and thawing. Such hybrids expressed markers of both parental cells and became more resistant to chemotherapeutic drug cisplatin as compared to the parental SCC9 cells. Our in vivo data indicated that the hybrid cells contributed to tumor composition by using of immunostaining and FISH analysis, even though the hybrid cells and SCC9 cells were mixed with 1:10,000, according to the FACS data. Our study suggested that the fusion events between oral cancer and endothelial cells undergo nuclear fusion and acquire a new property of drug resistance and consequently enhanced survival potential. These experimental findings provide further supportive evidence for the theory that cell fusion is involved in cancer progression. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

History of Nuclear Fusion Research in Japan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iguchi, Harukazu; Matsuoka, Keisuke; Kimura, Kazue; Namba, Chusei; Matsuda, Shinzaburo

In the late 1950s just after the atomic energy research was opened worldwide, there was a lively discussion among scientists on the strategy of nuclear fusion research in Japan. Finally, decision was made that fusion research should be started from the basic, namely, research on plasma physics and from cultivation of human resources at universities under the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture (MOE). However, an endorsement was given that construction of an experimental device for fusion research would be approved sooner or later. Studies on toroidal plasma confinement started at Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI) under the Science and Technology Agency (STA) in the mid-1960s. Dualistic fusion research framework in Japan was established. This structure has lasted until now. Fusion research activities over the last 50 years are described by the use of a flowchart, which is convenient to glance the historical development of fusion research in Japan.

Nuclear fusion and genome encounter during yeast zygote formation.

PubMed

Tartakoff, Alan Michael; Jaiswal, Purnima

2009-06-01

When haploid cells of Saccharomyces cerevisiae are crossed, parental nuclei congress and fuse with each other. To investigate underlying mechanisms, we have developed assays that evaluate the impact of drugs and mutations. Nuclear congression is inhibited by drugs that perturb the actin and tubulin cytoskeletons. Nuclear envelope (NE) fusion consists of at least five steps in which preliminary modifications are followed by controlled flux of first outer and then inner membrane proteins, all before visible dilation of the waist of the nucleus or coalescence of the parental spindle pole bodies. Flux of nuclear pore complexes occurs after dilation. Karyogamy requires both the Sec18p/NSF ATPase and ER/NE luminal homeostasis. After fusion, chromosome tethering keeps tagged parental genomes separate from each other. The process of NE fusion and evidence of genome independence in yeast provide a prototype for understanding related events in higher eukaryotes.

Avalanche proton-boron fusion based on elastic nuclear collisions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Eliezer, Shalom; Martinez Val, Josè Maria; Hora, Heinrich

2016-05-15

Recent experiments done at Prague with the 600 J/0.2 ns PALS laser interacting with a layer of boron dopants in a hydrogen enriched target have produced around 10{sup 9} alphas. We suggest that these unexpected very high fusion reactions of proton with {sup 11}B indicate an avalanche multiplication for the measured anomalously high nuclear reaction yields. This can be explained by elastic nuclear collisions in the broad 600 keV energy band, which is coincident with the high nuclear p-{sup 11}B fusion cross section, by the way of multiplication through generation of three secondary alpha particles from a single primarily produced alpha particle.

Vegetative hyphal fusion and subsequent nuclear behavior in Epichloë grass endophytes.

PubMed

Shoji, Jun-Ya; Charlton, Nikki D; Yi, Mihwa; Young, Carolyn A; Craven, Kelly D

2015-01-01

Epichloë species (including the former genus Neotyphodium) are fungal symbionts of many agronomically important forage grasses, and provide their grass hosts with protection from a wide range of biotic and abiotic stresses. Epichloë species include many interspecific hybrids with allodiploid-like genomes, which may provide the potential for combined traits or recombination to generate new traits. Though circumstantial evidence suggests that such interspecific hybrids might have arisen from nuclear fusion events following vegetative hyphal fusion between different Epichloë strains, this hypothesis has not been addressed empirically. Here, we investigated vegetative hyphal fusion and subsequent nuclear behavior in Epichloë species. A majority of Epichloë strains, especially those having a sexual stage, underwent self vegetative hyphal fusion. Vegetative fusion also occurred between two hyphae from different Epichloë strains. Though Epichloë spp. are uninucleate fungi, hyphal fusion resulted in two nuclei stably sharing the same cytoplasm, which might ultimately lead to nuclear fusion. In addition, protoplast fusion experiments gave rise to uninucleate putative hybrids, which apparently had two markers, one from each parent within the same nucleus. These results are consistent with the notion that interspecific hybrids arise from vegetative hyphal fusion. However, we also discuss additional factors, such as post-hybridization selection, that may be important to explain the recognized prevalence of hybrids in Epichloë species.

Vegetative Hyphal Fusion and Subsequent Nuclear Behavior in Epichloë Grass Endophytes

PubMed Central

Shoji, Jun-ya; Charlton, Nikki D.; Yi, Mihwa; Young, Carolyn A.; Craven, Kelly D.

2015-01-01

Epichloë species (including the former genus Neotyphodium) are fungal symbionts of many agronomically important forage grasses, and provide their grass hosts with protection from a wide range of biotic and abiotic stresses. Epichloë species include many interspecific hybrids with allodiploid-like genomes, which may provide the potential for combined traits or recombination to generate new traits. Though circumstantial evidence suggests that such interspecific hybrids might have arisen from nuclear fusion events following vegetative hyphal fusion between different Epichloë strains, this hypothesis has not been addressed empirically. Here, we investigated vegetative hyphal fusion and subsequent nuclear behavior in Epichloë species. A majority of Epichloë strains, especially those having a sexual stage, underwent self vegetative hyphal fusion. Vegetative fusion also occurred between two hyphae from different Epichloë strains. Though Epichloë spp. are uninucleate fungi, hyphal fusion resulted in two nuclei stably sharing the same cytoplasm, which might ultimately lead to nuclear fusion. In addition, protoplast fusion experiments gave rise to uninucleate putative hybrids, which apparently had two markers, one from each parent within the same nucleus. These results are consistent with the notion that interspecific hybrids arise from vegetative hyphal fusion. However, we also discuss additional factors, such as post-hybridization selection, that may be important to explain the recognized prevalence of hybrids in Epichloë species. PMID:25837972

Nuclear design of a very-low-activation fusion reactor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheng, E. T.; Hopkins, G. R.

1983-06-01

The nuclear design aspects of using very-low-activation materials, such as SiC, MgO, and aluminum for fusion-reactor first wall, blanket, and shield applications were investigated. In addition to the advantage of very-low radioactive inventory, it was found that the very-low-activation fusion reactor can also offer an adequate tritium-breeding ratio and substantial amount of blanket nuclear heating as a conventional-material-structured reactor does. The most-stringent design constraint found in a very-low-activation fusion reactor is the limited space available in the inboard region of a Tokamak concept for shielding to protect the superconducting toroidal field coil. A reference design was developed which mitigates the constraint by adopting a removable tungsten shield design that retains the inboard dimensions and gives the same shield performance as the reference STARFIRE Tokamak reactor design.

A Review of Data Fusion Techniques

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

The integration of data and knowledge from several sources is known as data fusion. This paper summarizes the state of the data fusion field and describes the most relevant studies. We first enumerate and explain different classification schemes for data fusion. Then, the most common algorithms are reviewed. These methods and algorithms are presented using three different categories: (i) data association, (ii) state estimation, and (iii) decision fusion. PMID:24288502

A review of data fusion techniques.

PubMed

Castanedo, Federico

2013-01-01

The integration of data and knowledge from several sources is known as data fusion. This paper summarizes the state of the data fusion field and describes the most relevant studies. We first enumerate and explain different classification schemes for data fusion. Then, the most common algorithms are reviewed. These methods and algorithms are presented using three different categories: (i) data association, (ii) state estimation, and (iii) decision fusion.

Studies of breakeven prices and electricity supply potentials of nuclear fusion by a long-term world energy and environment model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tokimatsu, K.; Asaoka, Y.; Konishi, S.; Fujino, J.; Ogawa, Y.; Okano, K.; Nishio, S.; Yoshida, T.; Hiwatari, R.; Yamaji, K.

2002-11-01

concentration constraint, but not selected under the BAU case and 650 ppmv CO2 concentration constraint, and (3) the share of electricity in 2100 produced by the presently designed tokamak-type nuclear fusion reactors (introduced after 2060) is well below 30%. It should be noted that these conclusions are based upon varieties of uncertainties in scenarios and data assumptions on nuclear fusion as well as technological options.

A Fusion Nuclear Science Facility for a fast-track path to DEMO

DOE PAGES

Garofalo, Andrea M.; Abdou, M.; Canik, John M.; ...

2014-10-01

An accelerated fusion energy development program, a “fast-track” approach, requires developing an understanding of fusion nuclear science (FNS) in parallel with research on ITER to study burning plasmas. A Fusion Nuclear Science Facility (FNSF) in parallel with ITER provides the capability to resolve FNS feasibility issues related to power extraction, tritium fuel sustainability, and reliability, and to begin construction of DEMO upon the achievement of Q~10 in ITER. Fusion nuclear components, including the first wall (FW)/blanket, divertor, heating/fueling systems, etc. are complex systems with many inter-related functions and different materials, fluids, and physical interfaces. These in-vessel nuclear components must operatemore » continuously and reliably with: (a) Plasma exposure, surface particle & radiation loads, (b) High energy 2 neutron fluxes and their interactions in materials (e.g. peaked volumetric heating with steep gradients, tritium production, activation, atomic displacements, gas production, etc.), (c) Strong magnetic fields with temporal and spatial variations (electromagnetic coupling to the plasma including off-normal events like disruptions), and (d) a High temperature, high vacuum, chemically active environment. While many of these conditions and effects are being studied with separate and multiple effect experimental test stands and modeling, fusion nuclear conditions cannot be completely simulated outside the fusion environment. This means there are many new multi-physics, multi-scale phenomena and synergistic effects yet to be discovered and accounted for in the understanding, design and operation of fusion as a self-sustaining, energy producing system, and significant experimentation and operational experience in a true fusion environment is an essential requirement. In the following sections we discuss the FNSF objectives, describe the facility requirements and a facility concept and operation approach that can accomplish those

Nuclear dynamics during germination, conidiation, and hyphal fusion of Fusarium oxysporum.

PubMed

Ruiz-Roldán, M Carmen; Köhli, Michael; Roncero, M Isabel G; Philippsen, Peter; Di Pietro, Antonio; Espeso, Eduardo A

2010-08-01

In many fungal pathogens, infection is initiated by conidial germination. Subsequent stages involve germ tube elongation, conidiation, and vegetative hyphal fusion (anastomosis). Here, we used live-cell fluorescence to study the dynamics of green fluorescent protein (GFP)- and cherry fluorescent protein (ChFP)-labeled nuclei in the plant pathogen Fusarium oxysporum. Hyphae of F. oxysporum have uninucleated cells and exhibit an acropetal nuclear pedigree, where only the nucleus in the apical compartment is mitotically active. In contrast, conidiation follows a basopetal pattern, whereby mononucleated microconidia are generated by repeated mitotic cycles of the subapical nucleus in the phialide, followed by septation and cell abscission. Vegetative hyphal fusion is preceded by directed growth of the fusion hypha toward the receptor hypha and followed by a series of postfusion nuclear events, including mitosis of the apical nucleus of the fusion hypha, migration of a daughter nucleus into the receptor hypha, and degradation of the resident nucleus. These previously unreported patterns of nuclear dynamics in F. oxysporum could be intimately related to its pathogenic lifestyle.

Breakup fusion theory of nuclear reactions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mastroleo, R.C.

1987-01-01

Continuum spectra of particles emitted in incomplete fusion reactions are one of the major interests in current nuclear reaction studies. Based on an idea of the so-called breakup fusion (BF) reaction, several authors derived closed formulas for the singles cross section of the particles that are emitted. There have been presented, however, two conflicting cross section formulas for the same BF reaction. For convenience, we shall call one of them the IAV (Ichimura, Austern and Vincent) and the other UT (Udagawa and Tamura) cross section formulas. In this work, the formulation of the UT cross section formula (prior-form) is presented,more » and the post-form version of the IAV cross section formula is evaluted for a few {alpha}- and d-induced reactions based on the exact finite range method. It is shown that the values thus calculated are larger by an order of magnitude as compared with the experimental cross sections for the {alpha}-induced reactions, while they are comparable with the experimental cross sections for the d-induced reactions. A possible origin of why such a large cross section is resulted in the case of {alpha}-induced reactions is also discussed. Polarization of the residual compound nucleus produced in breakup fusion reactions are calculated and compared with experiments. It is shown that the polarization is rather sensitive to the deflection angles of the strongly absortive partial waves and to obtain a good fit with the experimental data a l-dependent potential in the incident channel is needed in order to stress the lower partial waves.« less

Expression of Leukemia-Associated Nup98 Fusion Proteins Generates an Aberrant Nuclear Envelope Phenotype.

PubMed

Fahrenkrog, Birthe; Martinelli, Valérie; Nilles, Nadine; Fruhmann, Gernot; Chatel, Guillaume; Juge, Sabine; Sauder, Ursula; Di Giacomo, Danika; Mecucci, Cristina; Schwaller, Jürg

2016-01-01

Chromosomal translocations involving the nucleoporin NUP98 have been described in several hematopoietic malignancies, in particular acute myeloid leukemia (AML). In the resulting chimeric proteins, Nup98's N-terminal region is fused to the C-terminal region of about 30 different partners, including homeodomain (HD) transcription factors. While transcriptional targets of distinct Nup98 chimeras related to immortalization are relatively well described, little is known about other potential cellular effects of these fusion proteins. By comparing the sub-nuclear localization of a large number of Nup98 fusions with HD and non-HD partners throughout the cell cycle we found that while all Nup98 chimeras were nuclear during interphase, only Nup98-HD fusion proteins exhibited a characteristic speckled appearance. During mitosis, only Nup98-HD fusions were concentrated on chromosomes. Despite the difference in localization, all tested Nup98 chimera provoked morphological alterations in the nuclear envelope (NE), in particular affecting the nuclear lamina and the lamina-associated polypeptide 2α (LAP2α). Importantly, such aberrations were not only observed in transiently transfected HeLa cells but also in mouse bone marrow cells immortalized by Nup98 fusions and in cells derived from leukemia patients harboring Nup98 fusions. Our findings unravel Nup98 fusion-associated NE alterations that may contribute to leukemogenesis.

Expression of Leukemia-Associated Nup98 Fusion Proteins Generates an Aberrant Nuclear Envelope Phenotype

PubMed Central

Fahrenkrog, Birthe; Martinelli, Valérie; Nilles, Nadine; Fruhmann, Gernot; Chatel, Guillaume; Juge, Sabine; Sauder, Ursula; Di Giacomo, Danika; Mecucci, Cristina; Schwaller, Jürg

2016-01-01

Chromosomal translocations involving the nucleoporin NUP98 have been described in several hematopoietic malignancies, in particular acute myeloid leukemia (AML). In the resulting chimeric proteins, Nup98's N-terminal region is fused to the C-terminal region of about 30 different partners, including homeodomain (HD) transcription factors. While transcriptional targets of distinct Nup98 chimeras related to immortalization are relatively well described, little is known about other potential cellular effects of these fusion proteins. By comparing the sub-nuclear localization of a large number of Nup98 fusions with HD and non-HD partners throughout the cell cycle we found that while all Nup98 chimeras were nuclear during interphase, only Nup98-HD fusion proteins exhibited a characteristic speckled appearance. During mitosis, only Nup98-HD fusions were concentrated on chromosomes. Despite the difference in localization, all tested Nup98 chimera provoked morphological alterations in the nuclear envelope (NE), in particular affecting the nuclear lamina and the lamina-associated polypeptide 2α (LAP2α). Importantly, such aberrations were not only observed in transiently transfected HeLa cells but also in mouse bone marrow cells immortalized by Nup98 fusions and in cells derived from leukemia patients harboring Nup98 fusions. Our findings unravel Nup98 fusion-associated NE alterations that may contribute to leukemogenesis. PMID:27031510

Cell-fusion method to visualize interphase nuclear pore formation.

PubMed

Maeshima, Kazuhiro; Funakoshi, Tomoko; Imamoto, Naoko

2014-01-01

In eukaryotic cells, the nucleus is a complex and sophisticated organelle that organizes genomic DNA to support essential cellular functions. The nuclear surface contains many nuclear pore complexes (NPCs), channels for macromolecular transport between the cytoplasm and nucleus. It is well known that the number of NPCs almost doubles during interphase in cycling cells. However, the mechanism of NPC formation is poorly understood, presumably because a practical system for analysis does not exist. The most difficult obstacle in the visualization of interphase NPC formation is that NPCs already exist after nuclear envelope formation, and these existing NPCs interfere with the observation of nascent NPCs. To overcome this obstacle, we developed a novel system using the cell-fusion technique (heterokaryon method), previously also used to analyze the shuttling of macromolecules between the cytoplasm and the nucleus, to visualize the newly synthesized interphase NPCs. In addition, we used a photobleaching approach that validated the cell-fusion method. We recently used these methods to demonstrate the role of cyclin-dependent protein kinases and of Pom121 in interphase NPC formation in cycling human cells. Here, we describe the details of the cell-fusion approach and compare the system with other NPC formation visualization methods. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Gene Fusion Markup Language: a prototype for exchanging gene fusion data.

PubMed

Kalyana-Sundaram, Shanker; Shanmugam, Achiraman; Chinnaiyan, Arul M

2012-10-16

An avalanche of next generation sequencing (NGS) studies has generated an unprecedented amount of genomic structural variation data. These studies have also identified many novel gene fusion candidates with more detailed resolution than previously achieved. However, in the excitement and necessity of publishing the observations from this recently developed cutting-edge technology, no community standardization approach has arisen to organize and represent the data with the essential attributes in an interchangeable manner. As transcriptome studies have been widely used for gene fusion discoveries, the current non-standard mode of data representation could potentially impede data accessibility, critical analyses, and further discoveries in the near future. Here we propose a prototype, Gene Fusion Markup Language (GFML) as an initiative to provide a standard format for organizing and representing the significant features of gene fusion data. GFML will offer the advantage of representing the data in a machine-readable format to enable data exchange, automated analysis interpretation, and independent verification. As this database-independent exchange initiative evolves it will further facilitate the formation of related databases, repositories, and analysis tools. The GFML prototype is made available at http://code.google.com/p/gfml-prototype/. The Gene Fusion Markup Language (GFML) presented here could facilitate the development of a standard format for organizing, integrating and representing the significant features of gene fusion data in an inter-operable and query-able fashion that will enable biologically intuitive access to gene fusion findings and expedite functional characterization. A similar model is envisaged for other NGS data analyses.

Gene Fusion Markup Language: a prototype for exchanging gene fusion data

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background An avalanche of next generation sequencing (NGS) studies has generated an unprecedented amount of genomic structural variation data. These studies have also identified many novel gene fusion candidates with more detailed resolution than previously achieved. However, in the excitement and necessity of publishing the observations from this recently developed cutting-edge technology, no community standardization approach has arisen to organize and represent the data with the essential attributes in an interchangeable manner. As transcriptome studies have been widely used for gene fusion discoveries, the current non-standard mode of data representation could potentially impede data accessibility, critical analyses, and further discoveries in the near future. Results Here we propose a prototype, Gene Fusion Markup Language (GFML) as an initiative to provide a standard format for organizing and representing the significant features of gene fusion data. GFML will offer the advantage of representing the data in a machine-readable format to enable data exchange, automated analysis interpretation, and independent verification. As this database-independent exchange initiative evolves it will further facilitate the formation of related databases, repositories, and analysis tools. The GFML prototype is made available at http://code.google.com/p/gfml-prototype/. Conclusion The Gene Fusion Markup Language (GFML) presented here could facilitate the development of a standard format for organizing, integrating and representing the significant features of gene fusion data in an inter-operable and query-able fashion that will enable biologically intuitive access to gene fusion findings and expedite functional characterization. A similar model is envisaged for other NGS data analyses. PMID:23072312

2013 Nuclear Fusion Prize Acceptance Speech 2013 Nuclear Fusion Prize Acceptance Speech

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Whyte, D.

2015-01-01

I would like to express gratitude to the IAEA, the journal Nuclear Fusion and its board for this acknowledgement of work carried out at the MIT Alcator C-Mod tokamak. I must begin by making it clear that this is in no way an award to an individual. The experiments, data analysis and paper were a true collaborative effort from the C-Mod team. It is a honor to work with them and to accept the award on their behalf. I would also like to thank the US Department of Energy for their support in funding this research. The paper describes the exploration of the 'improved' confinement regime dubbed 'I-mode'. The distinguishing feature of this operational mode is a robust boundary pedestal in temperature with the somewhat surprising lack of any form of density pedestal. Thus the regime exhibits an enhanced energy confinement similar to H-mode, roughly double of L-mode at fixed input power, yet has global fuel and impurity particle transport of L-mode. These features are intriguing from a scientific and practical point of view. On the science side it is extremely useful to obtain such a clear demarcation between the energy and particle transport. For example, soon after its discovery, the I-mode was used to extract the observation that the edge T pedestal is the strongest determinant for intrinsic rotation in work by John Rice, Pat Diamond and colleagues. Recent results regarding core transport by Anne White, Nate Howard and colleagues show that I-mode has intriguing properties with respect to core response of fluctuations and profile stiffness. Mike Churchill's recent Ph. D study on C-Mod shows that I-mode exhibits no strong poloidal impurity asymmetry, unlike H-mode. The I-mode posed an interesting test for the peeling-ballooning-KBM model of the pedestal, the subject of the 2014 Nuclear Fusion award of Phil Snyder, and was examined by John Walk and Jerry Hughes showing that in fact the lack of the density pedestal pushed the I-mode far away from the P-B limit, and thus the

Cluster dynamics transcending chemical dynamics toward nuclear fusion

PubMed Central

Heidenreich, Andreas; Jortner, Joshua; Last, Isidore

2006-01-01

Ultrafast cluster dynamics encompasses femtosecond nuclear dynamics, attosecond electron dynamics, and electron-nuclear dynamics in ultraintense laser fields (peak intensities 1015–1020 W·cm−2). Extreme cluster multielectron ionization produces highly charged cluster ions, e.g., (C4+(D+)4)n and (D+I22+)n at IM = 1018 W·cm−2, that undergo Coulomb explosion (CE) with the production of high-energy (5 keV to 1 MeV) ions, which can trigger nuclear reactions in an assembly of exploding clusters. The laser intensity and the cluster size dependence of the dynamics and energetics of CE of (D2)n, (HT)n, (CD4)n, (DI)n, (CD3I)n, and (CH3I)n clusters were explored by electrostatic models and molecular dynamics simulations, quantifying energetic driving effects, and kinematic run-over effects. The optimization of table-top dd nuclear fusion driven by CE of deuterium containing heteroclusters is realized for light-heavy heteroclusters of the largest size, which allows for the prevalence of cluster vertical ionization at the highest intensity of the laser field. We demonstrate a 7-orders-of-magnitude enhancement of the yield of dd nuclear fusion driven by CE of light-heavy heteroclusters as compared with (D2)n clusters of the same size. Prospective applications for the attainment of table-top nucleosynthesis reactions, e.g., 12C(P,γ)13N driven by CE of (CH3I)n clusters, were explored. PMID:16740666

Cluster dynamics transcending chemical dynamics toward nuclear fusion.

PubMed

Heidenreich, Andreas; Jortner, Joshua; Last, Isidore

2006-07-11

Ultrafast cluster dynamics encompasses femtosecond nuclear dynamics, attosecond electron dynamics, and electron-nuclear dynamics in ultraintense laser fields (peak intensities 10(15)-10(20) W.cm(-2)). Extreme cluster multielectron ionization produces highly charged cluster ions, e.g., (C(4+)(D(+))(4))(n) and (D(+)I(22+))(n) at I(M) = 10(18) W.cm(-2), that undergo Coulomb explosion (CE) with the production of high-energy (5 keV to 1 MeV) ions, which can trigger nuclear reactions in an assembly of exploding clusters. The laser intensity and the cluster size dependence of the dynamics and energetics of CE of (D(2))(n), (HT)(n), (CD(4))(n), (DI)(n), (CD(3)I)(n), and (CH(3)I)(n) clusters were explored by electrostatic models and molecular dynamics simulations, quantifying energetic driving effects, and kinematic run-over effects. The optimization of table-top dd nuclear fusion driven by CE of deuterium containing heteroclusters is realized for light-heavy heteroclusters of the largest size, which allows for the prevalence of cluster vertical ionization at the highest intensity of the laser field. We demonstrate a 7-orders-of-magnitude enhancement of the yield of dd nuclear fusion driven by CE of light-heavy heteroclusters as compared with (D(2))(n) clusters of the same size. Prospective applications for the attainment of table-top nucleosynthesis reactions, e.g., (12)C(P,gamma)(13)N driven by CE of (CH(3)I)(n) clusters, were explored.

Ontology-aided Data Fusion (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Raskin, R.

2009-12-01

An ontology provides semantic descriptions that are analogous to those in a dictionary, but are readable by both computers and humans. A data or service is semantically annotated when it is formally associated with elements of an ontology. The ESIP Federation Semantic Web Cluster has developed a set of ontologies to describe datatypes and data services that can be used to support automated data fusion. The service ontology includes descriptors of the service function, its inputs/outputs, and its invocation method. The datatype descriptors resemble typical metadata fields (data format, data model, data structure, originator, etc.) augmented with descriptions of the meaning of the data. These ontologies, in combination with the SWEET science ontology, enable a registered data fusion service to be chained together and implemented that is scientifically meaningful based on machine understanding of the associated data and services. This presentation describes initial results and experiences in automated data fusion.

Visualize Your Data with Google Fusion Tables

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brisbin, K. E.

2011-12-01

Google Fusion Tables is a modern data management platform that makes it easy to host, manage, collaborate on, visualize, and publish tabular data online. Fusion Tables allows users to upload their own data to the Google cloud, which they can then use to create compelling and interactive visualizations with the data. Users can view data on a Google Map, plot data in a line chart, or display data along a timeline. Users can share these visualizations with others to explore and discover interesting trends about various types of data, including scientific data such as invasive species or global trends in disease. Fusion Tables has been used by many organizations to visualize a variety of scientific data. One example is the California Redistricting Map created by the LA Times: http://goo.gl/gwZt5 The Pacific Institute and Circle of Blue have used Fusion Tables to map the quality of water around the world: http://goo.gl/T4SX8 The World Resources Institute mapped the threat level of coral reefs using Fusion Tables: http://goo.gl/cdqe8 What attendees will learn in this session: This session will cover all the steps necessary to use Fusion Tables to create a variety of interactive visualizations. Attendees will begin by learning about the various options for uploading data into Fusion Tables, including Shapefile, KML file, and CSV file import. Attendees will then learn how to use Fusion Tables to manage their data by merging it with other data and controlling the permissions of the data. Finally, the session will cover how to create a customized visualization from the data, and share that visualization with others using both Fusion Tables and the Google Maps API.

Kar5p is required for multiple functions in both inner and outer nuclear envelope fusion in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

PubMed

Rogers, Jason V; Rose, Mark D

2014-12-02

During mating in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, two haploid nuclei fuse via two sequential membrane fusion steps. SNAREs (i.e., soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptors) and Prm3p mediate outer nuclear membrane fusion, but the inner membrane fusogen remains unknown. Kar5p is a highly conserved transmembrane protein that localizes adjacent to the spindle pole body (SPB), mediates nuclear envelope fusion, and recruits Prm3p adjacent to the SPB. To separate Kar5p's functions, we tested localization, Prm3p recruitment, and nuclear fusion efficiency in various kar5 mutants. All domains and the conserved cysteine residues were essential for nuclear fusion. Several kar5 mutant proteins localized properly but did not mediate Prm3p recruitment; other kar5 mutant proteins localized and recruited Prm3p but were nevertheless defective for nuclear fusion, demonstrating additional functions beyond Prm3p recruitment. We identified one Kar5p domain required for SPB localization, which is dependent on the half-bridge protein Mps3p. Electron microscopy revealed a kar5 mutant that arrests with expanded nuclear envelope bridges, suggesting that Kar5p is required after outer nuclear envelope fusion. Finally, a split-GFP assay demonstrated that Kar5p localizes to both the inner and outer nuclear envelope. These insights suggest a mechanism by which Kar5p mediates inner nuclear membrane fusion. Copyright © 2015 Rogers and Rose.

Kar5p Is Required for Multiple Functions in Both Inner and Outer Nuclear Envelope Fusion in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

PubMed Central

Rogers, Jason V.; Rose, Mark D.

2014-01-01

During mating in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, two haploid nuclei fuse via two sequential membrane fusion steps. SNAREs (i.e., soluble N-ethylmaleimide–sensitive factor attachment protein receptors) and Prm3p mediate outer nuclear membrane fusion, but the inner membrane fusogen remains unknown. Kar5p is a highly conserved transmembrane protein that localizes adjacent to the spindle pole body (SPB), mediates nuclear envelope fusion, and recruits Prm3p adjacent to the SPB. To separate Kar5p’s functions, we tested localization, Prm3p recruitment, and nuclear fusion efficiency in various kar5 mutants. All domains and the conserved cysteine residues were essential for nuclear fusion. Several kar5 mutant proteins localized properly but did not mediate Prm3p recruitment; other kar5 mutant proteins localized and recruited Prm3p but were nevertheless defective for nuclear fusion, demonstrating additional functions beyond Prm3p recruitment. We identified one Kar5p domain required for SPB localization, which is dependent on the half-bridge protein Mps3p. Electron microscopy revealed a kar5 mutant that arrests with expanded nuclear envelope bridges, suggesting that Kar5p is required after outer nuclear envelope fusion. Finally, a split-GFP assay demonstrated that Kar5p localizes to both the inner and outer nuclear envelope. These insights suggest a mechanism by which Kar5p mediates inner nuclear membrane fusion. PMID:25467943

Revisions to the JDL data fusion model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Steinberg, Alan N.; Bowman, Christopher L.; White, Franklin E.

1999-03-01

The Data Fusion Model maintained by the Joint Directors of Laboratories (JDL) Data Fusion Group is the most widely-used method for categorizing data fusion-related functions. This paper discusses the current effort to revise the expand this model to facilitate the cost-effective development, acquisition, integration and operation of multi- sensor/multi-source systems. Data fusion involves combining information - in the broadest sense - to estimate or predict the state of some aspect of the universe. These may be represented in terms of attributive and relational states. If the job is to estimate the state of a people, it can be useful to include consideration of informational and perceptual states in addition to the physical state. Developing cost-effective multi-source information systems requires a method for specifying data fusion processing and control functions, interfaces, and associate databases. The lack of common engineering standards for data fusion systems has been a major impediment to integration and re-use of available technology: current developments do not lend themselves to objective evaluation, comparison or re-use. This paper reports on proposed revisions and expansions of the JDL Data FUsion model to remedy some of these deficiencies. This involves broadening the functional model and related taxonomy beyond the original military focus, and integrating the Data Fusion Tree Architecture model for system description, design and development.

Conservation of proteo-lipid nuclear membrane fusion machinery during early embryogenesis.

PubMed

Byrne, Richard D; Veeriah, Selvaraju; Applebee, Christopher J; Larijani, Banafshé

2014-01-01

The fusogenic lipid diacylglycerol is essential for remodeling gamete and zygote nuclear envelopes (NE) during early embryogenesis. It is unclear whether upstream signaling molecules are likewise conserved. Here we demonstrate PLCγ and its activator SFK1, which co-operate during male pronuclear envelope formation, also promote the subsequent male and female pronuclear fusion. PLCγ and SFK1 interact directly at the fusion site leading to PLCγ activation. This is accompanied by a spatially restricted reduction of PtdIns(4,5)P2. Consequently, pronuclear fusion is blocked by PLCγ or SFK1 inhibition. These findings identify new regulators of events in the early embryo and suggest a conserved "toolkit" of fusion machinery drives successive NE fusion events during embryogenesis.

An effect of nuclear electric quadrupole moments in thermonuclear fusion plasmas

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

De, B. R.; Srnka, L. J.

1978-01-01

Consideration of the nuclear electric quadrupole terms in the expression for the fusion Coulomb barrier suggests that this electrostatic barrier may be substantially modified from that calculated under the usual plasma assumption that the nuclei are electric monopoles. This effect is a result of the nonspherical potential shape and the spatial quantization of the nuclear spins of the fully stripped ions in the presence of a magnetic field. For monopole-quadrupole fuel cycles like p-B-11, the fusion cross-section may be substantially increased at low energies if the protons are injected at a small angle relative to the confining magnetic field.

Inhibition of CRM1-mediated nuclear export of transcription factors by leukemogenic NUP98 fusion proteins.

PubMed

Takeda, Akiko; Sarma, Nayan J; Abdul-Nabi, Anmaar M; Yaseen, Nabeel R

2010-05-21

NUP98 is a nucleoporin that plays complex roles in the nucleocytoplasmic trafficking of macromolecules. Rearrangements of the NUP98 gene in human leukemia result in the expression of numerous fusion oncoproteins whose effect on nucleocytoplasmic trafficking is poorly understood. The present study was undertaken to determine the effects of leukemogenic NUP98 fusion proteins on CRM1-mediated nuclear export. NUP98-HOXA9, a prototypic NUP98 fusion, inhibited the nuclear export of two known CRM1 substrates: mutated cytoplasmic nucleophosmin and HIV-1 Rev. In vitro binding assays revealed that NUP98-HOXA9 binds CRM1 through the FG repeat motif in a Ran-GTP-dependent manner similar to but stronger than the interaction between CRM1 and its export substrates. Two NUP98 fusions, NUP98-HOXA9 and NUP98-DDX10, whose fusion partners are structurally and functionally unrelated, interacted with endogenous CRM1 in myeloid cells as shown by co-immunoprecipitation. These leukemogenic NUP98 fusion proteins interacted with CRM1, Ran, and the nucleoporin NUP214 in a manner fundamentally different from that of wild-type NUP98. NUP98-HOXA9 and NUP98-DDX10 formed characteristic aggregates within the nuclei of a myeloid cell line and primary human CD34+ cells and caused aberrant localization of CRM1 to these aggregates. These NUP98 fusions caused nuclear accumulation of two transcription factors, NFAT and NFkappaB, that are regulated by CRM1-mediated export. The nuclear entrapment of NFAT and NFkappaB correlated with enhanced transcription from promoters responsive to these transcription factors. Taken together, the results suggest a new mechanism by which NUP98 fusions dysregulate transcription and cause leukemia, namely, inhibition of CRM1-mediated nuclear export with aberrant nuclear retention of transcriptional regulators.

Comparison of electro-fusion and intracytoplasmic nuclear injection methods in pig cloning.

PubMed

Kurome, Mayuko; Fujimura, Tatsuya; Murakami, Hiroshi; Takahagi, Yoichi; Wako, Naohiro; Ochiai, Takashi; Miyazaki, Koji; Nagashima, Hiroshi

2003-01-01

This paper methodologically compares the electro-fusion (EF) and intracytoplasmic injection (ICI) methods, as well as simultaneous fusion/activation (SA) and delayed activation (DA), in somatic nuclear transfer in pigs using fetal fibroblast cells. Comparison of the remodeling pattern of donor nuclei after nuclear transfer by ICI or EF showed that a high rate (80-100%) of premature chromosome condensation occurred in both cases whether or not Ca2+ was present in the fusion medium. Formation of pseudo-pronuclei tended to be lower for nuclear transfer performed by the ICI method (65% vs. 85-97%, p < 0.05). In vitro developmental potential of nuclear transfer embryos reconstructed with IVM oocytes using the EF method was higher than that of those produced by the ICI method (blastocyst formation: 19 vs. 5%, p < 0.05), and it was not improved using in vivo-matured oocytes as recipient cytoplasts. Embryos produced using SA protocol developed to blastocysts with the same degree of efficiency as those produced under the DA protocol (11 vs. 12%). Use of the EF method in conjunction with SA was shown to be an efficient method for producing cloned pigs based on producing a cloned normal pig fetus. However, subtle differences in nuclear remodeling patterns between the SA and DA protocols may imply variations in their nuclear reprogramming efficiency.

Feasibility study on sensor data fusion for the CP-140 aircraft: fusion architecture analyses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shahbazian, Elisa

1995-09-01

Loral Canada completed (May 1995) a Department of National Defense (DND) Chief of Research and Development (CRAD) contract, to study the feasibility of implementing a multi- sensor data fusion (MSDF) system onboard the CP-140 Aurora aircraft. This system is expected to fuse data from: (a) attributed measurement oriented sensors (ESM, IFF, etc.); (b) imaging sensors (FLIR, SAR, etc.); (c) tracking sensors (radar, acoustics, etc.); (d) data from remote platforms (data links); and (e) non-sensor data (intelligence reports, environmental data, visual sightings, encyclopedic data, etc.). Based on purely theoretical considerations a central-level fusion architecture will lead to a higher performance fusion system. However, there are a number of systems and fusion architecture issues involving fusion of such dissimilar data: (1) the currently existing sensors are not designed to provide the type of data required by a fusion system; (2) the different types (attribute, imaging, tracking, etc.) of data may require different degree of processing, before they can be used within a fusion system efficiently; (3) the data quality from different sensors, and more importantly from remote platforms via the data links must be taken into account before fusing; and (4) the non-sensor data may impose specific requirements on the fusion architecture (e.g. variable weight/priority for the data from different sensors). This paper presents the analyses performed for the selection of the fusion architecture for the enhanced sensor suite planned for the CP-140 aircraft in the context of the mission requirements and environmental conditions.

Copper benchmark experiment for the testing of JEFF-3.2 nuclear data for fusion applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Angelone, M.; Flammini, D.; Loreti, S.; Moro, F.; Pillon, M.; Villar, R.; Klix, A.; Fischer, U.; Kodeli, I.; Perel, R. L.; Pohorecky, W.

2017-09-01

A neutronics benchmark experiment on a pure Copper block (dimensions 60 × 70 × 70 cm3) aimed at testing and validating the recent nuclear data libraries for fusion applications was performed in the frame of the European Fusion Program at the 14 MeV ENEA Frascati Neutron Generator (FNG). Reaction rates, neutron flux spectra and doses were measured using different experimental techniques (e.g. activation foils techniques, NE213 scintillator and thermoluminescent detectors). This paper first summarizes the analyses of the experiment carried-out using the MCNP5 Monte Carlo code and the European JEFF-3.2 library. Large discrepancies between calculation (C) and experiment (E) were found for the reaction rates both in the high and low neutron energy range. The analysis was complemented by sensitivity/uncertainty analyses (S/U) using the deterministic and Monte Carlo SUSD3D and MCSEN codes, respectively. The S/U analyses enabled to identify the cross sections and energy ranges which are mostly affecting the calculated responses. The largest discrepancy among the C/E values was observed for the thermal (capture) reactions indicating severe deficiencies in the 63,65Cu capture and elastic cross sections at lower rather than at high energy. Deterministic and MC codes produced similar results. The 14 MeV copper experiment and its analysis thus calls for a revision of the JEFF-3.2 copper cross section and covariance data evaluation. A new analysis of the experiment was performed with the MCNP5 code using the revised JEFF-3.3-T2 library released by NEA and a new, not yet distributed, revised JEFF-3.2 Cu evaluation produced by KIT. A noticeable improvement of the C/E results was obtained with both new libraries.

IAEA Nuclear Data Section: provision of atomic and nuclear databases for user applications.

PubMed

Humbert, Denis P; Nichols, Alan L; Schwerer, Otto

2004-01-01

The Nuclear Data Section (NDS) of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) provides a wide range of atomic and nuclear data services to scientists worldwide, with particular emphasis placed on the needs of developing countries. Highly focused Co-ordinated Research Projects and multinational data networks are sponsored under the auspices of the IAEA for the development and assembly of databases through the organised participation of specialists from Member States. More than 100 data libraries are readily available cost-free through the Internet, CD-ROM and other media. These databases are used in a wide range of applications, including fission- and fusion-energy, non-energy applications and basic research studies. Further information concerning the various services can be found through the web address of the IAEA Nuclear Data Section: and a mirror site at IPEN, Brazil that is maintained by NDS staff:.

Quark-level analogue of nuclear fusion with doubly heavy baryons.

PubMed

Karliner, Marek; Rosner, Jonathan L

2017-11-01

The essence of nuclear fusion is that energy can be released by the rearrangement of nucleons between the initial- and final-state nuclei. The recent discovery of the first doubly charmed baryon , which contains two charm quarks (c) and one up quark (u) and has a mass of about 3,621 megaelectronvolts (MeV) (the mass of the proton is 938 MeV) also revealed a large binding energy of about 130 MeV between the two charm quarks. Here we report that this strong binding enables a quark-rearrangement, exothermic reaction in which two heavy baryons (Λ c ) undergo fusion to produce the doubly charmed baryon and a neutron n (), resulting in an energy release of 12 MeV. This reaction is a quark-level analogue of the deuterium-tritium nuclear fusion reaction (DT → 4 He n). The much larger binding energy (approximately 280 MeV) between two bottom quarks (b) causes the analogous reaction with bottom quarks () to have a much larger energy release of about 138 MeV. We suggest some experimental setups in which the highly exothermic nature of the fusion of two heavy-quark baryons might manifest itself. At present, however, the very short lifetimes of the heavy bottom and charm quarks preclude any practical applications of such reactions.

Quark-level analogue of nuclear fusion with doubly heavy baryons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karliner, Marek; Rosner, Jonathan L.

2017-11-01

The essence of nuclear fusion is that energy can be released by the rearrangement of nucleons between the initial- and final-state nuclei. The recent discovery of the first doubly charmed baryon , which contains two charm quarks (c) and one up quark (u) and has a mass of about 3,621 megaelectronvolts (MeV) (the mass of the proton is 938 MeV) also revealed a large binding energy of about 130 MeV between the two charm quarks. Here we report that this strong binding enables a quark-rearrangement, exothermic reaction in which two heavy baryons (Λc) undergo fusion to produce the doubly charmed baryon and a neutron n (), resulting in an energy release of 12 MeV. This reaction is a quark-level analogue of the deuterium-tritium nuclear fusion reaction (DT → 4He n). The much larger binding energy (approximately 280 MeV) between two bottom quarks (b) causes the analogous reaction with bottom quarks () to have a much larger energy release of about 138 MeV. We suggest some experimental setups in which the highly exothermic nature of the fusion of two heavy-quark baryons might manifest itself. At present, however, the very short lifetimes of the heavy bottom and charm quarks preclude any practical applications of such reactions.

Cell fusion through a microslit between adhered cells and observation of their nuclear behavior.

PubMed

Wada, Ken-Ichi; Hosokawa, Kazuo; Kondo, Eitaro; Ito, Yoshihiro; Maeda, Mizuo

2014-07-01

This paper describes a novel cell fusion method which induces cell fusion between adhered cells through a microslit for preventing nuclear mixing. For this purpose, a microfluidic device which had ∼ 100 cell pairing structures (CPSs) making cell pairs through microslits with 2.1 ± 0.3 µm width was fabricated. After trapping NIH3T3 cells with hydrodynamic forces at the CPSs, the cells were fused through the microslit by the Sendai virus envelope method. With following timelapse observation, we discovered that the spread cells were much less susceptible to nuclear migration passing through the microslit compared with round cells, and that cytoplasmic fraction containing mitochondria was transferred through the microslit without nuclear mixing. These findings will provide an effective method for cell fusion without nuclear mixing, and will lead to an efficient method for reprograming and transdifferentiation of target cells toward regenerative medicine. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Information Fusion of Conflicting Input Data.

PubMed

Mönks, Uwe; Dörksen, Helene; Lohweg, Volker; Hübner, Michael

2016-10-29

Sensors, and also actuators or external sources such as databases, serve as data sources in order to realise condition monitoring of industrial applications or the acquisition of characteristic parameters like production speed or reject rate. Modern facilities create such a large amount of complex data that a machine operator is unable to comprehend and process the information contained in the data. Thus, information fusion mechanisms gain increasing importance. Besides the management of large amounts of data, further challenges towards the fusion algorithms arise from epistemic uncertainties (incomplete knowledge) in the input signals as well as conflicts between them. These aspects must be considered during information processing to obtain reliable results, which are in accordance with the real world. The analysis of the scientific state of the art shows that current solutions fulfil said requirements at most only partly. This article proposes the multilayered information fusion system MACRO (multilayer attribute-based conflict-reducing observation) employing the μ BalTLCS (fuzzified balanced two-layer conflict solving) fusion algorithm to reduce the impact of conflicts on the fusion result. The performance of the contribution is shown by its evaluation in the scope of a machine condition monitoring application under laboratory conditions. Here, the MACRO system yields the best results compared to state-of-the-art fusion mechanisms. The utilised data is published and freely accessible.

Information Fusion of Conflicting Input Data

PubMed Central

Mönks, Uwe; Dörksen, Helene; Lohweg, Volker; Hübner, Michael

2016-01-01

Sensors, and also actuators or external sources such as databases, serve as data sources in order to realise condition monitoring of industrial applications or the acquisition of characteristic parameters like production speed or reject rate. Modern facilities create such a large amount of complex data that a machine operator is unable to comprehend and process the information contained in the data. Thus, information fusion mechanisms gain increasing importance. Besides the management of large amounts of data, further challenges towards the fusion algorithms arise from epistemic uncertainties (incomplete knowledge) in the input signals as well as conflicts between them. These aspects must be considered during information processing to obtain reliable results, which are in accordance with the real world. The analysis of the scientific state of the art shows that current solutions fulfil said requirements at most only partly. This article proposes the multilayered information fusion system MACRO (multilayer attribute-based conflict-reducing observation) employing the μBalTLCS (fuzzified balanced two-layer conflict solving) fusion algorithm to reduce the impact of conflicts on the fusion result. The performance of the contribution is shown by its evaluation in the scope of a machine condition monitoring application under laboratory conditions. Here, the MACRO system yields the best results compared to state-of-the-art fusion mechanisms. The utilised data is published and freely accessible. PMID:27801874

The Terra Data Fusion Project: An Update

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Di Girolamo, L.; Bansal, S.; Butler, M.; Fu, D.; Gao, Y.; Lee, H. J.; Liu, Y.; Lo, Y. L.; Raila, D.; Turner, K.; Towns, J.; Wang, S. W.; Yang, K.; Zhao, G.

2017-12-01

Terra is the flagship of NASA's Earth Observing System. Launched in 1999, Terra's five instruments continue to gather data that enable scientists to address fundamental Earth science questions. By design, the strength of the Terra mission has always been rooted in its five instruments and the ability to fuse the instrument data together for obtaining greater quality of information for Earth Science compared to individual instruments alone. As the data volume grows and the central Earth Science questions move towards problems requiring decadal-scale data records, the need for data fusion and the ability for scientists to perform large-scale analytics with long records have never been greater. The challenge is particularly acute for Terra, given its growing volume of data (> 1 petabyte), the storage of different instrument data at different archive centers, the different file formats and projection systems employed for different instrument data, and the inadequate cyberinfrastructure for scientists to access and process whole-mission fusion data (including Level 1 data). Sharing newly derived Terra products with the rest of the world also poses challenges. As such, the Terra Data Fusion Project aims to resolve two long-standing problems: 1) How do we efficiently generate and deliver Terra data fusion products? 2) How do we facilitate the use of Terra data fusion products by the community in generating new products and knowledge through national computing facilities, and disseminate these new products and knowledge through national data sharing services? Here, we will provide an update on significant progress made in addressing these problems by working with NASA and leveraging national facilities managed by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). The problems that we faced in deriving and delivering Terra L1B2 basic, reprojected and cloud-element fusion products, such as data transfer, data fusion, processing on different computer architectures

Is Deuterium Nuclear Fusion Catalyzed by Antineutrinos?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shomer, Isaac

2010-02-01

The hypothesis of Fischbach and Jenkins that neutrinos emitted from the sun accelerate radioactive decay is noted. It is thought that neutrinos accelerate beta decay by reacting with neutron-rich nuclides to form a beta particle and a daughter product, with no antineutrino emitted. Conversely, it is proposed that antineutrinos can react with proton-rich nuclides to cause positron decay, with no neutrino emitted. It is also proposed that the nuclear fusion of the hydrogen bomb is triggered not only by the energy of the igniting fission bomb, but by the antineutrinos created by the rapid beta decay of the daughter products in the fission process. The contemplated mechanism for antineutrino initiated fusion is the following: 1. The antineutrinos from the fission daughter products cause positron decay of deuterium by the process outlined above. 2. In a later fusion step, these positrons subsequently react with neutrons in deuterium to create antineutrinos. Electrons are unavailable to annihilate positrons in the plasma of the hydrogen bomb. 3. These antineutrinos thereafter react with more deuterium to form positrons, thereby propagating a chain reaction. )

Influence of nuclear data uncertainties on thorium fusion-fission hybrid blanket nucleonic performance

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cheng, E.T.; Mathews, D.R.

1979-09-01

The fusion-fission hybrid blanket proposed for the Tandem Mirror Hybrid Reactor employs thorium metal as the fertile material. Based on the ENDF/B-IV nuclear data, the /sup 233/U and tritium production rate and blanket energy multiplication averaged over the blanket lifetime of about 9 MW-yr/m/sup 2/ are 0.76 and 1.12 per D-T neutron and 4.8, respectively. At the time of the blanket discharge, the /sup 233/U enrichment in the thorium metal is about 3%. The thorium cross sections given by the ENDF/B-IV and V were reviewed, and the important partial cross sections such as (n,2n), (n,3n), and (n,..gamma..) were found tomore » be known to +-10 to 20% in the respective energy range of interest. A sensitivity study showed that the /sup 233/U and tritium production rate and blanket energy multiplication are relatively sensitive to the thorium capture and fission cross section uncertainties. In order to predict the above parameters within +-1%, the Th(n,..gamma..) and Th(n,..nu..f) cross sections must be measured within about +-2% in the energy range 3 to 3000 keV and 13.5 to 15 MeV, respectively.« less

Magnet Design Considerations for Fusion Nuclear Science Facility

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhai, Y.; Kessel, C.; El-Guebaly, L.

2016-06-01

The Fusion Nuclear Science Facility (FNSF) is a nuclear confinement facility that provides a fusion environment with components of the reactor integrated together to bridge the technical gaps of burning plasma and nuclear science between the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) and the demonstration power plant (DEMO). Compared with ITER, the FNSF is smaller in size but generates much higher magnetic field, i.e., 30 times higher neutron fluence with three orders of magnitude longer plasma operation at higher operating temperatures for structures surrounding the plasma. Input parameters to the magnet design from system code analysis include magnetic field of 7.5more » T at the plasma center with a plasma major radius of 4.8 m and a minor radius of 1.2 m and a peak field of 15.5 T on the toroidal field (TF) coils for the FNSF. Both low-temperature superconductors (LTS) and high-temperature superconductors (HTS) are considered for the FNSF magnet design based on the state-of-the-art fusion magnet technology. The higher magnetic field can be achieved by using the high-performance ternary restacked-rod process Nb3Sn strands for TF magnets. The circular cable-in-conduit conductor (CICC) design similar to ITER magnets and a high-aspect-ratio rectangular CICC design are evaluated for FNSF magnets, but low-activation-jacket materials may need to be selected. The conductor design concept and TF coil winding pack composition and dimension based on the horizontal maintenance schemes are discussed. Neutron radiation limits for the LTS and HTS superconductors and electrical insulation materials are also reviewed based on the available materials previously tested. The material radiation limits for FNSF magnets are defined as part of the conceptual design studies for FNSF magnets.« less

Magnet design considerations for Fusion Nuclear Science Facility

DOE PAGES

Zhai, Yuhu; Kessel, Chuck; El-guebaly, Laila; ...

2016-02-25

The Fusion Nuclear Science Facility (FNSF) is a nuclear confinement facility to provide a fusion environment with components of the reactor integrated together to bridge the technical gaps of burning plasma and nuclear science between ITER and the demonstration power plant (DEMO). Compared to ITER, the FNSF is smaller in size but generates much higher magnetic field, 30 times higher neutron fluence with 3 orders of magnitude longer plasma operation at higher operating temperatures for structures surrounding the plasma. Input parameters to the magnet design from system code analysis include magnetic field of 7.5 T at the plasma center withmore » plasma major radius of 4.8 m and minor radius of 1.2 m, and a peak field of 15.5 T on the TF coils for FNSF. Both low temperature superconductor (LTS) and high temperature superconductor (HTS) are considered for the FNSF magnet design based on the state-of-the-art fusion magnet technology. The higher magnetic field can be achieved by using the high performance ternary Restack Rod Process (RRP) Nb3Sn strands for toroidal field (TF) magnets. The circular cable-in-conduit conductor (CICC) design similar to ITER magnets and a high aspect ratio rectangular CICC design are evaluated for FNSF magnets but low activation jacket materials may need to be selected. The conductor design concept and TF coil winding pack composition and dimension based on the horizontal maintenance schemes are discussed. Neutron radiation limits for the LTS and HTS superconductors and electrical insulation materials are also reviewed based on the available materials previously tested. As a result, the material radiation limits for FNSF magnets are defined as part of the conceptual design studies for FNSF magnets.« less

Nuclear fusion of advanced fuels using converging focused ion beams

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Egle, Brian James

The Six Ion Gun Fusion Experiment (SIGFE) was designed and built to investigate a possible avenue to increase the reaction rate efficiency of the D-D and D-3He nuclear fusion reactions in Inertial Electrostatic Confinement (IEC) devices to the levels required for several non-electric applications of nuclear fusion. The SIGFE is based on the seminal IEC experiment published by Hirsch in 1967, and is the first experiment to recreate the results and unique features of the Hirsch device. The SIGFE used six identical ion beams to focus and converge deuterium and helium-3 ions into a sphere of less than 2 mm at nearly mono-energetic ion energies up to 150 keV. With improved ion optics and diagnostics, the SIGFE concluded that within the investigated parameter space, the region where the ion beams converged accounted for less than 0.2% of the total D-D fusion reactions. The maximum D-D fusion rates were observed when the ion beams were intentionally defocused to strike the inside surface of the cathode lenses. In this defocused state, the total D-D fusion rate increased when the chamber pressure was decreased. The maximum D-D fusion rate was 4.3 x 107 neutrons per second at a cathode voltage of -130 kV, a total cathode current of 10 mA, and a chamber pressure of 27 mPa. The D and 3He ion beams were produced in six self-contained ion gun modules. The modules were each capable of at least 4 mA of ion current while maintaining a main chamber pressure as low as 13 mPa. The theoretically calculated extractable ion current agreed with the experiment within a factor of 2. A concept was also developed and evaluated for the production of radioisotopes from the 14.7 MeV D-3He fusion protons produced in an IEC device. Monte Carlo simulations of this concept determined that a D-3He fusion rate on the order of 1011 s-1 would be required for an IEC device to produce 1 mCi of the 11C radioisotope.

Realizing "2001: A Space Odyssey": Piloted Spherical Torus Nuclear Fusion Propulsion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Williams, Craig H.; Dudzinski, Leonard A.; Borowski, Stanley K.; Juhasz, Albert J.

2005-01-01

A conceptual vehicle design enabling fast, piloted outer solar system travel was created predicated on a small aspect ratio spherical torus nuclear fusion reactor. The initial requirements were satisfied by the vehicle concept, which could deliver a 172 mt crew payload from Earth to Jupiter rendezvous in 118 days, with an initial mass in low Earth orbit of 1,690 mt. Engineering conceptual design, analysis, and assessment was performed on all major systems including artificial gravity payload, central truss, nuclear fusion reactor, power conversion, magnetic nozzle, fast wave plasma heating, tankage, fuel pellet injector, startup/re-start fission reactor and battery bank, refrigeration, reaction control, communications, mission design, and space operations. Detailed fusion reactor design included analysis of plasma characteristics, power balance/utilization, first wall, toroidal field coils, heat transfer, and neutron/x-ray radiation. Technical comparisons are made between the vehicle concept and the interplanetary spacecraft depicted in the motion picture 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Application of Recommended Design Practices for Conceptual Nuclear Fusion Space Propulsion Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Williams, Craig H.

2004-01-01

An AIAA Special Project Report was recently produced by AIAA's Nuclear and Future Flight Propulsion Technical Committee and is currently in peer review. The Report provides recommended design practices for conceptual engineering studies of nuclear fusion space propulsion systems. Discussion and recommendations are made on key topics including design reference missions, degree of technological extrapolation and concomitant risk, thoroughness in calculating mass properties (nominal mass properties, weight-growth contingency and propellant margins, and specific impulse), and thoroughness in calculating power generation and usage (power-flow, power contingencies, specific power). The report represents a general consensus of the nuclear fusion space propulsion system conceptual design community and proposes 15 recommendations. This paper expands on the Report by providing specific examples illustrating how to apply each of the recommendations.

Outer nuclear membrane fusion of adjacent nuclei in varicella-zoster virus-induced syncytia.

PubMed

Wang, Wei; Yang, Lianwei; Huang, Xiumin; Fu, Wenkun; Pan, Dequan; Cai, Linli; Ye, Jianghui; Liu, Jian; Xia, Ningshao; Cheng, Tong; Zhu, Hua

2017-12-01

Syncytia formation has been considered important for cell-to-cell spread and pathogenesis of many viruses. As a syncytium forms, individual nuclei often congregate together, allowing close contact of nuclear membranes and possibly fusion to occur. However, there is currently no reported evidence of nuclear membrane fusion between adjacent nuclei in wild-type virus-induced syncytia. Varicella-zoster virus (VZV) is one typical syncytia-inducing virus that causes chickenpox and shingles in humans. Here, we report, for the first time, an interesting observation of apparent fusion of the outer nuclear membranes from juxtaposed nuclei that comprise VZV syncytia both in ARPE-19 human epithelial cells in vitro and in human skin xenografts in the SCID-hu mouse model in vivo. This work reveals a novel aspect of VZV-related cytopathic effect in the context of multinucleated syncytia. Additionally, the information provided by this study could be helpful for future studies on interactions of viruses with host cell nuclei. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Nuclear congression and membrane fusion: two distinct events in the yeast karyogamy pathway

PubMed Central

1994-01-01

Karyogamy is the process where haploid nuclei fuse to form a diploid nucleus during yeast mating. We devised a novel genetic screen that identified five new karyogamy (KAR) genes and three new cell fusion (FUS) genes. The kar mutants fell into two classes that represent distinct events in the yeast karyogamy pathway. Class I mutations blocked congression of the nuclei due to cytoplasmic microtubule defects. In Class II mutants, nuclear congression proceeded and the membranes of apposed nuclei were closely aligned but unfused. In vitro, Class II mutant membranes were defective in a homotypic ER/nuclear membrane fusion assay. We propose that Class II mutants define components of a novel membrane fusion complex which functions during vegetative growth and is recruited for karyogamy. PMID:8051211

Color-coded Live Imaging of Heterokaryon Formation and Nuclear Fusion of Hybridizing Cancer Cells.

PubMed

Suetsugu, Atsushi; Matsumoto, Takuro; Hasegawa, Kosuke; Nakamura, Miki; Kunisada, Takahiro; Shimizu, Masahito; Saji, Shigetoyo; Moriwaki, Hisataka; Bouvet, Michael; Hoffman, Robert M

2016-08-01

Fusion of cancer cells has been studied for over half a century. However, the steps involved after initial fusion between cells, such as heterokaryon formation and nuclear fusion, have been difficult to observe in real time. In order to be able to visualize these steps, we have established cancer-cell sublines from the human HT-1080 fibrosarcoma, one expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP) linked to histone H2B in the nucleus and a red fluorescent protein (RFP) in the cytoplasm and the other subline expressing RFP in the nucleus (mCherry) linked to histone H2B and GFP in the cytoplasm. The two reciprocal color-coded sublines of HT-1080 cells were fused using the Sendai virus. The fused cells were cultured on plastic and observed using an Olympus FV1000 confocal microscope. Multi-nucleate (heterokaryotic) cancer cells, in addition to hybrid cancer cells with single-or multiple-fused nuclei, including fused mitotic nuclei, were observed among the fused cells. Heterokaryons with red, green, orange and yellow nuclei were observed by confocal imaging, even in single hybrid cells. The orange and yellow nuclei indicate nuclear fusion. Red and green nuclei remained unfused. Cell fusion with heterokaryon formation and subsequent nuclear fusion resulting in hybridization may be an important natural phenomenon between cancer cells that may make them more malignant. The ability to image the complex processes following cell fusion using reciprocal color-coded cancer cells will allow greater understanding of the genetic basis of malignancy. Copyright© 2016 International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. John G. Delinassios), All rights reserved.

Event and Pulse Node Hardware Design for Nuclear Fusion Experiments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fortunato, J. C.; Batista, A.; Sousa, J.; Fernandes, H.; Varandas, C. A. F.

2008-04-01

This article presents an event and pulse node hardware module (EPN) developed for use in control and data acquisition (CODAC) in current and upcoming long discharges nuclear fusion experiments. Its purpose is to allow real time event management and trigger distribution. The use of a mixture of digital signal processing and field programmable gate arrays, with fiber optic channels for event broadcast between CODAC nodes, and short length paths between the EPN and CODAC hardware, allows an effective and low latency communication path. This hardware will be integrated in the ISTTOK CODAC to allow long AC plasma discharges.

Distributed Multisensor Data Fusion under Unknown Correlation and Data Inconsistency

PubMed Central

Abu Bakr, Muhammad; Lee, Sukhan

2017-01-01

The paradigm of multisensor data fusion has been evolved from a centralized architecture to a decentralized or distributed architecture along with the advancement in sensor and communication technologies. These days, distributed state estimation and data fusion has been widely explored in diverse fields of engineering and control due to its superior performance over the centralized one in terms of flexibility, robustness to failure and cost effectiveness in infrastructure and communication. However, distributed multisensor data fusion is not without technical challenges to overcome: namely, dealing with cross-correlation and inconsistency among state estimates and sensor data. In this paper, we review the key theories and methodologies of distributed multisensor data fusion available to date with a specific focus on handling unknown correlation and data inconsistency. We aim at providing readers with a unifying view out of individual theories and methodologies by presenting a formal analysis of their implications. Finally, several directions of future research are highlighted. PMID:29077035

Thermonuclear plasma with autocatalytic thermomagnetic current amplification by nuclear reactions from fusion neutrons

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Winterberg, F.

2006-03-15

It is proposed to use the neutrons released from a deuterium-tritium or deuterium-deuterium fusion reaction to drive thermomagnetic currents in a plasma corona surrounding the fusion plasma through the heating of the corona with nuclear reactions by the neutrons released in the fusion reaction. Because the neutron reaction cross sections are larger for slow neutrons, it is proposed to slow them down in a moderator separated from the hot plasma of the corona, giving the configuration a striking similarity to a heterogeneous nuclear fission reactor. While in a fission reactor the separation makes possible a growing neutron chain reaction, itmore » here makes possible the autocatalytic amplification of the thermomagnetic currents by an increase of the fusion reaction rate through a rise of the plasma pressure by the magnetic pressure of the thermomagnetic currents. This is expected to substantially increase the n{tau} product over its Lawson value.« less

Performance analysis of fusion nuclear-data benchmark experiments for light to heavy materials in MeV energy region with a neutron spectrum shifter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murata, Isao; Ohta, Masayuki; Miyamaru, Hiroyuki; Kondo, Keitaro; Yoshida, Shigeo; Iida, Toshiyuki; Ochiai, Kentaro; Konno, Chikara

2011-10-01

Nuclear data are indispensable for development of fusion reactor candidate materials. However, benchmarking of the nuclear data in MeV energy region is not yet adequate. In the present study, benchmark performance in the MeV energy region was investigated theoretically for experiments by using a 14 MeV neutron source. We carried out a systematical analysis for light to heavy materials. As a result, the benchmark performance for the neutron spectrum was confirmed to be acceptable, while for gamma-rays it was not sufficiently accurate. Consequently, a spectrum shifter has to be applied. Beryllium had the best performance as a shifter. Moreover, a preliminary examination of whether it is really acceptable that only the spectrum before the last collision is considered in the benchmark performance analysis. It was pointed out that not only the last collision but also earlier collisions should be considered equally in the benchmark performance analysis.

Application of Advanced Nuclear Emulsion Technique to Fusion Neutron Diagnostics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nakayama, Y.; Tomita, H.; Morishima, K.; Yamashita, F.; Hayashi, S.; Cheon, MunSeong; Isobe, M.; Ogawa, K.; Naka, T.; Nakano, T.; Nakamura, M.; Kawarabayashi, J.; Iguchi, T.; Ochiai, K.

In order to measure the 2.5 MeV neutrons produced by DD nuclear fusion reactions, we have developed a compact neutron detector based on nuclear emulsion. After optimization of development conditions, we evaluated the response of the detector to an accelerator-based DD neutron source. The absolute efficiency at an energy of 2.5 MeV was estimated to be (4.1±0.2)×10-6 tracks/neutron.

Seismic data fusion anomaly detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harrity, Kyle; Blasch, Erik; Alford, Mark; Ezekiel, Soundararajan; Ferris, David

2014-06-01

Detecting anomalies in non-stationary signals has valuable applications in many fields including medicine and meteorology. These include uses such as identifying possible heart conditions from an Electrocardiography (ECG) signals or predicting earthquakes via seismographic data. Over the many choices of anomaly detection algorithms, it is important to compare possible methods. In this paper, we examine and compare two approaches to anomaly detection and see how data fusion methods may improve performance. The first approach involves using an artificial neural network (ANN) to detect anomalies in a wavelet de-noised signal. The other method uses a perspective neural network (PNN) to analyze an arbitrary number of "perspectives" or transformations of the observed signal for anomalies. Possible perspectives may include wavelet de-noising, Fourier transform, peak-filtering, etc.. In order to evaluate these techniques via signal fusion metrics, we must apply signal preprocessing techniques such as de-noising methods to the original signal and then use a neural network to find anomalies in the generated signal. From this secondary result it is possible to use data fusion techniques that can be evaluated via existing data fusion metrics for single and multiple perspectives. The result will show which anomaly detection method, according to the metrics, is better suited overall for anomaly detection applications. The method used in this study could be applied to compare other signal processing algorithms.

EFFECTS OF NUCLEAR INDUCED BREAKUP ON THE FUSION OF 6Li+12C AND 6He+12C SYSTEMS AROUND BARRIER ENERGIES

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Duhan, Sukhvinder S.; Singh, Manjeet; Kharab, Rajesh

2012-06-01

We have studied the effects of nuclear induced breakup channel coupling on the fusion cross-section for 6Li+12C and 6He+12C systems in the near barrier energy regime using the dynamic polarization potential (DPP) approach. It has been found that there is enhancement in the fusion cross-section with respect to standard one-dimensional barrier penetration model in the below barrier energy regime while at energies above the barrier there is suppression of fusion cross-section with respect to simple barrier penetration model is observed. The agreement between data and predictions for 6Li+12C system improves significantly as a result of the inclusion of nuclear induced DPP.

A visual analytic framework for data fusion in investigative intelligence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cai, Guoray; Gross, Geoff; Llinas, James; Hall, David

2014-05-01

Intelligence analysis depends on data fusion systems to provide capabilities of detecting and tracking important objects, events, and their relationships in connection to an analytical situation. However, automated data fusion technologies are not mature enough to offer reliable and trustworthy information for situation awareness. Given the trend of increasing sophistication of data fusion algorithms and loss of transparency in data fusion process, analysts are left out of the data fusion process cycle with little to no control and confidence on the data fusion outcome. Following the recent rethinking of data fusion as human-centered process, this paper proposes a conceptual framework towards developing alternative data fusion architecture. This idea is inspired by the recent advances in our understanding of human cognitive systems, the science of visual analytics, and the latest thinking about human-centered data fusion. Our conceptual framework is supported by an analysis of the limitation of existing fully automated data fusion systems where the effectiveness of important algorithmic decisions depend on the availability of expert knowledge or the knowledge of the analyst's mental state in an investigation. The success of this effort will result in next generation data fusion systems that can be better trusted while maintaining high throughput.

Nuclear Fusion Rate Study of a Muonic Molecule via Nuclear Threshold Resonances

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Faghihi, F.; Eskandari, M. R.

This work follows our previous calculations of the ground state binding energy, size, and the effective nuclear charge of the muonic T3 molecule, using the Born-Oppenheimer adiabatic approximation. In our past articles, we showed that the system possesses two minimum positions, the first one at the muonic distance and the second at the atomic distance. Also, the symmetric planner vibrational model assumed between the two minima and the approximated potential were calculated. Following from the previous studies, we now calculate the fusion rate of the T3 muonic molecule according to the overlap integral of the resonance nuclear compound nucleus and the molecular wave functions.

The Sustainable Nuclear Future: Fission and Fusion E.M. Campbell Logos Technologies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Campbell, E. Michael

2010-02-01

Global industrialization, the concern over rising CO2 levels in the atmosphere and other negative environmental effects due to the burning of hydrocarbon fuels and the need to insulate the cost of energy from fuel price volatility have led to a renewed interest in nuclear power. Many of the plants under construction are similar to the existing light water reactors but incorporate modern engineering and enhanced safety features. These reactors, while mature, safe and reliable sources of electrical power have limited efficiency in converting fission power to useful work, require significant amounts of water, and must deal with the issues of nuclear waste (spent fuel), safety, and weapons proliferation. If nuclear power is to sustain its present share of the world's growing energy needs let alone displace carbon based fuels, more than 1000 reactors will be needed by mid century. For this to occur new reactors that are more efficient, versatile in their energy markets, require minimal or no water, produce less waste and more robust waste forms, are inherently safe and minimize proliferation concerns will be necessary. Graphite moderated, ceramic coated fuel, and He cooled designs are reactors that can satisfy these requirements. Along with other generation IV fast reactors that can further reduce the amounts of spent fuel and extend fuel resources, such a nuclear expansion is possible. Furthermore, facilities either in early operations or under construction should demonstrate the next step in fusion energy development in which energy gain is produced. This demonstration will catalyze fusion energy development and lead to the ultimate development of the next generation of nuclear reactors. In this presentation the role of advanced fission reactors and future fusion reactors in the expansion of nuclear power will be discussed including synergies with the existing worldwide nuclear fleet. )

Vesicular PtdIns(3,4,5)P3 and Rab7 are key effectors of sea urchin zygote nuclear membrane fusion.

PubMed

Lete, Marta G; Byrne, Richard D; Alonso, Alicia; Poccia, Dominic; Larijani, Banafshé

2017-01-15

Regulation of nuclear envelope dynamics is an important example of the universal phenomena of membrane fusion. The signalling molecules involved in nuclear membrane fusion might also be conserved during the formation of both pronuclear and zygote nuclear envelopes in the fertilised egg. Here, we determine that class-I phosphoinositide 3-kinases (PI3Ks) are needed for in vitro nuclear envelope formation. We show that, in vivo, PtdIns(3,4,5)P 3 is transiently located in vesicles around the male pronucleus at the time of nuclear envelope formation, and around male and female pronuclei before membrane fusion. We illustrate that class-I PI3K activity is also necessary for fusion of the female and male pronuclear membranes. We demonstrate, using coincidence amplified Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) monitored using fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM), a protein-lipid interaction of Rab7 GTPase and PtdIns(3,4,5)P 3 that occurs during pronuclear membrane fusion to create the zygote nuclear envelope. We present a working model, which includes several molecular steps in the pathways controlling fusion of nuclear envelope membranes. © 2017. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

Experiment and Theory for Nuclear Reactions in Nano-Materials Show e14 - e16 Solid-State Fusion Reactions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

George, Russ

2005-03-01

Nano-lattices of deuterium loving metals exhibit coherent behavior by populations of deuterons (d's) occupying a Bloch state. Therein, coherent d-overlap occurs wherein the Bloch condition reduces the Coulomb barrier.Overlap of dd pairs provides a high probability fusion will/must occur. SEM photo evidence showing fusion events is now revealed by laboratories that load or flux d into metal nano-domains. Solid-state dd fusion creates an excited ^4He nucleus entangled in the large coherent population of d's.This contrasts with plasma dd fusion in collision space where an isolated excited ^4He nucleus seeks the ground state via fast particle emission. In momentum limited solid state fusion,fast particle emission is effectively forbidden.Photographed nano-explosive events are beyond the scope of chemistry. Corroboration of the nuclear nature derives from photographic observation of similar events on spontaneous fission, e.g. Cf. We present predictive theory, heat production, and helium isotope data showing reproducible e14 to e16 solid-state fusion reactions.

Data fusion in cyber security: first order entity extraction from common cyber data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Giacobe, Nicklaus A.

2012-06-01

The Joint Directors of Labs Data Fusion Process Model (JDL Model) provides a framework for how to handle sensor data to develop higher levels of inference in a complex environment. Beginning from a call to leverage data fusion techniques in intrusion detection, there have been a number of advances in the use of data fusion algorithms in this subdomain of cyber security. While it is tempting to jump directly to situation-level or threat-level refinement (levels 2 and 3) for more exciting inferences, a proper fusion process starts with lower levels of fusion in order to provide a basis for the higher fusion levels. The process begins with first order entity extraction, or the identification of important entities represented in the sensor data stream. Current cyber security operational tools and their associated data are explored for potential exploitation, identifying the first order entities that exist in the data and the properties of these entities that are described by the data. Cyber events that are represented in the data stream are added to the first order entities as their properties. This work explores typical cyber security data and the inferences that can be made at the lower fusion levels (0 and 1) with simple metrics. Depending on the types of events that are expected by the analyst, these relatively simple metrics can provide insight on their own, or could be used in fusion algorithms as a basis for higher levels of inference.

A Data Fusion Method in Wireless Sensor Networks

PubMed Central

Izadi, Davood; Abawajy, Jemal H.; Ghanavati, Sara; Herawan, Tutut

2015-01-01

The success of a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) deployment strongly depends on the quality of service (QoS) it provides regarding issues such as data accuracy, data aggregation delays and network lifetime maximisation. This is especially challenging in data fusion mechanisms, where a small fraction of low quality data in the fusion input may negatively impact the overall fusion result. In this paper, we present a fuzzy-based data fusion approach for WSN with the aim of increasing the QoS whilst reducing the energy consumption of the sensor network. The proposed approach is able to distinguish and aggregate only true values of the collected data as such, thus reducing the burden of processing the entire data at the base station (BS). It is also able to eliminate redundant data and consequently reduce energy consumption thus increasing the network lifetime. We studied the effectiveness of the proposed data fusion approach experimentally and compared it with two baseline approaches in terms of data collection, number of transferred data packets and energy consumption. The results of the experiments show that the proposed approach achieves better results than the baseline approaches. PMID:25635417

Graph-based Data Modeling and Analysis for Data Fusion in Remote Sensing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fan, Lei

Hyperspectral imaging provides the capability of increased sensitivity and discrimination over traditional imaging methods by combining standard digital imaging with spectroscopic methods. For each individual pixel in a hyperspectral image (HSI), a continuous spectrum is sampled as the spectral reflectance/radiance signature to facilitate identification of ground cover and surface material. The abundant spectrum knowledge allows all available information from the data to be mined. The superior qualities within hyperspectral imaging allow wide applications such as mineral exploration, agriculture monitoring, and ecological surveillance, etc. The processing of massive high-dimensional HSI datasets is a challenge since many data processing techniques have a computational complexity that grows exponentially with the dimension. Besides, a HSI dataset may contain a limited number of degrees of freedom due to the high correlations between data points and among the spectra. On the other hand, merely taking advantage of the sampled spectrum of individual HSI data point may produce inaccurate results due to the mixed nature of raw HSI data, such as mixed pixels, optical interferences and etc. Fusion strategies are widely adopted in data processing to achieve better performance, especially in the field of classification and clustering. There are mainly three types of fusion strategies, namely low-level data fusion, intermediate-level feature fusion, and high-level decision fusion. Low-level data fusion combines multi-source data that is expected to be complementary or cooperative. Intermediate-level feature fusion aims at selection and combination of features to remove redundant information. Decision level fusion exploits a set of classifiers to provide more accurate results. The fusion strategies have wide applications including HSI data processing. With the fast development of multiple remote sensing modalities, e.g. Very High Resolution (VHR) optical sensors, LiDAR, etc

Relevance of advanced nuclear fusion research: Breakthroughs and obstructions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Coppi, Bruno, E-mail: coppi@mit.edu

2016-03-25

An in depth understanding of the collective modes that can be excited in a wide range of high-energy plasmas is necessary to advance nuclear fusion research in parallel with other fields that include space and astrophysics in particular. Important achievements are shown to have resulted from implementing programs based on this reality, maintaining a tight connection with different areas of investigations. This involves the undertaking of a plurality of experimental approaches aimed at understanding the physics of fusion burning plasmas. At present, the most advanced among these is the Ignitor experiment involving international cooperation, that is designed to investigate burningmore » plasma regimes near ignition for the first time.« less

A multi-temporal fusion-based approach for land cover mapping in support of nuclear incident response

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sah, Shagan

An increasingly important application of remote sensing is to provide decision support during emergency response and disaster management efforts. Land cover maps constitute one such useful application product during disaster events; if generated rapidly after any disaster, such map products can contribute to the efficacy of the response effort. In light of recent nuclear incidents, e.g., after the earthquake/tsunami in Japan (2011), our research focuses on constructing rapid and accurate land cover maps of the impacted area in case of an accidental nuclear release. The methodology involves integration of results from two different approaches, namely coarse spatial resolution multi-temporal and fine spatial resolution imagery, to increase classification accuracy. Although advanced methods have been developed for classification using high spatial or temporal resolution imagery, only a limited amount of work has been done on fusion of these two remote sensing approaches. The presented methodology thus involves integration of classification results from two different remote sensing modalities in order to improve classification accuracy. The data used included RapidEye and MODIS scenes over the Nine Mile Point Nuclear Power Station in Oswego (New York, USA). The first step in the process was the construction of land cover maps from freely available, high temporal resolution, low spatial resolution MODIS imagery using a time-series approach. We used the variability in the temporal signatures among different land cover classes for classification. The time series-specific features were defined by various physical properties of a pixel, such as variation in vegetation cover and water content over time. The pixels were classified into four land cover classes - forest, urban, water, and vegetation - using Euclidean and Mahalanobis distance metrics. On the other hand, a high spatial resolution commercial satellite, such as RapidEye, can be tasked to capture images over the

Spatial Statistical Data Fusion for Remote Sensing Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nguyen, Hai

2010-01-01

Data fusion is the process of combining information from heterogeneous sources into a single composite picture of the relevant process, such that the composite picture is generally more accurate and complete than that derived from any single source alone. Data collection is often incomplete, sparse, and yields incompatible information. Fusion techniques can make optimal use of such data. When investment in data collection is high, fusion gives the best return. Our study uses data from two satellites: (1) Multiangle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR), (2) Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS).

Integrated Data Analysis for Fusion: A Bayesian Tutorial for Fusion Diagnosticians

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dinklage, Andreas; Dreier, Heiko; Fischer, Rainer; Gori, Silvio; Preuss, Roland; Toussaint, Udo von

2008-03-01

Integrated Data Analysis (IDA) offers a unified way of combining information relevant to fusion experiments. Thereby, IDA meets with typical issues arising in fusion data analysis. In IDA, all information is consistently formulated as probability density functions quantifying uncertainties in the analysis within the Bayesian probability theory. For a single diagnostic, IDA allows the identification of faulty measurements and improvements in the setup. For a set of diagnostics, IDA gives joint error distributions allowing the comparison and integration of different diagnostics results. Validation of physics models can be performed by model comparison techniques. Typical data analysis applications benefit from IDA capabilities of nonlinear error propagation, the inclusion of systematic effects and the comparison of different physics models. Applications range from outlier detection, background discrimination, model assessment and design of diagnostics. In order to cope with next step fusion device requirements, appropriate techniques are explored for fast analysis applications.

Image computing techniques to extrapolate data for dust tracking in case of an experimental accident simulation in a nuclear fusion plant.

PubMed

Camplani, M; Malizia, A; Gelfusa, M; Barbato, F; Antonelli, L; Poggi, L A; Ciparisse, J F; Salgado, L; Richetta, M; Gaudio, P

2016-01-01

In this paper, a preliminary shadowgraph-based analysis of dust particles re-suspension due to loss of vacuum accident (LOVA) in ITER-like nuclear fusion reactors has been presented. Dust particles are produced through different mechanisms in nuclear fusion devices, one of the main issues is that dust particles are capable of being re-suspended in case of events such as LOVA. Shadowgraph is based on an expanded collimated beam of light emitted by a laser or a lamp that emits light transversely compared to the flow field direction. In the STARDUST facility, the dust moves in the flow, and it causes variations of refractive index that can be detected by using a CCD camera. The STARDUST fast camera setup allows to detect and to track dust particles moving in the vessel and then to obtain information about the velocity field of dust mobilized. In particular, the acquired images are processed such that per each frame the moving dust particles are detected by applying a background subtraction technique based on the mixture of Gaussian algorithm. The obtained foreground masks are eventually filtered with morphological operations. Finally, a multi-object tracking algorithm is used to track the detected particles along the experiment. For each particle, a Kalman filter-based tracker is applied; the particles dynamic is described by taking into account position, velocity, and acceleration as state variable. The results demonstrate that it is possible to obtain dust particles' velocity field during LOVA by automatically processing the data obtained with the shadowgraph approach.

Image computing techniques to extrapolate data for dust tracking in case of an experimental accident simulation in a nuclear fusion plant

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Camplani, M.; Malizia, A.; Gelfusa, M.; Barbato, F.; Antonelli, L.; Poggi, L. A.; Ciparisse, J. F.; Salgado, L.; Richetta, M.; Gaudio, P.

2016-01-01

In this paper, a preliminary shadowgraph-based analysis of dust particles re-suspension due to loss of vacuum accident (LOVA) in ITER-like nuclear fusion reactors has been presented. Dust particles are produced through different mechanisms in nuclear fusion devices, one of the main issues is that dust particles are capable of being re-suspended in case of events such as LOVA. Shadowgraph is based on an expanded collimated beam of light emitted by a laser or a lamp that emits light transversely compared to the flow field direction. In the STARDUST facility, the dust moves in the flow, and it causes variations of refractive index that can be detected by using a CCD camera. The STARDUST fast camera setup allows to detect and to track dust particles moving in the vessel and then to obtain information about the velocity field of dust mobilized. In particular, the acquired images are processed such that per each frame the moving dust particles are detected by applying a background subtraction technique based on the mixture of Gaussian algorithm. The obtained foreground masks are eventually filtered with morphological operations. Finally, a multi-object tracking algorithm is used to track the detected particles along the experiment. For each particle, a Kalman filter-based tracker is applied; the particles dynamic is described by taking into account position, velocity, and acceleration as state variable. The results demonstrate that it is possible to obtain dust particles' velocity field during LOVA by automatically processing the data obtained with the shadowgraph approach.

Autophagy contributes to regulation of nuclear dynamics during vegetative growth and hyphal fusion in Fusarium oxysporum.

PubMed

Corral-Ramos, Cristina; Roca, M Gabriela; Di Pietro, Antonio; Roncero, M Isabel G; Ruiz-Roldán, Carmen

2015-01-01

In the fungal pathogen Fusarium oxysporum, vegetative hyphal fusion triggers nuclear mitotic division in the invading hypha followed by migration of a nucleus into the receptor hypha and degradation of the resident nucleus. Here we examined the role of autophagy in fusion-induced nuclear degradation. A search of the F. oxysporum genome database for autophagy pathway components identified putative orthologs of 16 core autophagy-related (ATG) genes in yeast, including the ubiquitin-like protein Atg8, which is required for the formation of autophagosomal membranes. F. oxysporum Foatg8Δ mutants were generated in a strain harboring H1-cherry fluorescent protein (ChFP)-labeled nuclei to facilitate analysis of nuclear dynamics. The Foatg8Δ mutants did not show MDC-positive staining in contrast to the wild type and the FoATG8-complemented (cFoATG8) strain, suggesting that FoAtg8 is required for autophagy in F. oxysporum. The Foatg8Δ strains displayed reduced rates of hyphal growth, conidiation, and fusion, and were significantly attenuated in virulence on tomato plants and in the nonvertebrate animal host Galleria mellonella. In contrast to wild-type hyphae, which are almost exclusively composed of uninucleated hyphal compartments, the hyphae of the Foatg8Δ mutants contained a significant fraction of hyphal compartments with 2 or more nuclei. The increase in the number of nuclei per hyphal compartment was particularly evident after hyphal fusion events. Time-lapse microscopy analyses revealed abnormal mitotic patterns during vegetative growth in the Foatg8Δ mutants. Our results suggest that autophagy mediates nuclear degradation after hyphal fusion and has a general function in the control of nuclear distribution in F. oxysporum.

Autophagy contributes to regulation of nuclear dynamics during vegetative growth and hyphal fusion in Fusarium oxysporum

PubMed Central

Corral-Ramos, Cristina; Roca, M Gabriela; Di Pietro, Antonio; Roncero, M Isabel G; Ruiz-Roldán, Carmen

2015-01-01

In the fungal pathogen Fusarium oxysporum, vegetative hyphal fusion triggers nuclear mitotic division in the invading hypha followed by migration of a nucleus into the receptor hypha and degradation of the resident nucleus. Here we examined the role of autophagy in fusion-induced nuclear degradation. A search of the F. oxysporum genome database for autophagy pathway components identified putative orthologs of 16 core autophagy-related (ATG) genes in yeast, including the ubiquitin-like protein Atg8, which is required for the formation of autophagosomal membranes. F. oxysporum Foatg8Δ mutants were generated in a strain harboring H1-cherry fluorescent protein (ChFP)-labeled nuclei to facilitate analysis of nuclear dynamics. The Foatg8Δ mutants did not show MDC-positive staining in contrast to the wild type and the FoATG8-complemented (cFoATG8) strain, suggesting that FoAtg8 is required for autophagy in F. oxysporum. The Foatg8Δ strains displayed reduced rates of hyphal growth, conidiation, and fusion, and were significantly attenuated in virulence on tomato plants and in the nonvertebrate animal host Galleria mellonella. In contrast to wild-type hyphae, which are almost exclusively composed of uninucleated hyphal compartments, the hyphae of the Foatg8Δ mutants contained a significant fraction of hyphal compartments with 2 or more nuclei. The increase in the number of nuclei per hyphal compartment was particularly evident after hyphal fusion events. Time-lapse microscopy analyses revealed abnormal mitotic patterns during vegetative growth in the Foatg8Δ mutants. Our results suggest that autophagy mediates nuclear degradation after hyphal fusion and has a general function in the control of nuclear distribution in F. oxysporum. PMID:25560310

Development of an inertial confinement fusion platform to study charged-particle-producing nuclear reactions relevant to nuclear astrophysics

DOE PAGES

Gatu Johnson, M.; Zylstra, A. B.; Bacher, A.; ...

2017-03-28

Here, this paper describes the development of a platform to study astrophysically relevant nuclear reactions using inertial-confinement fusion implosions on the OMEGA and National Ignition Facility laser facilities, with a particular focus on optimizing the implosions to study charged-particle- producing reactions. Primary requirements on the platform are high yield, for high statistics in the fusion product measurements, combined with low areal density, to allow the charged fusion products to escape. This is optimally achieved with direct-drive exploding pusher implosions using thin-glass-shell capsules. Mitigation strategies to eliminate a possible target sheath potential which would accelerate the emitted ions are discussed. Themore » potential impact of kinetic effects on the implosions is also considered. The platform is initially employed to study the complementary T(t,2n)α, T( 3He,np)α and 3He( 3He,2p)α reactions. Proof-of-principle results from the first experiments demonstrating the ability to accurately measure the energy and yields of charged particles are presented. Lessons learned from these experiments will be used in studies of other reactions. Ultimately, the goals are to explore thermonuclear reaction rates and fundamental nuclear physics in stellarlike plasma environments, and to push this new frontier of nuclear astrophysics into unique regimes not reachable through existing platforms, with thermal ion velocity distributions, plasma screening, and low reactant energies.« less

Development of an inertial confinement fusion platform to study charged-particle-producing nuclear reactions relevant to nuclear astrophysics

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gatu Johnson, M.; Zylstra, A. B.; Bacher, A.

Here, this paper describes the development of a platform to study astrophysically relevant nuclear reactions using inertial-confinement fusion implosions on the OMEGA and National Ignition Facility laser facilities, with a particular focus on optimizing the implosions to study charged-particle- producing reactions. Primary requirements on the platform are high yield, for high statistics in the fusion product measurements, combined with low areal density, to allow the charged fusion products to escape. This is optimally achieved with direct-drive exploding pusher implosions using thin-glass-shell capsules. Mitigation strategies to eliminate a possible target sheath potential which would accelerate the emitted ions are discussed. Themore » potential impact of kinetic effects on the implosions is also considered. The platform is initially employed to study the complementary T(t,2n)α, T( 3He,np)α and 3He( 3He,2p)α reactions. Proof-of-principle results from the first experiments demonstrating the ability to accurately measure the energy and yields of charged particles are presented. Lessons learned from these experiments will be used in studies of other reactions. Ultimately, the goals are to explore thermonuclear reaction rates and fundamental nuclear physics in stellarlike plasma environments, and to push this new frontier of nuclear astrophysics into unique regimes not reachable through existing platforms, with thermal ion velocity distributions, plasma screening, and low reactant energies.« less

Different sets of ER-resident J-proteins regulate distinct polar nuclear-membrane fusion events in Arabidopsis thaliana.

PubMed

Maruyama, Daisuke; Yamamoto, Masaya; Endo, Toshiya; Nishikawa, Shuh-ichi

2014-11-01

Angiosperm female gametophytes contain a central cell with two polar nuclei. In many species, including Arabidopsis thaliana, the polar nuclei fuse during female gametogenesis. We previously showed that BiP, an Hsp70 in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), was essential for membrane fusion during female gametogenesis. Hsp70 function requires partner proteins for full activity. J-domain containing proteins (J-proteins) are the major Hsp70 functional partners. A. thaliana ER contains three soluble J-proteins, AtERdj3A, AtERdj3B, and AtP58(IPK). Here, we analyzed mutants of these proteins and determined that double-mutant ovules lacking AtP58(IPK) and AtERdj3A or AtERdj3B were defective in polar nuclear fusion. Electron microscopy analysis identified that polar nuclei were in close contact, but no membrane fusion occurred in mutant ovules lacking AtP58(IPK) and AtERdj3A. The polar nuclear outer membrane appeared to be connected via the ER remaining at the inner unfused membrane in mutant ovules lacking AtP58(IPK) and AtERdj3B. These results indicate that ER-resident J-proteins, AtP58(IPK)/AtERdj3A and AtP58(IPK)/AtERdj3B, function at distinct steps of polar nuclear-membrane fusion. Similar to the bip1 bip2 double mutant female gametophytes, the aterdj3a atp58(ipk) double mutant female gametophytes defective in fusion of the outer polar nuclear membrane displayed aberrant endosperm proliferation after fertilization with wild-type pollen. However, endosperm proliferated normally after fertilization of the aterdj3b atp58(ipk) double mutant female gametophytes defective in fusion of the inner membrane. Our results indicate that the polar nuclear fusion defect itself does not cause an endosperm proliferation defect. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Japanese Society of Plant Physiologists. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

The Fukushima nuclear disaster and its effects on media framing of fission and fusion energy technologies

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schmidt, Luisa; Horta, Ana; Pereira, Sergio

This paper presents results of a comparison of media coverage of fusion and fission energy technologies in three countries (Germany, Spain and Portugal) and in the English language international print media addressing transnational elite, from 2008 to 2012. The analysis showed that the accident in Fukushima in March 2010 did not have significant impact on media framing of nuclear fusion in the major part of print media under investigation. In fact, fusion is clearly dissociated from traditional nuclear (fission) energy and from nuclear accidents. It tends to be portrayed as a safe, clean and unlimited source of energy, although lessmore » credited when confronted with research costs, technological feasibility and the possibility to be achieved in a reasonable period of time. On the contrary, fission is portrayed as a hazardous source of energy, expensive when compared to research costs of renewables, hardly a long-term energy option, susceptible to contribute to the proliferation of nuclear weapons or rogue military use. Fukushima accident was consistently discussed in the context of safety problems of nuclear power plants and in many cases appeared not as an isolated event but rather as a reminder of previous nuclear disasters such as Three Miles Island and Chernobyl. (authors)« less

General software design for multisensor data fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Junliang; Zhao, Yuming

1999-03-01

In this paper a general method of software design for multisensor data fusion is discussed in detail, which adopts object-oriented technology under UNIX operation system. The software for multisensor data fusion is divided into six functional modules: data collection, database management, GIS, target display and alarming data simulation etc. Furthermore, the primary function, the components and some realization methods of each modular is given. The interfaces among these functional modular relations are discussed. The data exchange among each functional modular is performed by interprocess communication IPC, including message queue, semaphore and shared memory. Thus, each functional modular is executed independently, which reduces the dependence among functional modules and helps software programing and testing. This software for multisensor data fusion is designed as hierarchical structure by the inheritance character of classes. Each functional modular is abstracted and encapsulated through class structure, which avoids software redundancy and enhances readability.

Review of 3d GIS Data Fusion Methods and Progress

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hua, Wei; Hou, Miaole; Hu, Yungang

2018-04-01

3D data fusion is a research hotspot in the field of computer vision and fine mapping, and plays an important role in fine measurement, risk monitoring, data display and other processes. At present, the research of 3D data fusion in the field of Surveying and mapping focuses on the 3D model fusion of terrain and ground objects. This paper summarizes the basic methods of 3D data fusion of terrain and ground objects in recent years, and classified the data structure and the establishment method of 3D model, and some of the most widely used fusion methods are analysed and commented.

Specific regulation of thermosensitive lipid droplet fusion by a nuclear hormone receptor pathway

PubMed Central

Li, Shiwei; Li, Qi; Kong, Yuanyuan; Wu, Shuang; Cui, Qingpo; Zhang, Mingming; Zhang, Shaobing O.

2017-01-01

Nuclear receptors play important roles in regulating fat metabolism and energy production in humans. The regulatory functions and endogenous ligands of many nuclear receptors are still unidentified, however. Here, we report that CYP-37A1 (ortholog of human cytochrome P450 CYP4V2), EMB-8 (ortholog of human P450 oxidoreductase POR), and DAF-12 (homolog of human nuclear receptors VDR/LXR) constitute a hormone synthesis and nuclear receptor pathway in Caenorhabditis elegans. This pathway specifically regulates the thermosensitive fusion of fat-storing lipid droplets. CYP-37A1, together with EMB-8, synthesizes a lipophilic hormone not identical to Δ7-dafachronic acid, which represses the fusion-promoting function of DAF-12. CYP-37A1 also negatively regulates thermotolerance and lifespan at high temperature in a DAF-12–dependent manner. Human CYP4V2 can substitute for CYP-37A1 in C. elegans. This finding suggests the existence of a conserved CYP4V2-POR–nuclear receptor pathway that functions in converting multilocular lipid droplets to unilocular ones in human cells; misregulation of this pathway may lead to pathogenic fat storage. PMID:28760992

Specific regulation of thermosensitive lipid droplet fusion by a nuclear hormone receptor pathway.

PubMed

Li, Shiwei; Li, Qi; Kong, Yuanyuan; Wu, Shuang; Cui, Qingpo; Zhang, Mingming; Zhang, Shaobing O

2017-08-15

Nuclear receptors play important roles in regulating fat metabolism and energy production in humans. The regulatory functions and endogenous ligands of many nuclear receptors are still unidentified, however. Here, we report that CYP-37A1 (ortholog of human cytochrome P450 CYP4V2), EMB-8 (ortholog of human P450 oxidoreductase POR), and DAF-12 (homolog of human nuclear receptors VDR/LXR) constitute a hormone synthesis and nuclear receptor pathway in Caenorhabditis elegans This pathway specifically regulates the thermosensitive fusion of fat-storing lipid droplets. CYP-37A1, together with EMB-8, synthesizes a lipophilic hormone not identical to Δ7-dafachronic acid, which represses the fusion-promoting function of DAF-12. CYP-37A1 also negatively regulates thermotolerance and lifespan at high temperature in a DAF-12-dependent manner. Human CYP4V2 can substitute for CYP-37A1 in C. elegans This finding suggests the existence of a conserved CYP4V2-POR-nuclear receptor pathway that functions in converting multilocular lipid droplets to unilocular ones in human cells; misregulation of this pathway may lead to pathogenic fat storage.

Distributed data fusion across multiple hard and soft mobile sensor platforms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sinsley, Gregory

One of the biggest challenges currently facing the robotics field is sensor data fusion. Unmanned robots carry many sophisticated sensors including visual and infrared cameras, radar, laser range finders, chemical sensors, accelerometers, gyros, and global positioning systems. By effectively fusing the data from these sensors, a robot would be able to form a coherent view of its world that could then be used to facilitate both autonomous and intelligent operation. Another distinct fusion problem is that of fusing data from teammates with data from onboard sensors. If an entire team of vehicles has the same worldview they will be able to cooperate much more effectively. Sharing worldviews is made even more difficult if the teammates have different sensor types. The final fusion challenge the robotics field faces is that of fusing data gathered by robots with data gathered by human teammates (soft sensors). Humans sense the world completely differently from robots, which makes this problem particularly difficult. The advantage of fusing data from humans is that it makes more information available to the entire team, thus helping each agent to make the best possible decisions. This thesis presents a system for fusing data from multiple unmanned aerial vehicles, unmanned ground vehicles, and human observers. The first issue this thesis addresses is that of centralized data fusion. This is a foundational data fusion issue, which has been very well studied. Important issues in centralized fusion include data association, classification, tracking, and robotics problems. Because these problems are so well studied, this thesis does not make any major contributions in this area, but does review it for completeness. The chapter on centralized fusion concludes with an example unmanned aerial vehicle surveillance problem that demonstrates many of the traditional fusion methods. The second problem this thesis addresses is that of distributed data fusion. Distributed data fusion

Design of a multisensor data fusion system for target detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thomopoulos, Stelios C.; Okello, Nickens N.; Kadar, Ivan; Lovas, Louis A.

1993-09-01

The objective of this paper is to discuss the issues that are involved in the design of a multisensor fusion system and provide a systematic analysis and synthesis methodology for the design of the fusion system. The system under consideration consists of multifrequency (similar) radar sensors. However, the fusion design must be flexible to accommodate additional dissimilar sensors such as IR, EO, ESM, and Ladar. The motivation for the system design is the proof of the fusion concept for enhancing the detectability of small targets in clutter. In the context of down-selecting the proper configuration for multisensor (similar and dissimilar, and centralized vs. distributed) data fusion, the issues of data modeling, fusion approaches, and fusion architectures need to be addressed for the particular application being considered. Although the study of different approaches may proceed in parallel, the interplay among them is crucial in selecting a fusion configuration for a given application. The natural sequence for addressing the three different issues is to begin from the data modeling, in order to determine the information content of the data. This information will dictate the appropriate fusion approach. This, in turn, will lead to a global fusion architecture. Both distributed and centralized fusion architectures are used to illustrate the design issues along with Monte-Carlo simulation performance comparison of a single sensor versus a multisensor centrally fused system.

Blob-level active-passive data fusion for Benthic classification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, Joong Yong; Kalluri, Hemanth; Mathur, Abhinav; Ramnath, Vinod; Kim, Minsu; Aitken, Jennifer; Tuell, Grady

2012-06-01

We extend the data fusion pixel level to the more semantically meaningful blob level, using the mean-shift algorithm to form labeled blobs having high similarity in the feature domain, and connectivity in the spatial domain. We have also developed Bhattacharyya Distance (BD) and rule-based classifiers, and have implemented these higher-level data fusion algorithms into the CZMIL Data Processing System. Applying these new algorithms to recent SHOALS and CASI data at Plymouth Harbor, Massachusetts, we achieved improved benthic classification accuracies over those produced with either single sensor, or pixel-level fusion strategies. These results appear to validate the hypothesis that classification accuracy may be generally improved by adopting higher spatial and semantic levels of fusion.

Data fusion for CD metrology: heterogeneous hybridization of scatterometry, CDSEM, and AFM data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hazart, J.; Chesneau, N.; Evin, G.; Largent, A.; Derville, A.; Thérèse, R.; Bos, S.; Bouyssou, R.; Dezauzier, C.; Foucher, J.

2014-04-01

The manufacturing of next generation semiconductor devices forces metrology tool providers for an exceptional effort in order to meet the requirements for precision, accuracy and throughput stated in the ITRS. In the past years hybrid metrology (based on data fusion theories) has been investigated as a new methodology for advanced metrology [1][2][3]. This paper provides a new point of view of data fusion for metrology through some experiments and simulations. The techniques are presented concretely in terms of equations to be solved. The first point of view is High Level Fusion which is the use of simple numbers with their associated uncertainty postprocessed by tools. In this paper, it is divided into two stages: one for calibration to reach accuracy, the second to reach precision thanks to Bayesian Fusion. From our perspective, the first stage is mandatory before applying the second stage which is commonly presented [1]. However a reference metrology system is necessary for this fusion. So, precision can be improved if and only if the tools to be fused are perfectly matched at least for some parameters. We provide a methodology similar to a multidimensional TMU able to perform this matching exercise. It is demonstrated on a 28 nm node backend lithography case. The second point of view is Deep Level Fusion which works on the contrary with raw data and their combination. In the approach presented here, the analysis of each raw data is based on a parametric model and connections between the parameters of each tool. In order to allow OCD/SEM Deep Level Fusion, a SEM Compact Model derived from [4] has been developed and compared to AFM. As far as we know, this is the first time such techniques have been coupled at Deep Level. A numerical study on the case of a simple stack for lithography is performed. We show strict equivalence of Deep Level Fusion and High Level Fusion when tools are sensitive and models are perfect. When one of the tools can be considered as a

a Comparative Analysis of Spatiotemporal Data Fusion Models for Landsat and Modis Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hazaymeh, K.; Almagbile, A.

2018-04-01

In this study, three documented spatiotemporal data fusion models were applied to Landsat-7 and MODIS surface reflectance, and NDVI. The algorithms included the spatial and temporal adaptive reflectance fusion model (STARFM), sparse representation based on a spatiotemporal reflectance fusion model (SPSTFM), and spatiotemporal image-fusion model (STI-FM). The objectives of this study were to (i) compare the performance of these three fusion models using a one Landsat-MODIS spectral reflectance image pairs using time-series datasets from the Coleambally irrigation area in Australia, and (ii) quantitatively evaluate the accuracy of the synthetic images generated from each fusion model using statistical measurements. Results showed that the three fusion models predicted the synthetic Landsat-7 image with adequate agreements. The STI-FM produced more accurate reconstructions of both Landsat-7 spectral bands and NDVI. Furthermore, it produced surface reflectance images having the highest correlation with the actual Landsat-7 images. This study indicated that STI-FM would be more suitable for spatiotemporal data fusion applications such as vegetation monitoring, drought monitoring, and evapotranspiration.

NSF- and SNARE-mediated membrane fusion is required for nuclear envelope formation and completion of nuclear pore complex assembly in Xenopus laevis egg extracts.

PubMed

Baur, Tina; Ramadan, Kristijan; Schlundt, Andreas; Kartenbeck, Jürgen; Meyer, Hemmo H

2007-08-15

Despite the progress in understanding nuclear envelope (NE) reformation after mitosis, it has remained unclear what drives the required membrane fusion and how exactly this is coordinated with nuclear pore complex (NPC) assembly. Here, we show that, like other intracellular fusion reactions, NE fusion in Xenopus laevis egg extracts is mediated by SNARE proteins that require activation by NSF. Antibodies against Xenopus NSF, depletion of NSF or the dominant-negative NSF(E329Q) variant specifically inhibited NE formation. Staging experiments further revealed that NSF was required until sealing of the envelope was completed. Moreover, excess exogenous alpha-SNAP that blocks SNARE function prevented membrane fusion and caused accumulation of non-flattened vesicles on the chromatin surface. Under these conditions, the nucleoporins Nup107 and gp210 were fully recruited, whereas assembly of FxFG-repeat-containing nucleoporins was blocked. Together, we define NSF- and SNARE-mediated membrane fusion events as essential steps during NE formation downstream of Nup107 recruitment, and upstream of membrane flattening and completion of NPC assembly.

Predicting individual fusional range from optometric data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Endrikhovski, Serguei; Jin, Elaine; Miller, Michael E.; Ford, Robert W.

2005-03-01

A model was developed to predict the range of disparities that can be fused by an individual user from optometric measurements. This model uses parameters, such as dissociated phoria and fusional reserves, to calculate an individual user"s fusional range (i.e., the disparities that can be fused on stereoscopic displays) when the user views a stereoscopic stimulus from various distances. This model is validated by comparing its output with data from a study in which the individual fusional range of a group of users was quantified while they viewed a stereoscopic display from distances of 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 meters. Overall, the model provides good data predictions for the majority of the subjects and can be generalized for other viewing conditions. The model may, therefore, be used within a customized stereoscopic system, which would render stereoscopic information in a way that accounts for the individual differences in fusional range. Because the comfort of an individual user also depends on the user"s ability to fuse stereo images, such a system may, consequently, improve the comfort level and viewing experience for people with different stereoscopic fusional capabilities.

Fusion of imaging and nonimaging data for surveillance aircraft

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shahbazian, Elisa; Gagnon, Langis; Duquet, Jean Remi; Macieszczak, Maciej; Valin, Pierre

1997-06-01

This paper describes a phased incremental integration approach for application of image analysis and data fusion technologies to provide automated intelligent target tracking and identification for airborne surveillance on board an Aurora Maritime Patrol Aircraft. The sensor suite of the Aurora consists of a radar, an identification friend or foe (IFF) system, an electronic support measures (ESM) system, a spotlight synthetic aperture radar (SSAR), a forward looking infra-red (FLIR) sensor and a link-11 tactical datalink system. Lockheed Martin Canada (LMCan) is developing a testbed, which will be used to analyze and evaluate approaches for combining the data provided by the existing sensors, which were initially not designed to feed a fusion system. Three concurrent research proof-of-concept activities provide techniques, algorithms and methodology into three sequential phases of integration of this testbed. These activities are: (1) analysis of the fusion architecture (track/contact/hybrid) most appropriate for the type of data available, (2) extraction and fusion of simple features from the imaging data into the fusion system performing automatic target identification, and (3) development of a unique software architecture which will permit integration and independent evolution, enhancement and optimization of various decision aid capabilities, such as multi-sensor data fusion (MSDF), situation and threat assessment (STA) and resource management (RM).

Multisensor data fusion for integrated maritime surveillance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Premji, A.; Ponsford, A. M.

1995-01-01

A prototype Integrated Coastal Surveillance system has been developed on Canada's East Coast to provide effective surveillance out to and beyond the 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone. The system has been designed to protect Canada's natural resources, and to monitor and control the coastline for smuggling, drug trafficking, and similar illegal activity. This paper describes the Multiple Sensor - Multiple Target data fusion system that has been developed. The fusion processor has been developed around the celebrated Multiple Hypothesis Tracking algorithm which accommodates multiple targets, new targets, false alarms, and missed detections. This processor performs four major functions: plot-to-track association to form individual radar tracks; fusion of radar tracks with secondary sensor reports; track identification and tagging using secondary reports; and track level fusion to form common tracks. Radar data from coherent and non-coherent radars has been used to evaluate the performance of the processor. This paper presents preliminary results.

Nuclear Fusion Blast and Electrode Lifetimes in a PJMIF Reactor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thio, Y. C. Francis; Witherspoon, F. D.; Case, A.; Brockington, S.; Cruz, E.; Luna, M.; Hsu, S. C.

2017-10-01

We present an analysis and numerical simulation of the nuclear blast from the micro-explosion following the completion of the fusion burn for a baseline design of a PJMIF fusion reactor with a fusion gain of 20. The stagnation pressure from the blast against the chamber wall defines the engineering requirement for the structural design of the first wall and the plasma guns. We also present an analysis of the lifetimes of the electrodes of the plasma guns which are exposed to (1) the high current, and (2) the neutron produced by the fusion reactions. We anticipate that the gun electrodes are made of tungsten alloys as plasma facing components reinforced structurally by appropriate steel alloys. Making reasonable assumptions about the electrode erosion rate (100 ng/C transfer), the electrode lifetime limited by the erosion rate is estimated to be between 19 and 24 million pulses before replacement. Based on known neutron radiation effects on structural materials such as steel alloys and plasma facing component materials such as tungsten alloys, the plasma guns are expected to survive some 22 million shots. At 1 Hz, this equal to about 6 months of continuous operation before they need to be replaced. Work supported by Strong Atomics, LLC.

The Oncogenic Fusion Proteins SET-Nup214 and Sequestosome-1 (SQSTM1)-Nup214 Form Dynamic Nuclear Bodies and Differentially Affect Nuclear Protein and Poly(A)+ RNA Export.

PubMed

Port, Sarah A; Mendes, Adélia; Valkova, Christina; Spillner, Christiane; Fahrenkrog, Birthe; Kaether, Christoph; Kehlenbach, Ralph H

2016-10-28

Genetic rearrangements are a hallmark of several forms of leukemia and can lead to oncogenic fusion proteins. One example of an affected chromosomal region is the gene coding for Nup214, a nucleoporin that localizes to the cytoplasmic side of the nuclear pore complex (NPC). We investigated two such fusion proteins, SET-Nup214 and SQSTM1 (sequestosome)-Nup214, both containing C-terminal portions of Nup214. SET-Nup214 nuclear bodies containing the nuclear export receptor CRM1 were observed in the leukemia cell lines LOUCY and MEGAL. Overexpression of SET-Nup214 in HeLa cells leads to the formation of similar nuclear bodies that recruit CRM1, export cargo proteins, and certain nucleoporins and concomitantly affect nuclear protein and poly(A) + RNA export. SQSTM1-Nup214, although mostly cytoplasmic, also forms nuclear bodies and inhibits nuclear protein but not poly(A) + RNA export. The interaction of the fusion proteins with CRM1 is RanGTP-dependent, as shown in co-immunoprecipitation experiments and binding assays. Further analysis revealed that the Nup214 parts mediate the inhibition of nuclear export, whereas the SET or SQSTM1 part determines the localization of the fusion protein and therefore the extent of the effect. SET-Nup214 nuclear bodies are highly mobile structures, which are in equilibrium with the nucleoplasm in interphase and disassemble during mitosis or upon treatment of cells with the CRM1-inhibitor leptomycin B. Strikingly, we found that nucleoporins can be released from nuclear bodies and reintegrated into existing NPC. Our results point to nuclear bodies as a means of preventing the formation of potentially insoluble and harmful protein aggregates that also may serve as storage compartments for nuclear transport factors. © 2016 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

The Oncogenic Fusion Proteins SET-Nup214 and Sequestosome-1 (SQSTM1)-Nup214 Form Dynamic Nuclear Bodies and Differentially Affect Nuclear Protein and Poly(A)+ RNA Export*

PubMed Central

Port, Sarah A.; Mendes, Adélia; Valkova, Christina; Spillner, Christiane; Fahrenkrog, Birthe; Kaether, Christoph; Kehlenbach, Ralph H.

2016-01-01

Genetic rearrangements are a hallmark of several forms of leukemia and can lead to oncogenic fusion proteins. One example of an affected chromosomal region is the gene coding for Nup214, a nucleoporin that localizes to the cytoplasmic side of the nuclear pore complex (NPC). We investigated two such fusion proteins, SET-Nup214 and SQSTM1 (sequestosome)-Nup214, both containing C-terminal portions of Nup214. SET-Nup214 nuclear bodies containing the nuclear export receptor CRM1 were observed in the leukemia cell lines LOUCY and MEGAL. Overexpression of SET-Nup214 in HeLa cells leads to the formation of similar nuclear bodies that recruit CRM1, export cargo proteins, and certain nucleoporins and concomitantly affect nuclear protein and poly(A)+ RNA export. SQSTM1-Nup214, although mostly cytoplasmic, also forms nuclear bodies and inhibits nuclear protein but not poly(A)+ RNA export. The interaction of the fusion proteins with CRM1 is RanGTP-dependent, as shown in co-immunoprecipitation experiments and binding assays. Further analysis revealed that the Nup214 parts mediate the inhibition of nuclear export, whereas the SET or SQSTM1 part determines the localization of the fusion protein and therefore the extent of the effect. SET-Nup214 nuclear bodies are highly mobile structures, which are in equilibrium with the nucleoplasm in interphase and disassemble during mitosis or upon treatment of cells with the CRM1-inhibitor leptomycin B. Strikingly, we found that nucleoporins can be released from nuclear bodies and reintegrated into existing NPC. Our results point to nuclear bodies as a means of preventing the formation of potentially insoluble and harmful protein aggregates that also may serve as storage compartments for nuclear transport factors. PMID:27613868

Rho GTPase activity modulates paramyxovirus fusion protein-mediated cell-cell fusion

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schowalter, Rachel M.; Wurth, Mark A.; Aguilar, Hector C.

2006-07-05

The paramyxovirus fusion protein (F) promotes fusion of the viral envelope with the plasma membrane of target cells as well as cell-cell fusion. The plasma membrane is closely associated with the actin cytoskeleton, but the role of actin dynamics in paramyxovirus F-mediated membrane fusion is unclear. We examined cell-cell fusion promoted by two different paramyxovirus F proteins in three cell types in the presence of constitutively active Rho family GTPases, major cellular coordinators of actin dynamics. Reporter gene and syncytia assays demonstrated that expression of either Rac1{sup V12} or Cdc42{sup V12} could increase cell-cell fusion promoted by the Hendra ormore » SV5 glycoproteins, though the effect was dependent on the cell type expressing the viral glycoproteins. In contrast, RhoA{sup L63} decreased cell-cell fusion promoted by Hendra glycoproteins but had little affect on SV5 F-mediated fusion. Also, data suggested that GTPase activation in the viral glycoprotein-containing cell was primarily responsible for changes in fusion. Additionally, we found that activated Cdc42 promoted nuclear rearrangement in syncytia.« less

Fusion Power measurement at ITER

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bertalot, L.; Barnsley, R.; Krasilnikov, V.

2015-07-01

Nuclear fusion research aims to provide energy for the future in a sustainable way and the ITER project scope is to demonstrate the feasibility of nuclear fusion energy. ITER is a nuclear experimental reactor based on a large scale fusion plasma (tokamak type) device generating Deuterium - Tritium (DT) fusion reactions with emission of 14 MeV neutrons producing up to 700 MW fusion power. The measurement of fusion power, i.e. total neutron emissivity, will play an important role for achieving ITER goals, in particular the fusion gain factor Q related to the reactor performance. Particular attention is given also tomore » the development of the neutron calibration strategy whose main scope is to achieve the required accuracy of 10% for the measurement of fusion power. Neutron Flux Monitors located in diagnostic ports and inside the vacuum vessel will measure ITER total neutron emissivity, expected to range from 1014 n/s in Deuterium - Deuterium (DD) plasmas up to almost 10{sup 21} n/s in DT plasmas. The neutron detection systems as well all other ITER diagnostics have to withstand high nuclear radiation and electromagnetic fields as well ultrahigh vacuum and thermal loads. (authors)« less

Multi-layered nanoparticles for penetrating the endosome and nuclear membrane via a step-wise membrane fusion process.

PubMed

Akita, Hidetaka; Kudo, Asako; Minoura, Arisa; Yamaguti, Masaya; Khalil, Ikramy A; Moriguchi, Rumiko; Masuda, Tomoya; Danev, Radostin; Nagayama, Kuniaki; Kogure, Kentaro; Harashima, Hideyoshi

2009-05-01

Efficient targeting of DNA to the nucleus is a prerequisite for effective gene therapy. The gene-delivery vehicle must penetrate through the plasma membrane, and the DNA-impermeable double-membraned nuclear envelope, and deposit its DNA cargo in a form ready for transcription. Here we introduce a concept for overcoming intracellular membrane barriers that involves step-wise membrane fusion. To achieve this, a nanotechnology was developed that creates a multi-layered nanoparticle, which we refer to as a Tetra-lamellar Multi-functional Envelope-type Nano Device (T-MEND). The critical structural elements of the T-MEND are a DNA-polycation condensed core coated with two nuclear membrane-fusogenic inner envelopes and two endosome-fusogenic outer envelopes, which are shed in stepwise fashion. A double-lamellar membrane structure is required for nuclear delivery via the stepwise fusion of double layered nuclear membrane structure. Intracellular membrane fusions to endosomes and nuclear membranes were verified by spectral imaging of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) between donor and acceptor fluorophores that had been dually labeled on the liposome surface. Coating the core with the minimum number of nucleus-fusogenic lipid envelopes (i.e., 2) is essential to facilitate transcription. As a result, the T-MEND achieves dramatic levels of transgene expression in non-dividing cells.

ITS Data Fusion, Final Report

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1996-09-01

THIS PROJECT HAS ACCOMPLISHED THREE SIGNIFICANT TASKS. FIRST, A STATE-OF-THE-ART LITERATURE REVIEW HAS PROVIDED AN ORGANIZATIONAL FRAMEWORK FOR CATEGORIZING THE VARIOUS DATA FUSION PROJECTS THAT HAVE BEEN CONDUCTED TO DATE. A POPULAR TYPOLOGY WAS DIS...

Monte Carlo simulation of ion-material interactions in nuclear fusion devices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nieto Perez, M.; Avalos-Zuñiga, R.; Ramos, G.

2017-06-01

One of the key aspects regarding the technological development of nuclear fusion reactors is the understanding of the interaction between high-energy ions coming from the confined plasma and the materials that the plasma-facing components are made of. Among the multiple issues important to plasma-wall interactions in fusion devices, physical erosion and composition changes induced by energetic particle bombardment are considered critical due to possible material flaking, changes to surface roughness, impurity transport and the alteration of physicochemical properties of the near surface region due to phenomena such as redeposition or implantation. A Monte Carlo code named MATILDA (Modeling of Atomic Transport in Layered Dynamic Arrays) has been developed over the years to study phenomena related to ion beam bombardment such as erosion rate, composition changes, interphase mixing and material redeposition, which are relevant issues to plasma-aided manufacturing of microelectronics, components on object exposed to intense solar wind, fusion reactor technology and other important industrial fields. In the present work, the code is applied to study three cases of plasma material interactions relevant to fusion devices in order to highlight the code's capabilities: (1) the Be redeposition process on the ITER divertor, (2) physical erosion enhancement in castellated surfaces and (3) damage to multilayer mirrors used on EUV diagnostics in fusion devices due to particle bombardment.

Nuclear envelope breakdown induced by herpes simplex virus type 1 involves the activity of viral fusion proteins

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Maric, Martina; Haugo, Alison C.; Dauer, William

2014-07-15

Herpesvirus infection reorganizes components of the nuclear lamina usually without loss of integrity of the nuclear membranes. We report that wild-type HSV infection can cause dissolution of the nuclear envelope in transformed mouse embryonic fibroblasts that do not express torsinA. Nuclear envelope breakdown is accompanied by an eight-fold inhibition of virus replication. Breakdown of the membrane is much more limited during infection with viruses that lack the gB and gH genes, suggesting that breakdown involves factors that promote fusion at the nuclear membrane. Nuclear envelope breakdown is also inhibited during infection with virus that does not express UL34, but ismore » enhanced when the US3 gene is deleted, suggesting that envelope breakdown may be enhanced by nuclear lamina disruption. Nuclear envelope breakdown cannot compensate for deletion of the UL34 gene suggesting that mixing of nuclear and cytoplasmic contents is insufficient to bypass loss of the normal nuclear egress pathway. - Highlights: • We show that wild-type HSV can induce breakdown of the nuclear envelope in a specific cell system. • The viral fusion proteins gB and gH are required for induction of nuclear envelope breakdown. • Nuclear envelope breakdown cannot compensate for deletion of the HSV UL34 gene.« less

Kinetic advantage of controlled intermediate nuclear fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guo, Xiaoming

2012-09-01

The dominated process of controlled fusion is to let nuclei gain enough kinetic energy to overcome Coulomb barrier. As a result, a fusion scheme can consider two factors in its design: to increase kinetic energy of nuclei and to alter the Coulomb barrier. Cold Fusion and Hot fusion are all one-factor schemes while Intermediate Fusion is a twofactors scheme. This made CINF kinetically superior. Cold Fusion reduces deuteron-deuteron distance, addressing Coulomb barrier, and Hot Fusion heat up plasma into extreme high temperature, addressing kinetic energy. Without enough kinetic energy made Cold Fusion skeptical. Extreme high temperature made Hot Fusion very difficult to engineer. Because CIFN addresses both factors, CIFN is a more promising technique to be industrialized.

Temperature dependence of nuclear fission time in heavy-ion fusion-fission reactions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eccles, Chris; Roy, Sanil; Gray, Thomas H.; Zaccone, Alessio

2017-11-01

Accounting for viscous damping within Fokker-Planck equations led to various improvements in the understanding and analysis of nuclear fission of heavy nuclei. Analytical expressions for the fission time are typically provided by Kramers' theory, which improves on the Bohr-Wheeler estimate by including the time scale related to many-particle dissipative processes along the deformation coordinate. However, Kramers' formula breaks down for sufficiently high excitation energies where Kramers' assumption of a large barrier no longer holds. Focusing on the overdamped regime for energies T >1 MeV, Kramers' theory should be replaced by a new analytical theory derived from the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck first-passage time method that is proposed here. The theory is applied to fission time data from fusion-fission experiments on 16O+208Pb→224Th . The proposed model provides an internally consistent one-parameter fitting of fission data with a constant nuclear friction as the fitting parameter, whereas Kramers' fitting requires a value of friction which falls out of the allowed range. The theory provides also an analytical formula that in future work can be easily implemented in numerical codes such as cascade or joanne4.

Application of the JDL data fusion process model for cyber security

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Giacobe, Nicklaus A.

2010-04-01

A number of cyber security technologies have proposed the use of data fusion to enhance the defensive capabilities of the network and aid in the development of situational awareness for the security analyst. While there have been advances in fusion technologies and the application of fusion in intrusion detection systems (IDSs), in particular, additional progress can be made by gaining a better understanding of a variety of data fusion processes and applying them to the cyber security application domain. This research explores the underlying processes identified in the Joint Directors of Laboratories (JDL) data fusion process model and further describes them in a cyber security context.

Apparatus and method for extracting power from energetic ions produced in nuclear fusion

DOEpatents

Fisch, N.J.; Rax, J.M.

1994-12-20

An apparatus and method of extracting power from energetic ions produced by nuclear fusion in a toroidal plasma to enhance respectively the toroidal plasma current and fusion reactivity. By injecting waves of predetermined frequency and phase traveling substantially in a selected poloidal direction within the plasma, the energetic ions become diffused in energy and space such that the energetic ions lose energy and amplify the waves. The amplified waves are further adapted to travel substantially in a selected toroidal direction to increase preferentially the energy of electrons traveling in one toroidal direction which, in turn, enhances or generates a toroidal plasma current. In an further adaptation, the amplified waves can be made to preferentially increase the energy of fuel ions within the plasma to enhance the fusion reactivity of the fuel ions. The described direct, or in situ, conversion of the energetic ion energy provides an efficient and economical means of delivering power to a fusion reactor. 4 figures.

Apparatus and method for extracting power from energetic ions produced in nuclear fusion

DOEpatents

Fisch, Nathaniel J.; Rax, Jean M.

1994-01-01

An apparatus and method of extracting power from energetic ions produced by nuclear fusion in a toroidal plasma to enhance respectively the toroidal plasma current and fusion reactivity. By injecting waves of predetermined frequency and phase traveling substantially in a selected poloidal direction within the plasma, the energetic ions become diffused in energy and space such that the energetic ions lose energy and amplify the waves. The amplified waves are further adapted to travel substantially in a selected toroidal direction to increase preferentially the energy of electrons traveling in one toroidal direction which, in turn, enhances or generates a toroidal plasma current. In an further adaptation, the amplified waves can be made to preferentially increase the energy of fuel ions within the plasma to enhance the fusion reactivity of the fuel ions. The described direct, or in situ, conversion of the energetic ion energy provides an efficient and economical means of delivering power to a fusion reactor.

Data fusion: principles and applications in air defense

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maltese, Dominique; Lucas, Andre

1998-07-01

Within a Surveillance and Reconnaissance System, the Fusion Process is an essential part of the software package since the different sensors measurements are combined by this process; each sensor sends its data to a fusion center whose task is to elaborate the best tactical situation. In this paper, a practical algorithm of data fusion applied to a military application context is presented; the case studied here is a medium-range surveillance situation featuring a dual-sensor platform which combines a surveillance Radar and an IRST; both sensors are collocated. The presented performances were obtained on validation scenarios via simulations performed by SAGEM with the ESSOR ('Environnement de Simulation de Senseurs Optroniques et Radar') multisensor simulation test bench.

Revitalizing Fusion via Fission Fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Manheimer, Wallace

2001-10-01

Existing tokamaks could generate significant nuclear fuel. TFTR, operating steady state with DT might generate enough fuel for a 300 MW nuclear reactor. The immediate goals of the magnetic fusion program would necessarily shift from a study of advanced plasma regimes in larger sized devices, to mostly known plasmas regimes, but at steady state or high duty cycle operation in DT plasmas. The science and engineering of breeding blankets would be equally important. Follow on projects could possibly produce nuclear fuel in large quantity at low price. Although today there is strong opposition to nuclear power in the United States, in a 21st century world of 10 billion people, all of whom will demand a middle class life style, nuclear energy will be important. Concern over greenhouse gases will also drive the world toward nuclear power. There are studies indicating that the world will need 10 TW of carbon free energy by 2050. It is difficult to see how this can be achieved without the breeding of nuclear fuel. By using the thorium cycle, proliferation risks are minimized. [1], [2]. 1 W. Manheimer, Fusion Technology, 36, 1, 1999, 2.W. Manheimer, Physics and Society, v 29, #3, p5, July, 2000

Hybrid fusion reactor for production of nuclear fuel with minimum radioactive contamination of the fuel cycle

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Velikhov, E. P.; Kovalchuk, M. V.; Azizov, E. A., E-mail: Azizov-EA@nrcki.ru

2015-12-15

The paper presents the results of the system research on the coordinated development of nuclear and fusion power engineering in the current century. Considering the increasing problems of resource procurement, including limited natural uranium resources, it seems reasonable to use fusion reactors as high-power neutron sources for production of nuclear fuel in a blanket. It is shown that the share of fusion sources in this structural configuration of the energy system can be relatively small. A fundamentally important aspect of this solution to the problem of closure of the fuel cycle is that recycling of highly active spent fuel canmore » be abandoned. Radioactivity released during the recycling of the spent fuel from the hybrid reactor blanket is at least two orders of magnitude lower than during the production of the same number of fissile isotopes after the recycling of the spent fuel from a fast reactor.« less

Data Fusion Analysis for Range Test Validation System

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-07-14

simulants were released during the RTVS ’08 test series: triethyl phosphate (TEP), methyl salicylate (MeS), and acetic acid (AA). A total of 29 release...the combination of a grid of point sensors at ground level and a standoff FTIR system monitoring above ground areas proved effective in detecting the...presence of simulants over the test grid. A Dempster-Shafer approach for data fusion was selected as the most effective strategy for RTVS data fusion

Herpes simplex virus glycoproteins gB and gH function in fusion between the virion envelope and the outer nuclear membrane.

PubMed

Farnsworth, Aaron; Wisner, Todd W; Webb, Michael; Roller, Richard; Cohen, Gary; Eisenberg, Roselyn; Johnson, David C

2007-06-12

Herpesviruses must traverse the nuclear envelope to gain access to the cytoplasm and, ultimately, to exit cells. It is believed that herpesvirus nucleocapsids enter the perinuclear space by budding through the inner nuclear membrane (NM). To reach the cytoplasm these enveloped particles must fuse with the outer NM and the unenveloped capsids then acquire a second envelope in the trans-Golgi network. Little is known about the process by which herpesviruses virions fuse with the outer NM. Here we show that a herpes simplex virus (HSV) mutant lacking both the two putative fusion glycoproteins gB and gH failed to cross the nuclear envelope. Enveloped virions accumulated in the perinuclear space or in membrane vesicles that bulged into the nucleoplasm (herniations). By contrast, mutants lacking just gB or gH showed only minor or no defects in nuclear egress. We concluded that either HSV gB or gH can promote fusion between the virion envelope and the outer NM. It is noteworthy that fusion associated with HSV entry requires the cooperative action of both gB and gH, suggesting that the two types of fusion (egress versus entry) are dissimilar processes.

Data fusion and photometric restoration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pirzkal, Norbert; Hook, Richard N.

2001-11-01

The current generation of 8-10m optical ground-based telescopes have a symbiotic relationship with space telescopes. For direct imaging in the optical the former can collect photons relatively cheaply but the latter can still achieve, even in the era of adaptive optics, significantly higher spatial resolution, point-spread function stability and astrometric fidelity over fields of a few arcminutes. The large archives of HST imaging already in place, when combined with the ease of access to ground-based data afforded by the virtual observatory currently under development, will make space-ground data fusion a powerful tool for the future. We describe a photometric image restoration method that we have developed which allows the efficient and accurate use of high-resolution space imaging of crowded fields to extract high quality photometry from very crowded ground-based images. We illustrate the method using HST and ESO VLT/FORS imaging of a globular cluster and demonstrate quantitatively the photometric measurements quality that can achieved using the data fusion approach instead of just using data from just one telescope. This method can handle most of the common difficulties encountered when attempting this problem such as determining the geometric mapping to the requisite precision, deriving the PSF and the background.

Sensitivity of the fusion cross section to the density dependence of the symmetry energy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reinhard, P.-G.; Umar, A. S.; Stevenson, P. D.; Piekarewicz, J.; Oberacker, V. E.; Maruhn, J. A.

2016-04-01

Background: The study of the nuclear equation of state (EOS) and the behavior of nuclear matter under extreme conditions is crucial to our understanding of many nuclear and astrophysical phenomena. Nuclear reactions serve as one of the means for studying the EOS. Purpose: It is the aim of this paper to discuss the impact of nuclear fusion on the EOS. This is a timely subject given the expected availability of increasingly exotic beams at rare isotope facilities [A. B. Balantekin et al., Mod. Phys. Lett. A 29, 1430010 (2014), 10.1142/S0217732314300109]. In practice, we focus on 48Ca+48Ca fusion. Method: We employ three different approaches to calculate fusion cross sections for a set of energy density functionals with systematically varying nuclear matter properties. Fusion calculations are performed using frozen densities, using a dynamic microscopic method based on density-constrained time-dependent Hartree-Fock (DC-TDHF) approach, as well as direct TDHF study of above barrier cross sections. For these studies, we employ a family of Skyrme parametrizations with systematically varied nuclear matter properties. Results: The folding-potential model provides a reasonable first estimate of cross sections. DC-TDHF, which includes dynamical polarization, reduces the fusion barriers and delivers much better cross sections. Full TDHF near the barrier agrees nicely with DC-TDHF. Most of the Skyrme forces which we used deliver, on the average, fusion cross sections in good agreement with the data. Trying to read off a trend in the results, we find a slight preference for forces which deliver a slope of symmetry energy of L ≈50 MeV that corresponds to a neutron-skin thickness of 48Ca of Rskin=(0.180 -0.210 ) fm. Conclusions: Fusion reactions in the barrier and sub-barrier region can be a tool to study the EOS and the neutron skin of nuclei. The success of the approach will depend on reduced experimental uncertainties of fusion data as well as the development of fusion

Dual roles of TRF1 in tethering telomeres to the nuclear envelope and protecting them from fusion during meiosis.

PubMed

Wang, Lina; Tu, Zhaowei; Liu, Chao; Liu, Hongbin; Kaldis, Philipp; Chen, Zijiang; Li, Wei

2018-06-01

Telomeres integrity is indispensable for chromosomal stability by preventing chromosome erosion and end-to-end fusions. During meiosis, telomeres attach to the inner nuclear envelope and cluster into a highly crowded microenvironment at the bouquet stage, which requires specific mechanisms to protect the telomeres from fusion. Here, we demonstrate that germ cell-specific knockout of a shelterin complex subunit, Trf1, results in arrest of spermatocytes at two different stages. The obliterated telomere-nuclear envelope attachment in Trf1-deficient spermatocytes impairs homologue synapsis and recombination, resulting in a pachytene-like arrest, while the meiotic division arrest might stem from chromosome end-to-end fusion due to the failure of recruiting meiosis specific telomere associated proteins. Further investigations uncovered that TRF1 could directly interact with Speedy A, and Speedy A might work as a scaffold protein to further recruit Cdk2, thus protecting telomeres from fusion at this stage. Together, our results reveal a novel mechanism of TRF1, Speedy A, and Cdk2 in protecting telomere from fusion in a highly crowded microenvironment during meiosis.

Georgia Tech Studies of Sub-Critical Advanced Burner Reactors with a D-T Fusion Tokamak Neutron Source for the Transmutation of Spent Nuclear Fuel

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stacey, W. M.

2009-09-01

The possibility that a tokamak D-T fusion neutron source, based on ITER physics and technology, could be used to drive sub-critical, fast-spectrum nuclear reactors fueled with the transuranics (TRU) in spent nuclear fuel discharged from conventional nuclear reactors has been investigated at Georgia Tech in a series of studies which are summarized in this paper. It is found that sub-critical operation of such fast transmutation reactors is advantageous in allowing longer fuel residence time, hence greater TRU burnup between fuel reprocessing stages, and in allowing higher TRU loading without compromising safety, relative to what could be achieved in a similar critical transmutation reactor. The required plasma and fusion technology operating parameter range of the fusion neutron source is generally within the anticipated operational range of ITER. The implications of these results for fusion development policy, if they hold up under more extensive and detailed analysis, is that a D-T fusion tokamak neutron source for a sub-critical transmutation reactor, built on the basis of the ITER operating experience, could possibly be a logical next step after ITER on the path to fusion electrical power reactors. At the same time, such an application would allow fusion to contribute to meeting the nation's energy needs at an earlier stage by helping to close the fission reactor nuclear fuel cycle.

Leukemia-Associated Nup214 Fusion Proteins Disturb the XPO1-Mediated Nuclear-Cytoplasmic Transport Pathway and Thereby the NF-κB Signaling Pathway.

PubMed

Saito, Shoko; Cigdem, Sadik; Okuwaki, Mitsuru; Nagata, Kyosuke

2016-07-01

Nuclear-cytoplasmic transport through nuclear pore complexes is mediated by nuclear transport receptors. Previous reports have suggested that aberrant nuclear-cytoplasmic transport due to mutations or overexpression of nuclear pore complexes and nuclear transport receptors is closely linked to diseases. Nup214, a component of nuclear pore complexes, has been found as chimeric fusion proteins in leukemia. Among various Nup214 fusion proteins, SET-Nup214 and DEK-Nup214 have been shown to be engaged in tumorigenesis, but their oncogenic mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, we examined the functions of the Nup214 fusion proteins by focusing on their effects on nuclear-cytoplasmic transport. We found that SET-Nup214 and DEK-Nup214 interact with exportin-1 (XPO1)/CRM1 and nuclear RNA export factor 1 (NXF1)/TAP, which mediate leucine-rich nuclear export signal (NES)-dependent protein export and mRNA export, respectively. SET-Nup214 and DEK-Nup214 decreased the XPO1-mediated nuclear export of NES proteins such as cyclin B and proteins involved in the NF-κB signaling pathway by tethering XPO1 onto nuclear dots where Nup214 fusion proteins are localized. We also demonstrated that SET-Nup214 and DEK-Nup214 expression inhibited NF-κB-mediated transcription by abnormal tethering of the complex containing p65 and its inhibitor, IκB, in the nucleus. These results suggest that SET-Nup214 and DEK-Nup214 perturb the regulation of gene expression through alteration of the nuclear-cytoplasmic transport system. Copyright © 2016, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Advantages of Production of New Fissionable Nuclides for the Nuclear Power Industry in Hybrid Fusion-Fission Reactors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsibulskiy, V. F.; Andrianova, E. A.; Davidenko, V. D.; Rodionova, E. V.; Tsibulskiy, S. V.

2017-12-01

A concept of a large-scale nuclear power engineering system equipped with fusion and fission reactors is presented. The reactors have a joint fuel cycle, which imposes the lowest risk of the radiation impact on the environment. The formation of such a system is considered within the framework of the evolution of the current nuclear power industry with the dominance of thermal reactors, gradual transition to the thorium fuel cycle, and integration into the system of the hybrid fusion-fission reactors for breeding nuclear fuel for fission reactors. Such evolution of the nuclear power engineering system will allow preservation of the existing structure with the dominance of thermal reactors, enable the reprocessing of the spent nuclear fuel (SNF) with low burnup, and prevent the dangerous accumulation of minor actinides. The proposed structure of the nuclear power engineering system minimizes the risk of radioactive contamination of the environment and the SNF reprocessing facilities, decreasing it by more than one order of magnitude in comparison with the proposed scheme of closing the uranium-plutonium fuel cycle based on the reprocessing of SNF with high burnup from fast reactors.

An Investigation for Ground State Features of Some Structural Fusion Materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aytekin, H.; Tel, E.; Baldik, R.; Aydin, A.

2011-02-01

Environmental concerns associated with fossil fuels are creating increased interest in alternative non-fossil energy sources. Nuclear fusion can be one of the most attractive sources of energy from the viewpoint of safety and minimal environmental impact. When considered in all energy systems, the requirements for performance of structural materials in a fusion reactor first wall, blanket or diverter, are arguably more demanding or difficult than for other energy system. The development of fusion materials for the safety of fusion power systems and understanding nuclear properties is important. In this paper, ground state properties for some structural fusion materials as 27Al, 51V, 52Cr, 55Mn, and 56Fe are investigated using Skyrme-Hartree-Fock method. The obtained results have been discussed and compared with the available experimental data.

Nuclear Fusion induced by Coulomb Explosion of Heteronuclear Clusters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Last, Isidore; Jortner, Joshua

2001-07-01

We propose a new mechanism for the production of high-energy ( E>3 keV) deuterons, suitable to induce dd nuclear fusion, based on multielectron ionization and Coulomb explosion of heteronuclear deuterium containing molecular clusters, e.g., (D2O)n, in intense ( 1016-2×1018 W/cm2) laser fields. Cluster size equations for E, in conjunction with molecular dynamics simulations, reveal important advantages of Coulomb explosion of (D2O)n heteronuclear clusters, as compared with (D)n clusters. These involve the considerably increased D+ kinetic energy and a narrow, high-energy distribution of deuterons.

Advances in multi-sensor data fusion: algorithms and applications.

PubMed

Dong, Jiang; Zhuang, Dafang; Huang, Yaohuan; Fu, Jingying

2009-01-01

With the development of satellite and remote sensing techniques, more and more image data from airborne/satellite sensors have become available. Multi-sensor image fusion seeks to combine information from different images to obtain more inferences than can be derived from a single sensor. In image-based application fields, image fusion has emerged as a promising research area since the end of the last century. The paper presents an overview of recent advances in multi-sensor satellite image fusion. Firstly, the most popular existing fusion algorithms are introduced, with emphasis on their recent improvements. Advances in main applications fields in remote sensing, including object identification, classification, change detection and maneuvering targets tracking, are described. Both advantages and limitations of those applications are then discussed. Recommendations are addressed, including: (1) Improvements of fusion algorithms; (2) Development of "algorithm fusion" methods; (3) Establishment of an automatic quality assessment scheme.

A Review on the Potential Use of Austenitic Stainless Steels in Nuclear Fusion Reactors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Şahin, Sümer; Übeyli, Mustafa

2008-12-01

Various engineering materials; austenitic stainless steels, ferritic/martensitic steels, vanadium alloys, refractory metals and composites have been suggested as candidate structural materials for nuclear fusion reactors. Among these structural materials, austenitic steels have an advantage of extensive technological database and lower cost compared to other non-ferrous candidates. Furthermore, they have also advantages of very good mechanical properties and fission operation experience. Moreover, modified austenitic stainless (Ni and Mo free) have relatively low residual radioactivity. Nevertheless, they can't withstand high neutron wall load which is required to get high power density in fusion reactors. On the other hand, a protective flowing liquid wall between plasma and solid first wall in these reactors can eliminate this restriction. This study presents an overview of austenitic stainless steels considered to be used in fusion reactors.

Magnetic-confinement fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ongena, J.; Koch, R.; Wolf, R.; Zohm, H.

2016-05-01

Our modern society requires environmentally friendly solutions for energy production. Energy can be released not only from the fission of heavy nuclei but also from the fusion of light nuclei. Nuclear fusion is an important option for a clean and safe solution for our long-term energy needs. The extremely high temperatures required for the fusion reaction are routinely realized in several magnetic-fusion machines. Since the early 1990s, up to 16 MW of fusion power has been released in pulses of a few seconds, corresponding to a power multiplication close to break-even. Our understanding of the very complex behaviour of a magnetized plasma at temperatures between 150 and 200 million °C surrounded by cold walls has also advanced substantially. This steady progress has resulted in the construction of ITER, a fusion device with a planned fusion power output of 500 MW in pulses of 400 s. ITER should provide answers to remaining important questions on the integration of physics and technology, through a full-size demonstration of a tenfold power multiplication, and on nuclear safety aspects. Here we review the basic physics underlying magnetic fusion: past achievements, present efforts and the prospects for future production of electrical energy. We also discuss questions related to the safety, waste management and decommissioning of a future fusion power plant.

Z-Pinch Fusion Propulsion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Miernik, Janie

2011-01-01

Fusion-based nuclear propulsion has the potential to enable fast interplanetary transportation. Shorter trips are better for humans in the harmful radiation environment of deep space. Nuclear propulsion and power plants can enable high Ispand payload mass fractions because they require less fuel mass. Fusion energy research has characterized the Z-Pinch dense plasma focus method. (1) Lightning is form of pinched plasma electrical discharge phenomena. (2) Wire array Z-Pinch experiments are commonly studied and nuclear power plant configurations have been proposed. (3) Used in the field of Nuclear Weapons Effects (NWE) testing in the defense industry, nuclear weapon x-rays are simulated through Z-Pinch phenomena.

Multisensor data fusion for physical activity assessment.

PubMed

Liu, Shaopeng; Gao, Robert X; John, Dinesh; Staudenmayer, John W; Freedson, Patty S

2012-03-01

This paper presents a sensor fusion method for assessing physical activity (PA) of human subjects, based on support vector machines (SVMs). Specifically, acceleration and ventilation measured by a wearable multisensor device on 50 test subjects performing 13 types of activities of varying intensities are analyzed, from which activity type and energy expenditure are derived. The results show that the method correctly recognized the 13 activity types 88.1% of the time, which is 12.3% higher than using a hip accelerometer alone. Also, the method predicted energy expenditure with a root mean square error of 0.42 METs, 22.2% lower than using a hip accelerometer alone. Furthermore, the fusion method was effective in reducing the subject-to-subject variability (standard deviation of recognition accuracies across subjects) in activity recognition, especially when data from the ventilation sensor were added to the fusion model. These results demonstrate that the multisensor fusion technique presented is more effective in identifying activity type and energy expenditure than the traditional accelerometer-alone-based methods.

Discourse, Power, and Knowledge in the Management of "Big Science": The Production of Consensus in a Nuclear Fusion Research Laboratory.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kinsella, William J.

1999-01-01

Extends a Foucauldian view of power/knowledge to the archetypical knowledge-intensive organization, the scientific research laboratory. Describes the discursive production of power/knowledge at the "big science" laboratory conducting nuclear fusion research and illuminates a critical incident in which the fusion research…

Data fusion for a vision-aided radiological detection system: Calibration algorithm performance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stadnikia, Kelsey; Henderson, Kristofer; Martin, Allan; Riley, Phillip; Koppal, Sanjeev; Enqvist, Andreas

2018-05-01

In order to improve the ability to detect, locate, track and identify nuclear/radiological threats, the University of Florida nuclear detection community has teamed up with the 3D vision community to collaborate on a low cost data fusion system. The key is to develop an algorithm to fuse the data from multiple radiological and 3D vision sensors as one system. The system under development at the University of Florida is being assessed with various types of radiological detectors and widely available visual sensors. A series of experiments were devised utilizing two EJ-309 liquid organic scintillation detectors (one primary and one secondary), a Microsoft Kinect for Windows v2 sensor and a Velodyne HDL-32E High Definition LiDAR Sensor which is a highly sensitive vision sensor primarily used to generate data for self-driving cars. Each experiment consisted of 27 static measurements of a source arranged in a cube with three different distances in each dimension. The source used was Cf-252. The calibration algorithm developed is utilized to calibrate the relative 3D-location of the two different types of sensors without need to measure it by hand; thus, preventing operator manipulation and human errors. The algorithm can also account for the facility dependent deviation from ideal data fusion correlation. Use of the vision sensor to determine the location of a sensor would also limit the possible locations and it does not allow for room dependence (facility dependent deviation) to generate a detector pseudo-location to be used for data analysis later. Using manually measured source location data, our algorithm-predicted the offset detector location within an average of 20 cm calibration-difference to its actual location. Calibration-difference is the Euclidean distance from the algorithm predicted detector location to the measured detector location. The Kinect vision sensor data produced an average calibration-difference of 35 cm and the HDL-32E produced an average

Visualization of multi-INT fusion data using Java Viewer (JVIEW)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blasch, Erik; Aved, Alex; Nagy, James; Scott, Stephen

2014-05-01

Visualization is important for multi-intelligence fusion and we demonstrate issues for presenting physics-derived (i.e., hard) and human-derived (i.e., soft) fusion results. Physics-derived solutions (e.g., imagery) typically involve sensor measurements that are objective, while human-derived (e.g., text) typically involve language processing. Both results can be geographically displayed for user-machine fusion. Attributes of an effective and efficient display are not well understood, so we demonstrate issues and results for filtering, correlation, and association of data for users - be they operators or analysts. Operators require near-real time solutions while analysts have the opportunities of non-real time solutions for forensic analysis. In a use case, we demonstrate examples using the JVIEW concept that has been applied to piloting, space situation awareness, and cyber analysis. Using the open-source JVIEW software, we showcase a big data solution for multi-intelligence fusion application for context-enhanced information fusion.

Analysis of nuclear export using photoactivatable GFP fusion proteins and interspecies heterokaryons.

PubMed

Nakrieko, Kerry-Ann; Ivanova, Iordanka A; Dagnino, Lina

2010-01-01

In this chapter, we review protocols for the analysis of nucleocytoplasmic shuttling of transcription factors and nuclear proteins, using two different approaches. The first involves the use of photoactivatable forms of the protein of interest by fusion to photoactivatable green fluorescent protein to follow its movement out of the nucleus by live-cell confocal microscopy. This methodology allows for the kinetic characterization of protein movements as well as measurement of steady-state levels. In a second procedure to assess the ability of a nuclear protein to move into and out of the nucleus, we describe the use of interspecies heterokaryon assays, which provide a measurement of steady-state distribution. These technologies are directly applicable to the analysis of nucleocytoplasmic movements not only of transcription factors, but also other nuclear proteins.

Modeling of Steady-state Scenarios for the Fusion Nuclear Science Facility, Advanced Tokamak Approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garofalo, A. M.; Chan, V. S.; Prater, R.; Smith, S. P.; St. John, H. E.; Meneghini, O.

2013-10-01

A Fusion National Science Facility (FNSF) would complement ITER in addressing the community identified science and technology gaps to a commercially attractive DEMO, including breeding tritium and completing the fuel cycle, qualifying nuclear materials for high fluence, developing suitable materials for the plasma-boundary interface, and demonstrating power extraction. Steady-state plasma operation is highly desirable to address the requirements for fusion nuclear technology testing [1]. The Advanced Tokamak (AT) is a strong candidate for an FNSF as a consequence of its mature physics base, capability to address the key issues with a more compact device, and the direct relevance to an attractive target power plant. Key features of AT are fully noninductive current drive, strong plasma cross section shaping, internal profiles consistent with high bootstrap fraction, and operation at high beta, typically above the free boundary limit, βN > 3 . Work supported by GA IR&D funding, DE-FC02-04ER54698, and DE-FG02-95ER43309.

Structured Multi-level Data Fusion and Modelling of Heterogeneous Environmental Data for Future Internet Applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sabeur, Zoheir; Chakravarthy, Ajay; Bashevoy, Maxim; Modafferi, Stefano

2013-04-01

The rapid increase in environmental observations which are conducted by Small to Medium Enterprise communities and volunteers using affordable in situ sensors at various scales, in addition to the more established observatories set up by environmental and space agencies using airborne and space-borne sensing technologies is generating serious amounts of BIG data at ever increasing speeds. Furthermore, the emergence of Future Internet technologies and the urgent requirements for the deployment of specific enablers for the delivery of processed environmental knowledge in real-time with advanced situation awareness to citizens has reached paramount importance. Specifically, it has become highly critical now to build and provide services which automate the aggregation of data from various sources, while surmounting the semantic gaps, conflicts and heterogeneity in data sources. The early stage aggregation of data will enable the pre-processing of data from multiple sources while reconciling the temporal gaps in measurement time series, and aligning their respective a-synchronicities. This low level type of data fusion process needs to be automated and chained to more advanced level of data fusion services specialising in observation forecasts at spaces where sensing is not deployed; or at time slices where sensing has not taken place yet. As a result, multi-level fusion services are required among the families of specific enablers for monitoring environments and spaces in the Future Internet. These have been intially deployed and piloted in the ongoing ENVIROFI project of the FI-PPP programme [1]. Automated fusion and modelling of in situ and remote sensing data has been set up and the experimentation successfully conducted using RBF networks for the spatial fusion of water quality parameters measurements from satellite and stationary buoys in the Irish Sea. The RBF networks method scales for the spatial data fusion of multiple types of observation sources. This

Regional distribution of forest height and biomass from multisensor data fusion

Treesearch

Yifan Yu; Sassan Saatch; Linda S. Heath; Elizabeth LaPoint; Ranga Myneni; Yuri Knyazikhin

2010-01-01

Elevation data acquired from radar interferometry at C-band from SRTM are used in data fusion techniques to estimate regional scale forest height and aboveground live biomass (AGLB) over the state of Maine. Two fusion techniques have been developed to perform post-processing and parameter estimations from four data sets: 1 arc sec National Elevation Data (NED), SRTM...

Multisource data fusion for documenting archaeological sites

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Knyaz, Vladimir; Chibunichev, Alexander; Zhuravlev, Denis

2017-10-01

The quality of archaeological sites documenting is of great importance for cultural heritage preserving and investigating. The progress in developing new techniques and systems for data acquisition and processing creates an excellent basis for achieving a new quality of archaeological sites documenting and visualization. archaeological data has some specific features which have to be taken into account when acquiring, processing and managing. First of all, it is a needed to gather as full as possible information about findings providing no loss of information and no damage to artifacts. Remote sensing technologies are the most adequate and powerful means which satisfy this requirement. An approach to archaeological data acquiring and fusion based on remote sensing is proposed. It combines a set of photogrammetric techniques for obtaining geometrical and visual information at different scales and detailing and a pipeline for archaeological data documenting, structuring, fusion, and analysis. The proposed approach is applied for documenting of Bosporus archaeological expedition of Russian State Historical Museum.

Interactive Plasma Physics Education Using Data from Fusion Experiments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Calderon, Brisa; Davis, Bill; Zwicker, Andrew

2010-11-01

The Internet Plasma Physics Education Experience (IPPEX) website was created in 1996 to give users access to data from plasma and fusion experiments. Interactive material on electricity, magnetism, matter, and energy was presented to generate interest and prepare users to understand data from a fusion experiment. Initially, users were allowed to analyze real-time and archival data from the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) experiment. IPPEX won numerous awards for its novel approach of allowing users to participate in ongoing research. However, the latest revisions of IPPEX were in 2001 and the interactive material is no longer functional on modern browsers. Also, access to real-time data was lost when TFTR was shut down. The interactive material on IPPEX is being rewritten in ActionScript3.0, and real-time and archival data from the National Spherical Tokamak Experiment (NSTX) will be made available to users. New tools like EFIT animations, fast cameras, and plots of important plasma parameters will be included along with an existing Java-based ``virtual tokamak.'' Screenshots from the upgraded website and future directions will be presented.

Product development using process monitoring and NDE data fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peterson, Todd; Bossi, Richard H.

1998-03-01

Composite process/product development relies on both process monitoring information and nondestructive evaluation measurements for determining application suitability. In the past these activities have been performed and analyzed independently. Our present approach is to present the process monitoring and NDE data together in a data fusion workstation. This methodology leads to final product acceptance based on a combined process monitoring and NDE criteria. The data fusion work station combines process parameter and NDE data in a single workspace enabling all the data to be used in the acceptance/rejection decision process. An example application is the induction welding process, a unique joining method for assembling primary composite structure, that offers significant cost and weight advantages over traditional fasted structure. The determination of the required time, temperature and pressure conditions used in the process to achieve a complete weld is being aided by the use of ultrasonic inspection techniques. Full waveform ultrasonic inspection data is employed to evaluate the quality of spar cap to skin fit, an essential element of the welding process, and is processed to find a parameter that can be used for weld acceptance. Certification of the completed weld incorporates the data fusion methodology.

Nuclear relocation of STAT6 reliably predicts NAB2-STAT6 fusion for the diagnosis of solitary fibrous tumour.

PubMed

Koelsche, Christian; Schweizer, Leonille; Renner, Marcus; Warth, Arne; Jones, David T W; Sahm, Felix; Reuss, David E; Capper, David; Knösel, Thomas; Schulz, Birte; Petersen, Iver; Ulrich, Alexis; Renker, Eva Kristin; Lehner, Burkhard; Pfister, Stefan M; Schirmacher, Peter; von Deimling, Andreas; Mechtersheimer, Gunhild

2014-11-01

Nuclear relocation of STAT6 has been shown in tumours with NAB2-STAT6 fusion, and has been proposed as an ancillary marker for the diagnosis of solitary fibrous tumours (SFTs). The aim of this study was to verify the utility of STAT6 immunohistology in diagnosing SFT. A total of 689 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tumours comprising 35 pleural SFTs and 654 other mesenchymal tumours were investigated for STAT6 expression using immunohistochemistry. Nine dedifferentiated liposarcomas (DDLSs) and five SFTs were also examined for the presence of NAB2-STAT6 fusion at the protein level using the proximity ligation assay (PLA), and for copy number variants (CNVs) with the Illumina Infinium Human Methylation450 array. Thirty-four of 35 SFTs showed strong nuclear STAT6 expression. Furthermore, five of 68 DDLSs, two of 130 undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcomas and one of 63 cases of nodular fasciitis showed moderate to strong nuclear STAT6 expression. The PLA indicated the presence of NAB2-STAT6 fusion protein in SFTs, but signal was also detected in some DDLSs. Copy number analysis showed an overall low frequency of chromosomal imbalances in SFTs, but complex karyotypes in DDLSs, including amplification of STAT6 and MDM2 loci. The detection of nuclear relocation of STAT6 with immunohistochemistry is a characteristic of SFTs, and may serve as a diagnostic marker that indicates NAB2-STAT6 fusion and helps to discriminate SFTs from histological mimics. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Investigating the degree of "stigma" associated with nuclear energy technologies: A cross-cultural examination of the case of fusion power.

PubMed

Horlick-Jones, Tom; Prades, Ana; Espluga, Josep

2012-07-01

The extent to which nuclear energy technologies are, in some sense, "stigmatised" by historical environmental and military associations is of particular interest in contemporary debates about sustainable energy policy. Recent claims in the literature suggest that despite such stigmatisation, lay views on such technologies may be shifting towards a "reluctant acceptance," in the light of concerns about issues like anthropogenic climate change. In this paper, we report on research into learning and reasoning processes concerned with a largely unknown nuclear energy technology; namely fusion power. We focus on the role of the nuclear label, or "brand," in informing how lay citizens make sense of the nature of this technology. Our findings derive from a comparative analysis of data generated in Spain and Britain, using the same methodology.

Nuclear fusion driven by Coulomb explosion of homonuclear and heteronuclear deuterium- and tritium-containing clusters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Last, Isidore; Jortner, Joshua

2001-12-01

The ionization and Coulomb explosion of homonuclear Dn and Tn (n=959-8007) and heteronuclear (D2O)n and (T2O)n (n=459-2171) clusters in very intense (I=5×1014-5×1018 W cm-2) laser fields is studied using classical dynamics simulations. The efficiency of the d+d and d+t nuclear fusion driven by the Coulomb explosion (NFDCE) is explored. The d+d NFDCE of (D2O)n heteronuclear clusters is enhanced by energetic and kinematic effects for D+, while for (T2O)n heteronuclear clusters the kinetic energy of T+ is dominated by energetic effects. The cluster size dependence of the fusion reaction yield has been established. The heteronuclear clusters provide considerably higher d+d and d+t fusion reaction yields than the homonuclear clusters of the same size. The clusters consisting of both D and T atoms can provide highly efficient d+t fusion reactions.

Fusion breeder

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Moir, R.W.

1982-02-22

The fusion breeder is a fusion reactor designed with special blankets to maximize the transmutation by 14 MeV neutrons of uranium-238 to plutonium or thorium to uranium-233 for use as a fuel for fission reactors. Breeding fissile fuels has not been a goal of the US fusion energy program. This paper suggests it is time for a policy change to make the fusion breeder a goal of the US fusion program and the US nuclear energy program. The purpose of this paper is to suggest this policy change be made and tell why it should be made, and to outlinemore » specific research and development goals so that the fusion breeder will be developed in time to meet fissile fuel needs.« less

Fusion breeder

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Moir, R.W.

1982-04-20

The fusion breeder is a fusion reactor designed with special blankets to maximize the transmutation by 14 MeV neutrons of uranium-238 to plutonium or thorium to uranium-233 for use as a fuel for fission reactors. Breeding fissile fuels has not been a goal of the US fusion energy program. This paper suggests it is time for a policy change to make the fusion breeder a goal of the US fusion program and the US nuclear energy program. The purpose of this paper is to suggest this policy change be made and tell why it should be made, and to outlinemore » specific research and development goals so that the fusion breeder will be developed in time to meet fissile fuel needs.« less

Energy Logic (EL): a novel fusion engine of multi-modality multi-agent data/information fusion for intelligent surveillance systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rababaah, Haroun; Shirkhodaie, Amir

2009-04-01

The rapidly advancing hardware technology, smart sensors and sensor networks are advancing environment sensing. One major potential of this technology is Large-Scale Surveillance Systems (LS3) especially for, homeland security, battlefield intelligence, facility guarding and other civilian applications. The efficient and effective deployment of LS3 requires addressing number of aspects impacting the scalability of such systems. The scalability factors are related to: computation and memory utilization efficiency, communication bandwidth utilization, network topology (e.g., centralized, ad-hoc, hierarchical or hybrid), network communication protocol and data routing schemes; and local and global data/information fusion scheme for situational awareness. Although, many models have been proposed to address one aspect or another of these issues but, few have addressed the need for a multi-modality multi-agent data/information fusion that has characteristics satisfying the requirements of current and future intelligent sensors and sensor networks. In this paper, we have presented a novel scalable fusion engine for multi-modality multi-agent information fusion for LS3. The new fusion engine is based on a concept we call: Energy Logic. Experimental results of this work as compared to a Fuzzy logic model strongly supported the validity of the new model and inspired future directions for different levels of fusion and different applications.

Proton Spectra from He 3 + T and He 3 + He 3 Fusion at Low Center-of-Mass Energy, with Potential Implications for Solar Fusion Cross Sections

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zylstra, A. B.; Frenje, J. A.; Gatu Johnson, M.

Few-body nuclear physics often relies upon phenomenological models, with new efforts at the ab initio theory reported recently; both need high-quality benchmark data, particularly at low center-of-mass energies. We use high-energy-density plasmas to measure the proton spectra from 3He + T and 3He + 3He fusion. The data disagree with R -matrix predictions constrained by neutron spectra from T + T fusion. Here, we present a new analysis of the 3He + 3He proton spectrum; these benchmarked spectral shapes should be used for interpreting low-resolution data, such as solar fusion cross-section measurements.

Proton Spectra from 3He + T and 3He + 3He Fusion at Low Center-of-Mass Energy, with Potential Implications for Solar Fusion Cross Sections

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zylstra, A. B.; Frenje, J. A.; Gatu Johnson, M.; Hale, G. M.; Brune, C. R.; Bacher, A.; Casey, D. T.; Li, C. K.; McNabb, D.; Paris, M.; Petrasso, R. D.; Sangster, T. C.; Sayre, D. B.; Séguin, F. H.

2017-12-01

Few-body nuclear physics often relies upon phenomenological models, with new efforts at the ab initio theory reported recently; both need high-quality benchmark data, particularly at low center-of-mass energies. We use high-energy-density plasmas to measure the proton spectra from 3He +T and 3He + 3He fusion. The data disagree with R -matrix predictions constrained by neutron spectra from T +T fusion. We present a new analysis of the 3He + 3He 3 proton spectrum; these benchmarked spectral shapes should be used for interpreting low-resolution data, such as solar fusion cross-section measurements.

Proton Spectra from He 3 + T and He 3 + He 3 Fusion at Low Center-of-Mass Energy, with Potential Implications for Solar Fusion Cross Sections

DOE PAGES

Zylstra, A. B.; Frenje, J. A.; Gatu Johnson, M.; ...

2017-11-29

Few-body nuclear physics often relies upon phenomenological models, with new efforts at the ab initio theory reported recently; both need high-quality benchmark data, particularly at low center-of-mass energies. We use high-energy-density plasmas to measure the proton spectra from 3He + T and 3He + 3He fusion. The data disagree with R -matrix predictions constrained by neutron spectra from T + T fusion. Here, we present a new analysis of the 3He + 3He proton spectrum; these benchmarked spectral shapes should be used for interpreting low-resolution data, such as solar fusion cross-section measurements.

Discovering and understanding oncogenic gene fusions through data intensive computational approaches

PubMed Central

Latysheva, Natasha S.; Babu, M. Madan

2016-01-01

Abstract Although gene fusions have been recognized as important drivers of cancer for decades, our understanding of the prevalence and function of gene fusions has been revolutionized by the rise of next-generation sequencing, advances in bioinformatics theory and an increasing capacity for large-scale computational biology. The computational work on gene fusions has been vastly diverse, and the present state of the literature is fragmented. It will be fruitful to merge three camps of gene fusion bioinformatics that appear to rarely cross over: (i) data-intensive computational work characterizing the molecular biology of gene fusions; (ii) development research on fusion detection tools, candidate fusion prioritization algorithms and dedicated fusion databases and (iii) clinical research that seeks to either therapeutically target fusion transcripts and proteins or leverages advances in detection tools to perform large-scale surveys of gene fusion landscapes in specific cancer types. In this review, we unify these different—yet highly complementary and symbiotic—approaches with the view that increased synergy will catalyze advancements in gene fusion identification, characterization and significance evaluation. PMID:27105842

Deep learning decision fusion for the classification of urban remote sensing data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abdi, Ghasem; Samadzadegan, Farhad; Reinartz, Peter

2018-01-01

Multisensor data fusion is one of the most common and popular remote sensing data classification topics by considering a robust and complete description about the objects of interest. Furthermore, deep feature extraction has recently attracted significant interest and has become a hot research topic in the geoscience and remote sensing research community. A deep learning decision fusion approach is presented to perform multisensor urban remote sensing data classification. After deep features are extracted by utilizing joint spectral-spatial information, a soft-decision made classifier is applied to train high-level feature representations and to fine-tune the deep learning framework. Next, a decision-level fusion classifies objects of interest by the joint use of sensors. Finally, a context-aware object-based postprocessing is used to enhance the classification results. A series of comparative experiments are conducted on the widely used dataset of 2014 IEEE GRSS data fusion contest. The obtained results illustrate the considerable advantages of the proposed deep learning decision fusion over the traditional classifiers.

Oscillatory vapour shielding of liquid metal walls in nuclear fusion devices.

PubMed

van Eden, G G; Kvon, V; van de Sanden, M C M; Morgan, T W

2017-08-04

Providing an efficacious plasma facing surface between the extreme plasma heat exhaust and the structural materials of nuclear fusion devices is a major challenge on the road to electricity production by fusion power plants. The performance of solid plasma facing surfaces may become critically reduced over time due to progressing damage accumulation. Liquid metals, however, are now gaining interest in solving the challenge of extreme heat flux hitting the reactor walls. A key advantage of liquid metals is the use of vapour shielding to reduce the plasma exhaust. Here we demonstrate that this phenomenon is oscillatory by nature. The dynamics of a Sn vapour cloud are investigated by exposing liquid Sn targets to H and He plasmas at heat fluxes greater than 5 MW m -2 . The observations indicate the presence of a dynamic equilibrium between the plasma and liquid target ruled by recombinatory processes in the plasma, leading to an approximately stable surface temperature.Vapour shielding is one of the interesting mechanisms for reducing the heat load to plasma facing components in fusion reactors. Here the authors report on the observation of a dynamic equilibrium between the plasma and the divertor liquid Sn surface leading to an overall stable surface temperature.

National Nuclear Data Center

Science.gov Websites

reaction data Sigma Retrieval & Plotting Nuclear structure & decay Data Nuclear Science References Experimental Unevaluated Nuclear Data List Evaluated Nuclear Structure Data File NNDC databases Ground and isomeric states properties Nuclear structure & decay data journal Nuclear reaction model code Tools and

Meningeal hemangiopericytoma and solitary fibrous tumors carry the NAB2-STAT6 fusion and can be diagnosed by nuclear expression of STAT6 protein.

PubMed

Schweizer, Leonille; Koelsche, Christian; Sahm, Felix; Piro, Rosario M; Capper, David; Reuss, David E; Pusch, Stefan; Habel, Antje; Meyer, Jochen; Göck, Tanja; Jones, David T W; Mawrin, Christian; Schittenhelm, Jens; Becker, Albert; Heim, Stephanie; Simon, Matthias; Herold-Mende, Christel; Mechtersheimer, Gunhild; Paulus, Werner; König, Rainer; Wiestler, Otmar D; Pfister, Stefan M; von Deimling, Andreas

2013-05-01

Non-central nervous system hemangiopericytoma (HPC) and solitary fibrous tumor (SFT) are considered by pathologists as two variants of a single tumor entity now subsumed under the entity SFT. Recent detection of frequent NAB2-STAT6 fusions in both, HPC and SFT, provided additional support for this view. On the other hand, current neuropathological practice still distinguishes between HPC and SFT. The present study set out to identify genes involved in the formation of meningeal HPC. We performed exome sequencing and detected the NAB2-STAT6 fusion in DNA of 8/10 meningeal HPC thereby providing evidence of close relationship of these tumors with peripheral SFT. Due to the considerable effort required for exome sequencing, we sought to explore surrogate markers for the NAB2-STAT6 fusion protein. We adopted the Duolink proximity ligation assay and demonstrated the presence of NAB2-STAT6 fusion protein in 17/17 HPC and the absence in 15/15 meningiomas. More practical, presence of the NAB2-STAT6 fusion protein resulted in a strong nuclear signal in STAT6 immunohistochemistry. The nuclear reallocation of STAT6 was detected in 35/37 meningeal HPC and 25/25 meningeal SFT but not in 87 meningiomas representing the most important differential diagnosis. Tissues not harboring the NAB2-STAT6 fusion protein presented with nuclear expression of NAB2 and cytoplasmic expression of STAT6 proteins. In conclusion, we provide strong evidence for meningeal HPC and SFT to constitute variants of a single entity which is defined by NAB2-STAT6 fusion. In addition, we demonstrate that this fusion can be rapidly detected by STAT6 immunohistochemistry which shows a consistent nuclear reallocation. This immunohistochemical assay may prove valuable for the differentiation of HPC and SFT from other mesenchymal neoplasms.

Ion acceleration and D-D nuclear fusion in laser-generated plasma from advanced deuterated polyethylene.

PubMed

Torrisi, Lorenzo

2014-10-23

Deuterated polyethylene targets have been irradiated by means of a 1016 W/cm2 laser using 600 J pulse energy, 1315 nm wavelength, 300 ps pulse duration and 70 micron spot diameter. The plasma parameters were measured using on-line diagnostics based on ion collectors, SiC detectors and plastic scintillators, all employed in time-of-flight configuration. In addition, a Thomson parabola spectrometer, an X-ray streak camera, and calibrated neutron dosimeter bubble detectors were employed. Characteristic protons and neutrons at maximum energies of 3.0 MeV and 2.45 MeV, respectively, were detected, confirming that energy spectra of reaction products coming from deuterium-deuterium nuclear fusion occur. In thick advanced targets a fusion rate of the order of 2 × 108 fusions per laser shot was calculated.

Classification Accuracy Increase Using Multisensor Data Fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Makarau, A.; Palubinskas, G.; Reinartz, P.

2011-09-01

The practical use of very high resolution visible and near-infrared (VNIR) data is still growing (IKONOS, Quickbird, GeoEye-1, etc.) but for classification purposes the number of bands is limited in comparison to full spectral imaging. These limitations may lead to the confusion of materials such as different roofs, pavements, roads, etc. and therefore may provide wrong interpretation and use of classification products. Employment of hyperspectral data is another solution, but their low spatial resolution (comparing to multispectral data) restrict their usage for many applications. Another improvement can be achieved by fusion approaches of multisensory data since this may increase the quality of scene classification. Integration of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and optical data is widely performed for automatic classification, interpretation, and change detection. In this paper we present an approach for very high resolution SAR and multispectral data fusion for automatic classification in urban areas. Single polarization TerraSAR-X (SpotLight mode) and multispectral data are integrated using the INFOFUSE framework, consisting of feature extraction (information fission), unsupervised clustering (data representation on a finite domain and dimensionality reduction), and data aggregation (Bayesian or neural network). This framework allows a relevant way of multisource data combination following consensus theory. The classification is not influenced by the limitations of dimensionality, and the calculation complexity primarily depends on the step of dimensionality reduction. Fusion of single polarization TerraSAR-X, WorldView-2 (VNIR or full set), and Digital Surface Model (DSM) data allow for different types of urban objects to be classified into predefined classes of interest with increased accuracy. The comparison to classification results of WorldView-2 multispectral data (8 spectral bands) is provided and the numerical evaluation of the method in comparison to

High-performance superconductors for Fusion Nuclear Science Facility

DOE PAGES

Zhai, Yuhu; Kessel, Chuck; Barth, Christian; ...

2016-11-09

High-performance superconducting magnets play an important role in the design of the next step large-scale, high-field fusion reactors such as the fusion nuclear science facility (FNSF) and the spherical tokamak (ST) pilot plant beyond ITER. Here, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory is currently leading the design studies of the FNSF and the ST pilot plant study. ITER, which is under construction in the south of France, utilizes the state-of-the-art low temperature superconducting magnet technology based on the cable-in-conduit conductor design, where over a thousand multifilament Nb 3Sn superconducting strands are twisted together to form a high-current-carrying cable inserted into a steelmore » jacket for coil windings. We present design options of the high-performance superconductors in the winding pack for the FNSF toroidal field magnet system based on the toroidal field radial build from the system code. For the low temperature superconductor options, the advanced J cNb 3Sn RRP strands (J c > 1000 A/mm 2 at 16 T, 4 K) from Oxford Superconducting Technology are under consideration. For the high-temperature superconductor options, the rectangular-shaped high-current HTS cable made of stacked YBCO tapes will be considered to validate feasibility of TF coil winding pack design for the ST-FNSF magnets.« less

High-performance superconductors for Fusion Nuclear Science Facility

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhai, Yuhu; Kessel, Chuck; Barth, Christian

High-performance superconducting magnets play an important role in the design of the next step large-scale, high-field fusion reactors such as the fusion nuclear science facility (FNSF) and the spherical tokamak (ST) pilot plant beyond ITER. Here, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory is currently leading the design studies of the FNSF and the ST pilot plant study. ITER, which is under construction in the south of France, utilizes the state-of-the-art low temperature superconducting magnet technology based on the cable-in-conduit conductor design, where over a thousand multifilament Nb 3Sn superconducting strands are twisted together to form a high-current-carrying cable inserted into a steelmore » jacket for coil windings. We present design options of the high-performance superconductors in the winding pack for the FNSF toroidal field magnet system based on the toroidal field radial build from the system code. For the low temperature superconductor options, the advanced J cNb 3Sn RRP strands (J c > 1000 A/mm 2 at 16 T, 4 K) from Oxford Superconducting Technology are under consideration. For the high-temperature superconductor options, the rectangular-shaped high-current HTS cable made of stacked YBCO tapes will be considered to validate feasibility of TF coil winding pack design for the ST-FNSF magnets.« less

Nuclear Data Networks

Science.gov Websites

calibrations. NSDD The international network of Nuclear Structure and Decay Data evaluators Group of and updating of nuclear structure data contained in Evaluated Nuclear Structure Data File (ENSDF

A Markov game theoretic data fusion approach for cyber situational awareness

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shen, Dan; Chen, Genshe; Cruz, Jose B., Jr.; Haynes, Leonard; Kruger, Martin; Blasch, Erik

2007-04-01

This paper proposes an innovative data-fusion/ data-mining game theoretic situation awareness and impact assessment approach for cyber network defense. Alerts generated by Intrusion Detection Sensors (IDSs) or Intrusion Prevention Sensors (IPSs) are fed into the data refinement (Level 0) and object assessment (L1) data fusion components. High-level situation/threat assessment (L2/L3) data fusion based on Markov game model and Hierarchical Entity Aggregation (HEA) are proposed to refine the primitive prediction generated by adaptive feature/pattern recognition and capture new unknown features. A Markov (Stochastic) game method is used to estimate the belief of each possible cyber attack pattern. Game theory captures the nature of cyber conflicts: determination of the attacking-force strategies is tightly coupled to determination of the defense-force strategies and vice versa. Also, Markov game theory deals with uncertainty and incompleteness of available information. A software tool is developed to demonstrate the performance of the high level information fusion for cyber network defense situation and a simulation example shows the enhanced understating of cyber-network defense.

Distributed multimodal data fusion for large scale wireless sensor networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ertin, Emre

2006-05-01

Sensor network technology has enabled new surveillance systems where sensor nodes equipped with processing and communication capabilities can collaboratively detect, classify and track targets of interest over a large surveillance area. In this paper we study distributed fusion of multimodal sensor data for extracting target information from a large scale sensor network. Optimal tracking, classification, and reporting of threat events require joint consideration of multiple sensor modalities. Multiple sensor modalities improve tracking by reducing the uncertainty in the track estimates as well as resolving track-sensor data association problems. Our approach to solving the fusion problem with large number of multimodal sensors is construction of likelihood maps. The likelihood maps provide a summary data for the solution of the detection, tracking and classification problem. The likelihood map presents the sensory information in an easy format for the decision makers to interpret and is suitable with fusion of spatial prior information such as maps, imaging data from stand-off imaging sensors. We follow a statistical approach to combine sensor data at different levels of uncertainty and resolution. The likelihood map transforms each sensor data stream to a spatio-temporal likelihood map ideally suitable for fusion with imaging sensor outputs and prior geographic information about the scene. We also discuss distributed computation of the likelihood map using a gossip based algorithm and present simulation results.

Double Cluster Heads Model for Secure and Accurate Data Fusion in Wireless Sensor Networks

PubMed Central

Fu, Jun-Song; Liu, Yun

2015-01-01

Secure and accurate data fusion is an important issue in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and has been extensively researched in the literature. In this paper, by combining clustering techniques, reputation and trust systems, and data fusion algorithms, we propose a novel cluster-based data fusion model called Double Cluster Heads Model (DCHM) for secure and accurate data fusion in WSNs. Different from traditional clustering models in WSNs, two cluster heads are selected after clustering for each cluster based on the reputation and trust system and they perform data fusion independently of each other. Then, the results are sent to the base station where the dissimilarity coefficient is computed. If the dissimilarity coefficient of the two data fusion results exceeds the threshold preset by the users, the cluster heads will be added to blacklist, and the cluster heads must be reelected by the sensor nodes in a cluster. Meanwhile, feedback is sent from the base station to the reputation and trust system, which can help us to identify and delete the compromised sensor nodes in time. Through a series of extensive simulations, we found that the DCHM performed very well in data fusion security and accuracy. PMID:25608211

Remote Sensing Data Fusion to Detect Illicit Crops and Unauthorized Airstrips

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pena, J. A.; Yumin, T.; Liu, H.; Zhao, B.; Garcia, J. A.; Pinto, J.

2018-04-01

Remote sensing data fusion has been playing a more and more important role in crop planting area monitoring, especially for crop area information acquisition. Multi-temporal data and multi-spectral time series are two major aspects for improving crop identification accuracy. Remote sensing fusion provides high quality multi-spectral and panchromatic images in terms of spectral and spatial information, respectively. In this paper, we take one step further and prove the application of remote sensing data fusion in detecting illicit crop through LSMM, GOBIA, and MCE analyzing of strategic information. This methodology emerges as a complementary and effective strategy to control and eradicate illicit crops.

Quantum shielding effects on the Gamow penetration factor for nuclear fusion reaction in quantum plasmas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Myoung-Jae; Jung, Young-Dae

2017-01-01

The quantum shielding effects on the nuclear fusion reaction process are investigated in quantum plasmas. The closed expression of the classical turning point for the Gamow penetration factor in quantum plasmas is obtained by the Lambert W-function. The closed expressions of the Gamow penetration factor and the cross section for the nuclear fusion reaction in quantum plasmas are obtained as functions of the plasmon energy and the relative kinetic energy by using the effective interaction potential with the WKB analysis. It is shown that the influence of quantum screening suppresses the Sommerfeld reaction factor. It is also shown that the Gamow penetration factor increases with an increase of the plasmon energy. It is also shown that the quantum shielding effect enhances the deuterium formation by the proton-proton reaction in quantum plasmas. In addition, it is found that the energy dependences on the reaction cross section and the Gamow penetration factor are more significant in high plasmon-energy domains.

A Proposed Data Fusion Architecture for Micro-Zone Analysis and Data Mining

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kevin McCarthy; Milos Manic

Data Fusion requires the ability to combine or “fuse” date from multiple data sources. Time Series Analysis is a data mining technique used to predict future values from a data set based upon past values. Unlike other data mining techniques, however, Time Series places special emphasis on periodicity and how seasonal and other time-based factors tend to affect trends over time. One of the difficulties encountered in developing generic time series techniques is the wide variability of the data sets available for analysis. This presents challenges all the way from the data gathering stage to results presentation. This paper presentsmore » an architecture designed and used to facilitate the collection of disparate data sets well suited to Time Series analysis as well as other predictive data mining techniques. Results show this architecture provides a flexible, dynamic framework for the capture and storage of a myriad of dissimilar data sets and can serve as a foundation from which to build a complete data fusion architecture.« less

Protein Sub-Nuclear Localization Based on Effective Fusion Representations and Dimension Reduction Algorithm LDA.

PubMed

Wang, Shunfang; Liu, Shuhui

2015-12-19

An effective representation of a protein sequence plays a crucial role in protein sub-nuclear localization. The existing representations, such as dipeptide composition (DipC), pseudo-amino acid composition (PseAAC) and position specific scoring matrix (PSSM), are insufficient to represent protein sequence due to their single perspectives. Thus, this paper proposes two fusion feature representations of DipPSSM and PseAAPSSM to integrate PSSM with DipC and PseAAC, respectively. When constructing each fusion representation, we introduce the balance factors to value the importance of its components. The optimal values of the balance factors are sought by genetic algorithm. Due to the high dimensionality of the proposed representations, linear discriminant analysis (LDA) is used to find its important low dimensional structure, which is essential for classification and location prediction. The numerical experiments on two public datasets with KNN classifier and cross-validation tests showed that in terms of the common indexes of sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and MCC, the proposed fusing representations outperform the traditional representations in protein sub-nuclear localization, and the representation treated by LDA outperforms the untreated one.

Customizable scientific web-portal for DIII-D nuclear fusion experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abla, G.; Kim, E. N.; Schissel, D. P.

2010-04-01

Increasing utilization of the Internet and convenient web technologies has made the web-portal a major application interface for remote participation and control of scientific instruments. While web-portals have provided a centralized gateway for multiple computational services, the amount of visual output often is overwhelming due to the high volume of data generated by complex scientific instruments and experiments. Since each scientist may have different priorities and areas of interest in the experiment, filtering and organizing information based on the individual user's need can increase the usability and efficiency of a web-portal. DIII-D is the largest magnetic nuclear fusion device in the US. A web-portal has been designed to support the experimental activities of DIII-D researchers worldwide. It offers a customizable interface with personalized page layouts and list of services for users to select. Each individual user can create a unique working environment to fit his own needs and interests. Customizable services are: real-time experiment status monitoring, diagnostic data access, interactive data analysis and visualization. The web-portal also supports interactive collaborations by providing collaborative logbook, and online instant announcement services. The DIII-D web-portal development utilizes multi-tier software architecture, and Web 2.0 technologies and tools, such as AJAX and Django, to develop a highly-interactive and customizable user interface.

Reliability of Measured Data for pH Sensor Arrays with Fault Diagnosis and Data Fusion Based on LabVIEW

PubMed Central

Liao, Yi-Hung; Chou, Jung-Chuan; Lin, Chin-Yi

2013-01-01

Fault diagnosis (FD) and data fusion (DF) technologies implemented in the LabVIEW program were used for a ruthenium dioxide pH sensor array. The purpose of the fault diagnosis and data fusion technologies is to increase the reliability of measured data. Data fusion is a very useful statistical method used for sensor arrays in many fields. Fault diagnosis is used to avoid sensor faults and to measure errors in the electrochemical measurement system, therefore, in this study, we use fault diagnosis to remove any faulty sensors in advance, and then proceed with data fusion in the sensor array. The average, self-adaptive and coefficient of variance data fusion methods are used in this study. The pH electrode is fabricated with ruthenium dioxide (RuO2) sensing membrane using a sputtering system to deposit it onto a silicon substrate, and eight RuO2 pH electrodes are fabricated to form a sensor array for this study. PMID:24351636

Reliability of measured data for pH sensor arrays with fault diagnosis and data fusion based on LabVIEW.

PubMed

Liao, Yi-Hung; Chou, Jung-Chuan; Lin, Chin-Yi

2013-12-13

Fault diagnosis (FD) and data fusion (DF) technologies implemented in the LabVIEW program were used for a ruthenium dioxide pH sensor array. The purpose of the fault diagnosis and data fusion technologies is to increase the reliability of measured data. Data fusion is a very useful statistical method used for sensor arrays in many fields. Fault diagnosis is used to avoid sensor faults and to measure errors in the electrochemical measurement system, therefore, in this study, we use fault diagnosis to remove any faulty sensors in advance, and then proceed with data fusion in the sensor array. The average, self-adaptive and coefficient of variance data fusion methods are used in this study. The pH electrode is fabricated with ruthenium dioxide (RuO2) sensing membrane using a sputtering system to deposit it onto a silicon substrate, and eight RuO2 pH electrodes are fabricated to form a sensor array for this study.

Spatial resolution enhancement of satellite image data using fusion approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lestiana, H.; Sukristiyanti

2018-02-01

Object identification using remote sensing data has a problem when the spatial resolution is not in accordance with the object. The fusion approach is one of methods to solve the problem, to improve the object recognition and to increase the objects information by combining data from multiple sensors. The application of fusion image can be used to estimate the environmental component that is needed to monitor in multiple views, such as evapotranspiration estimation, 3D ground-based characterisation, smart city application, urban environments, terrestrial mapping, and water vegetation. Based on fusion application method, the visible object in land area has been easily recognized using the method. The variety of object information in land area has increased the variation of environmental component estimation. The difficulties in recognizing the invisible object like Submarine Groundwater Discharge (SGD), especially in tropical area, might be decreased by the fusion method. The less variation of the object in the sea surface temperature is a challenge to be solved.

Multi-Sensor Optimal Data Fusion Based on the Adaptive Fading Unscented Kalman Filter

PubMed Central

Gao, Bingbing; Hu, Gaoge; Gao, Shesheng; Gu, Chengfan

2018-01-01

This paper presents a new optimal data fusion methodology based on the adaptive fading unscented Kalman filter for multi-sensor nonlinear stochastic systems. This methodology has a two-level fusion structure: at the bottom level, an adaptive fading unscented Kalman filter based on the Mahalanobis distance is developed and serves as local filters to improve the adaptability and robustness of local state estimations against process-modeling error; at the top level, an unscented transformation-based multi-sensor optimal data fusion for the case of N local filters is established according to the principle of linear minimum variance to calculate globally optimal state estimation by fusion of local estimations. The proposed methodology effectively refrains from the influence of process-modeling error on the fusion solution, leading to improved adaptability and robustness of data fusion for multi-sensor nonlinear stochastic systems. It also achieves globally optimal fusion results based on the principle of linear minimum variance. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed methodology for INS/GNSS/CNS (inertial navigation system/global navigation satellite system/celestial navigation system) integrated navigation. PMID:29415509

Multi-Sensor Optimal Data Fusion Based on the Adaptive Fading Unscented Kalman Filter.

PubMed

Gao, Bingbing; Hu, Gaoge; Gao, Shesheng; Zhong, Yongmin; Gu, Chengfan

2018-02-06

This paper presents a new optimal data fusion methodology based on the adaptive fading unscented Kalman filter for multi-sensor nonlinear stochastic systems. This methodology has a two-level fusion structure: at the bottom level, an adaptive fading unscented Kalman filter based on the Mahalanobis distance is developed and serves as local filters to improve the adaptability and robustness of local state estimations against process-modeling error; at the top level, an unscented transformation-based multi-sensor optimal data fusion for the case of N local filters is established according to the principle of linear minimum variance to calculate globally optimal state estimation by fusion of local estimations. The proposed methodology effectively refrains from the influence of process-modeling error on the fusion solution, leading to improved adaptability and robustness of data fusion for multi-sensor nonlinear stochastic systems. It also achieves globally optimal fusion results based on the principle of linear minimum variance. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed methodology for INS/GNSS/CNS (inertial navigation system/global navigation satellite system/celestial navigation system) integrated navigation.

Exploring incomplete fusion fraction in 6,7Li induced nuclear reactions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Parkar, V. V.; Jha, V.; Kailas, S.

2017-11-01

We have included breakup effects explicitly to simultaneously calculate the measured cross-sections of the complete fusion, incomplete fusion, and total fusion for 6,7Li projectiles on various targets using the Continuum Discretized Coupled Channels method. The breakup absorption cross-sections obtained with different choices of short range imaginary potentials are utilized to evaluate the individual α-capture and d/t-capture cross-sections and compare with the measured data. It is interesting to note, while in case of 7Li projectile the cross-sections for triton-ICF/triton-capture is far more dominant than α-ICF/α-capture at all energies, similar behavior is not observed in case of 6Li projectile for the deuteron-ICF/deuteron-capture and α-ICF/α-capture. Both these observations are also corroborated by the experimental data for all the systems studied.

Model-theoretic framework for sensor data fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zavoleas, Kyriakos P.; Kokar, Mieczyslaw M.

1993-09-01

The main goal of our research in sensory data fusion (SDF) is the development of a systematic approach (a methodology) to designing systems for interpreting sensory information and for reasoning about the situation based upon this information and upon available data bases and knowledge bases. To achieve such a goal, two kinds of subgoals have been set: (1) develop a theoretical framework in which rational design/implementation decisions can be made, and (2) design a prototype SDF system along the lines of the framework. Our initial design of the framework has been described in our previous papers. In this paper we concentrate on the model-theoretic aspects of this framework. We postulate that data are embedded in data models, and information processing mechanisms are embedded in model operators. The paper is devoted to analyzing the classes of model operators and their significance in SDF. We investigate transformation abstraction and fusion operators. A prototype SDF system, fusing data from range and intensity sensors, is presented, exemplifying the structures introduced. Our framework is justified by the fact that it provides modularity, traceability of information flow, and a basis for a specification language for SDF.

Estimating rice yield from MODIS-Landsat fusion data in Taiwan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, C. R.; Chen, C. F.; Nguyen, S. T.

2017-12-01

Rice production monitoring with remote sensing is an important activity in Taiwan due to official initiatives. Yield estimation is a challenge in Taiwan because rice fields are small and fragmental. High spatiotemporal satellite data providing phenological information of rice crops is thus required for this monitoring purpose. This research aims to develop data fusion approaches to integrate daily Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Landsat data for rice yield estimation in Taiwan. In this study, the low-resolution MODIS LST and emissivity data are used as reference data sources to obtain the high-resolution LST from Landsat data using the mixed-pixel analysis technique, and the time-series EVI data were derived the fusion of MODIS and Landsat spectral band data using STARFM method. The LST and EVI simulated results showed the close agreement between the LST and EVI obtained by the proposed methods with the reference data. The rice-yield model was established using EVI and LST data based on information of rice crop phenology collected from 371 ground survey sites across the country in 2014. The results achieved from the fusion datasets compared with the reference data indicated the close relationship between the two datasets with the correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.75 and root mean square error (RMSE) of 338.7 kgs, which were more accurate than those using the coarse-resolution MODIS LST data (R2 = 0.71 and RMSE = 623.82 kgs). For the comparison of total production, 64 towns located in the west part of Taiwan were used. The results also confirmed that the model using fusion datasets produced more accurate results (R2 = 0.95 and RMSE = 1,243 tons) than that using the course-resolution MODIS data (R2 = 0.91 and RMSE = 1,749 tons). This study demonstrates the application of MODIS-Landsat fusion data for rice yield estimation at the township level in Taiwan. The results obtained from the methods used in this study could be useful to policymakers

Multisensor Parallel Largest Ellipsoid Distributed Data Fusion with Unknown Cross-Covariances

PubMed Central

Liu, Baoyu; Zhan, Xingqun; Zhu, Zheng H.

2017-01-01

As the largest ellipsoid (LE) data fusion algorithm can only be applied to two-sensor system, in this contribution, parallel fusion structure is proposed to introduce the LE algorithm into a multisensor system with unknown cross-covariances, and three parallel fusion structures based on different estimate pairing methods are presented and analyzed. In order to assess the influence of fusion structure on fusion performance, two fusion performance assessment parameters are defined as Fusion Distance and Fusion Index. Moreover, the formula for calculating the upper bounds of actual fused error covariances of the presented multisensor LE fusers is also provided. Demonstrated with simulation examples, the Fusion Index indicates fuser’s actual fused accuracy and its sensitivity to the sensor orders, as well as its robustness to the accuracy of newly added sensors. Compared to the LE fuser with sequential structure, the LE fusers with proposed parallel structures not only significantly improve their properties in these aspects, but also embrace better performances in consistency and computation efficiency. The presented multisensor LE fusers generally have better accuracies than covariance intersection (CI) fusion algorithm and are consistent when the local estimates are weakly correlated. PMID:28661442

Effects of ROCK inhibitor Y-27632 on cell fusion through a microslit.

PubMed

Wada, Ken-Ichi; Hosokawa, Kazuo; Ito, Yoshihiro; Maeda, Mizuo

2015-11-01

We previously reported a direct cytoplasmic transfer method using a microfluidic device, in which cell fusion was induced through a microslit (slit-through-fusion) by the Sendai virus envelope (HVJ-E) to prevent nuclear mixing. However, the method was impractical due to low efficiency of slit-through-fusion formation and insufficient prevention of nuclear mixing. The purpose of this study was to establish an efficient method for inducing slit-through-fusion without nuclear mixing. We hypothesized that modulation of cytoskeletal component can decrease nuclear migration through the microslit considering its functions. Here we report that supplementation with Y-27632, a specific ROCK inhibitor, significantly enhances cell fusion induction and prevention of nuclear mixing. Supplementation with Y-27632 increased the formation of slit-through-fusion efficiency by more than twofold. Disruption of F-actin by Y-27632 prevented nuclear migration between fused cells through the microslit. These two effects of Y-27632 led to promotion of the slit-through-fusion without nuclear mixing with a 16.5-fold higher frequency compared to our previous method (i.e., cell fusion induction by HVJ-E without supplementation with Y-27632). We also confirmed that mitochondria were successfully transferred to the fusion partner under conditions of Y-27632 supplementation. These findings demonstrate the practicality of our cell fusion system in producing direct cytoplasmic transfer between live cells. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Data fusion approach to threat assessment for radar resources management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Komorniczak, Wojciech; Pietrasinski, Jerzy; Solaiman, Basel

2002-03-01

The paper deals with the problem of the multifunction radar resources management. The problem consists of target/tasks ranking and tasks scheduling. The paper is focused on the target ranking, with the data fusion approach. The data from the radar (object's velocity, range, altitude, direction etc.), IFF system (Identification Friend or Foe) and ESM system (Electronic Support Measures - information concerning threat's electro - magnetic activities) is used to decide of the importance assignment for each detected target. The main problem consists of the multiplicity of various types of the input information. The information from the radar is of the probabilistic or ambiguous imperfection type and the IFF information is of evidential type. To take the advantage of these information sources the advanced data fusion system is necessary. The system should deal with the following situations: fusion of the evidential and fuzzy information, fusion of the evidential information and a'priori information. The paper describes the system which fuses the fuzzy and the evidential information without previous change to the same type of information. It is also described the proposal of using of the dynamic fuzzy qualifiers. The paper shows the results of the preliminary system's tests.

Fusion and Gaussian mixture based classifiers for SONAR data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kotari, Vikas; Chang, KC

2011-06-01

Underwater mines are inexpensive and highly effective weapons. They are difficult to detect and classify. Hence detection and classification of underwater mines is essential for the safety of naval vessels. This necessitates a formulation of highly efficient classifiers and detection techniques. Current techniques primarily focus on signals from one source. Data fusion is known to increase the accuracy of detection and classification. In this paper, we formulated a fusion-based classifier and a Gaussian mixture model (GMM) based classifier for classification of underwater mines. The emphasis has been on sound navigation and ranging (SONAR) signals due to their extensive use in current naval operations. The classifiers have been tested on real SONAR data obtained from University of California Irvine (UCI) repository. The performance of both GMM based classifier and fusion based classifier clearly demonstrate their superior classification accuracy over conventional single source cases and validate our approach.

Function of Nup98 subtypes and their fusion proteins, Nup98-TopIIβ and Nup98-SETBP1 in nuclear-cytoplasmic transport.

PubMed

Saito, Shoko; Yokokawa, Takafumi; Iizuka, Gemmei; Cigdem, Sadik; Okuwaki, Mitsuru; Nagata, Kyosuke

2017-05-20

Nup98 is a component of the nuclear pore complex. The nup98-fusion genes derived by chromosome translocations are involved in hematopoietic malignancies. Here, we investigated the functions of Nup98 isoforms and two unexamined Nup98-fusion proteins, Nup98-TopIIβ and Nup98-SETBP1. We first demonstrated that two Nup98 isoforms are expressed in various mouse tissues and similarly localized in the nucleus and the nuclear envelope. We also showed that Nup98-TopIIβ and Nup98-SETBP1 are localized in the nucleus and partially co-localized with full-length Nup98 and a nuclear export receptor XPO1. We demonstrated that Nup98-TopIIβ and Nup98-SETBP1 negatively regulate the XPO1-mediated protein export. Our results will contribute to the understanding of the molecular mechanism by which the Nup98-fusion proteins induce tumorigenesis. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Tools and Methods for the Registration and Fusion of Remotely Sensed Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Goshtasby, Arthur Ardeshir; LeMoigne, Jacqueline

2010-01-01

Tools and methods for image registration were reviewed. Methods for the registration of remotely sensed data at NASA were discussed. Image fusion techniques were reviewed. Challenges in registration of remotely sensed data were discussed. Examples of image registration and image fusion were given.

Recent progress in research on tungsten materials for nuclear fusion applications in Europe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rieth, M.; Dudarev, S. L.; Gonzalez de Vicente, S. M.; Aktaa, J.; Ahlgren, T.; Antusch, S.; Armstrong, D. E. J.; Balden, M.; Baluc, N.; Barthe, M.-F.; Basuki, W. W.; Battabyal, M.; Becquart, C. S.; Blagoeva, D.; Boldyryeva, H.; Brinkmann, J.; Celino, M.; Ciupinski, L.; Correia, J. B.; De Backer, A.; Domain, C.; Gaganidze, E.; García-Rosales, C.; Gibson, J.; Gilbert, M. R.; Giusepponi, S.; Gludovatz, B.; Greuner, H.; Heinola, K.; Höschen, T.; Hoffmann, A.; Holstein, N.; Koch, F.; Krauss, W.; Li, H.; Lindig, S.; Linke, J.; Linsmeier, Ch.; López-Ruiz, P.; Maier, H.; Matejicek, J.; Mishra, T. P.; Muhammed, M.; Muñoz, A.; Muzyk, M.; Nordlund, K.; Nguyen-Manh, D.; Opschoor, J.; Ordás, N.; Palacios, T.; Pintsuk, G.; Pippan, R.; Reiser, J.; Riesch, J.; Roberts, S. G.; Romaner, L.; Rosiński, M.; Sanchez, M.; Schulmeyer, W.; Traxler, H.; Ureña, A.; van der Laan, J. G.; Veleva, L.; Wahlberg, S.; Walter, M.; Weber, T.; Weitkamp, T.; Wurster, S.; Yar, M. A.; You, J. H.; Zivelonghi, A.

2013-01-01

The current magnetic confinement nuclear fusion power reactor concepts going beyond ITER are based on assumptions about the availability of materials with extreme mechanical, heat, and neutron load capacity. In Europe, the development of such structural and armour materials together with the necessary production, machining, and fabrication technologies is pursued within the EFDA long-term fusion materials programme. This paper reviews the progress of work within the programme in the area of tungsten and tungsten alloys. Results, conclusions, and future projections are summarized for each of the programme's main subtopics, which are: (1) fabrication, (2) structural W materials, (3) W armour materials, and (4) materials science and modelling. It gives a detailed overview of the latest results on materials research, fabrication processes, joining options, high heat flux testing, plasticity studies, modelling, and validation experiments.

Affordable non-traditional source data mining for context assessment to improve distributed fusion system robustness

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bowman, Christopher; Haith, Gary; Steinberg, Alan; Morefield, Charles; Morefield, Michael

2013-05-01

This paper describes methods to affordably improve the robustness of distributed fusion systems by opportunistically leveraging non-traditional data sources. Adaptive methods help find relevant data, create models, and characterize the model quality. These methods also can measure the conformity of this non-traditional data with fusion system products including situation modeling and mission impact prediction. Non-traditional data can improve the quantity, quality, availability, timeliness, and diversity of the baseline fusion system sources and therefore can improve prediction and estimation accuracy and robustness at all levels of fusion. Techniques are described that automatically learn to characterize and search non-traditional contextual data to enable operators integrate the data with the high-level fusion systems and ontologies. These techniques apply the extension of the Data Fusion & Resource Management Dual Node Network (DNN) technical architecture at Level 4. The DNN architecture supports effectively assessment and management of the expanded portfolio of data sources, entities of interest, models, and algorithms including data pattern discovery and context conformity. Affordable model-driven and data-driven data mining methods to discover unknown models from non-traditional and `big data' sources are used to automatically learn entity behaviors and correlations with fusion products, [14 and 15]. This paper describes our context assessment software development, and the demonstration of context assessment of non-traditional data to compare to an intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance fusion product based upon an IED POIs workflow.

Near-real-time data fusion, phase 2

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1999-10-01

Report developed under SBIR contract for topic N93-084. In Phase I of this project, we explored several different approaches to Near-Real-Time Data Fusion (NRTDF), and in Phase II we developed the most promising architecture into a prototype NRTDF sy...

Mars manned fusion spaceship

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hedrick, J.; Buchholtz, B.; Ward, P.

1991-01-01

Fusion Propulsion has an enormous potential for space exploration in the near future. In the twenty-first century, a usable and efficient fusion rocket will be developed and in use. Because of the great distance between other planets and Earth, efficient use of time, fuel, and payload is essential. A nuclear spaceship would provide greater fuel efficiency, less travel time, and a larger payload. Extended missions would give more time for research, experiments, and data acquisition. With the extended mission time, a need for an artificial environment exists. The topics of magnetic fusion propulsion, living modules, artificial gravity, mass distribution, spacemore » connection, and orbital transfer to Mars are discussed. The propulsion system is a magnetic fusion reactor based on a tandem mirror design. This allows a faster, shorter trip time and a large thrust to weight ratio. The fuel proposed is a mixture of deuterium and helium. Helium can be obtained from lunar mining. There will be minimal external radiation from the reactor resulting in a safe, efficient propulsion system.« less

Mars manned fusion spaceship

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hedrick, James; Buchholtz, Brent; Ward, Paul; Freuh, Jim; Jensen, Eric

1991-01-01

Fusion Propulsion has an enormous potential for space exploration in the near future. In the twenty-first century, a usable and efficient fusion rocket will be developed and in use. Because of the great distance between other planets and Earth, efficient use of time, fuel, and payload is essential. A nuclear spaceship would provide greater fuel efficiency, less travel time, and a larger payload. Extended missions would give more time for research, experiments, and data acquisition. With the extended mission time, a need for an artificial environment exists. The topics of magnetic fusion propulsion, living modules, artificial gravity, mass distribution, space connection, and orbital transfer to Mars are discussed. The propulsion system is a magnetic fusion reactor based on a tandem mirror design. This allows a faster, shorter trip time and a large thrust to weight ratio. The fuel proposed is a mixture of deuterium and helium-3. Helium-3 can be obtained from lunar mining. There will be minimal external radiation from the reactor resulting in a safe, efficient propulsion system.

Fusion between perinuclear virions and the outer nuclear membrane requires the fusogenic activity of herpes simplex virus gB.

PubMed

Wright, Catherine C; Wisner, Todd W; Hannah, Brian P; Eisenberg, Roselyn J; Cohen, Gary H; Johnson, David C

2009-11-01

Herpesviruses cross nuclear membranes (NMs) in two steps, as follows: (i) capsids assemble and bud through the inner NM into the perinuclear space, producing enveloped virus particles, and (ii) the envelopes of these virus particles fuse with the outer NM. Two herpes simplex virus (HSV) glycoproteins, gB and gH (the latter, likely complexed as a heterodimer with gL), are necessary for the second step of this process. Mutants lacking both gB and gH accumulate in the perinuclear space or in herniations (membrane vesicles derived from the inner NM). Both gB and gH/gL are also known to act directly in fusing the virion envelope with host cell membranes during HSV entry into cells, i.e., both glycoproteins appear to function directly in different aspects of the membrane fusion process. We hypothesized that HSV gB and gH/gL also act directly in the membrane fusion that occurs during virus egress from the nucleus. Previous studies of the role of gB and gH/gL in nuclear egress involved HSV gB and gH null mutants that could potentially also possess gross defects in the virion envelope. Here, we produced recombinant HSV-expressing mutant forms of gB with single amino acid substitutions in the hydrophobic "fusion loops." These fusion loops are thought to play a direct role in membrane fusion by insertion into cellular membranes. HSV recombinants expressing gB with any one of four fusion loop mutations (W174R, W174Y, Y179K, and A261D) were unable to enter cells. Moreover, two of the mutants, W174Y and Y179K, displayed reduced abilities to mediate HSV cell-to-cell spread, and W174R and A261D exhibited no spread. All mutant viruses exhibited defects in nuclear egress, enveloped virions accumulated in herniations and in the perinuclear space, and fewer enveloped virions were detected on cell surfaces. These results support the hypothesis that gB functions directly to mediate the fusion between perinuclear virus particles and the outer NM.

One decade of the Data Fusion Information Group (DFIG) model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blasch, Erik

2015-05-01

The revision of the Joint Directors of the Laboratories (JDL) Information Fusion model in 2004 discussed information processing, incorporated the analyst, and was coined the Data Fusion Information Group (DFIG) model. Since that time, developments in information technology (e.g., cloud computing, applications, and multimedia) have altered the role of the analyst. Data production has outpaced the analyst; however the analyst still has the role of data refinement and information reporting. In this paper, we highlight three examples being addressed by the DFIG model. One example is the role of the analyst to provide semantic queries (through an ontology) so that vast amount of data available can be indexed, accessed, retrieved, and processed. The second idea is reporting which requires the analyst to collect the data into a condensed and meaningful form through information management. The last example is the interpretation of the resolved information from data that must include contextual information not inherent in the data itself. Through a literature review, the DFIG developments in the last decade demonstrate the usability of the DFIG model to bring together the user (analyst or operator) and the machine (information fusion or manager) in a systems design.

Enhancing vector shoreline data using a data fusion approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carlotto, Mark; Nebrich, Mark; DeMichele, David

2017-05-01

Vector shoreline (VSL) data is potentially useful in ATR systems that distinguish between objects on land or water. Unfortunately available data such as the NOAA 1:250,000 World Vector Shoreline and NGA Prototype Global Shoreline data cannot be used by themselves to make a land/water determination because of the manner in which the data are compiled. We describe a data fusion approach for creating labeled VSL data using test points from Global 30 Arc-Second Elevation (GTOPO30) data to determine the direction of vector segments; i.e., whether they are in clockwise or counterclockwise order. We show consistently labeled VSL data be used to easily determine whether a point is on land or water using a vector cross product test.

Double differential light charged particle emission cross sections for some structural fusion materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sarpün, Ismail Hakki; n, Abdullah Aydı; Tel, Eyyup

2017-09-01

In fusion reactors, neutron induced radioactivity strongly depends on the irradiated material. So, a proper selection of structural materials will have been limited the radioactive inventory in a fusion reactor. First-wall and blanket components have high radioactivity concentration due to being the most flux-exposed structures. The main objective of fusion structural material research is the development and selection of materials for reactor components with good thermo-mechanical and physical properties, coupled with low-activation characteristics. Double differential light charged particle emission cross section, which is a fundamental data to determine nuclear heating and material damages in structural fusion material research, for some elements target nuclei have been calculated by the TALYS 1.8 nuclear reaction code at 14-15 MeV neutron incident energy and compared with available experimental data in EXFOR library. Direct, compound and pre-equilibrium reaction contribution have been theoretically calculated and dominant contribution have been determined for each emission of proton, deuteron and alpha particle.

STATs and macrophage fusion.

PubMed

Miyamoto, Takeshi

2013-07-01

Macrophages play a pivotal role in host defense against multiple foreign materials such as bacteria, parasites and artificial devices. Some macrophage lineage cells, namely osteoclasts and foreign body giant cells (FBGCs), form multi-nuclear giant cells by the cell-cell fusion of mono-nuclear cells. Osteoclasts are bone-resorbing cells, and are formed in the presence of RANKL on the surface of bones, while FBGCs are formed in the presence of IL-4 or IL-13 on foreign materials such as artificial joints, catheters and parasites. Recently, fusiogenic mechanisms and the molecules required for the cell-cell fusion of these macrophage lineage cells were, at least in part, clarified. Dendritic cell specific transmembrane protein (DC-STAMP) and osteoclast stimulatory transmembrane protein (OC-STAMP), both of which comprise seven transmembrane domains, are required for both osteoclast and FBGC cell-cell fusion. STAT6 was demonstrated to be required for the cell-cell fusion of FBGCs but not osteoclasts. In this review, advances in macrophage cell-cell fusion are discussed.

Hypoglycemia alarm enhancement using data fusion.

PubMed

Skladnev, Victor N; Tarnavskii, Stanislav; McGregor, Thomas; Ghevondian, Nejhdeh; Gourlay, Steve; Jones, Timothy W

2010-01-01

The acceptance of closed-loop blood glucose (BG) control using continuous glucose monitoring systems (CGMS) is likely to improve with enhanced performance of their integral hypoglycemia alarms. This article presents an in silico analysis (based on clinical data) of a modeled CGMS alarm system with trained thresholds on type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) patients that is augmented by sensor fusion from a prototype hypoglycemia alarm system (HypoMon). This prototype alarm system is based on largely independent autonomic nervous system (ANS) response features. Alarm performance was modeled using overnight BG profiles recorded previously on 98 T1DM volunteers. These data included the corresponding ANS response features detected by HypoMon (AiMedics Pty. Ltd.) systems. CGMS data and alarms were simulated by applying a probabilistic model to these overnight BG profiles. The probabilistic model developed used a mean response delay of 7.1 minutes, measurement error offsets on each sample of +/- standard deviation (SD) = 4.5 mg/dl (0.25 mmol/liter), and vertical shifts (calibration offsets) of +/- SD = 19.8 mg/dl (1.1 mmol/liter). Modeling produced 90 to 100 simulated measurements per patient. Alarm systems for all analyses were optimized on a training set of 46 patients and evaluated on the test set of 56 patients. The split between the sets was based on enrollment dates. Optimization was based on detection accuracy but not time to detection for these analyses. The contribution of this form of data fusion to hypoglycemia alarm performance was evaluated by comparing the performance of the trained CGMS and fused data algorithms on the test set under the same evaluation conditions. The simulated addition of HypoMon data produced an improvement in CGMS hypoglycemia alarm performance of 10% at equal specificity. Sensitivity improved from 87% (CGMS as stand-alone measurement) to 97% for the enhanced alarm system. Specificity was maintained constant at 85%. Positive predictive

Minutes of the third annual meeting of the Panel on Reference Nuclear Data. [BNL, October 5, 1978

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Burrows, T.W.; Stewart, L.; Coyne, J.J.

1979-05-01

The major activities of the meeting were as follows: welcome; organization, approval of minutes of the second meeting, and approval of agenda; review of nuclear data compilation and evaluation efforts (national and international efforts, master data files, publications); summary of 1977 panel meeting; definition of reference nuclear data; discussion of specific data needs and possible data center contributions (reactor physics, medicine and biology, controlled thermonuclear reactors and astrophysics); establishment of current interest and future direction of the panel; adjournment. Recommendations and action items are listed. Tables on nuclear data needs in applied physics, medicine and biology, and controlled thermonuclear reactorsmore » and astrophysics are presented. Appendixes include membership lists of various committees, summaries of publication activities, survey results, correspondence, and portions of the documents Proceedings of the Magnetic Fusion Energy Blanket and Shield Workshop and National Needs for Critically Evaluated Physical and Chemical Data. (RWR)« less

Sensor data fusion for spectroscopy-based detection of explosives

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shah, Pratik V.; Singh, Abhijeet; Agarwal, Sanjeev; Sedigh, Sahra; Ford, Alan; Waterbury, Robert

2009-05-01

In-situ trace detection of explosive compounds such as RDX, TNT, and ammonium nitrate, is an important problem for the detection of IEDs and IED precursors. Spectroscopic techniques such as LIBS and Raman have shown promise for the detection of residues of explosive compounds on surfaces from standoff distances. Individually, both LIBS and Raman techniques suffer from various limitations, e.g., their robustness and reliability suffers due to variations in peak strengths and locations. However, the orthogonal nature of the spectral and compositional information provided by these techniques makes them suitable candidates for the use of sensor fusion to improve the overall detection performance. In this paper, we utilize peak energies in a region by fitting Lorentzian or Gaussian peaks around the location of interest. The ratios of peak energies are used for discrimination, in order to normalize the effect of changes in overall signal strength. Two data fusion techniques are discussed in this paper. Multi-spot fusion is performed on a set of independent samples from the same region based on the maximum likelihood formulation. Furthermore, the results from LIBS and Raman sensors are fused using linear discriminators. Improved detection performance with significantly reduced false alarm rates is reported using fusion techniques on data collected for sponsor demonstration at Fort Leonard Wood.

Data Fusion for Enhanced Aircraft Engine Prognostics and Health Management

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Volponi, Al

2005-01-01

Aircraft gas-turbine engine data is available from a variety of sources, including on-board sensor measurements, maintenance histories, and component models. An ultimate goal of Propulsion Health Management (PHM) is to maximize the amount of meaningful information that can be extracted from disparate data sources to obtain comprehensive diagnostic and prognostic knowledge regarding the health of the engine. Data fusion is the integration of data or information from multiple sources for the achievement of improved accuracy and more specific inferences than can be obtained from the use of a single sensor alone. The basic tenet underlying the data/ information fusion concept is to leverage all available information to enhance diagnostic visibility, increase diagnostic reliability and reduce the number of diagnostic false alarms. This report describes a basic PHM data fusion architecture being developed in alignment with the NASA C-17 PHM Flight Test program. The challenge of how to maximize the meaningful information extracted from disparate data sources to obtain enhanced diagnostic and prognostic information regarding the health and condition of the engine is the primary goal of this endeavor. To address this challenge, NASA Glenn Research Center, NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, and Pratt & Whitney have formed a team with several small innovative technology companies to plan and conduct a research project in the area of data fusion, as it applies to PHM. Methodologies being developed and evaluated have been drawn from a wide range of areas including artificial intelligence, pattern recognition, statistical estimation, and fuzzy logic. This report will provide a chronology and summary of the work accomplished under this research contract.

An epidemic model for biological data fusion in ad hoc sensor networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chang, K. C.; Kotari, Vikas

2009-05-01

Bio terrorism can be a very refined and a catastrophic approach of attacking a nation. This requires the development of a complete architecture dedicatedly designed for this purpose which includes but is not limited to Sensing/Detection, Tracking and Fusion, Communication, and others. In this paper we focus on one such architecture and evaluate its performance. Various sensors for this specific purpose have been studied. The accent has been on use of Distributed systems such as ad-hoc networks and on application of epidemic data fusion algorithms to better manage the bio threat data. The emphasis has been on understanding the performance characteristics of these algorithms under diversified real time scenarios which are implemented through extensive JAVA based simulations. Through comparative studies on communication and fusion the performance of channel filter algorithm for the purpose of biological sensor data fusion are validated.

Laser inertial fusion-based energy: Neutronic design aspects of a hybrid fusion-fission nuclear energy system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kramer, Kevin James

. Alternatively, Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) adjusts the depletion zone size according to the variation in flux across the zone or fractional contribution to total absorption or fission. A parametric analysis on a fully mixed fuel core was performed using the LNC and ABL code suites. The resulting system parameters are found to optimize performance metrics using a 20 MT DU fuel load with a 20% TRISO packing and a 300 im kernel diameter operated with a fusion input power of 500 MW and a fission blanket gain of 4.0. LFFH potentially offers a proliferation resistant technology relative to other nuclear energy systems primarily because of no need for fuel enrichment or reprocessing. A figure of merit of the material attractiveness is examined and it is found that the fuel is effectively contaminated to an unattractive level shortly after the system is started due to fission product and minor actinide build up.

Control of a laser inertial confinement fusion-fission power plant

DOEpatents

Moses, Edward I.; Latkowski, Jeffery F.; Kramer, Kevin J.

2015-10-27

A laser inertial-confinement fusion-fission energy power plant is described. The fusion-fission hybrid system uses inertial confinement fusion to produce neutrons from a fusion reaction of deuterium and tritium. The fusion neutrons drive a sub-critical blanket of fissile or fertile fuel. A coolant circulated through the fuel extracts heat from the fuel that is used to generate electricity. The inertial confinement fusion reaction can be implemented using central hot spot or fast ignition fusion, and direct or indirect drive. The fusion neutrons result in ultra-deep burn-up of the fuel in the fission blanket, thus enabling the burning of nuclear waste. Fuels include depleted uranium, natural uranium, enriched uranium, spent nuclear fuel, thorium, and weapons grade plutonium. LIFE engines can meet worldwide electricity needs in a safe and sustainable manner, while drastically shrinking the highly undesirable stockpiles of depleted uranium, spent nuclear fuel and excess weapons materials.

Distributed service-based approach for sensor data fusion in IoT environments.

PubMed

Rodríguez-Valenzuela, Sandra; Holgado-Terriza, Juan A; Gutiérrez-Guerrero, José M; Muros-Cobos, Jesús L

2014-10-15

The Internet of Things (IoT) enables the communication among smart objects promoting the pervasive presence around us of a variety of things or objects that are able to interact and cooperate jointly to reach common goals. IoT objects can obtain data from their context, such as the home, office, industry or body. These data can be combined to obtain new and more complex information applying data fusion processes. However, to apply data fusion algorithms in IoT environments, the full system must deal with distributed nodes, decentralized communication and support scalability and nodes dynamicity, among others restrictions. In this paper, a novel method to manage data acquisition and fusion based on a distributed service composition model is presented, improving the data treatment in IoT pervasive environments.

Distributed Service-Based Approach for Sensor Data Fusion in IoT Environments

PubMed Central

Rodríguez-Valenzuela, Sandra; Holgado-Terriza, Juan A.; Gutiérrez-Guerrero, José M.; Muros-Cobos, Jesús L.

2014-01-01

The Internet of Things (IoT) enables the communication among smart objects promoting the pervasive presence around us of a variety of things or objects that are able to interact and cooperate jointly to reach common goals. IoT objects can obtain data from their context, such as the home, office, industry or body. These data can be combined to obtain new and more complex information applying data fusion processes. However, to apply data fusion algorithms in IoT environments, the full system must deal with distributed nodes, decentralized communication and support scalability and nodes dynamicity, among others restrictions. In this paper, a novel method to manage data acquisition and fusion based on a distributed service composition model is presented, improving the data treatment in IoT pervasive environments. PMID:25320907

Advances in data representation for hard/soft information fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rimland, Jeffrey C.; Coughlin, Dan; Hall, David L.; Graham, Jacob L.

2012-06-01

Information fusion is becoming increasingly human-centric. While past systems typically relegated humans to the role of analyzing a finished fusion product, current systems are exploring the role of humans as integral elements in a modular and extensible distributed framework where many tasks can be accomplished by either human or machine performers. For example, "participatory sensing" campaigns give humans the role of "soft sensors" by uploading their direct observations or as "soft sensor platforms" by using mobile devices to record human-annotated, GPS-encoded high quality photographs, video, or audio. Additionally, the role of "human-in-the-loop", in which individuals or teams using advanced human computer interface (HCI) tools such as stereoscopic 3D visualization, haptic interfaces, or aural "sonification" interfaces can help to effectively engage the innate human capability to perform pattern matching, anomaly identification, and semantic-based contextual reasoning to interpret an evolving situation. The Pennsylvania State University is participating in a Multi-disciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) program funded by the U.S. Army Research Office to investigate fusion of hard and soft data in counterinsurgency (COIN) situations. In addition to the importance of this research for Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield (IPB), many of the same challenges and techniques apply to health and medical informatics, crisis management, crowd-sourced "citizen science", and monitoring environmental concerns. One of the key challenges that we have encountered is the development of data formats, protocols, and methodologies to establish an information architecture and framework for the effective capture, representation, transmission, and storage of the vastly heterogeneous data and accompanying metadata -- including capabilities and characteristics of human observers, uncertainty of human observations, "soft" contextual data, and information pedigree

Data fusion algorithm for rapid multi-mode dust concentration measurement system based on MEMS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liao, Maohao; Lou, Wenzhong; Wang, Jinkui; Zhang, Yan

2018-03-01

As single measurement method cannot fully meet the technical requirements of dust concentration measurement, the multi-mode detection method is put forward, as well as the new requirements for data processing. This paper presents a new dust concentration measurement system which contains MEMS ultrasonic sensor and MEMS capacitance sensor, and presents a new data fusion algorithm for this multi-mode dust concentration measurement system. After analyzing the relation between the data of the composite measurement method, the data fusion algorithm based on Kalman filtering is established, which effectively improve the measurement accuracy, and ultimately forms a rapid data fusion model of dust concentration measurement. Test results show that the data fusion algorithm is able to realize the rapid and exact concentration detection.

Generalized Nuclear Data

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Conlin, Jeremy

2017-03-15

This software is code related to reading/writing/manipulating nuclear data in the Generalized Nuclear Data (GND) format, a new format for sharing nuclear data among institutions. In addition to the software and its documentation, notes and documentation from the WPEC Subgroup 43 will be included. WPEC Subgroup 43 is an international committee charged with creating the API for the GND format.

Monitoring and Hardware Management for Critical Fusion Plasma Instrumentation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carvalho, Paulo F.; Santos, Bruno; Correia, Miguel; Combo, Álvaro M.; Rodrigues, AntÓnio P.; Pereira, Rita C.; Fernandes, Ana; Cruz, Nuno; Sousa, Jorge; Carvalho, Bernardo B.; Batista, AntÓnio J. N.; Correia, Carlos M. B. A.; Gonçalves, Bruno

2018-01-01

Controlled nuclear fusion aims to obtain energy by particles collision confined inside a nuclear reactor (Tokamak). These ionized particles, heavier isotopes of hydrogen, are the main elements inside of plasma that is kept at high temperatures (millions of Celsius degrees). Due to high temperatures and magnetic confinement, plasma is exposed to several sources of instabilities which require a set of procedures by the control and data acquisition systems throughout fusion experiments processes. Control and data acquisition systems often used in nuclear fusion experiments are based on the Advanced Telecommunication Computer Architecture (AdvancedTCA®) standard introduced by the Peripheral Component Interconnect Industrial Manufacturers Group (PICMG®), to meet the demands of telecommunications that require large amount of data (TB) transportation at high transfer rates (Gb/s), to ensure high availability including features such as reliability, serviceability and redundancy. For efficient plasma control, systems are required to collect large amounts of data, process it, store for later analysis, make critical decisions in real time and provide status reports either from the experience itself or the electronic instrumentation involved. Moreover, systems should also ensure the correct handling of detected anomalies and identified faults, notify the system operator of occurred events, decisions taken to acknowledge and implemented changes. Therefore, for everything to work in compliance with specifications it is required that the instrumentation includes hardware management and monitoring mechanisms for both hardware and software. These mechanisms should check the system status by reading sensors, manage events, update inventory databases with hardware system components in use and maintenance, store collected information, update firmware and installed software modules, configure and handle alarms to detect possible system failures and prevent emergency scenarios

Protein Sub-Nuclear Localization Based on Effective Fusion Representations and Dimension Reduction Algorithm LDA

PubMed Central

Wang, Shunfang; Liu, Shuhui

2015-01-01

An effective representation of a protein sequence plays a crucial role in protein sub-nuclear localization. The existing representations, such as dipeptide composition (DipC), pseudo-amino acid composition (PseAAC) and position specific scoring matrix (PSSM), are insufficient to represent protein sequence due to their single perspectives. Thus, this paper proposes two fusion feature representations of DipPSSM and PseAAPSSM to integrate PSSM with DipC and PseAAC, respectively. When constructing each fusion representation, we introduce the balance factors to value the importance of its components. The optimal values of the balance factors are sought by genetic algorithm. Due to the high dimensionality of the proposed representations, linear discriminant analysis (LDA) is used to find its important low dimensional structure, which is essential for classification and location prediction. The numerical experiments on two public datasets with KNN classifier and cross-validation tests showed that in terms of the common indexes of sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and MCC, the proposed fusing representations outperform the traditional representations in protein sub-nuclear localization, and the representation treated by LDA outperforms the untreated one. PMID:26703574

The role of data fusion in predictive maintenance using digital twin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Zheng; Meyendorf, Norbert; Mrad, Nezih

2018-04-01

Modern aerospace industry is migrating from reactive to proactive and predictive maintenance to increase platform operational availability and efficiency, extend its useful life cycle and reduce its life cycle cost. Multiphysics modeling together with data-driven analytics generate a new paradigm called "Digital Twin." The digital twin is actually a living model of the physical asset or system, which continually adapts to operational changes based on the collected online data and information, and can forecast the future of the corresponding physical counterpart. This paper reviews the overall framework to develop a digital twin coupled with the industrial Internet of Things technology to advance aerospace platforms autonomy. Data fusion techniques particularly play a significant role in the digital twin framework. The flow of information from raw data to high-level decision making is propelled by sensor-to-sensor, sensor-to-model, and model-to-model fusion. This paper further discusses and identifies the role of data fusion in the digital twin framework for aircraft predictive maintenance.

Sensor Fusion Techniques for Phased-Array Eddy Current and Phased-Array Ultrasound Data

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Arrowood, Lloyd F.

Sensor (or Data) fusion is the process of integrating multiple data sources to produce more consistent, accurate and comprehensive information than is provided by a single data source. Sensor fusion may also be used to combine multiple signals from a single modality to improve the performance of a particular inspection technique. Industrial nondestructive testing may utilize multiple sensors to acquire inspection data depending upon the object under inspection and the anticipated types of defects that can be identified. Sensor fusion can be performed at various levels of signal abstraction with each having its strengths and weaknesses. A multimodal data fusionmore » strategy first proposed by Heideklang and Shokouhi that combines spatially scattered detection locations to improve detection performance of surface-breaking and near-surface cracks in ferromagnetic metals is shown using a surface inspection example and is then extended for volumetric inspections. Utilizing data acquired from an Olympus Omniscan MX2 from both phased array eddy current and ultrasound probes on test phantoms, single and multilevel fusion techniques are employed to integrate signals from the two modalities. Preliminary results demonstrate how confidence in defect identification and interpretation benefit from sensor fusion techniques. Lastly, techniques for integrating data into radiographic and volumetric imagery from computed tomography are described and results are presented.« less

Laser Induced Nuclear Fusion, LINF, In Muonic Molecules With Ultrashort Super Intense Laser Fields

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bandrauk, Andre D.; Paramonov, Gennady K.

2010-02-02

Muonium molecules where muons replace electrons increase the stability of molecules to ionization at superhigh intensities, I>10{sup 20} W/cm{sup 2}. We show furthermore from numerical simulations that in the nonsymmetric series, pdu, dtu, ptu, the permanent dipole moments can be used to enhance LINF, Laser Induced Nuclear Fusion by laser induced recollision of the light nucleus with the heavier nucleus.

A Compact Nuclear Fusion Reactor for Space Flights

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nastoyashchiy, Anatoly F.

2006-05-01

A small-scale nuclear fusion reactor is suggested based on the concepts of plasma confinement (with a high pressure gas) which have been patented by the author. The reactor considered can be used as a power setup in space flights. Among the advantages of this reactor is the use of a D3He fuel mixture which at burning gives main reactor products — charged particles. The energy balance considerably improves, as synchrotron radiation turn out "captured" in the plasma volume, and dangerous, in the case of classical magnetic confinement, instabilities in the direct current magnetic field configuration proposed do not exist. As a result, the reactor sizes are quite suitable (of the order of several meters). A possibility of making reactive thrust due to employment of ejection of multiply charged ions formed at injection of pellets from some adequate substance into the hot plasma center is considered.

Deep data fusion method for missile-borne inertial/celestial system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Chunxi; Chen, Xiaofei; Lu, Jiazhen; Zhang, Hao

2018-05-01

Strap-down inertial-celestial integrated navigation system has the advantages of autonomy and high precision and is very useful for ballistic missiles. The star sensor installation error and inertial measurement error have a great influence for the system performance. Based on deep data fusion, this paper establishes measurement equations including star sensor installation error and proposes the deep fusion filter method. Simulations including misalignment error, star sensor installation error, IMU error are analyzed. Simulation results indicate that the deep fusion method can estimate the star sensor installation error and IMU error. Meanwhile, the method can restrain the misalignment errors caused by instrument errors.

Data fusion for delivering advanced traveler information services

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2003-05-01

Many transportation professionals have suggested that improved ATIS data fusion techniques and processing will improve the overall quality, timeliness, and usefulness of traveler information. The purpose of this study was four fold. First, conduct a ...

Data Summarization in the Node by Parameters (DSNP): Local Data Fusion in an IoT Environment.

PubMed

Maschi, Luis F C; Pinto, Alex S R; Meneguette, Rodolfo I; Baldassin, Alexandro

2018-03-07

With the advent of the Internet of Things, billions of objects or devices are inserted into the global computer network, generating and processing data at a volume never imagined before. This paper proposes a way to collect and process local data through a data fusion technology called summarization. The main feature of the proposal is the local data fusion, through parameters provided by the application, ensuring the quality of data collected by the sensor node. In the evaluation, the sensor node was compared when performing the data summary with another that performed a continuous recording of the collected data. Two sets of nodes were created, one with a sensor node that analyzed the luminosity of the room, which in this case obtained a reduction of 97% in the volume of data generated, and another set that analyzed the temperature of the room, obtaining a reduction of 80% in the data volume. Through these tests, it has been proven that the local data fusion at the node can be used to reduce the volume of data generated, consequently decreasing the volume of messages generated by IoT environments.

Sensor data fusion of radar, ESM, IFF, and data LINK of the Canadian Patrol Frigate and the data alignment issues

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Couture, Jean; Boily, Edouard; Simard, Marc-Alain

1996-05-01

The research and development group at Loral Canada is now at the second phase of the development of a data fusion demonstration model (DFDM) for a naval anti-air warfare to be used as a workbench tool to perform exploratory research. This project has emphatically addressed how the concepts related to fusion could be implemented within the Canadian Patrol Frigate (CPF) software environment. The project has been designed to read data passively on the CPF bus without any modification to the CPF software. This has brought to light important time alignment issues since the CPF sensors and the CPF command and control system were not important time alignment issues since the CPF sensors and the CPF command and control system were not originally designed to support a track management function which fuses information. The fusion of data from non-organic sensors with the tactical Link-11 data has produced stimulating spatial alignment problems which have been overcome by the use of a geodetic referencing coordinate system. Some benchmark scenarios have been selected to quantitatively demonstrate the capabilities of this fusion implementation. This paper describes the implementation design of DFDM (version 2), and summarizes the results obtained so far when fusing the scenarios simulated data.

Induction of polyploidy by nuclear fusion mechanism upon decreased expression of the nuclear envelope protein LAP2β in the human osteosarcoma cell line U2OS.

PubMed

Ben-Shoshan, Shirley Oren; Simon, Amos J; Jacob-Hirsch, Jasmine; Shaklai, Sigal; Paz-Yaacov, Nurit; Amariglio, Ninette; Rechavi, Gideon; Trakhtenbrot, Luba

2014-01-28

Polyploidy has been recognized for many years as an important hallmark of cancer cells. Polyploid cells can arise through cell fusion, endoreplication and abortive cell cycle. The inner nuclear membrane protein LAP2β plays key roles in nuclear envelope breakdown and reassembly during mitosis, initiation of replication and transcriptional repression. Here we studied the function of LAP2β in the maintenance of cell ploidy state, a role which has not yet been assigned to this protein. By knocking down the expression of LAP2β, using both viral and non-viral RNAi approaches in osteosarcoma derived U2OS cells, we detected enlarged nuclear size, nearly doubling of DNA content and chromosomal duplications, as analyzed by fluorescent in situ hybridization and spectral karyotyping methodologies. Spectral karyotyping analyses revealed that near-hexaploid karyotypes of LAP2β knocked down cells consisted of not only seven duplicated chromosomal markers, as could be anticipated by genome duplication mechanism, but also of four single chromosomal markers. Furthermore, spectral karyotyping analysis revealed that both of two near-triploid U2OS sub-clones contained the seven markers that were duplicated in LAP2β knocked down cells, whereas the four single chromosomal markers were detected only in one of them. Gene expression profiling of LAP2β knocked down cells revealed that up to a third of the genes exhibiting significant changes in their expression are involved in cancer progression. Our results suggest that nuclear fusion mechanism underlies the polyploidization induction upon LAP2β reduced expression. Our study implies on a novel role of LAP2β in the maintenance of cell ploidy status. LAP2β depleted U2OS cells can serve as a model to investigate polyploidy and aneuploidy formation by nuclear fusion mechanism and its involvement in cancerogenesis.

Radiation and Electromagnetic Induction Data Fusion for Detection of Buried Radioactive Metal Waste - 12282

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Long, Zhiling; Wei, Wei; Turlapaty, Anish

2012-07-01

At the United States Army's test sites, fired penetrators made of Depleted Uranium (DU) have been buried under ground and become hazardous waste. Previously, we developed techniques for detecting buried radioactive targets. We also developed approaches for locating buried paramagnetic metal objects by utilizing the electromagnetic induction (EMI) sensor data. In this paper, we apply data fusion techniques to combine results from both the radiation detection and the EMI detection, so that we can further distinguish among DU penetrators, DU oxide, and non- DU metal debris. We develop a two-step fusion approach for the task, and test it with surveymore » data collected on simulation targets. In this work, we explored radiation and EMI data fusion for detecting DU, oxides, and non-DU metals. We developed a two-step fusion approach based on majority voting and a set of decision rules. With this approach, we fuse results from radiation detection based on the RX algorithm and EMI detection based on a 3-step analysis. Our fusion approach has been tested successfully with data collected on simulation targets. In the future, we will need to further verify the effectiveness of this fusion approach with field data. (authors)« less

Raman/LIBS Data Fusion via Two-Way Variational Autoencoders

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Parente, M.; Gemp, I.

2018-04-01

We propose an original solution to extracting mineral abundances from Raman spectra by combining Raman data with LIBS using a novel deep learning model based on variational autoencoders and data fusion, which outperforms the current state of the art.

Spindle pole body-anchored Kar3 drives the nucleus along microtubules from another nucleus in preparation for nuclear fusion during yeast karyogamy.

PubMed

Gibeaux, Romain; Politi, Antonio Z; Nédélec, François; Antony, Claude; Knop, Michael

2013-02-01

Nuclear migration during yeast karyogamy, termed nuclear congression, is required to initiate nuclear fusion. Congression involves a specific regulation of the microtubule minus end-directed kinesin-14 motor Kar3 and a rearrangement of the cytoplasmic microtubule attachment sites at the spindle pole bodies (SPBs). However, how these elements interact to produce the forces necessary for nuclear migration is less clear. We used electron tomography, molecular genetics, quantitative imaging, and first principles modeling to investigate how cytoplasmic microtubules are organized during nuclear congression. We found that Kar3, with the help of its light chain, Cik1, is anchored during mating to the SPB component Spc72 that also serves as a nucleator and anchor for microtubules via their minus ends. Moreover, we show that no direct microtubule-microtubule interactions are required for nuclear migration. Instead, SPB-anchored Kar3 exerts the necessary pulling forces laterally on microtubules emanating from the SPB of the mating partner nucleus. Therefore, a twofold symmetrical application of the core principle that drives nuclear migration in higher cells is used in yeast to drive nuclei toward each other before nuclear fusion.

Spindle pole body-anchored Kar3 drives the nucleus along microtubules from another nucleus in preparation for nuclear fusion during yeast karyogamy

PubMed Central

Gibeaux, Romain; Politi, Antonio Z.; Nédélec, François; Antony, Claude; Knop, Michael

2013-01-01

Nuclear migration during yeast karyogamy, termed nuclear congression, is required to initiate nuclear fusion. Congression involves a specific regulation of the microtubule minus end-directed kinesin-14 motor Kar3 and a rearrangement of the cytoplasmic microtubule attachment sites at the spindle pole bodies (SPBs). However, how these elements interact to produce the forces necessary for nuclear migration is less clear. We used electron tomography, molecular genetics, quantitative imaging, and first principles modeling to investigate how cytoplasmic microtubules are organized during nuclear congression. We found that Kar3, with the help of its light chain, Cik1, is anchored during mating to the SPB component Spc72 that also serves as a nucleator and anchor for microtubules via their minus ends. Moreover, we show that no direct microtubule–microtubule interactions are required for nuclear migration. Instead, SPB-anchored Kar3 exerts the necessary pulling forces laterally on microtubules emanating from the SPB of the mating partner nucleus. Therefore, a twofold symmetrical application of the core principle that drives nuclear migration in higher cells is used in yeast to drive nuclei toward each other before nuclear fusion. PMID:23388829

Connecting the "Hot Fusion Island" to the Nuclear Mainland: Search for 283,284,285Fl Decay Chains

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rykaczewski, K. P.; Utyonkov, V. K.; Brewer, N. T.; Grzywacz, R. K.; Miernik, K.; Roberto, J. B.; Oganessian, Yu. Ts.; Polyakov, A. N.; Tsyganov, Yu. S.; Voinov, A. A.; Abdullin, F. Sh.; Dmitriev, S. N.; Itkis, M. G.; Sabelnikov, A. V.; Sagaidak, R. N.; Shirokovsky, I. V.; Shumeiko, M. V.; Subbotin, V. G.; Sukhov, A. M.; Vostokin, G. K.; Hamilton, J. H.; Henderson, R. A.; Stoyer, M. A.

The program of studies on superheavy nuclei to identify new isotopes anchoring the decay chains from the Hot Fusion Island to the Nuclear Mainland has been started at the Dubna Gas Filled Recoil Separator (DGFRS, JINR Dubna) in collaboration between Russia, US and Poland. These studies are performed with new detection and digital data acquisition system developed at ORNL (Oak Ridge) and UT (Knoxville). The evidence for fast fission of the new isotope 284Fl is presented. The low cross section for the 3n channel of 239Pu + 48Ca reaction is attributed to lower than expected fission barriers in 287-284Fl.

FT-MIR and NIR spectral data fusion: a synergetic strategy for the geographical traceability of Panax notoginseng.

PubMed

Li, Yun; Zhang, Jin-Yu; Wang, Yuan-Zhong

2018-01-01

Three data fusion strategies (low-llevel, mid-llevel, and high-llevel) combined with a multivariate classification algorithm (random forest, RF) were applied to authenticate the geographical origins of Panax notoginseng collected from five regions of Yunnan province in China. In low-level fusion, the original data from two spectra (Fourier transform mid-IR spectrum and near-IR spectrum) were directly concatenated into a new matrix, which then was applied for the classification. Mid-level fusion was the strategy that inputted variables extracted from the spectral data into an RF classification model. The extracted variables were processed by iterate variable selection of the RF model and principal component analysis. The use of high-level fusion combined the decision making of each spectroscopic technique and resulted in an ensemble decision. The results showed that the mid-level and high-level data fusion take advantage of the information synergy from two spectroscopic techniques and had better classification performance than that of independent decision making. High-level data fusion is the most effective strategy since the classification results are better than those of the other fusion strategies: accuracy rates ranged between 93% and 96% for the low-level data fusion, between 95% and 98% for the mid-level data fusion, and between 98% and 100% for the high-level data fusion. In conclusion, the high-level data fusion strategy for Fourier transform mid-IR and near-IR spectra can be used as a reliable tool for correct geographical identification of P. notoginseng. Graphical abstract The analytical steps of Fourier transform mid-IR and near-IR spectral data fusion for the geographical traceability of Panax notoginseng.

Nuclear envelope breakdown induced by herpes simplex virus type 1 involves the activity of viral fusion proteins.

PubMed

Maric, Martina; Haugo, Alison C; Dauer, William; Johnson, David; Roller, Richard J

2014-07-01

Herpesvirus infection reorganizes components of the nuclear lamina usually without loss of integrity of the nuclear membranes. We report that wild-type HSV infection can cause dissolution of the nuclear envelope in transformed mouse embryonic fibroblasts that do not express torsinA. Nuclear envelope breakdown is accompanied by an eight-fold inhibition of virus replication. Breakdown of the membrane is much more limited during infection with viruses that lack the gB and gH genes, suggesting that breakdown involves factors that promote fusion at the nuclear membrane. Nuclear envelope breakdown is also inhibited during infection with virus that does not express UL34, but is enhanced when the US3 gene is deleted, suggesting that envelope breakdown may be enhanced by nuclear lamina disruption. Nuclear envelope breakdown cannot compensate for deletion of the UL34 gene suggesting that mixing of nuclear and cytoplasmic contents is insufficient to bypass loss of the normal nuclear egress pathway. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Registration and Fusion of Multiple Source Remotely Sensed Image Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

LeMoigne, Jacqueline

2004-01-01

Earth and Space Science often involve the comparison, fusion, and integration of multiple types of remotely sensed data at various temporal, radiometric, and spatial resolutions. Results of this integration may be utilized for global change analysis, global coverage of an area at multiple resolutions, map updating or validation of new instruments, as well as integration of data provided by multiple instruments carried on multiple platforms, e.g. in spacecraft constellations or fleets of planetary rovers. Our focus is on developing methods to perform fast, accurate and automatic image registration and fusion. General methods for automatic image registration are being reviewed and evaluated. Various choices for feature extraction, feature matching and similarity measurements are being compared, including wavelet-based algorithms, mutual information and statistically robust techniques. Our work also involves studies related to image fusion and investigates dimension reduction and co-kriging for application-dependent fusion. All methods are being tested using several multi-sensor datasets, acquired at EOS Core Sites, and including multiple sensors such as IKONOS, Landsat-7/ETM+, EO1/ALI and Hyperion, MODIS, and SeaWIFS instruments. Issues related to the coregistration of data from the same platform (i.e., AIRS and MODIS from Aqua) or from several platforms of the A-train (i.e., MLS, HIRDLS, OMI from Aura with AIRS and MODIS from Terra and Aqua) will also be considered.

Remote Sensing Data Visualization, Fusion and Analysis via Giovanni

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Leptoukh, G.; Zubko, V.; Gopalan, A.; Khayat, M.

2007-01-01

We describe Giovanni, the NASA Goddard developed online visualization and analysis tool that allows users explore various phenomena without learning remote sensing data formats and downloading voluminous data. Using MODIS aerosol data as an example, we formulate an approach to the data fusion for Giovanni to further enrich online multi-sensor remote sensing data comparison and analysis.

Radar image and data fusion for natural hazards characterisation

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lu, Zhong; Dzurisin, Daniel; Jung, Hyung-Sup; Zhang, Jixian; Zhang, Yonghong

2010-01-01

Fusion of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images through interferometric, polarimetric and tomographic processing provides an all - weather imaging capability to characterise and monitor various natural hazards. This article outlines interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) processing and products and their utility for natural hazards characterisation, provides an overview of the techniques and applications related to fusion of SAR/InSAR images with optical and other images and highlights the emerging SAR fusion technologies. In addition to providing precise land - surface digital elevation maps, SAR - derived imaging products can map millimetre - scale elevation changes driven by volcanic, seismic and hydrogeologic processes, by landslides and wildfires and other natural hazards. With products derived from the fusion of SAR and other images, scientists can monitor the progress of flooding, estimate water storage changes in wetlands for improved hydrological modelling predictions and assessments of future flood impacts and map vegetation structure on a global scale and monitor its changes due to such processes as fire, volcanic eruption and deforestation. With the availability of SAR images in near real - time from multiple satellites in the near future, the fusion of SAR images with other images and data is playing an increasingly important role in understanding and forecasting natural hazards.

Data fusion of Landsat TM and IRS images in forest classification

Treesearch

Guangxing Wang; Markus Holopainen; Eero Lukkarinen

2000-01-01

Data fusion of Landsat TM images and Indian Remote Sensing satellite panchromatic image (IRS-1C PAN) was studied and compared to the use of TM or IRS image only. The aim was to combine the high spatial resolution of IRS-1C PAN to the high spectral resolution of Landsat TM images using a data fusion algorithm. The ground truth of the study was based on a sample of 1,020...

Inertial electrostatic confinement and nuclear fusion in the interelectrode plasma of a nanosecond vacuum discharge. I: Experiment

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kurilenkov, Yu. K.; Skowronek, M.

2010-12-15

Properties of an aerosol substance with a high power density in the interelectrode space of a nano- second vacuum discharge are studied. The possibilities of emission and/or trapping of fast ions and hard X-rays by ensembles of clusters and microparticles are analyzed. The possibility of simultaneous partial trapping (diffusion) of X-rays and complete trapping of fast ions by a cluster ensemble is demonstrated experimentally. Due to such trapping, the aerosol ensemble transforms into a 'dusty' microreactor that can be used to investigate a certain class of nuclear processes, including collisional DD microfusion. Operating regimes of such a microreactor and theirmore » reproducibility were studied. On the whole, the generation efficiency of hard X-rays and neutrons in the proposed vacuum discharge with a hollow cathode can be higher by two orders of magnitude than that in a system 'high-power laser pulse-cluster cloud.' Multiply repeated nuclear fusion accompanied by pulsating DD neutron emission was reproducibly detected in experiment. Ion acceleration mechanisms in the interelectrode space and the fundamental role of the virtual cathode in observed nuclear fusion processes are discussed.« less

Characterizing the astrophysical S factor for 12C+12C fusion with wave-packet dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Diaz-Torres, Alexis; Wiescher, Michael

2018-05-01

A quantitative study of the astrophysically important subbarrier fusion of 12C+12C is presented. Low-energy collisions are described in the body-fixed reference frame using wave-packet dynamics within a nuclear molecular picture. A collective Hamiltonian drives the time propagation of the wave packet through the collective potential-energy landscape. The fusion imaginary potential for specific dinuclear configurations is crucial for understanding the appearance of resonances in the fusion cross section. The theoretical subbarrier fusion cross sections explain some observed resonant structures in the astrophysical S factor. These cross sections monotonically decline towards stellar energies. The structures in the data that are not explained are possibly due to cluster effects in the nuclear molecule, which need to be included in the present approach.

Nuclear-Physics Aspects of Controlled Thermonuclear Fusion: Analysis of Promising Fuels and Gamma-Ray Diagnostics of Hot Plasma

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Voronchev, V. T.; Kukulin, V. I.

2000-12-01

A brief survey of nuclear-physics aspects of the problems of controlled thermonuclear fusion is given. Attention is paid primarily to choosing and analyzing an optimal composition of a nuclear fuel, reliably extrapolating the cross sections for nuclear reactions to the region of low energies, and exploring gamma-ray methods (as a matter of fact, very promising methods indeed) for diagnostics of hot plasmas (three aspects that are often thought to be the most important ones). In particular, a comparative nuclear-physics analysis of hydrogen, DT, and DD thermonuclear fuels and of their alternatives in the form of D3He, D6Li, DT6Li, H6Li, H11B, and H9Be is performed. Their advantages and disadvantages are highlighted; a spin-polarized fuel is considered; and the current status of nuclear data on the processes of interest is analyzed. A procedure for determining cross sections for nuclear reactions in the deep-subbarrier region is discussed. By considering the example of low-energy D+6Li interactions, it is shown that, at ion temperatures below 100 keV, the inclusion of nuclear-structure factors leads to an additional enhancement of the rate parameters <σv> for the ( d, pt) and ( d, nτ) channels by 10-40%. The possibility of using nuclear reactions that lead to photon emission as a means for determining the ion temperature of a thermonuclear plasma is discussed.

Suppression of the chain nuclear fusion reaction based on the p+{sup 11}B reaction because of the deceleration of alpha particles

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Shmatov, M. L., E-mail: M.Shmatov@mail.ioffe.ru

2016-09-15

It is shown that a rapid deceleration of alpha particles in matter of electron temperature up to 100 keV leads a strong suppression of the chain nuclear fusion reaction on the basis of the p+{sup 11}B reaction with the reproduction of fast protons in the α+{sup 11}B and n+{sup 10}B reactions. The statement that the chain nuclear fusion reaction based on the p+{sup 11}B reaction with an acceleration of {sup 11}B nuclei because of elastic alpha-particle scattering manifests itself in experiments at the PALS (Prague Asterix Laser System) facility is analyzed.

Muon Catalyzed Fusion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Armour, Edward A.G.

2007-01-01

Muon catalyzed fusion is a process in which a negatively charged muon combines with two nuclei of isotopes of hydrogen, e.g, a proton and a deuteron or a deuteron and a triton, to form a muonic molecular ion in which the binding is so tight that nuclear fusion occurs. The muon is normally released after fusion has taken place and so can catalyze further fusions. As the muon has a mean lifetime of 2.2 microseconds, this is the maximum period over which a muon can participate in this process. This article gives an outline of the history of muon catalyzed fusion from 1947, when it was first realised that such a process might occur, to the present day. It includes a description of the contribution that Drachrnan has made to the theory of muon catalyzed fusion and the influence this has had on the author's research.

A Smartphone-Based Driver Safety Monitoring System Using Data Fusion

PubMed Central

Lee, Boon-Giin; Chung, Wan-Young

2012-01-01

This paper proposes a method for monitoring driver safety levels using a data fusion approach based on several discrete data types: eye features, bio-signal variation, in-vehicle temperature, and vehicle speed. The driver safety monitoring system was developed in practice in the form of an application for an Android-based smartphone device, where measuring safety-related data requires no extra monetary expenditure or equipment. Moreover, the system provides high resolution and flexibility. The safety monitoring process involves the fusion of attributes gathered from different sensors, including video, electrocardiography, photoplethysmography, temperature, and a three-axis accelerometer, that are assigned as input variables to an inference analysis framework. A Fuzzy Bayesian framework is designed to indicate the driver’s capability level and is updated continuously in real-time. The sensory data are transmitted via Bluetooth communication to the smartphone device. A fake incoming call warning service alerts the driver if his or her safety level is suspiciously compromised. Realistic testing of the system demonstrates the practical benefits of multiple features and their fusion in providing a more authentic and effective driver safety monitoring. PMID:23247416

Hierarchical adaptation scheme for multiagent data fusion and resource management in situation analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Benaskeur, Abder R.; Roy, Jean

2001-08-01

Sensor Management (SM) has to do with how to best manage, coordinate and organize the use of sensing resources in a manner that synergistically improves the process of data fusion. Based on the contextual information, SM develops options for collecting further information, allocates and directs the sensors towards the achievement of the mission goals and/or tunes the parameters for the realtime improvement of the effectiveness of the sensing process. Conscious of the important role that SM has to play in modern data fusion systems, we are currently studying advanced SM Concepts that would help increase the survivability of the current Halifax and Iroquois Class ships, as well as their possible future upgrades. For this purpose, a hierarchical scheme has been proposed for data fusion and resource management adaptation, based on the control theory and within the process refinement paradigm of the JDL data fusion model, and taking into account the multi-agent model put forward by the SASS Group for the situation analysis process. The novelty of this work lies in the unified framework that has been defined for tackling the adaptation of both the fusion process and the sensor/weapon management.

Generalized Nuclear Data: A New Structure (with Supporting Infrastructure) for Handling Nuclear Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mattoon, C. M.; Beck, B. R.; Patel, N. R.; Summers, N. C.; Hedstrom, G. W.; Brown, D. A.

2012-12-01

The Evaluated Nuclear Data File (ENDF) format was designed in the 1960s to accommodate neutron reaction data to support nuclear engineering applications in power, national security and criticality safety. Over the years, the scope of the format has been extended to handle many other kinds of data including charged particle, decay, atomic, photo-nuclear and thermal neutron scattering. Although ENDF has wide acceptance and support for many data types, its limited support for correlated particle emission, limited numeric precision, and general lack of extensibility mean that the nuclear data community cannot take advantage of many emerging opportunities. More generally, the ENDF format provides an unfriendly environment that makes it difficult for new data evaluators and users to create and access nuclear data. The Cross Section Evaluation Working Group (CSEWG) has begun the design of a new Generalized Nuclear Data (or 'GND') structure, meant to replace older formats with a hierarchy that mirrors the underlying physics, and is aligned with modern coding and database practices. In support of this new structure, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has updated its nuclear data/reactions management package Fudge to handle GND structured nuclear data. Fudge provides tools for converting both the latest ENDF format (ENDF-6) and the LLNL Evaluated Nuclear Data Library (ENDL) format to and from GND, as well as for visualizing, modifying and processing (i.e., converting evaluated nuclear data into a form more suitable to transport codes) GND structured nuclear data. GND defines the structure needed for storing nuclear data evaluations and the type of data that needs to be stored. But unlike ENDF and ENDL, GND does not define how the data are to be stored in a file. Currently, Fudge writes the structured GND data to a file using the eXtensible Markup Language (XML), as it is ASCII based and can be viewed with any text editor. XML is a meta-language, meaning that it

High Level Information Fusion (HLIF) with nested fusion loops

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Woodley, Robert; Gosnell, Michael; Fischer, Amber

2013-05-01

Situation modeling and threat prediction require higher levels of data fusion in order to provide actionable information. Beyond the sensor data and sources the analyst has access to, the use of out-sourced and re-sourced data is becoming common. Through the years, some common frameworks have emerged for dealing with information fusion—perhaps the most ubiquitous being the JDL Data Fusion Group and their initial 4-level data fusion model. Since these initial developments, numerous models of information fusion have emerged, hoping to better capture the human-centric process of data analyses within a machine-centric framework. 21st Century Systems, Inc. has developed Fusion with Uncertainty Reasoning using Nested Assessment Characterizer Elements (FURNACE) to address challenges of high level information fusion and handle bias, ambiguity, and uncertainty (BAU) for Situation Modeling, Threat Modeling, and Threat Prediction. It combines JDL fusion levels with nested fusion loops and state-of-the-art data reasoning. Initial research has shown that FURNACE is able to reduce BAU and improve the fusion process by allowing high level information fusion (HLIF) to affect lower levels without the double counting of information or other biasing issues. The initial FURNACE project was focused on the underlying algorithms to produce a fusion system able to handle BAU and repurposed data in a cohesive manner. FURNACE supports analyst's efforts to develop situation models, threat models, and threat predictions to increase situational awareness of the battlespace. FURNACE will not only revolutionize the military intelligence realm, but also benefit the larger homeland defense, law enforcement, and business intelligence markets.

Intense fusion neutron sources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuteev, B. V.; Goncharov, P. R.; Sergeev, V. Yu.; Khripunov, V. I.

2010-04-01

The review describes physical principles underlying efficient production of free neutrons, up-to-date possibilities and prospects of creating fission and fusion neutron sources with intensities of 1015-1021 neutrons/s, and schemes of production and application of neutrons in fusion-fission hybrid systems. The physical processes and parameters of high-temperature plasmas are considered at which optimal conditions for producing the largest number of fusion neutrons in systems with magnetic and inertial plasma confinement are achieved. The proposed plasma methods for neutron production are compared with other methods based on fusion reactions in nonplasma media, fission reactions, spallation, and muon catalysis. At present, intense neutron fluxes are mainly used in nanotechnology, biotechnology, material science, and military and fundamental research. In the near future (10-20 years), it will be possible to apply high-power neutron sources in fusion-fission hybrid systems for producing hydrogen, electric power, and technological heat, as well as for manufacturing synthetic nuclear fuel and closing the nuclear fuel cycle. Neutron sources with intensities approaching 1020 neutrons/s may radically change the structure of power industry and considerably influence the fundamental and applied science and innovation technologies. Along with utilizing the energy produced in fusion reactions, the achievement of such high neutron intensities may stimulate wide application of subcritical fast nuclear reactors controlled by neutron sources. Superpower neutron sources will allow one to solve many problems of neutron diagnostics, monitor nano-and biological objects, and carry out radiation testing and modification of volumetric properties of materials at the industrial level. Such sources will considerably (up to 100 times) improve the accuracy of neutron physics experiments and will provide a better understanding of the structure of matter, including that of the neutron itself.

Low-energy nuclear reaction of the 14N+169Tm system: Incomplete fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kumar, R.; Sharma, Vijay R.; Yadav, Abhishek; Singh, Pushpendra P.; Agarwal, Avinash; Appannababu, S.; Mukherjee, S.; Singh, B. P.; Ali, R.; Bhowmik, R. K.

2017-11-01

Excitation functions of reaction residues produced in the 14N+169Tm system have been measured to high precision at energies above the fusion barrier, ranging from 1.04 VB to 1.30 VB , and analyzed in the framework of the statistical model code pace4. Analysis of α -emitting channels points toward the onset of incomplete fusion even at slightly above-barrier energies where complete fusion is supposed to be one of the dominant processes. The onset and strength of incomplete fusion have been deduced and studied in terms of various entrance channel parameters. Present results together with the reanalysis of existing data for various projectile-target combinations conclusively suggest strong influence of projectile structure on the onset of incomplete fusion. Also, a strong dependence on the Coulomb effect (ZPZT) has been observed for the present system along with different projectile-target combinations available in the literature. It is concluded that the fraction of incomplete fusion linearly increases with ZPZT and is found to be more for larger ZPZT values, indicating significantly important linear systematics.

A DNA-based semantic fusion model for remote sensing data.

PubMed

Sun, Heng; Weng, Jian; Yu, Guangchuang; Massawe, Richard H

2013-01-01

Semantic technology plays a key role in various domains, from conversation understanding to algorithm analysis. As the most efficient semantic tool, ontology can represent, process and manage the widespread knowledge. Nowadays, many researchers use ontology to collect and organize data's semantic information in order to maximize research productivity. In this paper, we firstly describe our work on the development of a remote sensing data ontology, with a primary focus on semantic fusion-driven research for big data. Our ontology is made up of 1,264 concepts and 2,030 semantic relationships. However, the growth of big data is straining the capacities of current semantic fusion and reasoning practices. Considering the massive parallelism of DNA strands, we propose a novel DNA-based semantic fusion model. In this model, a parallel strategy is developed to encode the semantic information in DNA for a large volume of remote sensing data. The semantic information is read in a parallel and bit-wise manner and an individual bit is converted to a base. By doing so, a considerable amount of conversion time can be saved, i.e., the cluster-based multi-processes program can reduce the conversion time from 81,536 seconds to 4,937 seconds for 4.34 GB source data files. Moreover, the size of result file recording DNA sequences is 54.51 GB for parallel C program compared with 57.89 GB for sequential Perl. This shows that our parallel method can also reduce the DNA synthesis cost. In addition, data types are encoded in our model, which is a basis for building type system in our future DNA computer. Finally, we describe theoretically an algorithm for DNA-based semantic fusion. This algorithm enables the process of integration of the knowledge from disparate remote sensing data sources into a consistent, accurate, and complete representation. This process depends solely on ligation reaction and screening operations instead of the ontology.

A DNA-Based Semantic Fusion Model for Remote Sensing Data

PubMed Central

Sun, Heng; Weng, Jian; Yu, Guangchuang; Massawe, Richard H.

2013-01-01

Semantic technology plays a key role in various domains, from conversation understanding to algorithm analysis. As the most efficient semantic tool, ontology can represent, process and manage the widespread knowledge. Nowadays, many researchers use ontology to collect and organize data's semantic information in order to maximize research productivity. In this paper, we firstly describe our work on the development of a remote sensing data ontology, with a primary focus on semantic fusion-driven research for big data. Our ontology is made up of 1,264 concepts and 2,030 semantic relationships. However, the growth of big data is straining the capacities of current semantic fusion and reasoning practices. Considering the massive parallelism of DNA strands, we propose a novel DNA-based semantic fusion model. In this model, a parallel strategy is developed to encode the semantic information in DNA for a large volume of remote sensing data. The semantic information is read in a parallel and bit-wise manner and an individual bit is converted to a base. By doing so, a considerable amount of conversion time can be saved, i.e., the cluster-based multi-processes program can reduce the conversion time from 81,536 seconds to 4,937 seconds for 4.34 GB source data files. Moreover, the size of result file recording DNA sequences is 54.51 GB for parallel C program compared with 57.89 GB for sequential Perl. This shows that our parallel method can also reduce the DNA synthesis cost. In addition, data types are encoded in our model, which is a basis for building type system in our future DNA computer. Finally, we describe theoretically an algorithm for DNA-based semantic fusion. This algorithm enables the process of integration of the knowledge from disparate remote sensing data sources into a consistent, accurate, and complete representation. This process depends solely on ligation reaction and screening operations instead of the ontology. PMID:24116207

Feature-based fusion of medical imaging data.

PubMed

Calhoun, Vince D; Adali, Tülay

2009-09-01

The acquisition of multiple brain imaging types for a given study is a very common practice. There have been a number of approaches proposed for combining or fusing multitask or multimodal information. These can be roughly divided into those that attempt to study convergence of multimodal imaging, for example, how function and structure are related in the same region of the brain, and those that attempt to study the complementary nature of modalities, for example, utilizing temporal EEG information and spatial functional magnetic resonance imaging information. Within each of these categories, one can attempt data integration (the use of one imaging modality to improve the results of another) or true data fusion (in which multiple modalities are utilized to inform one another). We review both approaches and present a recent computational approach that first preprocesses the data to compute features of interest. The features are then analyzed in a multivariate manner using independent component analysis. We describe the approach in detail and provide examples of how it has been used for different fusion tasks. We also propose a method for selecting which combination of modalities provides the greatest value in discriminating groups. Finally, we summarize and describe future research topics.

Nuclear data and related services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tuli, J. K.

1985-10-01

National Nuclear Data Center (NNDC) maintains a number of data bases containing bibliographic information and evaluated as well as experimental nuclear properties. An evaluated computer file maintained by the NNDC, called the Evaluated Nuclear Structure Data File (ENSDF), contains nuclear structure information for all known nuclides. The ENSDF is the source for the journal Nuclear Data Sheets which is produced and edited by NNDC. The Evaluated Nuclear Data File (ENDF), on the other hand is designed for storage and retrieval of such evaluated nuclear data as are used in neutronic, photonic, and decay heat calculations in a large variety of applications. Some of the publications from these data bases are the Nuclear Wallet Cards, Radioactivity Handbook, and books on neutron cross sections and resonance parameters. In addition, the NNDC maintains three bibliographic files: NSR - for nuclear structure and decay data related references, CINDA - a bibliographic file for neutron induced reactions, and CPBIB for charged particle reactions. Selected retrievals from evaluated data and bibliographic files are possible on-line or on request from NNDC.

Regional Distribution of Forest Height and Biomass from Multisensor Data Fusion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yu, Yifan; Saatchi, Sassan; Heath, Linda S.; LaPoint, Elizabeth; Myneni, Ranga; Knyazikhin, Yuri

2010-01-01

Elevation data acquired from radar interferometry at C-band from SRTM are used in data fusion techniques to estimate regional scale forest height and aboveground live biomass (AGLB) over the state of Maine. Two fusion techniques have been developed to perform post-processing and parameter estimations from four data sets: 1 arc sec National Elevation Data (NED), SRTM derived elevation (30 m), Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM) bands (30 m), derived vegetation index (VI) and NLCD2001 land cover map. The first fusion algorithm corrects for missing or erroneous NED data using an iterative interpolation approach and produces distribution of scattering phase centers from SRTM-NED in three dominant forest types of evergreen conifers, deciduous, and mixed stands. The second fusion technique integrates the USDA Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) ground-based plot data to develop an algorithm to transform the scattering phase centers into mean forest height and aboveground biomass. Height estimates over evergreen (R2 = 0.86, P < 0.001; RMSE = 1.1 m) and mixed forests (R2 = 0.93, P < 0.001, RMSE = 0.8 m) produced the best results. Estimates over deciduous forests were less accurate because of the winter acquisition of SRTM data and loss of scattering phase center from tree ]surface interaction. We used two methods to estimate AGLB; algorithms based on direct estimation from the scattering phase center produced higher precision (R2 = 0.79, RMSE = 25 Mg/ha) than those estimated from forest height (R2 = 0.25, RMSE = 66 Mg/ha). We discuss sources of uncertainty and implications of the results in the context of mapping regional and continental scale forest biomass distribution.

Post-fusion treatment with MG132 increases transcription factor expression in somatic cell nuclear transfer embryos in pigs.

PubMed

You, Jinyoung; Lee, Joohyeong; Kim, Jinyoung; Park, Junhong; Lee, Eunsong

2010-02-01

The objective of this study was to examine the effect of post-fusion treatment of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) oocytes with the proteasomal inhibitor MG132 on maturation promoting factor (MPF) activity, nuclear remodeling, embryonic development, and gene expression of cloned pig embryos. Immediately after electrofusion, SCNT oocytes were treated with MG132 and/or caffeine for 2 hr, vanadate for 0.5 hr, or vanadate for 0.5 hr followed by MG132 for 1.5 hr. Of the MG132 concentrations tested (0-5 microM), the 1 microM concentration showed a higher rate of blastocyst formation (25.9%) than 0 (14.2%), 0.5 (16.9%), and 5 microM (16.9%). Post-fusion treatment with MG132, caffeine, and both MG132 and caffeine improved blastocyst formation (22.1%, 21.4%, and 24.4%, respectively), whereas vanadate treatment inhibited blastocyst formation (6.5%) compared to the control (11.1%). When examined 2 hr after fusion and 1 hr after activation, MPF activity remained at a higher (P < 0.05) level in SCNT oocytes that were treated post-fusion with caffeine and/or MG132, but it was decreased by vanadate. The rate of oocytes showing premature chromosome condensation was not altered by MG132 but was decreased by vanadate treatment. In addition, formation of single pronuclei was increased by MG132 compared to control and vanadate treatment. MG132-treated embryos showed increased expression of POU5F1, DPPA2, DPPA3, DPPA5, and NDP52l1 genes compared to control embryos. Our results demonstrate that post-fusion treatment of SCNT oocytes with MG132 prevents MPF degradation and increases expression of transcription factors in SCNT embryos, which are necessary for normal development of SCNT embryos. (c) 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

The Quest for Fusion at the National Ignition Facility

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hartouni, Edward

2017-01-01

Arthur Eddington speculated in 1920 on the internal constitution of stars and described the possibility of nuclear fusion based on the then new results from special relativity and measurements of light nuclei masses. By 1929 Atkinson and Houtermans worked out the calculations for nuclear fusion in stars and initiating nuclear astrophysics. All of these sciences were pressed into service during the World War II, and the applications developed, particularly under the auspices of the Manhattan Project provided both weapons with which to wage and win that conflict, but also the possibilities to harness these applications of the nuclear processes of fission and fusion for peaceful purposes. 32 years after Eddington's speculation the United States demonstrated the application of fusion in a famous nuclear weapons test. In the following years many ideas for producing ``controlled'' fusion through inertial confinement were pursued. The invention of the laser opened up new avenues which have culminated in the National Ignition Facility, NIF. I will attempt to cover the ground between Eddington, through the Manhattan Project and provide a current status of this quest at NIF. LLNL-ABS-704367-DRAFT. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.

Flight data results of estimate fusion for spacecraft rendezvous navigation from shuttle mission STS-69

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Carpenter, J. Russell; Bishop, Robert H.

1996-01-01

A recently developed rendezvous navigation fusion filter that optimally exploits existing distributed filters for rendezvous and GPS navigation to achieve the relative and inertial state accuracies of both in a global solution is utilized here to process actual flight data. Space Shuttle Mission STS-69 was the first mission to date which gathered data from both the rendezvous and Global Positioning System filters allowing, for the first time, a test of the fusion algorithm with real flight data. Furthermore, a precise best estimate of trajectory is available for portions of STS-69, making possible a check on the performance of the fusion filter. In order to successfully carry out this experiment with flight data, two extensions to the existing scheme were necessary: a fusion edit test based on differences between the filter state vectors, and an underweighting scheme to accommodate the suboptimal perfect target assumption made by the Shuttle rendezvous filter. With these innovations, the flight data was successfully fused from playbacks of downlinked and/or recorded measurement data through ground analysis versions of the Shuttle rendezvous filter and a GPS filter developed for another experiment. The fusion results agree with the best estimate of trajectory at approximately the levels of uncertainty expected from the fusion filter's covariance matrix.

Reanalysis of RNA-Sequencing Data Reveals Several Additional Fusion Genes with Multiple Isoforms

PubMed Central

Kangaspeska, Sara; Hultsch, Susanne; Edgren, Henrik; Nicorici, Daniel; Murumägi, Astrid; Kallioniemi, Olli

2012-01-01

RNA-sequencing and tailored bioinformatic methodologies have paved the way for identification of expressed fusion genes from the chaotic genomes of solid tumors. We have recently successfully exploited RNA-sequencing for the discovery of 24 novel fusion genes in breast cancer. Here, we demonstrate the importance of continuous optimization of the bioinformatic methodology for this purpose, and report the discovery and experimental validation of 13 additional fusion genes from the same samples. Integration of copy number profiling with the RNA-sequencing results revealed that the majority of the gene fusions were promoter-donating events that occurred at copy number transition points or involved high-level DNA-amplifications. Sequencing of genomic fusion break points confirmed that DNA-level rearrangements underlie selected fusion transcripts. Furthermore, a significant portion (>60%) of the fusion genes were alternatively spliced. This illustrates the importance of reanalyzing sequencing data as gene definitions change and bioinformatic methods improve, and highlights the previously unforeseen isoform diversity among fusion transcripts. PMID:23119097

Reanalysis of RNA-sequencing data reveals several additional fusion genes with multiple isoforms.

PubMed

Kangaspeska, Sara; Hultsch, Susanne; Edgren, Henrik; Nicorici, Daniel; Murumägi, Astrid; Kallioniemi, Olli

2012-01-01

RNA-sequencing and tailored bioinformatic methodologies have paved the way for identification of expressed fusion genes from the chaotic genomes of solid tumors. We have recently successfully exploited RNA-sequencing for the discovery of 24 novel fusion genes in breast cancer. Here, we demonstrate the importance of continuous optimization of the bioinformatic methodology for this purpose, and report the discovery and experimental validation of 13 additional fusion genes from the same samples. Integration of copy number profiling with the RNA-sequencing results revealed that the majority of the gene fusions were promoter-donating events that occurred at copy number transition points or involved high-level DNA-amplifications. Sequencing of genomic fusion break points confirmed that DNA-level rearrangements underlie selected fusion transcripts. Furthermore, a significant portion (>60%) of the fusion genes were alternatively spliced. This illustrates the importance of reanalyzing sequencing data as gene definitions change and bioinformatic methods improve, and highlights the previously unforeseen isoform diversity among fusion transcripts.

NUCLEAR HEATING IN LIF DOSEMETERS IN A FUSION NEUTRON FIELD, TRIAL OF DIRECT COMPARISON OF EXPERIMENTAL AND SIMULATED RESULTS.

PubMed

Pohorecki, Wladyslaw; Obryk, Barbara

2017-09-29

The results of nuclear heating measured by means of thermoluminescent dosemeters (TLD-LiF) in a Cu block irradiated by 14 MeV neutrons are presented. The integral Cu experiment relevant for verification of copper nuclear data at neutron energies characteristic for fusion facilities was performed in the ENEA FNG Laboratory at Frascati. Five types of TLDs were used: highly photon sensitive LiF:Mg,Cu,P (MCP-N), 7LiF:Mg,Cu,P (MCP-7) and standard, lower sensitivity LiF:Mg,Ti (MTS-N), 7LiF:Mg,Ti (MTS-7) and 6LiF:Mg,Ti (MTS-6). Calibration of the detectors was performed with gamma rays in terms of air-kerma (10 mGy of 137Cs air-kerma). Nuclear heating in the Cu block was also calculated with the use of MCNP transport code Nuclear heating in Cu and air in TLD's positions was calculated as well. The nuclear heating contribution from all simulated by MCNP6 code particles including protons, deuterons, alphas tritons and heavier ions produced by the neutron interactions were calculated. A trial of the direct comparison between experimental results and results of simulation was performed. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

ENDF/B-VII.0: Next Generation Evaluated Nuclear Data Library for Nuclear Science and Technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chadwick, M. B.; Obložinský, P.; Herman, M.; Greene, N. M.; McKnight, R. D.; Smith, D. L.; Young, P. G.; MacFarlane, R. E.; Hale, G. M.; Frankle, S. C.; Kahler, A. C.; Kawano, T.; Little, R. C.; Madland, D. G.; Moller, P.; Mosteller, R. D.; Page, P. R.; Talou, P.; Trellue, H.; White, M. C.; Wilson, W. B.; Arcilla, R.; Dunford, C. L.; Mughabghab, S. F.; Pritychenko, B.; Rochman, D.; Sonzogni, A. A.; Lubitz, C. R.; Trumbull, T. H.; Weinman, J. P.; Brown, D. A.; Cullen, D. E.; Heinrichs, D. P.; McNabb, D. P.; Derrien, H.; Dunn, M. E.; Larson, N. M.; Leal, L. C.; Carlson, A. D.; Block, R. C.; Briggs, J. B.; Cheng, E. T.; Huria, H. C.; Zerkle, M. L.; Kozier, K. S.; Courcelle, A.; Pronyaev, V.; van der Marck, S. C.

2006-12-01

agreement for simulations of thermal high-enriched uranium assemblies is preserved; (d) The underprediction of fast criticality of 233,235U and 239Pu assemblies is removed; and (e) The intermediate spectrum critical assemblies are predicted more accurately. We anticipate that the new library will play an important role in nuclear technology applications, including transport simulations supporting national security, nonproliferation, advanced reactor and fuel cycle concepts, criticality safety, fusion, medicine, space applications, nuclear astrophysics, and nuclear physics facility design. The ENDF/B-VII.0 library is archived at the National Nuclear Data Center, BNL, and can be retrieved from www.nndc.bnl.gov.

LENR/"Cold Fusion" and Modern Physics: A Crisis Within a Crisis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mallove, Eugene F. E.

2004-03-01

The primary theorists in the field of Cold Fusion/LENR have generally assumed that the excess heat phenomena is commensurate with nuclear ash (such as helium), whether already identified or presumed to be present but not yet found, and moreover that it can be explained by hydrided metal lattice structures acting coherently. Though this was an excellent initial hypothesis, the commensurate nuclear ash hypothesis has not been proved, and appears to be approximately correct in only a few experiments. At the same time, compelling evidence has also emerged for other microphysical sources of energy that were unexpected by accepted physics. The exemplars have been the work Dr. Randell Mills and his colleagues at BlackLight Power Corporation and Dr. Paulo and Alexandra Correa in Canada.This has led to a crisis within a crisis: Neither "cold fusion" nor "Modern Physics" will be able to explain the full range of experimental data now available---not even the data within "mainstream" cold fusion/LENR per se--- by insisting that the fundamental paradigms of Modern Physics are without significant flaw. The present crisis is of magnitude comparable to the Copernican Revolution. Neither Modern Physics nor Cold Fusion/LENR will survive in their present forms when this long delayed revolution has run its course.

Examples of Use of SINBAD Database for Nuclear Data and Code Validation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kodeli, Ivan; Žerovnik, Gašper; Milocco, Alberto

2017-09-01

The SINBAD database currently contains compilations and evaluations of over 100 shielding benchmark experiments. The SINBAD database is widely used for code and data validation. Materials covered include: Air, N. O, H2O, Al, Be, Cu, graphite, concrete, Fe, stainless steel, Pb, Li, Ni, Nb, SiC, Na, W, V and mixtures thereof. Over 40 organisations from 14 countries and 2 international organisations have contributed data and work in support of SINBAD. Examples of the use of the database in the scope of different international projects, such as the Working Party on Evaluation Cooperation of the OECD and the European Fusion Programme demonstrate the merit and possible usage of the database for the validation of modern nuclear data evaluations and new computer codes.

Quality evaluation of different fusion techniques applied on Worldview-2 data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vaiopoulos, Aristides; Nikolakopoulos, Konstantinos G.

2015-10-01

In the current study a Worldview-2 image was used for fusion quality assessment. The bundle image was collected on July 2014 over Araxos area in Western Peloponnese. Worldview-2 is the first satellite that collects at the same time a panchromatic (Pan) image and 8 band multispectral (MS) image. The Pan data have a spatial resolution of 0.46m while the MS data have a spatial resolution of 1.84m. In contrary to the respective Pan band of Ikonos and Quickbird that range between 0.45 and 0.90 micrometers the Worldview Pan band is narrower and ranges between 0.45 and 0.8 micrometers. The MS bands include four conventional visible and near-infrared bands common to multispectral satellites like Ikonos Quickbird, Geoeye Landsat-7 etc., and four new bands. Thus, it is quite interesting to investigate the assessment of commonly used fusion algorithms with Worldview-2 data. Twelve fusion techniques and more especially the Ehlers, Gram-Schmidt, Color Normalized, High Pass Filter, Hyperspherical Color Space, Local Mean Matching (LMM), Local Mean and Variance Matching (LMVM), Modified IHS (ModIHS), Pansharp, Pansharp2, PCA and Wavelet were used for the fusion of Worldview-2 panchromatic and multispectral data. The optical result, the statistical parameters and different quality indexes such as ERGAS, Q and entropy difference were examined and the results are presented. The quality control was evaluated both in spectral and spatial domain.

Distributed video data fusion and mining

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chang, Edward Y.; Wang, Yuan-Fang; Rodoplu, Volkan

2004-09-01

This paper presents an event sensing paradigm for intelligent event-analysis in a wireless, ad hoc, multi-camera, video surveillance system. In particilar, we present statistical methods that we have developed to support three aspects of event sensing: 1) energy-efficient, resource-conserving, and robust sensor data fusion and analysis, 2) intelligent event modeling and recognition, and 3) rapid deployment, dynamic configuration, and continuous operation of the camera networks. We outline our preliminary results, and discuss future directions that research might take.

Nuclear Data Needs for Generation IV Nuclear Energy Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rullhusen, Peter

2006-04-01

Nuclear data needs for generation IV systems. Future of nuclear energy and the role of nuclear data / P. Finck. Nuclear data needs for generation IV nuclear energy systems-summary of U.S. workshop / T. A. Taiwo, H. S. Khalil. Nuclear data needs for the assessment of gen. IV systems / G. Rimpault. Nuclear data needs for generation IV-lessons from benchmarks / S. C. van der Marck, A. Hogenbirk, M. C. Duijvestijn. Core design issues of the supercritical water fast reactor / M. Mori ... [et al.]. GFR core neutronics studies at CEA / J. C. Bosq ... [et al]. Comparative study on different phonon frequency spectra of graphite in GCR / Young-Sik Cho ... [et al.]. Innovative fuel types for minor actinides transmutation / D. Haas, A. Fernandez, J. Somers. The importance of nuclear data in modeling and designing generation IV fast reactors / K. D. Weaver. The GIF and Mexico-"everything is possible" / C. Arrenondo Sánchez -- Benmarks, sensitivity calculations, uncertainties. Sensitivity of advanced reactor and fuel cycle performance parameters to nuclear data uncertainties / G. Aliberti ... [et al.]. Sensitivity and uncertainty study for thermal molten salt reactors / A. Biduad ... [et al.]. Integral reactor physics benchmarks- The International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) and the International Reactor Physics Experiment Evaluation Project (IRPHEP) / J. B. Briggs, D. W. Nigg, E. Sartori. Computer model of an error propagation through micro-campaign of fast neutron gas cooled nuclear reactor / E. Ivanov. Combining differential and integral experiments on [symbol] for reducing uncertainties in nuclear data applications / T. Kawano ... [et al.]. Sensitivity of activation cross sections of the Hafnium, Tanatalum and Tungsten stable isotopes to nuclear reaction mechanisms / V. Avrigeanu ... [et al.]. Generating covariance data with nuclear models / A. J. Koning. Sensitivity of Candu-SCWR reactors physics calculations to nuclear data files / K. S

Operational data fusion framework for building frequent Landsat-like imagery in a cloudy region

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

An operational data fusion framework is built to generate dense time-series Landsat-like images for a cloudy region by fusing Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data products and Landsat imagery. The Spatial and Temporal Adaptive Reflectance Fusion Model (STARFM) is integrated in ...

Interferometric side scan sonar and data fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sintes, Christophe R.; Solaiman, Basel

2000-04-01

This paper concerns the possibilities of sea bottom imaging and altitude determining of each imaged point. The performances of new side scan sonars which are able to image the sea bottom with a high definition and are able to evaluate the relief with the same definition derive from an interferometric multisensor system. The drawbacks concern the precision of the numerical altitude model. One way to improve the measurements precision is to merge all the information issued from the multi-sensors system. This leads to increase the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) and the robustness of the used method. The aim of this paper is to clearly demonstrate the ability to derive benefits of all information issued from the three arrays side scan sonar by merging: (1) the three phase signals obtained at the output of the sensors, (2) this same set of data after the application of different processing methods, and (3) the a priori relief contextual information. The key idea the proposed fusion technique is to exploit the strength and the weaknesses of each data element in the fusion of process so that the global SNR will be improved as well as the robustness to hostile noisy environments.

A Foreign Object Damage Event Detector Data Fusion System for Turbofan Engines

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Turso, James A.; Litt, Jonathan S.

2004-01-01

A Data Fusion System designed to provide a reliable assessment of the occurrence of Foreign Object Damage (FOD) in a turbofan engine is presented. The FOD-event feature level fusion scheme combines knowledge of shifts in engine gas path performance obtained using a Kalman filter, with bearing accelerometer signal features extracted via wavelet analysis, to positively identify a FOD event. A fuzzy inference system provides basic probability assignments (bpa) based on features extracted from the gas path analysis and bearing accelerometers to a fusion algorithm based on the Dempster-Shafer-Yager Theory of Evidence. Details are provided on the wavelet transforms used to extract the foreign object strike features from the noisy data and on the Kalman filter-based gas path analysis. The system is demonstrated using a turbofan engine combined-effects model (CEM), providing both gas path and rotor dynamic structural response, and is suitable for rapid-prototyping of control and diagnostic systems. The fusion of the disparate data can provide significantly more reliable detection of a FOD event than the use of either method alone. The use of fuzzy inference techniques combined with Dempster-Shafer-Yager Theory of Evidence provides a theoretical justification for drawing conclusions based on imprecise or incomplete data.

Measurement of the ^12C+^12C Fusion Reaction with MUSIC

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carnelli, P. F. F.; Almaraz-Calderon, S.; Henderson, D.; Rehm, K. E.; Albers, M.; Alcorta, M.; Bertone, P. F.; Esbensen, H.; Fernandez-Niello, J. O.; Jiang, C. L.; Lighthall, J. C.; Marley, S. T.; Palchan-Hazan, T.; Pardo, R. C.; Paul, M.

2012-10-01

The fusion of the ^12C+^12C system is of great interest in nuclear structure and nuclear astrophysics. Above the Coulomb barrier, the excitation function of this system exhibits oscillations, which are not well understood. There is also a significant discrepancy between the experimental fusion cross-section and recent coupled-channel calculations that is not present in other carbon systems. To address these issues, we have re-measured the fusion excitation function for ^12,13C+^12C in the energy range of 10 MeV < Ecm < 20 MeV using a Multi-Sampling Ionization Chamber (MUSIC) detector. The gas of the ionization chamber (CH4) served as both the target material and the counter gas. One of the main advantages of this method is that the excitation function is measured over a large range of energies using only one beam energy. This method has been proven to be successful and it will be used to measure fusion reactions in other light systems. The experimental results will be presented and compared to previous experimental data and theoretical models.

Fusion Propulsion Z-Pinch Engine Concept

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Miernik, J.; Statham, G.; Fabisinski, L.; Maples, C. D.; Adams, R.; Polsgrove, T.; Fincher, S.; Cassibry, J.; Cortez, R.; Turner, M.;

Funding for the 2ND IAEA technical meeting on fusion data processing, validation and analysis

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Greenwald, Martin

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will organize the second Technical Meeting on Fusion Da Processing, Validation and Analysis from 30 May to 02 June, 2017, in Cambridge, MA USA. The meeting w be hosted by the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC). The objective of the meeting is to provide a platform where a set of topics relevant to fusion data processing, validation and analysis are discussed with the view of extrapolation needs to next step fusion devices such as ITER. The validation and analysis of experimental data obtained from diagnostics used to characterize fusion plasmas are crucialmore » for a knowledge based understanding of the physical processes governing the dynamics of these plasmas. The meeting will aim at fostering, in particular, discussions of research and development results that set out or underline trends observed in the current major fusion confinement devices. General information on the IAEA, including its mission and organization, can be found at the IAEA websit Uncertainty quantification (UQ) Model selection, validation, and verification (V&V) Probability theory and statistical analysis Inverse problems & equilibrium reconstru ction Integrated data analysis Real time data analysis Machine learning Signal/image proc essing & pattern recognition Experimental design and synthetic diagnostics Data management« less

Fusion Analytics: A Data Integration System for Public Health and Medical Disaster Response Decision Support

PubMed Central

Passman, Dina B.

2013-01-01

Objective The objective of this demonstration is to show conference attendees how they can integrate, analyze, and visualize diverse data type data from across a variety of systems by leveraging an off-the-shelf enterprise business intelligence (EBI) solution to support decision-making in disasters. Introduction Fusion Analytics is the data integration system developed by the Fusion Cell at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR). Fusion Analytics meaningfully augments traditional public and population health surveillance reporting by providing web-based data analysis and visualization tools. Methods Fusion Analytics serves as a one-stop-shop for the web-based data visualizations of multiple real-time data sources within ASPR. The 24-7 web availability makes it an ideal analytic tool for situational awareness and response allowing stakeholders to access the portal from any internet-enabled device without installing any software. The Fusion Analytics data integration system was built using off-the-shelf EBI software. Fusion Analytics leverages the full power of statistical analysis software and delivers reports to users in a secure web-based environment. Fusion Analytics provides an example of how public health staff can develop and deploy a robust public health informatics solution using an off-the shelf product and with limited development funding. It also provides the unique example of a public health information system that combines patient data for traditional disease surveillance with manpower and resource data to provide overall decision support for federal public health and medical disaster response operations. Conclusions We are currently in a unique position within public health. One the one hand, we have been gaining greater and greater access to electronic data of all kinds over the last few years. On the other, we are working in a time of reduced government spending

Fusion nuclear science facilities and pilot plants based on the spherical tokamak

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Menard, J. E.; Brown, T.; El-Guebaly, L.; Boyer, M.; Canik, J.; Colling, B.; Raman, R.; Wang, Z.; Zhai, Y.; Buxton, P.; Covele, B.; D'Angelo, C.; Davis, A.; Gerhardt, S.; Gryaznevich, M.; Harb, M.; Hender, T. C.; Kaye, S.; Kingham, D.; Kotschenreuther, M.; Mahajan, S.; Maingi, R.; Marriott, E.; Meier, E. T.; Mynsberge, L.; Neumeyer, C.; Ono, M.; Park, J.-K.; Sabbagh, S. A.; Soukhanovskii, V.; Valanju, P.; Woolley, R.

2016-10-01

A fusion nuclear science facility (FNSF) could play an important role in the development of fusion energy by providing the nuclear environment needed to develop fusion materials and components. The spherical torus/tokamak (ST) is a leading candidate for an FNSF due to its potentially high neutron wall loading and modular configuration. A key consideration for the choice of FNSF configuration is the range of achievable missions as a function of device size. Possible missions include: providing high neutron wall loading and fluence, demonstrating tritium self-sufficiency, and demonstrating electrical self-sufficiency. All of these missions must also be compatible with a viable divertor, first-wall, and blanket solution. ST-FNSF configurations have been developed simultaneously incorporating for the first time: (1) a blanket system capable of tritium breeding ratio TBR  ≈  1, (2) a poloidal field coil set supporting high elongation and triangularity for a range of internal inductance and normalized beta values consistent with NSTX/NSTX-U previous/planned operation, (3) a long-legged divertor analogous to the MAST-U divertor which substantially reduces projected peak divertor heat-flux and has all outboard poloidal field coils outside the vacuum chamber and superconducting to reduce power consumption, and (4) a vertical maintenance scheme in which blanket structures and the centerstack can be removed independently. Progress in these ST-FNSF missions versus configuration studies including dependence on plasma major radius R 0 for a range 1 m-2.2 m are described. In particular, it is found the threshold major radius for TBR  =  1 is {{R}0}≥slant 1.7 m, and a smaller R 0  =  1 m ST device has TBR  ≈  0.9 which is below unity but substantially reduces T consumption relative to not breeding. Calculations of neutral beam heating and current drive for non-inductive ramp-up and sustainment are described. An A  =  2, R 0�

Fusion nuclear science facilities and pilot plants based on the spherical tokamak

DOE PAGES

Menard, J. E.; Brown, T.; El-Guebaly, L.; ...

2016-08-16

Here, a fusion nuclear science facility (FNSF) could play an important role in the development of fusion energy by providing the nuclear environment needed to develop fusion materials and components. The spherical torus/tokamak (ST) is a leading candidate for an FNSF due to its potentially high neutron wall loading and modular configuration. A key consideration for the choice of FNSF configuration is the range of achievable missions as a function of device size. Possible missions include: providing high neutron wall loading and fluence, demonstrating tritium self-sufficiency, and demonstrating electrical self-sufficiency. All of these missions must also be compatible with a viable divertor, first-wall, and blanket solution. ST-FNSF configurations have been developed simultaneously incorporating for the first time: (1) a blanket system capable of tritium breeding ratio TBR ≈ 1, (2) a poloidal field coil set supporting high elongation and triangularity for a range of internal inductance and normalized beta values consistent with NSTX/NSTX-U previous/planned operation, (3) a long-legged divertor analogous to the MAST-U divertor which substantially reduces projected peak divertor heat-flux and has all outboard poloidal field coils outside the vacuum chamber and superconducting to reduce power consumption, and (4) a vertical maintenance scheme in which blanket structures and the centerstack can be removed independently. Progress in these ST-FNSF missions versus configuration studies including dependence on plasma major radius R 0 for a range 1 m–2.2 m are described. In particular, it is found the threshold major radius for TBR = 1 ismore » $${{R}_{0}}\\geqslant 1.7$$ m, and a smaller R 0 = 1 m ST device has TBR ≈ 0.9 which is below unity but substantially reduces T consumption relative to not breeding. Calculations of neutral beam heating and current drive for non-inductive ramp-up and sustainment are described. An A = 2, R = 3 m device incorporating high

The DD Cold Fusion-Transmutation Connection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chubb, Talbot A.

2005-12-01

LENR theory must explain dd fusion, alpha-addition transmutations, radiationless nuclear reactions, and three-body nuclear particle reactions. Reaction without radiation requires many-body D Bloch+ periodicity in both location and internal structure dependencies. Electron scattering leads to mixed quantum states. The radiationless dd fusion reaction is 2-D Bloch+ -> {}4 He Bloch2+. Overlap between {}4 He Bloch2+ and surface Cs leads to alpha absorption. In the Iwamura et al. studies active deuterium is created by scattering at diffusion barriers.

Joint interpretation of geophysical data using Image Fusion techniques

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karamitrou, A.; Tsokas, G.; Petrou, M.

2013-12-01

Joint interpretation of geophysical data produced from different methods is a challenging area of research in a wide range of applications. In this work we apply several image fusion approaches to combine maps of electrical resistivity, electromagnetic conductivity, vertical gradient of the magnetic field, magnetic susceptibility, and ground penetrating radar reflections, in order to detect archaeological relics. We utilize data gathered from Arkansas University, with the support of the U.S. Department of Defense, through the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP-CS1263). The area of investigation is the Army City, situated in Riley Country of Kansas, USA. The depth of the relics is estimated about 30 cm from the surface, yet the surface indications of its existence are limited. We initially register the images from the different methods to correct from random offsets due to the use of hand-held devices during the measurement procedure. Next, we apply four different image fusion approaches to create combined images, using fusion with mean values, wavelet decomposition, curvelet transform, and curvelet transform enhancing the images along specific angles. We create seven combinations of pairs between the available geophysical datasets. The combinations are such that for every pair at least one high-resolution method (resistivity or magnetic gradiometry) is included. Our results indicate that in almost every case the method of mean values produces satisfactory fused images that corporate the majority of the features of the initial images. However, the contrast of the final image is reduced, and in some cases the averaging process nearly eliminated features that are fade in the original images. Wavelet based fusion outputs also good results, providing additional control in selecting the feature wavelength. Curvelet based fusion is proved the most effective method in most of the cases. The ability of curvelet domain to unfold the image in

Matrix factorization-based data fusion for gene function prediction in baker's yeast and slime mold.

PubMed

Zitnik, Marinka; Zupan, Blaž

2014-01-01

The development of effective methods for the characterization of gene functions that are able to combine diverse data sources in a sound and easily-extendible way is an important goal in computational biology. We have previously developed a general matrix factorization-based data fusion approach for gene function prediction. In this manuscript, we show that this data fusion approach can be applied to gene function prediction and that it can fuse various heterogeneous data sources, such as gene expression profiles, known protein annotations, interaction and literature data. The fusion is achieved by simultaneous matrix tri-factorization that shares matrix factors between sources. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach by evaluating its performance on predicting ontological annotations in slime mold D. discoideum and on recognizing proteins of baker's yeast S. cerevisiae that participate in the ribosome or are located in the cell membrane. Our approach achieves predictive performance comparable to that of the state-of-the-art kernel-based data fusion, but requires fewer data preprocessing steps.

Leaf area index uncertainty estimates for model-data fusion applications

Treesearch

Andrew D. Richardson; D. Bryan Dail; D.Y. Hollinger

2011-01-01

Estimates of data uncertainties are required to integrate different observational data streams as model constraints using model-data fusion. We describe an approach with which random and systematic uncertainties in optical measurements of leaf area index [LAI] can be quantified. We use data from a measurement campaign at the spruce-dominated Howland Forest AmeriFlux...

Dynamical approach to heavy-ion induced fusion using actinide target

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aritomo, Y.; Hagino, K.; Chiba, S.; Nishio, K.

2012-10-01

To treat heavy-ion reactions using actinide target nucleus, we propose a model which takes into account the coupling to the collective states of interacting nuclei in the penetration of the Coulomb barrier and the dynamical evolution of nuclear shape from the contact configuration. A fluctuation-dissipation model (Langevin equation) was applied in the dynamical calculation, where effect of nuclear orientation at the initial impact on the prolately deformed target nucleus was considered. Using this model, we analyzed the experimental data for the mass distribution of fission fragments (MDFF) in the reaction of 36S+238U at several incident energies. Fusion-fission, quasifission and deep-quasi-fission are separated as different trajectories on the potential energy surface. We estimated the fusion cross section of the reaction.

Evidence of parasexual activity in "asexual amoebae" Cochliopodium spp. (Amoebozoa): extensive cellular and nuclear fusion.

PubMed

Tekle, Yonas I; Anderson, O Roger; Lecky, Ariel F

2014-09-01

The majority of microbial eukaryotes have long been considered asexual, though new evidence indicates sex, or sexual-like (parasexual) behaviors that deviate from the usual union of two gametes, among other variant aspects. Over a dozen amoebozoans are implicated to have sexual stages. However, the exact mechanism by which sex occurs in these lineages remains elusive. This is mainly due to the diverse quality and cryptic nature of their life cycle. In this study we present evidence of some previously unreported aspects of the life cycle of an amoeba, Cochliopodium, that undergoes unusual intraspecific interactions using light microscopy and immunocytochemistry. Similar to other amoebozoans, Cochliopodium, is considered asexual with no published reports of sex or parasexuality. We also investigated environmental conditions that govern the observed intraspecific interactions. Both light microscopic and immunocytochemistry evidence demonstrates Cochliopodium undergoes cellular fusion (plasmogamy) and nuclear fusion (karyogamy). Large plasmodia eventually undergo karyogamy and contain large fused, polyploid, nuclei. These are observed to fragment, subsequently, by karyotomy (nuclear fission) and cytoplasmic fission to yield uninucleated amoebae. This process could lead to a non-meiotic, parasexual exchange of chromosomes in Cochliopodium. These findings strongly suggest that Cochliopodium is involved in parasexual activity and should no longer be considered strictly asexual. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

The defects and microstructure in the fusion zone of multipass laser welded joints with Inconel 52M filler wire for nuclear power plants

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Gang; Lu, Xiaofeng; Zhu, Xiaolei; Huang, Jian; Liu, Luwei; Wu, Yixiong

2017-09-01

The defects and microstructure in the fusion zone of multipass laser welded joints with Inconel 52M filler wire are investigated for nuclear power plants. Experimental results indicate that the incomplete fusion forms as the deposited metals do not completely cover the groove during multipass laser welding. The dendritic morphologies are observed on the inner surface of the porosity in the fusion zone. Many small cellular are found in the zones near the fusion boundary. With solidification preceding, cellular gradually turn into columnar dendrites and symmetrical columnar dendrites are exhibited in the weld center of the fusion zone. The fine equiaxed grains form and columnar dendrites disappear in the remelted zone of two passes. The dendrite arm spacing in the fusion zone becomes widened with increasing welding heat input. Nb-rich carbides/carbonitrides are preferentially precipitated in the fusion zone of multipass laser welded joints. In respect to high cooling rate during multipass laser welding, element segregation could be insufficient to achieve the component of Laves phase.

Physiological sensor signals classification for healthcare using sensor data fusion and case-based reasoning.

PubMed

Begum, Shahina; Barua, Shaibal; Ahmed, Mobyen Uddin

2014-07-03

Today, clinicians often do diagnosis and classification of diseases based on information collected from several physiological sensor signals. However, sensor signal could easily be vulnerable to uncertain noises or interferences and due to large individual variations sensitivity to different physiological sensors could also vary. Therefore, multiple sensor signal fusion is valuable to provide more robust and reliable decision. This paper demonstrates a physiological sensor signal classification approach using sensor signal fusion and case-based reasoning. The proposed approach has been evaluated to classify Stressed or Relaxed individuals using sensor data fusion. Physiological sensor signals i.e., Heart Rate (HR), Finger Temperature (FT), Respiration Rate (RR), Carbon dioxide (CO2) and Oxygen Saturation (SpO2) are collected during the data collection phase. Here, sensor fusion has been done in two different ways: (i) decision-level fusion using features extracted through traditional approaches; and (ii) data-level fusion using features extracted by means of Multivariate Multiscale Entropy (MMSE). Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) is applied for the classification of the signals. The experimental result shows that the proposed system could classify Stressed or Relaxed individual 87.5% accurately compare to an expert in the domain. So, it shows promising result in the psychophysiological domain and could be possible to adapt this approach to other relevant healthcare systems.

UV-visible-DAD and 1H-NMR spectroscopy data fusion for studying the photodegradation process of azo-dyes using MCR-ALS.

PubMed

Fernández, Cristina; Pilar Callao, M; Larrechi, M Soledad

2013-12-15

The photodegradation process of three azo-dyes - Acid Orange 61, Acid Red 97 and Acid Brown 425 - was monitored simultaneously by ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy with diode array detector (UV-vis-DAD) and (1)H-nuclear magnetic resonance ((1)H-NMR). Multivariate curve resolution-alternating least squares (MCR-ALS) was applied to obtain the concentration and spectral profile of the chemical compounds involved in the process. The analysis of the H-NMR data suggests there are more intermediate compounds than those obtained with the UV-vis-DAD data. The fusion of UV-vis-DAD and the (1)H-NMR signal before the multivariate analysis provides better results than when only one of the two detector signals was used. It was concluded that three degradation products were present in the medium when the three azo-dyes had practically degraded. This study is the first application of UV-vis-DAD and (1)H-NMR spectroscopy data fusion in this field and illustrates its potential as a quick method for evaluating the evolution of the azo-dye photodegradation process. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The US Nuclear Data Network

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

1993-10-19

This report discusses the following topics: US Nuclear Data Network Meeting; TUNL A=3--20 Data Project Activity Report 1993; INEL Mass-chain Evaluation Project Activity Report for 1993; 1993 Isotopes; Nuclear Data Project Activity Report; The NNDC Activity Report Parts A and B; Minutes of the Formats and Procedures Subcommittee; Evaluation of High-spin Nuclear Data for ENSDF and Table of Superdeformed Nuclear Bands; Proposal for Support of a Experimental High-spin; Data File/Data-Network Coordinator; Radioactive Decay and Applications; A Plan for a Horizontal Evaluation of Decay Data; ENSDF On-line System; The MacNuclide Project Expanding the Scope of the Nuclear Structure Reference File; ENSDAT:more » Evaluated Nuclear Structure Drawings and Tables; Cross Section Evaluation Working Group (CSEWG) and CSEWG Strategy Session; A Draft Proposal for a USNDN Program Advisory Council; Recommendations of Focus Group 1; Recommendations of Focus Group 2; Recommendations of Focus Group 3; Recommendations of Focus Group 4; The Table of Isotopes; The Isotopes CD-ROM; Electronic Table of Isotopes (ETOI); and Electronic Access to Nuclear Data.« less

Modeling Cyber Situational Awareness Through Data Fusion

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-03-01

following table: Table 3.10: Example Vulnerable Hosts for Criticality Assessment Experiment Example Id OS Applications/Services Version 1 Mac OS X VLC ...linux.org/. [4] Blasch, E., I. Kadar, J. Salerno, M. Kokar, S. Das, G. Powell, D. Corkill, and E. Ruspini. “Issues and challenges of knowledge representation...Holsopple. “Issues and challenges in higher level fusion: Threat/impact assessment and intent modeling (a panel summary)”. Information Fusion (FUSION

Number-Theory in Nuclear-Physics in Number-Theory: Non-Primality Factorization As Fission VS. Primality As Fusion; Composites' Islands of INstability: Feshbach-Resonances?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Siegel, Edward

2011-10-01

Numbers: primality/indivisibility/non-factorization versus compositeness/divisibility /factor-ization, often in tandem but not always, provocatively close analogy to nuclear-physics: (2 + 1)=(fusion)=3; (3+1)=(fission)=4[=2 × 2]; (4+1)=(fusion)=5; (5 +1)=(fission)=6[=2 × 3]; (6 + 1)=(fusion)=7; (7+1)=(fission)=8[= 2 × 4 = 2 × 2 × 2]; (8 + 1) =(non: fission nor fusion)= 9[=3 × 3]; then ONLY composites' Islands of fusion-INstability: 8, 9, 10; then 14, 15, 16,... Could inter-digit Feshbach-resonances exist??? Applications to: quantum-information/computing non-Shore factorization, millennium-problem Riemann-hypotheses proof as Goodkin BEC intersection with graph-theory ``short-cut'' method: Rayleigh(1870)-Polya(1922)-``Anderson'' (1958)-localization, Goldbach-conjecture, financial auditing/accounting as quantum-statistical-physics;... abound!!!

Recent Advances in Registration, Integration and Fusion of Remotely Sensed Data: Redundant Representations and Frames

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Czaja, Wojciech; Le Moigne-Stewart, Jacqueline

2014-01-01

In recent years, sophisticated mathematical techniques have been successfully applied to the field of remote sensing to produce significant advances in applications such as registration, integration and fusion of remotely sensed data. Registration, integration and fusion of multiple source imagery are the most important issues when dealing with Earth Science remote sensing data where information from multiple sensors, exhibiting various resolutions, must be integrated. Issues ranging from different sensor geometries, different spectral responses, differing illumination conditions, different seasons, and various amounts of noise need to be dealt with when designing an image registration, integration or fusion method. This tutorial will first define the problems and challenges associated with these applications and then will review some mathematical techniques that have been successfully utilized to solve them. In particular, we will cover topics on geometric multiscale representations, redundant representations and fusion frames, graph operators, diffusion wavelets, as well as spatial-spectral and operator-based data fusion. All the algorithms will be illustrated using remotely sensed data, with an emphasis on current and operational instruments.

Towards a Unified Approach to Information Integration - A review paper on data/information fusion

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Whitney, Paul D.; Posse, Christian; Lei, Xingye C.

2005-10-14

Information or data fusion of data from different sources are ubiquitous in many applications, from epidemiology, medical, biological, political, and intelligence to military applications. Data fusion involves integration of spectral, imaging, text, and many other sensor data. For example, in epidemiology, information is often obtained based on many studies conducted by different researchers at different regions with different protocols. In the medical field, the diagnosis of a disease is often based on imaging (MRI, X-Ray, CT), clinical examination, and lab results. In the biological field, information is obtained based on studies conducted on many different species. In military field, informationmore » is obtained based on data from radar sensors, text messages, chemical biological sensor, acoustic sensor, optical warning and many other sources. Many methodologies are used in the data integration process, from classical, Bayesian, to evidence based expert systems. The implementation of the data integration ranges from pure software design to a mixture of software and hardware. In this review we summarize the methodologies and implementations of data fusion process, and illustrate in more detail the methodologies involved in three examples. We propose a unified multi-stage and multi-path mapping approach to the data fusion process, and point out future prospects and challenges.« less

Fusion of navigational data in River Information Services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kazimierski, W.

2009-04-01

. Their main advantage over AIS is total independence from tracked target's facilities. For example, wrong indications of ship's GPS would affect AIS accuracy, but wouldn't have any impact on values estimated by radar. In addition to this in many times update rate for AIS data is longer than for radar. Thus, it can be noticed, that efficient tracking system introduced in RIS shall use both AIS receivers (based on satellite derived positions), and independent radar and camera sensors. This will however cause determining at least two different set of information about positions and movement parameters of targets. Doubled or multiplied vectors for single target are unacceptable, due to safety of navigation and traffic management. Hence the need of data fusion in RIS is obvious. The main goal is to develop unambiguous, clear and reliable information about ships' position and movement for all users in the system. Data fusion itself is not a new problem in maritime navigation. There are systems of Integrated Bridge on sea-going ships, which use information coming out from different sources. However the possibilities of integration of navigational information in the aspect of inland navigation, especially in River Information Services, still needs to be thoroughly surveyed. It is quite useful for simplifying the deduction, to introduce two data fusion levels. First of them is being done on board of the vessel. Its aim is to integrate all information coming from different sensors in the so called Integrated Navigational System. The other task of this fusion is to estimate reliable information about other objects based on AIS and radar. The second level is the integration of AIS, radar and closed-circuit television (CCTV) carried out in coastal station in order to determine Tactical and Strategic Traffic Image. The navigational information in RIS itself can be divided into two main groups. The first one is called static data and contains al basic information related to ship itself

Nuclear fusion-independent smooth muscle differentiation of human adipose-derived stem cells induced by a smooth muscle environment.

PubMed

Zhang, Rong; Jack, Gregory S; Rao, Nagesh; Zuk, Patricia; Ignarro, Louis J; Wu, Benjamin; Rodríguez, Larissa V

2012-03-01

Human adipose-derived stem cells hASC have been isolated and were shown to have multilineage differentiation capacity. Although both plasticity and cell fusion have been suggested as mechanisms for cell differentiation in vivo, the effect of the local in vivo environment on the differentiation of adipose-derived stem cells has not been evaluated. We previously reported the in vitro capacity of smooth muscle differentiation of these cells. In this study, we evaluate the effect of an in vivo smooth muscle environment in the differentiation of hASC. We studied this by two experimental designs: (a) in vivo evaluation of smooth muscle differentiation of hASC injected into a smooth muscle environment and (b) in vitro evaluation of smooth muscle differentiation capacity of hASC exposed to bladder smooth muscle cells. Our results indicate a time-dependent differentiation of hASC into mature smooth muscle cells when these cells are injected into the smooth musculature of the urinary bladder. Similar findings were seen when the cells were cocultured in vitro with primary bladder smooth muscle cells. Chromosomal analysis demonstrated that microenvironment cues rather than nuclear fusion are responsible for this differentiation. We conclude that cell plasticity is present in hASCs, and their differentiation is accomplished in the absence of nuclear fusion. Copyright © 2011 AlphaMed Press.

Space-Time Data Fusion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Braverman, Amy; Nguyen, Hai; Olsen, Edward; Cressie, Noel

2011-01-01

Space-time Data Fusion (STDF) is a methodology for combing heterogeneous remote sensing data to optimally estimate the true values of a geophysical field of interest, and obtain uncertainties for those estimates. The input data sets may have different observing characteristics including different footprints, spatial resolutions and fields of view, orbit cycles, biases, and noise characteristics. Despite these differences all observed data can be linked to the underlying field, and therefore the each other, by a statistical model. Differences in footprints and other geometric characteristics are accounted for by parameterizing pixel-level remote sensing observations as spatial integrals of true field values lying within pixel boundaries, plus measurement error. Both spatial and temporal correlations in the true field and in the observations are estimated and incorporated through the use of a space-time random effects (STRE) model. Once the models parameters are estimated, we use it to derive expressions for optimal (minimum mean squared error and unbiased) estimates of the true field at any arbitrary location of interest, computed from the observations. Standard errors of these estimates are also produced, allowing confidence intervals to be constructed. The procedure is carried out on a fine spatial grid to approximate a continuous field. We demonstrate STDF by applying it to the problem of estimating CO2 concentration in the lower-atmosphere using data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and the Japanese Greenhouse Gasses Observing Satellite (GOSAT) over one year for the continental US.

The status of cold fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Storms, E.

This report attempts to update the status of the phenomenon of cold fusion. The new field is continuing to grow as a variety of nuclear reactions are discovered to occur in a variety of chemical environments at modest temperatures. However, it must be cautioned that most scientists consider cold fusion as something akin to UFO's, ESP, and numerology.

Advanced Concepts: Aneutronic Fusion Power and Propulsion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chapman, John J.

2012-01-01

Aneutronic Fusion for In-Space thrust, power. Clean energy & potential nuclear gains. Fusion plant concepts, potential to use advanced fuels. Methods to harness ionic momentum for high Isp thrust plus direct power conversion into electricity will be presented.

The fusion of satellite and UAV data: simulation of high spatial resolution band

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jenerowicz, Agnieszka; Siok, Katarzyna; Woroszkiewicz, Malgorzata; Orych, Agata

2017-10-01

Remote sensing techniques used in the precision agriculture and farming that apply imagery data obtained with sensors mounted on UAV platforms became more popular in the last few years due to the availability of low- cost UAV platforms and low- cost sensors. Data obtained from low altitudes with low- cost sensors can be characterised by high spatial and radiometric resolution but quite low spectral resolution, therefore the application of imagery data obtained with such technology is quite limited and can be used only for the basic land cover classification. To enrich the spectral resolution of imagery data acquired with low- cost sensors from low altitudes, the authors proposed the fusion of RGB data obtained with UAV platform with multispectral satellite imagery. The fusion is based on the pansharpening process, that aims to integrate the spatial details of the high-resolution panchromatic image with the spectral information of lower resolution multispectral or hyperspectral imagery to obtain multispectral or hyperspectral images with high spatial resolution. The key of pansharpening is to properly estimate the missing spatial details of multispectral images while preserving their spectral properties. In the research, the authors presented the fusion of RGB images (with high spatial resolution) obtained with sensors mounted on low- cost UAV platforms and multispectral satellite imagery with satellite sensors, i.e. Landsat 8 OLI. To perform the fusion of UAV data with satellite imagery, the simulation of the panchromatic bands from RGB data based on the spectral channels linear combination, was conducted. Next, for simulated bands and multispectral satellite images, the Gram-Schmidt pansharpening method was applied. As a result of the fusion, the authors obtained several multispectral images with very high spatial resolution and then analysed the spatial and spectral accuracies of processed images.

A flexible data fusion architecture for persistent surveillance using ultra-low-power wireless sensor networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hanson, Jeffrey A.; McLaughlin, Keith L.; Sereno, Thomas J.

2011-06-01

We have developed a flexible, target-driven, multi-modal, physics-based fusion architecture that efficiently searches sensor detections for targets and rejects clutter while controlling the combinatoric problems that commonly arise in datadriven fusion systems. The informational constraints imposed by long lifetime requirements make systems vulnerable to false alarms. We demonstrate that our data fusion system significantly reduces false alarms while maintaining high sensitivity to threats. In addition, mission goals can vary substantially in terms of targets-of-interest, required characterization, acceptable latency, and false alarm rates. Our fusion architecture provides the flexibility to match these trade-offs with mission requirements unlike many conventional systems that require significant modifications for each new mission. We illustrate our data fusion performance with case studies that span many of the potential mission scenarios including border surveillance, base security, and infrastructure protection. In these studies, we deployed multi-modal sensor nodes - including geophones, magnetometers, accelerometers and PIR sensors - with low-power processing algorithms and low-bandwidth wireless mesh networking to create networks capable of multi-year operation. The results show our data fusion architecture maintains high sensitivities while suppressing most false alarms for a variety of environments and targets.

Spatial Aspects of Multi-Sensor Data Fusion: Aerosol Optical Thickness

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Leptoukh, Gregory; Zubko, V.; Gopalan, A.

2007-01-01

The Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC) investigated the applicability and limitations of combining multi-sensor data through data fusion, to increase the usefulness of the multitude of NASA remote sensing data sets, and as part of a larger effort to integrate this capability in the GES-DISC Interactive Online Visualization and Analysis Infrastructure (Giovanni). This initial study focused on merging daily mean Aerosol Optical Thickness (AOT), as measured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard the Terra and Aqua satellites, to increase spatial coverage and produce complete fields to facilitate comparison with models and station data. The fusion algorithm used the maximum likelihood technique to merge the pixel values where available. The algorithm was applied to two regional AOT subsets (with mostly regular and irregular gaps, respectively) and a set of AOT fields that differed only in the size and location of artificially created gaps. The Cumulative Semivariogram (CSV) was found to be sensitive to the spatial distribution of gap areas and, thus, useful for assessing the sensitivity of the fused data to spatial gaps.

Fusion Studies in Japan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ogawa, Yuichi

2016-05-01

A new strategic energy plan decided by the Japanese Cabinet in 2014 strongly supports the steady promotion of nuclear fusion development activities, including the ITER project and the Broader Approach activities from the long-term viewpoint. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in Japan formulated the Third Phase Basic Program so as to promote an experimental fusion reactor project. In 2005 AEC has reviewed this Program, and discussed on selection and concentration among many projects of fusion reactor development. In addition to the promotion of ITER project, advanced tokamak research by JT-60SA, helical plasma experiment by LHD, FIREX project in laser fusion research and fusion engineering by IFMIF were highly prioritized. Although the basic concept is quite different between tokamak, helical and laser fusion researches, there exist a lot of common features such as plasma physics on 3-D magnetic geometry, high power heat load on plasma facing component and so on. Therefore, a synergetic scenario on fusion reactor development among various plasma confinement concepts would be important.

Heterogeneous data fusion for brain tumor classification.

PubMed

Metsis, Vangelis; Huang, Heng; Andronesi, Ovidiu C; Makedon, Fillia; Tzika, Aria

2012-10-01

Current research in biomedical informatics involves analysis of multiple heterogeneous data sets. This includes patient demographics, clinical and pathology data, treatment history, patient outcomes as well as gene expression, DNA sequences and other information sources such as gene ontology. Analysis of these data sets could lead to better disease diagnosis, prognosis, treatment and drug discovery. In this report, we present a novel machine learning framework for brain tumor classification based on heterogeneous data fusion of metabolic and molecular datasets, including state-of-the-art high-resolution magic angle spinning (HRMAS) proton (1H) magnetic resonance spectroscopy and gene transcriptome profiling, obtained from intact brain tumor biopsies. Our experimental results show that our novel framework outperforms any analysis using individual dataset.

Evaluation of commercial available fusion algorithms for Geoeye data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vaiopoulos, Aristides D.; Nikolakopoulos, Konstantinos G.

2013-10-01

In this study ten commercial available fusion techniques and more especially the Ehlers, Gram-Schmidt, High Pass Filter, Local Mean Matching (LMM), Local Mean and Variance Matching (LMVM), Modified IHS (ModIHS), Pansharp, PCA, HCS (Hyperspherical Color Space) and Wavelet were used for the fusion of Geoeye panchromatic and multispectral data. The panchromatic data have a spatial resolution of 0.5m while the multispectral data have a spatial resolution of 2.0m. The optical result, the statistical parameters and different quality indexes such as ERGAS, Q, entropy were examined and the results are presented. The broader area of Pendeli mountain near to the city of Athens Greece and more especially two sub areas with different characteristics were chosen for the comparison. The first sub area is located at the edge of the urban fabric and combines at the same time the characteristics of an urban and a rural area. The second sub area comprises a large open quarry and it is suitable to examine which fused product is more suitable for mine monitoring.

A New Look to Nuclear Data

DOE PAGES

McCutchan, E. A.; Brown, D. A.; Sonzogni, A. A.

2017-03-30

Databases of evaluated nuclear data form a cornerstone on which we build academic nuclear structure physics, reaction physics, astrophysics, and many applied nuclear technologies. In basic research, nuclear data are essential for selecting, designing and conducting experiments, and for the development and testing of theoretical models to understand the fundamental properties of atomic nuclei. Likewise, the applied fields of nuclear power, homeland security, stockpile stewardship and nuclear medicine, all have deep roots requiring evaluated nuclear data. Each of these fields requires rapid and easy access to up-to-date, comprehensive and reliable databases. The DOE-funded US Nuclear Data Program is a specificmore » and coordinated effort tasked to compile, evaluate and disseminate nuclear structure and reaction data such that it can be used by the world-wide nuclear physics community.« less

A New Look to Nuclear Data

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

McCutchan, E. A.; Brown, D. A.; Sonzogni, A. A.

Databases of evaluated nuclear data form a cornerstone on which we build academic nuclear structure physics, reaction physics, astrophysics, and many applied nuclear technologies. In basic research, nuclear data are essential for selecting, designing and conducting experiments, and for the development and testing of theoretical models to understand the fundamental properties of atomic nuclei. Likewise, the applied fields of nuclear power, homeland security, stockpile stewardship and nuclear medicine, all have deep roots requiring evaluated nuclear data. Each of these fields requires rapid and easy access to up-to-date, comprehensive and reliable databases. The DOE-funded US Nuclear Data Program is a specificmore » and coordinated effort tasked to compile, evaluate and disseminate nuclear structure and reaction data such that it can be used by the world-wide nuclear physics community.« less

Number-Theory in Nuclear-Physics in Number-Theory: Non-Primality Factorization As Fission VS. Primality As Fusion; Composites' Islands of INstability: Feshbach-Resonances?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Siegel, Edward

2011-04-01

Numbers: primality/indivisibility/non-factorization versus compositeness/divisibility /factor-ization, often in tandem but not always, provocatively close analogy to nuclear-physics: (2 + 1)=(fusion)=3; (3+1)=(fission)=4[=2 x 2]; (4+1)=(fusion)=5; (5+1)=(fission)=6[=2 x 3]; (6 + 1)=(fusion)=7; (7+1)=(fission)=8[= 2 x 4 = 2 x 2 x 2]; (8 + 1) =(non: fission nor fusion)= 9[=3 x 3]; then ONLY composites' Islands of fusion-INstability: 8, 9, 10; then 14, 15, 16,... Could inter-digit Feshbach-resonances exist??? Applications to: quantum-information and computing non-Shore factorization, millennium-problem Riemann-hypotheses physics-proof as numbers/digits Goodkin Bose-Einstein Condensation intersection with graph-theory ``short-cut'' method: Rayleigh(1870)-Polya(1922)-``Anderson'' (1958)-localization, Goldbach-conjecture, financial auditing/accounting as quantum-statistical-physics;... abound!!!

The strategy of fusion genes construction determines efficient expression of introduced transcription factors.

PubMed

Adamus, Tomasz; Konieczny, Paweł; Sekuła, Małgorzata; Sułkowski, Maciej; Majka, Marcin

2014-01-01

The main goal in gene therapy and biomedical research is an efficient transcription factors (TFs) delivery system. SNAIL, a zinc finger transcription factor, is strongly involved in tumor, what makes its signaling pathways an interesting research subject. The necessity of tracking activation of intracellular pathways has prompted fluorescent proteins usage as localization markers. Advanced molecular cloning techniques allow to generate fusion proteins from fluorescent markers and transcription factors. Depending on fusion strategy, the protein expression levels and nuclear transport ability are significantly different. The P2A self-cleavage motif through its cleavage ability allows two single proteins to be simultaneously expressed. The aim of this study was to compare two strategies for introducing a pair of genes using expression vector system. We have examined GFP and SNAI1 gene fusions by comprising common nucleotide polylinker (multiple cloning site) or P2A motif in between them, resulting in one fusion or two independent protein expressions respectively. In each case transgene expression levels and translation efficiency as well as nuclear localization of expressed protein have been analyzed. Our data showed that usage of P2A motif provides more effective nuclear transport of SNAIL transcription factor than conventional genes linker. At the same time the fluorescent marker spreads evenly in subcellular space.

Solid-State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Investigation of the Structural Topology and Lipid Interactions of a Viral Fusion Protein Chimera Containing the Fusion Peptide and Transmembrane Domain.

PubMed

Yao, Hongwei; Lee, Myungwoon; Liao, Shu-Yu; Hong, Mei

2016-12-13

The fusion peptide (FP) and transmembrane domain (TMD) of viral fusion proteins play important roles during virus-cell membrane fusion, by inducing membrane curvature and transient dehydration. The structure of the water-soluble ectodomain of viral fusion proteins has been extensively studied crystallographically, but the structures of the FP and TMD bound to phospholipid membranes are not well understood. We recently investigated the conformations and lipid interactions of the separate FP and TMD peptides of parainfluenza virus 5 (PIV5) fusion protein F using solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance. These studies provide structural information about the two domains when they are spatially well separated in the fusion process. To investigate how these two domains are structured relative to each other in the postfusion state, when the ectodomain forms a six-helix bundle that is thought to force the FP and TMD together in the membrane, we have now expressed and purified a chimera of the FP and TMD, connected by a Gly-Lys linker, and measured the chemical shifts and interdomain contacts of the protein in several lipid membranes. The FP-TMD chimera exhibits α-helical chemical shifts in all the membranes examined and does not cause strong curvature of lamellar membranes or membranes with negative spontaneous curvature. These properties differ qualitatively from those of the separate peptides, indicating that the FP and TMD interact with each other in the lipid membrane. However, no 13 C- 13 C cross peaks are observed in two-dimensional correlation spectra, suggesting that the two helices are not tightly associated. These results suggest that the ectodomain six-helix bundle does not propagate into the membrane to the two hydrophobic termini. However, the loosely associated FP and TMD helices are found to generate significant negative Gaussian curvature to membranes that possess spontaneous positive curvature, consistent with the notion that the FP-TMD assembly may

A pharmacological study of Arabidopsis cell fusion between the persistent synergid and endosperm.

PubMed

Motomura, Kazuki; Kawashima, Tomokazu; Berger, Frédéric; Kinoshita, Tetsu; Higashiyama, Tetsuya; Maruyama, Daisuke

2018-01-29

Cell fusion is a pivotal process in fertilization and multinucleate cell formation. A plant cell is ubiquitously surrounded by a hard cell wall, and very few cell fusions have been observed except for gamete fusions. We recently reported that the fertilized central cell (the endosperm) absorbs the persistent synergid, a highly differentiated cell necessary for pollen tube attraction. The synergid-endosperm fusion (SE fusion) appears to eliminate the persistent synergid from fertilized ovule in Arabidopsis thaliana Here, we analyzed the effects of various inhibitors on SE fusion in an in vitro culture system. Different from other cell fusions, neither disruption of actin polymerization nor protein secretion impaired SE fusion. However, transcriptional and translational inhibitors decreased the SE fusion success rate and also inhibited endosperm division. Failures of SE fusion and endosperm nuclear proliferation were also induced by roscovitine, an inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinases (CDK). These data indicate unique aspects of SE fusion such as independence of filamentous actin support and the importance of CDK-mediated mitotic control. © 2018. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

Bubble fusion: Preliminary estimates

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Krakowski, R.A.

1995-02-01

The collapse of a gas-filled bubble in disequilibrium (i.e., internal pressure {much_lt} external pressure) can occur with a significant focusing of energy onto the entrapped gas in the form of pressure-volume work and/or acoustical shocks; the resulting heating can be sufficient to cause ionization and the emission of atomic radiations. The suggestion that extreme conditions necessary for thermonuclear fusion to occur may be possible has been examined parametrically in terms of the ratio of initial bubble pressure relative to that required for equilibrium. In this sense, the disequilibrium bubble is viewed as a three-dimensional ``sling shot`` that is ``loaded`` tomore » an extent allowed by the maximum level of disequilibrium that can stably be achieved. Values of this disequilibrium ratio in the range 10{sup {minus}5}--10{sup {minus}6} are predicted by an idealized bubble-dynamics model as necessary to achieve conditions where nuclear fusion of deuterium-tritium might be observed. Harmonic and aharmonic pressurizations/decompressions are examined as means to achieve the required levels of disequilibrium required to create fusion conditions. A number of phenomena not included in the analysis reported herein could enhance or reduce the small levels of nuclear fusions predicted.« less

On the impact of RN network coverage on event selection and data fusion during the 2009 National Data Centres Preparedness Exercise

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Becker, Andreas; Krysta, Monika; Auer, Matthias; Brachet, Nicolas; Ceranna, Lars; Gestermann, Nicolai; Nikkinen, Mika; Zähringer, Matthias

2010-05-01

The so-called National Data Centres (NDCs) to the Provisional Technical Secretariat of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) Organization are in charge to provide for the final judgement on the CTBT relevance of explosion events encountered in the PTS International Monitoring System (IMS). The latter is a 321 stations network set-up by the PTS (to date completion level: 80%) in order to globally monitor for occurrence of CTBT relevant seismo-acoustic and radionuclide signals. In doing so, NDCs learn about any seismo-acoustic or radionuclide event by active retrieval or subscription to corresponding event lists and products provided by the International Data Centre (IDC) to the PTS. To prepare for their instrumental role in case of a CTBT relevant event, the NDCs jointly conduct annually so-called NDC Preparedness Exercises. In 2009, NDC Germany was in charge to lead the exercise and to choose a seismo-acoustic event out of the list of events provided by the PTS (Gestermann et al., EGU2010-13067). The novelty in this procedure was that also the infrasound readings and the monitoring coverage of existing (certified) radionuclide stations into the area of consideration were taken into account during the event selection process (Coyne et al., EGU2010-12660). Hence, the event finally chosen and examined took place near Kara-Zhyra mine in Eastern Kazakhstan on 28 November 2009 around 07:20:31 UTC (Event-ID 5727516). NDC Austria performed forward atmospheric transport modelling in order to predict RN measurements that should have occurred in the radionuclide IMS. In doing so the fictitious case that there would have been a release of radionuclides taking place at the same location (Wotawa and Schraik, 2010; EGU2010-4907) in a strength being typical for a non-contained nuclear explosion is examined. The stations indicated should then be analysed for their actual radionuclide readings in order to confirm the non nuclear character of

FT-Raman and NIR spectroscopy data fusion strategy for multivariate qualitative analysis of food fraud.

PubMed

Márquez, Cristina; López, M Isabel; Ruisánchez, Itziar; Callao, M Pilar

2016-12-01

Two data fusion strategies (high- and mid-level) combined with a multivariate classification approach (Soft Independent Modelling of Class Analogy, SIMCA) have been applied to take advantage of the synergistic effect of the information obtained from two spectroscopic techniques: FT-Raman and NIR. Mid-level data fusion consists of merging some of the previous selected variables from the spectra obtained from each spectroscopic technique and then applying the classification technique. High-level data fusion combines the SIMCA classification results obtained individually from each spectroscopic technique. Of the possible ways to make the necessary combinations, we decided to use fuzzy aggregation connective operators. As a case study, we considered the possible adulteration of hazelnut paste with almond. Using the two-class SIMCA approach, class 1 consisted of unadulterated hazelnut samples and class 2 of samples adulterated with almond. Models performance was also studied with samples adulterated with chickpea. The results show that data fusion is an effective strategy since the performance parameters are better than the individual ones: sensitivity and specificity values between 75% and 100% for the individual techniques and between 96-100% and 88-100% for the mid- and high-level data fusion strategies, respectively. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Possible generation of heat from nuclear fusion in Earth's inner core.

PubMed

Fukuhara, Mikio

2016-11-23

The cause and source of the heat released from Earth's interior have not yet been determined. Some research groups have proposed that the heat is supplied by radioactive decay or by a nuclear georeactor. Here we postulate that the generation of heat is the result of three-body nuclear fusion of deuterons confined in hexagonal FeDx core-centre crystals; the reaction rate is enhanced by the combined attraction effects of high-pressure (~364 GPa) and high-temperature (~5700 K) and by the physical catalysis of neutral pions: 2 D +  2 D +  2 D → 2 1 H +  4 He + 2  + 20.85 MeV. The possible heat generation rate can be calculated as 8.12 × 10 12  J/m 3 , based on the assumption that Earth's primitive heat supply has already been exhausted. The H and He atoms produced and the anti-neutrino are incorporated as Fe-H based alloys in the H-rich portion of inner core, are released from Earth's interior to the universe, and pass through Earth, respectively.

ChimerDB 3.0: an enhanced database for fusion genes from cancer transcriptome and literature data mining.

PubMed

Lee, Myunggyo; Lee, Kyubum; Yu, Namhee; Jang, Insu; Choi, Ikjung; Kim, Pora; Jang, Ye Eun; Kim, Byounggun; Kim, Sunkyu; Lee, Byungwook; Kang, Jaewoo; Lee, Sanghyuk

2017-01-04

Fusion gene is an important class of therapeutic targets and prognostic markers in cancer. ChimerDB is a comprehensive database of fusion genes encompassing analysis of deep sequencing data and manual curations. In this update, the database coverage was enhanced considerably by adding two new modules of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) RNA-Seq analysis and PubMed abstract mining. ChimerDB 3.0 is composed of three modules of ChimerKB, ChimerPub and ChimerSeq. ChimerKB represents a knowledgebase including 1066 fusion genes with manual curation that were compiled from public resources of fusion genes with experimental evidences. ChimerPub includes 2767 fusion genes obtained from text mining of PubMed abstracts. ChimerSeq module is designed to archive the fusion candidates from deep sequencing data. Importantly, we have analyzed RNA-Seq data of the TCGA project covering 4569 patients in 23 cancer types using two reliable programs of FusionScan and TopHat-Fusion. The new user interface supports diverse search options and graphic representation of fusion gene structure. ChimerDB 3.0 is available at http://ercsb.ewha.ac.kr/fusiongene/. © The Author(s) 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

Nuclear fusion at heavy water clusters collision with deuterized targets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bolotin, Yu. L.; Inopin, E. V.; Lyashko, Yu. V.; Slabospitskij, R. P.

A review of research developed in different laboratories on animal heavy particle yield in D-D fusion reactions induced by heavy water cluster collisions with deuterized targets is presented. Analysis of data shows, on one hand, nontriviality of experimental results and inadequacy of their interpretation and, on the other hand, the multipromising prospects of such a research.

Importance of interpolation and coincidence errors in data fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ceccherini, Simone; Carli, Bruno; Tirelli, Cecilia; Zoppetti, Nicola; Del Bianco, Samuele; Cortesi, Ugo; Kujanpää, Jukka; Dragani, Rossana

2018-02-01

The complete data fusion (CDF) method is applied to ozone profiles obtained from simulated measurements in the ultraviolet and in the thermal infrared in the framework of the Sentinel 4 mission of the Copernicus programme. We observe that the quality of the fused products is degraded when the fusing profiles are either retrieved on different vertical grids or referred to different true profiles. To address this shortcoming, a generalization of the complete data fusion method, which takes into account interpolation and coincidence errors, is presented. This upgrade overcomes the encountered problems and provides products of good quality when the fusing profiles are both retrieved on different vertical grids and referred to different true profiles. The impact of the interpolation and coincidence errors on number of degrees of freedom and errors of the fused profile is also analysed. The approach developed here to account for the interpolation and coincidence errors can also be followed to include other error components, such as forward model errors.

Sensor data fusion for textured reconstruction and virtual representation of alpine scenes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Häufel, Gisela; Bulatov, Dimitri; Solbrig, Peter

2017-10-01

The concept of remote sensing is to provide information about a wide-range area without making physical contact with this area. If, additionally to satellite imagery, images and videos taken by drones provide a more up-to-date data at a higher resolution, or accurate vector data is downloadable from the Internet, one speaks of sensor data fusion. The concept of sensor data fusion is relevant for many applications, such as virtual tourism, automatic navigation, hazard assessment, etc. In this work, we describe sensor data fusion aiming to create a semantic 3D model of an extremely interesting yet challenging dataset: An alpine region in Southern Germany. A particular challenge of this work is that rock faces including overhangs are present in the input airborne laser point cloud. The proposed procedure for identification and reconstruction of overhangs from point clouds comprises four steps: Point cloud preparation, filtering out vegetation, mesh generation and texturing. Further object types are extracted in several interesting subsections of the dataset: Building models with textures from UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) videos, hills reconstructed as generic surfaces and textured by the orthophoto, individual trees detected by the watershed algorithm, as well as the vector data for roads retrieved from openly available shapefiles and GPS-device tracks. We pursue geo-specific reconstruction by assigning texture and width to roads of several pre-determined types and modeling isolated trees and rocks using commercial software. For visualization and simulation of the area, we have chosen the simulation system Virtual Battlespace 3 (VBS3). It becomes clear that the proposed concept of sensor data fusion allows a coarse reconstruction of a large scene and, at the same time, an accurate and up-to-date representation of its relevant subsections, in which simulation can take place.

Inertial-confinement fusion with lasers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Betti, R.; Hurricane, O. A.

2016-05-01

The quest for controlled fusion energy has been ongoing for over a half century. The demonstration of ignition and energy gain from thermonuclear fuels in the laboratory has been a major goal of fusion research for decades. Thermonuclear ignition is widely considered a milestone in the development of fusion energy, as well as a major scientific achievement with important applications in national security and basic sciences. The US is arguably the world leader in the inertial confinement approach to fusion and has invested in large facilities to pursue it, with the objective of establishing the science related to the safety and reliability of the stockpile of nuclear weapons. Although significant progress has been made in recent years, major challenges still remain in the quest for thermonuclear ignition via laser fusion. Here, we review the current state of the art in inertial confinement fusion research and describe the underlying physical principles.

Olive oil sensory defects classification with data fusion of instrumental techniques and multivariate analysis (PLS-DA).

PubMed

Borràs, Eva; Ferré, Joan; Boqué, Ricard; Mestres, Montserrat; Aceña, Laura; Calvo, Angels; Busto, Olga

2016-07-15

Three instrumental techniques, headspace-mass spectrometry (HS-MS), mid-infrared spectroscopy (MIR) and UV-visible spectrophotometry (UV-vis), have been combined to classify virgin olive oil samples based on the presence or absence of sensory defects. The reference sensory values were provided by an official taste panel. Different data fusion strategies were studied to improve the discrimination capability compared to using each instrumental technique individually. A general model was applied to discriminate high-quality non-defective olive oils (extra-virgin) and the lowest-quality olive oils considered non-edible (lampante). A specific identification of key off-flavours, such as musty, winey, fusty and rancid, was also studied. The data fusion of the three techniques improved the classification results in most of the cases. Low-level data fusion was the best strategy to discriminate musty, winey and fusty defects, using HS-MS, MIR and UV-vis, and the rancid defect using only HS-MS and MIR. The mid-level data fusion approach using partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) scores was found to be the best strategy for defective vs non-defective and edible vs non-edible oil discrimination. However, the data fusion did not sufficiently improve the results obtained by a single technique (HS-MS) to classify non-defective classes. These results indicate that instrumental data fusion can be useful for the identification of sensory defects in virgin olive oils. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Integral nuclear data validation using experimental spent nuclear fuel compositions

DOE PAGES

Gauld, Ian C.; Williams, Mark L.; Michel-Sendis, Franco; ...

2017-07-19

Measurements of the isotopic contents of spent nuclear fuel provide experimental data that are a prerequisite for validating computer codes and nuclear data for many spent fuel applications. Under the auspices of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) and guidance of the Expert Group on Assay Data of Spent Nuclear Fuel of the NEA Working Party on Nuclear Criticality Safety, a new database of expanded spent fuel isotopic compositions has been compiled. The database, Spent Fuel Compositions (SFCOMPO) 2.0, includes measured data for more than 750 fuel samples acquired from 44 different reactors andmore » representing eight different reactor technologies. Measurements for more than 90 isotopes are included. This new database provides data essential for establishing the reliability of code systems for inventory predictions, but it also has broader potential application to nuclear data evaluation. Furthermore, the database, together with adjoint based sensitivity and uncertainty tools for transmutation systems developed to quantify the importance of nuclear data on nuclide concentrations, are described.« less

Integral nuclear data validation using experimental spent nuclear fuel compositions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gauld, Ian C.; Williams, Mark L.; Michel-Sendis, Franco

Measurements of the isotopic contents of spent nuclear fuel provide experimental data that are a prerequisite for validating computer codes and nuclear data for many spent fuel applications. Under the auspices of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) and guidance of the Expert Group on Assay Data of Spent Nuclear Fuel of the NEA Working Party on Nuclear Criticality Safety, a new database of expanded spent fuel isotopic compositions has been compiled. The database, Spent Fuel Compositions (SFCOMPO) 2.0, includes measured data for more than 750 fuel samples acquired from 44 different reactors andmore » representing eight different reactor technologies. Measurements for more than 90 isotopes are included. This new database provides data essential for establishing the reliability of code systems for inventory predictions, but it also has broader potential application to nuclear data evaluation. Furthermore, the database, together with adjoint based sensitivity and uncertainty tools for transmutation systems developed to quantify the importance of nuclear data on nuclide concentrations, are described.« less

Data fusion strategies for hazard detection and safe site selection for planetary and small body landings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Câmara, F.; Oliveira, J.; Hormigo, T.; Araújo, J.; Ribeiro, R.; Falcão, A.; Gomes, M.; Dubois-Matra, O.; Vijendran, S.

2015-06-01

This paper discusses the design and evaluation of data fusion strategies to perform tiered fusion of several heterogeneous sensors and a priori data. The aim is to increase robustness and performance of hazard detection and avoidance systems, while enabling safe planetary and small body landings anytime, anywhere. The focus is on Mars and asteroid landing mission scenarios and three distinct data fusion algorithms are introduced and compared. The first algorithm consists of a hybrid camera-LIDAR hazard detection and avoidance system, the H2DAS, in which data fusion is performed at both sensor-level data (reconstruction of the point cloud obtained with a scanning LIDAR using the navigation motion states and correcting the image for motion compensation using IMU data), feature-level data (concatenation of multiple digital elevation maps, obtained from consecutive LIDAR images, to achieve higher accuracy and resolution maps while enabling relative positioning) as well as decision-level data (fusing hazard maps from multiple sensors onto a single image space, with a single grid orientation and spacing). The second method presented is a hybrid reasoning fusion, the HRF, in which innovative algorithms replace the decision-level functions of the previous method, by combining three different reasoning engines—a fuzzy reasoning engine, a probabilistic reasoning engine and an evidential reasoning engine—to produce safety maps. Finally, the third method presented is called Intelligent Planetary Site Selection, the IPSIS, an innovative multi-criteria, dynamic decision-level data fusion algorithm that takes into account historical information for the selection of landing sites and a piloting function with a non-exhaustive landing site search capability, i.e., capable of finding local optima by searching a reduced set of global maps. All the discussed data fusion strategies and algorithms have been integrated, verified and validated in a closed-loop simulation environment

Unmanned Aerial System (UAS)-based phenotyping of soybean using multi-sensor data fusion and extreme learning machine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maimaitijiang, Maitiniyazi; Ghulam, Abduwasit; Sidike, Paheding; Hartling, Sean; Maimaitiyiming, Matthew; Peterson, Kyle; Shavers, Ethan; Fishman, Jack; Peterson, Jim; Kadam, Suhas; Burken, Joel; Fritschi, Felix

2017-12-01

Estimating crop biophysical and biochemical parameters with high accuracy at low-cost is imperative for high-throughput phenotyping in precision agriculture. Although fusion of data from multiple sensors is a common application in remote sensing, less is known on the contribution of low-cost RGB, multispectral and thermal sensors to rapid crop phenotyping. This is due to the fact that (1) simultaneous collection of multi-sensor data using satellites are rare and (2) multi-sensor data collected during a single flight have not been accessible until recent developments in Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) and UAS-friendly sensors that allow efficient information fusion. The objective of this study was to evaluate the power of high spatial resolution RGB, multispectral and thermal data fusion to estimate soybean (Glycine max) biochemical parameters including chlorophyll content and nitrogen concentration, and biophysical parameters including Leaf Area Index (LAI), above ground fresh and dry biomass. Multiple low-cost sensors integrated on UASs were used to collect RGB, multispectral, and thermal images throughout the growing season at a site established near Columbia, Missouri, USA. From these images, vegetation indices were extracted, a Crop Surface Model (CSM) was advanced, and a model to extract the vegetation fraction was developed. Then, spectral indices/features were combined to model and predict crop biophysical and biochemical parameters using Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSR), Support Vector Regression (SVR), and Extreme Learning Machine based Regression (ELR) techniques. Results showed that: (1) For biochemical variable estimation, multispectral and thermal data fusion provided the best estimate for nitrogen concentration and chlorophyll (Chl) a content (RMSE of 9.9% and 17.1%, respectively) and RGB color information based indices and multispectral data fusion exhibited the largest RMSE 22.6%; the highest accuracy for Chl a + b content estimation was

KAOS/LIB-V: A library of nuclear response functions generated by KAOS-V code from ENDF/B-V and other data files

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Farawila, Y.; Gohar, Y.; Maynard, C.

1989-04-01

KAOS/LIB-V: A library of processed nuclear responses for neutronics analyses of nuclear systems has been generated. The library was prepared using the KAOS-V code and nuclear data from ENDF/B-V. The library includes kerma (kinetic energy released in materials) factors and other nuclear response functions for all materials presently of interest in fusion and fission applications for 43 nonfissionable and 15 fissionable isotopes and elements. The nuclear response functions include gas production and tritium-breeding functions, and all important reaction cross sections. KAOS/LIB-V employs the VITAMIN-E weighting function and energy group structure of 174 neutron groups. Auxiliary nuclear data bases, e.g., themore » Japanese evaluated nuclear data library JENDL-2 were used as a source of isotopic cross sections when these data are not provided in ENDF/B-V files for a natural element. These are needed mainly to estimate average quantities such as effective Q-values for the natural element. This analysis of local energy deposition was instrumental in detecting and understanding energy balance deficiencies and other problems in the ENDF/B-V data. Pertinent information about the library and a graphical display of the main nuclear response functions for all materials in the library are given. 35 refs.« less

Reprogramming of Somatic Cells Towards Pluripotency by Cell Fusion.

PubMed

Malinowski, Andrzej R; Fisher, Amanda G

2016-01-01

Pluripotent reprogramming can be dominantly induced in a somatic nucleus upon fusion with a pluripotent cell such as embryonic stem (ES) cell. Cell fusion between ES cells and somatic cells results in the formation of heterokaryons, in which the somatic nuclei begin to acquire features of the pluripotent partner. The generation of interspecies heterokaryons between mouse ES- and human somatic cells allows an experimenter to distinguish the nuclear events occurring specifically within the reprogrammed nucleus. Therefore, cell fusion provides a simple and rapid approach to look at the early nuclear events underlying pluripotent reprogramming. Here, we describe a polyethylene glycol (PEG)-mediated cell fusion protocol to generate interspecies heterokaryons and intraspecies hybrids between ES cells and B lymphocytes or fibroblasts.

Sensor Data Fusion with Z-Numbers and Its Application in Fault Diagnosis

PubMed Central

Jiang, Wen; Xie, Chunhe; Zhuang, Miaoyan; Shou, Yehang; Tang, Yongchuan

2016-01-01

Sensor data fusion technology is widely employed in fault diagnosis. The information in a sensor data fusion system is characterized by not only fuzziness, but also partial reliability. Uncertain information of sensors, including randomness, fuzziness, etc., has been extensively studied recently. However, the reliability of a sensor is often overlooked or cannot be analyzed adequately. A Z-number, Z = (A, B), can represent the fuzziness and the reliability of information simultaneously, where the first component A represents a fuzzy restriction on the values of uncertain variables and the second component B is a measure of the reliability of A. In order to model and process the uncertainties in a sensor data fusion system reasonably, in this paper, a novel method combining the Z-number and Dempster–Shafer (D-S) evidence theory is proposed, where the Z-number is used to model the fuzziness and reliability of the sensor data and the D-S evidence theory is used to fuse the uncertain information of Z-numbers. The main advantages of the proposed method are that it provides a more robust measure of reliability to the sensor data, and the complementary information of multi-sensors reduces the uncertainty of the fault recognition, thus enhancing the reliability of fault detection. PMID:27649193

Energy-resolved neutron imaging for inertial confinement fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moran, M. J.; Haan, S. W.; Hatchett, S. P.; Izumi, N.; Koch, J. A.; Lerche, R. A.; Phillips, T. W.

2003-03-01

The success of the National Ignition Facility program will depend on diagnostic measurements which study the performance of inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments. Neutron yield, fusion-burn time history, and images are examples of important diagnostics. Neutron and x-ray images will record the geometries of compressed targets during the fusion-burn process. Such images provide a critical test of the accuracy of numerical modeling of ICF experiments. They also can provide valuable information in cases where experiments produce unexpected results. Although x-ray and neutron images provide similar data, they do have significant differences. X-ray images represent the distribution of high-temperature regions where fusion occurs, while neutron images directly reveal the spatial distribution of fusion-neutron emission. X-ray imaging has the advantage of a relatively straightforward path to the imaging system design. Neutron imaging, by using energy-resolved detection, offers the intriguing advantage of being able to provide independent images of burning and nonburning regions of the nuclear fuel. The usefulness of energy-resolved neutron imaging depends on both the information content of the data and on the quality of the data that can be recorded. The information content will relate to the characteristic neutron spectra that are associated with emission from different regions of the source. Numerical modeling of ICF fusion burn will be required to interpret the corresponding energy-dependent images. The exercise will be useful only if the images can be recorded with sufficient definition to reveal the spatial and energy-dependent features of interest. Several options are being evaluated with respect to the feasibility of providing the desired simultaneous spatial and energy resolution.

FuzzyFusion: an application architecture for multisource information fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fox, Kevin L.; Henning, Ronda R.

2009-04-01

The correlation of information from disparate sources has long been an issue in data fusion research. Traditional data fusion addresses the correlation of information from sources as diverse as single-purpose sensors to all-source multi-media information. Information system vulnerability information is similar in its diversity of sources and content, and in the desire to draw a meaningful conclusion, namely, the security posture of the system under inspection. FuzzyFusionTM, A data fusion model that is being applied to the computer network operations domain is presented. This model has been successfully prototyped in an applied research environment and represents a next generation assurance tool for system and network security.

Fusion gamma diagnostics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Medley, S. S.; Cecil, F. E.; Cole, D.; Conway, M. A.; Wilkinson, F. J., III

1985-05-01

Nuclear reactions of interest in fusion research often possess a branch yielding prompt emission of gamma radiation in excess of 15 MeV which can be exploited to provide a new fusion reaction diagnostic having applications similar to conventional neutron emission measurements. Conceptual aspects of fusion gamma diagnostics are discussed with emphasis on application to the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) during deuterium neutral beam heating of D-T and D-3He plasmas. Recent measurements of the D (T, γ)5He, D(3He, γ)5Li, and D(D, γ)4He branching ratios at low center-of-mass energy (30-100 keV) and of the response of a large volume Ne226 detector for gamma detection in high neutron backgrounds are presented. Using a well-shielded Ne226 detector during 20 MW-120 kV deuterium beam heating of a tritium plasma in TFTR, the D(T, γ)5He gamma signal level is estimated to be 3.5×105 cps.

A social science data-fusion tool and the Data Management through e-Social Science (DAMES) infrastructure.

PubMed

Warner, Guy C; Blum, Jesse M; Jones, Simon B; Lambert, Paul S; Turner, Kenneth J; Tan, Larry; Dawson, Alison S F; Bell, David N F

2010-08-28

The last two decades have seen substantially increased potential for quantitative social science research. This has been made possible by the significant expansion of publicly available social science datasets, the development of new analytical methodologies, such as microsimulation, and increases in computing power. These rich resources do, however, bring with them substantial challenges associated with organizing and using data. These processes are often referred to as 'data management'. The Data Management through e-Social Science (DAMES) project is working to support activities of data management for social science research. This paper describes the DAMES infrastructure, focusing on the data-fusion process that is central to the project approach. It covers: the background and requirements for provision of resources by DAMES; the use of grid technologies to provide easy-to-use tools and user front-ends for several common social science data-management tasks such as data fusion; the approach taken to solve problems related to data resources and metadata relevant to social science applications; and the implementation of the architecture that has been designed to achieve this infrastructure.

Assessment of NDE Methods to Detect Lack of Fusion in HDPE Butt Fusion Joints

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Crawford, Susan L.; Doctor, Steven R.; Cinson, Anthony D.

2011-07-31

Studies at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, Washington, were conducted to evaluate nondestructive examinations (NDE) coupled with mechanical testing of butt fusion joints in high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe for assessing lack of fusion. The work provided information to the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on the effectiveness of volumetric inspection techniques of HDPE butt fusion joints in Section III, Division 1, Class 3, buried piping systems in nuclear power plants. This paper describes results from assessments using ultrasonic and microwave nondestructive techniques and mechanical testing with the high-speed tensile impact test and the side-bend test formore » determining joint integrity. A series of butt joints were fabricated in 3408, 12-inch (30.5-cm) IPS DR-11 HDPE material by varying the fusion parameters to create good joints and joints containing a range of lack-of-fusion conditions. Six of these butt joints were volumetrically examined with time-of-flight diffraction (TOFD), phased-array (PA) ultrasound, and the Evisive microwave system. The outer diameter (OD) weld beads were removed for microwave evaluation and the pipes ultrasonically re-evaluated. In two of the six pipes, both the outer and inner diameter (ID) weld beads were removed and the pipe joints re-evaluated. Some of the pipes were sectioned and the joints destructively evaluated with the high-speed tensile test and the side-bend test. The fusion parameters, nondestructive and destructive evaluation results have been correlated to validate the effectiveness of what each NDE technology detects and what each does not detect. There was no single NDE method that detected all of the lack-of-fusion flaws but a combination of NDE methods did detect most of the flaws.« less

Heterogeneous Vision Data Fusion for Independently Moving Cameras

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-03-01

target detection , tracking , and identification over a large terrain. The goal of the project is to investigate and evaluate the existing image...fusion algorithms, develop new real-time algorithms for Category-II image fusion, and apply these algorithms in moving target detection and tracking . The...moving target detection and classification. 15. SUBJECT TERMS Image Fusion, Target Detection , Moving Cameras, IR Camera, EO Camera 16. SECURITY

Effective World Modeling: Multisensor Data Fusion Methodology for Automated Driving

PubMed Central

Elfring, Jos; Appeldoorn, Rein; van den Dries, Sjoerd; Kwakkernaat, Maurice

2016-01-01

The number of perception sensors on automated vehicles increases due to the increasing number of advanced driver assistance system functions and their increasing complexity. Furthermore, fail-safe systems require redundancy, thereby increasing the number of sensors even further. A one-size-fits-all multisensor data fusion architecture is not realistic due to the enormous diversity in vehicles, sensors and applications. As an alternative, this work presents a methodology that can be used to effectively come up with an implementation to build a consistent model of a vehicle’s surroundings. The methodology is accompanied by a software architecture. This combination minimizes the effort required to update the multisensor data fusion system whenever sensors or applications are added or replaced. A series of real-world experiments involving different sensors and algorithms demonstrates the methodology and the software architecture. PMID:27727171

On the implementation of a chain nuclear reaction of thermonuclear fusion on the basis of the p+11B process

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Belyaev, V. S.; Krainov, V. P.; Zagreev, B. V.; Matafonov, A. P.

2015-07-01

Various theoretical and experimental schemes for implementing a thermonuclear reactor on the basis of the p+11B reaction are considered. They include beam collisions, fusion in degenerate plasmas, ignition upon plasma acceleration by ponderomotive forces, and the irradiation of a solid-state target from 11B with a proton beam under conditions of a Coulomb explosion of hydrogen microdrops. The possibility of employing ultra-short high-intensity laser pulses to initiate the p+11B reaction under conditions far from thermodynamic equilibrium is discussed. This and some other weakly radioactive thermonuclear reactions are promising owing to their ecological cleanness—there are virtually no neutrons among fusion products. Nuclear reactions that follow the p+11B reaction may generate high-energy protons, sustaining a chain reaction, and this is an advantage of the p+11B option. The approach used also makes it possible to study nuclear reactions under conditions close to those in the early Universe or in the interior of stars.

From Data Acquisition to Data Fusion: A Comprehensive Review and a Roadmap for the Identification of Activities of Daily Living Using Mobile Devices

PubMed Central

Pires, Ivan Miguel; Garcia, Nuno M.; Pombo, Nuno; Flórez-Revuelta, Francisco

2016-01-01

This paper focuses on the research on the state of the art for sensor fusion techniques, applied to the sensors embedded in mobile devices, as a means to help identify the mobile device user’s daily activities. Sensor data fusion techniques are used to consolidate the data collected from several sensors, increasing the reliability of the algorithms for the identification of the different activities. However, mobile devices have several constraints, e.g., low memory, low battery life and low processing power, and some data fusion techniques are not suited to this scenario. The main purpose of this paper is to present an overview of the state of the art to identify examples of sensor data fusion techniques that can be applied to the sensors available in mobile devices aiming to identify activities of daily living (ADLs). PMID:26848664

Dynamics of complete and incomplete fusion in heavy ion collisions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bao, Xiao Jun; Guo, Shu Qing; Zhang, Hong Fei; Li, Jun Qing

2018-02-01

In order to study the influence of the strong Coulomb and nuclear interactions on the dynamics of complete and incomplete fusion, we construct a new four-variable master equation (ME) so that the deformations as well as the nucleon transfer are viewed as consistently governed by MEs in the potential energy surface of the system. The calculated yields of quasifission fragments and evaporation residue cross section (ERCS) are in agreement with experimental data of hot fusion reactions. Comparing cross sections by theoretical results and experimental data, we find the improved dinuclear sysytem model also describes the transfer cross sections reasonably. The production cross sections of new neutron-rich isotopes are estimated by the multinucleon transfer reactions.

MATRIX FACTORIZATION-BASED DATA FUSION FOR GENE FUNCTION PREDICTION IN BAKER’S YEAST AND SLIME MOLD

PubMed Central

ŽITNIK, MARINKA; ZUPAN, BLAŽ

2014-01-01

The development of effective methods for the characterization of gene functions that are able to combine diverse data sources in a sound and easily-extendible way is an important goal in computational biology. We have previously developed a general matrix factorization-based data fusion approach for gene function prediction. In this manuscript, we show that this data fusion approach can be applied to gene function prediction and that it can fuse various heterogeneous data sources, such as gene expression profiles, known protein annotations, interaction and literature data. The fusion is achieved by simultaneous matrix tri-factorization that shares matrix factors between sources. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach by evaluating its performance on predicting ontological annotations in slime mold D. discoideum and on recognizing proteins of baker’s yeast S. cerevisiae that participate in the ribosome or are located in the cell membrane. Our approach achieves predictive performance comparable to that of the state-of-the-art kernel-based data fusion, but requires fewer data preprocessing steps. PMID:24297565

TFE3-Fusion Variant Analysis Defines Specific Clinicopathologic Associations Among Xp11 Translocation Cancers

PubMed Central

Argani, Pedram; Zhong, Minghao; Reuter, Victor E.; Fallon, John T.; Epstein, Jonathan I.; Netto, George J.; Antonescu, Cristina R.

2016-01-01

Xp11 translocation cancers include Xp11 translocation renal cell carcinoma (RCC), Xp11 translocation perivascular epithelioid cell tumor (PEComa), and melanotic Xp11 translocation renal cancer. In Xp11 translocation cancers, oncogenic activation of TFE3 is driven by the fusion of TFE3 with a number of different gene partners, however, the impact of individual fusion variant on specific clinicopathologic features of Xp11 translocation cancers has not been well defined. In this study, we analyze 60 Xp11 translocation cancers by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) using custom BAC probes to establish their TFE3 fusion gene partner. In 5 cases RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) was also used to further characterize the fusion transcripts. The 60 Xp11 translocation cancers included 47 Xp11 translocation RCC, 8 Xp11 translocation PEComas, and 5 melanotic Xp11 translocation renal cancers. A fusion partner was identified in 53/60 (88%) cases, including 18 SFPQ (PSF), 16 PRCC, 12 ASPSCR1 (ASPL), 6 NONO, and 1 DVL2. We provide the first morphologic description of the NONO-TFE3 RCC, which frequently demonstrates sub-nuclear vacuoles leading to distinctive suprabasal nuclear palisading. Similar sub-nuclear vacuolization was also characteristic of SFPQ-TFE3 RCC, creating overlapping features with clear cell papillary RCC. We also describe the first RCC with a DVL2-TFE3 gene fusion, in addition to an extrarenal pigmented PEComa with a NONO-TFE3 gene fusion. Furthermore, among neoplasms with the SFPQ-TFE3, NONO-TFE3, DVL2-TFE3 and ASPL-TFE3 gene fusions, the RCC are almost always PAX8-positive, cathepsin K-negative by immunohistochemistry, whereas the mesenchymal counterparts (Xp11 translocation PEComas, melanotic Xp11 translocation renal cancers, and alveolar soft part sarcoma) are PAX8-negative, cathepsin K-positive. These findings support the concept that despite an identical gene fusion, the RCCs are distinct from the corresponding mesenchymal neoplasms, perhaps due to the

Inertial-confinement fusion with lasers

DOE PAGES

Betti, R.; Hurricane, O. A.

2016-05-03

The quest for controlled fusion energy has been ongoing for over a half century. The demonstration of ignition and energy gain from thermonuclear fuels in the laboratory has been a major goal of fusion research for decades. Thermonuclear ignition is widely considered a milestone in the development of fusion energy, as well as a major scientific achievement with important applications to national security and basic sciences. The U.S. is arguably the world leader in the inertial con fment approach to fusion and has invested in large facilities to pursue it with the objective of establishing the science related to themore » safety and reliability of the stockpile of nuclear weapons. Even though significant progress has been made in recent years, major challenges still remain in the quest for thermonuclear ignition via laser fusion.« less

Medical decision-making inspired from aerospace multisensor data fusion concepts.

PubMed

Pombo, Nuno; Bousson, Kouamana; Araújo, Pedro; Viana, Joaquim

2015-01-01

In recent years, Internet-delivered treatments have been largely used for pain monitoring, offering healthcare professionals and patients the ability to interact anywhere and at any time. Electronic diaries have been increasingly adopted as the preferred methodology to collect data related to pain intensity and symptoms, replacing traditional pen-and-paper diaries. This article presents a multisensor data fusion methodology based on the capabilities provided by aerospace systems to evaluate the effects of electronic and pen-and-paper diaries on pain. We examined English-language studies of randomized controlled trials that use computerized systems and the Internet to collect data about chronic pain complaints. These studies were obtained from three data sources: BioMed Central, PubMed Central and ScienceDirect from the year 2000 until 30 June 2012. Based on comparisons of the reported pain intensity collected during pre- and post-treatment in both the control and intervention groups, the proposed multisensor data fusion model revealed that the benefits of technology and pen-and-paper are qualitatively equivalent [Formula: see text]. We conclude that the proposed model is suitable, intelligible, easy to implement, time efficient and resource efficient.

Useful diagnostic biometabolic data obtained by PET/CT and MR fusion imaging using open source software.

PubMed

Antonica, Filippo; Asabella, Artor Niccoli; Ferrari, Cristina; Rubini, Domenico; Notaristefano, Antonio; Nicoletti, Adriano; Altini, Corinna; Merenda, Nunzio; Mossa, Emilio; Guarini, Attilio; Rubini, Giuseppe

2014-01-01

In the last decade numerous attempts were considered to co-register and integrate different imaging data. Like PET/CT the integration of PET to MR showed great interest. PET/MR scanners are recently tested on different distrectual or systemic pathologies. Unfortunately PET/MR scanners are expensive and diagnostic protocols are still under studies and investigations. Nuclear Medicine imaging highlights functional and biometabolic information but has poor anatomic details. The aim of this study is to integrate MR and PET data to produce distrectual or whole body fused images acquired from different scanners even in different days. We propose an offline method to fuse PET with MR data using an open-source software that has to be inexpensive, reproducible and capable to exchange data over the network. We also evaluate global quality, alignment quality, and diagnostic confidence of fused PET-MR images. We selected PET/CT studies performed in our Nuclear Medicine unit, MR studies provided by patients on DICOM CD media or network received. We used Osirix 5.7 open source version. We aligned CT slices with the first MR slice, pointed and marked for co-registration using MR-T1 sequence and CT as reference and fused with PET to produce a PET-MR image. A total of 100 PET/CT studies were fused with the following MR studies: 20 head, 15 thorax, 24 abdomen, 31 pelvis, 10 whole body. An interval of no more than 15 days between PET and MR was the inclusion criteria. PET/CT, MR and fused studies were evaluated by two experienced radiologist and two experienced nuclear medicine physicians. Each one filled a five point based evaluation scoring scheme based on image quality, image artifacts, segmentation errors, fusion misalignment and diagnostic confidence. Our fusion method showed best results for head, thorax and pelvic districts in terms of global quality, alignment quality and diagnostic confidence,while for the abdomen and pelvis alignement quality and global quality resulted

Data Fusion for a Vision-Radiological System for Source Tracking and Discovery

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Enqvist, Andreas; Koppal, Sanjeev

2015-07-01

A multidisciplinary approach to allow the tracking of the movement of radioactive sources by fusing data from multiple radiological and visual sensors is under development. The goal is to improve the ability to detect, locate, track and identify nuclear/radiological threats. The key concept is that such widely available visual and depth sensors can impact radiological detection, since the intensity fall-off in the count rate can be correlated to movement in three dimensions. To enable this, we pose an important question; what is the right combination of sensing modalities and vision algorithms that can best compliment a radiological sensor, for themore » purpose of detection and tracking of radioactive material? Similarly what is the best radiation detection methods and unfolding algorithms suited for data fusion with tracking data? Data fusion of multi-sensor data for radiation detection have seen some interesting developments lately. Significant examples include intelligent radiation sensor systems (IRSS), which are based on larger numbers of distributed similar or identical radiation sensors coupled with position data for network capable to detect and locate radiation source. Other developments are gamma-ray imaging systems based on Compton scatter in segmented detector arrays. Similar developments using coded apertures or scatter cameras for neutrons have recently occurred. The main limitation of such systems is not so much in their capability but rather in their complexity and cost which is prohibitive for large scale deployment. Presented here is a fusion system based on simple, low-cost computer vision and radiological sensors for tracking of multiple objects and identifying potential radiological materials being transported or shipped. The main focus of this work is the development on two separate calibration algorithms for characterizing the fused sensor system. The deviation from a simple inverse square-root fall-off of radiation intensity is explored

The "grep" command but not FusionMap, FusionFinder or ChimeraScan captures the CIC-DUX4 fusion gene from whole transcriptome sequencing data on a small round cell tumor with t(4;19)(q35;q13).

PubMed

Panagopoulos, Ioannis; Gorunova, Ludmila; Bjerkehagen, Bodil; Heim, Sverre

2014-01-01

Whole transcriptome sequencing was used to study a small round cell tumor in which a t(4;19)(q35;q13) was part of the complex karyotype but where the initial reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) examination did not detect a CIC-DUX4 fusion transcript previously described as the crucial gene-level outcome of this specific translocation. The RNA sequencing data were analysed using the FusionMap, FusionFinder, and ChimeraScan programs which are specifically designed to identify fusion genes. FusionMap, FusionFinder, and ChimeraScan identified 1017, 102, and 101 fusion transcripts, respectively, but CIC-DUX4 was not among them. Since the RNA sequencing data are in the fastq text-based format, we searched the files using the "grep" command-line utility. The "grep" command searches the text for specific expressions and displays, by default, the lines where matches occur. The "specific expression" was a sequence of 20 nucleotides from the coding part of the last exon 20 of CIC (Reference Sequence: NM_015125.3) chosen since all the so far reported CIC breakpoints have occurred here. Fifteen chimeric CIC-DUX4 cDNA sequences were captured and the fusion between the CIC and DUX4 genes was mapped precisely. New primer combinations were constructed based on these findings and were used together with a polymerase suitable for amplification of GC-rich DNA templates to amplify CIC-DUX4 cDNA fragments which had the same fusion point found with "grep". In conclusion, FusionMap, FusionFinder, and ChimeraScan generated a plethora of fusion transcripts but did not detect the biologically important CIC-DUX4 chimeric transcript; they are generally useful but evidently suffer from imperfect both sensitivity and specificity. The "grep" command is an excellent tool to capture chimeric transcripts from RNA sequencing data when the pathological and/or cytogenetic information strongly indicates the presence of a specific fusion gene.

Causal inference and the data-fusion problem

PubMed Central

Bareinboim, Elias; Pearl, Judea

2016-01-01

We review concepts, principles, and tools that unify current approaches to causal analysis and attend to new challenges presented by big data. In particular, we address the problem of data fusion—piecing together multiple datasets collected under heterogeneous conditions (i.e., different populations, regimes, and sampling methods) to obtain valid answers to queries of interest. The availability of multiple heterogeneous datasets presents new opportunities to big data analysts, because the knowledge that can be acquired from combined data would not be possible from any individual source alone. However, the biases that emerge in heterogeneous environments require new analytical tools. Some of these biases, including confounding, sampling selection, and cross-population biases, have been addressed in isolation, largely in restricted parametric models. We here present a general, nonparametric framework for handling these biases and, ultimately, a theoretical solution to the problem of data fusion in causal inference tasks. PMID:27382148

Measuring time of flight of fusion products in an inertial electrostatic confinement fusion device for spatial profiling of fusion reactions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Donovan, D. C.; Boris, D. R.; Kulcinski, G. L.

2013-03-15

A new diagnostic has been developed that uses the time of flight (TOF) of the products from a nuclear fusion reaction to determine the location where the fusion reaction occurred. The TOF diagnostic uses charged particle detectors on opposing sides of the inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) device that are coupled to high resolution timing electronics to measure the spatial profile of fusion reactions occurring between the two charged particle detectors. This diagnostic was constructed and tested by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusion Group in the IEC device, HOMER, which accelerates deuterium ions to fusion relevant energies inmore » a high voltage ({approx}100 kV), spherically symmetric, electrostatic potential well [J. F. Santarius, G. L. Kulcinski, R. P. Ashley, D. R. Boris, B. B. Cipiti, S. K. Murali, G. R. Piefer, R. F. Radel, T. E. Radel, and A. L. Wehmeyer, Fusion Sci. Technol. 47, 1238 (2005)]. The TOF diagnostic detects the products of D(d,p)T reactions and determines where along a chord through the device the fusion event occurred. The diagnostic is also capable of using charged particle spectroscopy to determine the Doppler shift imparted to the fusion products by the center of mass energy of the fusion reactants. The TOF diagnostic is thus able to collect spatial profiles of the fusion reaction density along a chord through the device, coupled with the center of mass energy of the reactions occurring at each location. This provides levels of diagnostic detail never before achieved on an IEC device.« less

Fusion of laser and image sensory data for 3-D modeling of the free navigation space

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mass, M.; Moghaddamzadeh, A.; Bourbakis, N.

1994-01-01

A fusion technique which combines two different types of sensory data for 3-D modeling of a navigation space is presented. The sensory data is generated by a vision camera and a laser scanner. The problem of different resolutions for these sensory data was solved by reduced image resolution, fusion of different data, and use of a fuzzy image segmentation technique.

Exploration of the gene fusion landscape of glioblastoma using transcriptome sequencing and copy number data.

PubMed

Shah, Nameeta; Lankerovich, Michael; Lee, Hwahyung; Yoon, Jae-Geun; Schroeder, Brett; Foltz, Greg

2013-11-22

RNA-seq has spurred important gene fusion discoveries in a number of different cancers, including lung, prostate, breast, brain, thyroid and bladder carcinomas. Gene fusion discovery can potentially lead to the development of novel treatments that target the underlying genetic abnormalities. In this study, we provide comprehensive view of gene fusion landscape in 185 glioblastoma multiforme patients from two independent cohorts. Fusions occur in approximately 30-50% of GBM patient samples. In the Ivy Center cohort of 24 patients, 33% of samples harbored fusions that were validated by qPCR and Sanger sequencing. We were able to identify high-confidence gene fusions from RNA-seq data in 53% of the samples in a TCGA cohort of 161 patients. We identified 13 cases (8%) with fusions retaining a tyrosine kinase domain in the TCGA cohort and one case in the Ivy Center cohort. Ours is the first study to describe recurrent fusions involving non-coding genes. Genomic locations 7p11 and 12q14-15 harbor majority of the fusions. Fusions on 7p11 are formed in focally amplified EGFR locus whereas 12q14-15 fusions are formed by complex genomic rearrangements. All the fusions detected in this study can be further visualized and analyzed using our website: http://ivygap.swedish.org/fusions. Our study highlights the prevalence of gene fusions as one of the major genomic abnormalities in GBM. The majority of the fusions are private fusions, and a minority of these recur with low frequency. A small subset of patients with fusions of receptor tyrosine kinases can benefit from existing FDA approved drugs and drugs available in various clinical trials. Due to the low frequency and rarity of clinically relevant fusions, RNA-seq of GBM patient samples will be a vital tool for the identification of patient-specific fusions that can drive personalized therapy.

Using Geostatistical Data Fusion Techniques and MODIS Data to Upscale Simulated Wheat Yield

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Castrignano, A.; Buttafuoco, G.; Matese, A.; Toscano, P.

2014-12-01

Population growth increases food request. Assessing food demand and predicting the actual supply for a given location are critical components of strategic food security planning at regional scale. Crop yield can be simulated using crop models because is site-specific and determined by weather, management, length of growing season and soil properties. Crop models require reliable location-specific data that are not generally available. Obtaining these data at a large number of locations is time-consuming, costly and sometimes simply not feasible. An upscaling method to extend coverage of sparse estimates of crop yield to an appropriate extrapolation domain is required. This work is aimed to investigate the applicability of a geostatistical data fusion approach for merging remote sensing data with the predictions of a simulation model of wheat growth and production using ground-based data. The study area is Capitanata plain (4000 km2) located in Apulia Region, mostly cropped with durum wheat. The MODIS EVI/NDVI data products for Capitanata plain were downloaded from the Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LPDAAC) remote for the whole crop cycle of durum wheat. Phenological development, biomass growth and grain quantity of durum wheat were simulated by the Delphi system, based on a crop simulation model linked to a database including soil properties, agronomical and meteorological data. Multicollocated cokriging was used to integrate secondary exhaustive information (multi-spectral MODIS data) with primary variable (sparsely distributed biomass/yield model predictions of durum wheat). The model estimates looked strongly spatially correlated with the radiance data (red and NIR bands) and the fusion data approach proved to be quite suitable and flexible to integrate data of different type and support.

Cold-fusion television show angers APS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cartwright, Jon

2009-06-01

Cold fusion has been controversial since its inception on 23 March 1989, when chemists Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons at the University of Utah in the US announced that they had achieved a sustained nuclear-fusion reaction at room temperature. Two decades on, a US television documentary about the field has stirred up fresh debate after it linked the American Physical Society (APS) to an evaluation of some cold-fusion results by Robert Duncan, a physicist and vice chancellor of the University of Missouri.

FusionAnalyser: a new graphical, event-driven tool for fusion rearrangements discovery

PubMed Central

Piazza, Rocco; Pirola, Alessandra; Spinelli, Roberta; Valletta, Simona; Redaelli, Sara; Magistroni, Vera; Gambacorti-Passerini, Carlo

2012-01-01

Gene fusions are common driver events in leukaemias and solid tumours; here we present FusionAnalyser, a tool dedicated to the identification of driver fusion rearrangements in human cancer through the analysis of paired-end high-throughput transcriptome sequencing data. We initially tested FusionAnalyser by using a set of in silico randomly generated sequencing data from 20 known human translocations occurring in cancer and subsequently using transcriptome data from three chronic and three acute myeloid leukaemia samples. in all the cases our tool was invariably able to detect the presence of the correct driver fusion event(s) with high specificity. In one of the acute myeloid leukaemia samples, FusionAnalyser identified a novel, cryptic, in-frame ETS2–ERG fusion. A fully event-driven graphical interface and a flexible filtering system allow complex analyses to be run in the absence of any a priori programming or scripting knowledge. Therefore, we propose FusionAnalyser as an efficient and robust graphical tool for the identification of functional rearrangements in the context of high-throughput transcriptome sequencing data. PMID:22570408