An autonomous structural health monitoring system for Waiau interchange.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2013-03-01

Bridge infrastructure is a critical element of the transportation system which makes maintaining its safety and : performance vital to a healthy society. However, the civil infrastructure systems in the United States are decaying : at an accelerated ...

Big data analytics as a service infrastructure: challenges, desired properties and solutions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martín-Márquez, Manuel

2015-12-01

CERN's accelerator complex generates a very large amount of data. A large volumen of heterogeneous data is constantly generated from control equipment and monitoring agents. These data must be stored and analysed. Over the decades, CERN's researching and engineering teams have applied different approaches, techniques and technologies for this purpose. This situation has minimised the necessary collaboration and, more relevantly, the cross data analytics over different domains. These two factors are essential to unlock hidden insights and correlations between the underlying processes, which enable better and more efficient daily-based accelerator operations and more informed decisions. The proposed Big Data Analytics as a Service Infrastructure aims to: (1) integrate the existing developments; (2) centralise and standardise the complex data analytics needs for CERN's research and engineering community; (3) deliver real-time, batch data analytics and information discovery capabilities; and (4) provide transparent access and Extract, Transform and Load (ETL), mechanisms to the various and mission-critical existing data repositories. This paper presents the desired objectives and properties resulting from the analysis of CERN's data analytics requirements; the main challenges: technological, collaborative and educational and; potential solutions.

Report of the 2002 Texas Public School Technology Survey Prepared for the Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund Board and Texas Public Schools.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Denton, Jon; Davis, Trina; Strader, Arlen; Durbin, Brooke

Over the past four legislative sessions, the Texas State Legislature enacted laws that have accelerated the integration of technology into public education. The significant effort to build technology infrastructure in Texas is evident through the thousands of public school awards provided by the Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund (TIF) Board,…

Report of the 2000 Texas Public School Technology Survey Prepared for the Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund Board and Texas Public Schools.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Denton, Jon; Davis, Trina; Strader, Arlen

Over the past three legislative sessions, the Texas State Legislature enacted laws that have accelerated the integration of technology into public education. Significant efforts to build technology infrastructure in Texas are evident through the thousands of public school awards provided by the Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund Board (TIF),…

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

McCaskey, Alexander J.

Hybrid programming models for beyond-CMOS technologies will prove critical for integrating new computing technologies alongside our existing infrastructure. Unfortunately the software infrastructure required to enable this is lacking or not available. XACC is a programming framework for extreme-scale, post-exascale accelerator architectures that integrates alongside existing conventional applications. It is a pluggable framework for programming languages developed for next-gen computing hardware architectures like quantum and neuromorphic computing. It lets computational scientists efficiently off-load classically intractable work to attached accelerators through user-friendly Kernel definitions. XACC makes post-exascale hybrid programming approachable for domain computational scientists.

Accelerated vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) safety applications : system requirements document : final.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2001-05-01

The purpose of this working paper is to provide an estimate of the federal proportion of funds expended on intelligent transportation systems (ITS) infrastructure deployments for fiscal year (FY) 2000 using budget and planning data from state departm...

Accelerated testing for studying pavement design and performance (FY 2004) : research summary.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2009-03-01

The thirteenth full-scale Accelerated Pavement Test (APT) experiment at the Civil Infrastructure Laboratory (CISL) of Kansas State University aimed to determine the response and the failure mode of thin concrete overlays.

AN INTERNET RACK MONITOR-CONTROLLER FOR APS LINAC RF ELECTRONICS UPGRADE

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

Ma, Hengjie; Smith, Terry; Nassiri, Alireza

To support the research and development in APS LINAC area, the existing LINAC rf control performance needs to be much improved, and thus an upgrade of the legacy LINAC rf electronics becomes necessary. The proposed upgrade plan centers on the concept of using a modern, network-attached, rackmount digital electronics platform –Internet Rack Monitor-Controller (or IRMC) to achieve the goal of modernizing the rf electronics at a lower cost. The system model of the envisioned IRMC is basically a 3-tier stack with a high-performance DSP in the mid-layer to perform the core tasks of real-time rf data processing and controls. Themore » Digital Front-End (DFE) attachment layer at bottom bridges the applicationspecific rf front-ends to the DSP. A network communication gateway, together with an embedded event receiver (EVR) in the top layer merges the Internet Rack MonitorController node into the networks of the accelerator controls infrastructure. Although the concept is very much in trend with today’s Internet-of-Things (IoT), this implementation has actually been used in the accelerators for over two decades.« less

Accelerated measles control--Cambodia, 1999-2002.

PubMed

2003-01-10

Cambodia is recovering from approximately 30 years of civil war that resulted in the breakdown of the country's public health infrastructure. In 1999, the Ministry of Health initiated a measles-control program with the goal of reducing the annual incidence of measles to <10,000 cases in 2005 by strengthening measles surveillance, improving routine vaccination coverage, implementing supplementary measles immunization activities (SIAs), and providing vitamin A during outbreak investigations and SIAs. This report summarizes measles-vaccination activities and their impact in reducing reported measles cases from 13,827 in 1999 to 1,234 in 2002 and suggests options for future measles-control efforts in postconflict situations.

77 FR 36903 - Accelerating Broadband Infrastructure Deployment

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-06-20

... coordination with the Chief Performance Officer (CPO). (b) The Working Group shall be composed of: (i) a... broadband infrastructure. Sec. 2. Broadband Deployment on Federal Property Working Group. (a) In order to... Property Working Group (Working Group), to be co-chaired by representatives designated by the Administrator...

Highly accelerated lifetime for externally applied bond critical fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) infrastructure materials.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2014-03-01

This report describes a research project to investigate accelerated aging protocols for fiber-reinforced : polymer (FRP) reinforcement of concrete. This research was conducted in three stages. In the first : stage, various spectroscopic techniques we...

Policy model for space economy infrastructure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Komerath, Narayanan; Nally, James; Zilin Tang, Elizabeth

2007-12-01

Extraterrestrial infrastructure is key to the development of a space economy. Means for accelerating transition from today's isolated projects to a broad-based economy are considered. A large system integration approach is proposed. The beginnings of an economic simulation model are presented, along with examples of how interactions and coordination bring down costs. A global organization focused on space infrastructure and economic expansion is proposed to plan, coordinate, fund and implement infrastructure construction. This entity also opens a way to raise low-cost capital and solve the legal and public policy issues of access to extraterrestrial resources.

Remote monitoring system for the cryogenic system of superconducting magnets in the SuperKEKB interaction region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aoki, K.; Ohuchi, N.; Zong, Z.; Arimoto, Y.; Wang, X.; Yamaoka, H.; Kawai, M.; Kondou, Y.; Makida, Y.; Hirose, M.; Endou, T.; Iwasaki, M.; Nakamura, T.

2017-12-01

A remote monitoring system was developed based on the software infrastructure of the Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) for the cryogenic system of superconducting magnets in the interaction region of the SuperKEKB accelerator. The SuperKEKB has been constructed to conduct high-energy physics experiments at KEK. These superconducting magnets consist of three apparatuses, the Belle II detector solenoid, and QCSL and QCSR accelerator magnets. They are each contained in three cryostats cooled by dedicated helium cryogenic systems. The monitoring system was developed to read data of the EX-8000, which is an integrated instrumentation system to control all cryogenic components. The monitoring system uses the I/O control tools of EPICS software for TCP/IP, archiving techniques using a relational database, and easy human-computer interface. Using this monitoring system, it is possible to remotely monitor all real-time data of the superconducting magnets and cryogenic systems. It is also convenient to share data among multiple groups.

3 CFR 13616 - Executive Order 13616 of June 14, 2012. Accelerating Broadband Infrastructure Deployment

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... Department of Defense; (2) the Department of the Interior; (3) the Department of Agriculture; (4) the Department of Commerce; (5) the Department of Transportation; (6) the Department of Veterans Affairs; and (7... local transportation infrastructure, creating significant opportunities for executive departments and...

Rapid ascent: Rocky Mountain National Park in the Great Acceleration, 1945-present

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boxell, Mark

After the Second World War's conclusion, Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) experienced a massive rise in visitation. Mobilized by an affluent economy and a growing, auto-centric infrastructure, Americans rushed to RMNP in droves, setting off new concerns over the need for infrastructure improvements in the park. National parks across the country experienced similar explosions in visitation, inspiring utilities- and road-building campaigns throughout the park units administered by the National Park Service. The quasi-urbanization of parks like RMNP implicated the United States' public lands in a process of global change, whereby wartime technologies, cheap fossil fuels, and a culture of techno-optimism--epitomized by the Mission 66 development program--helped foster a "Great Acceleration" of human alterations of Earth's natural systems. This transformation culminated in worldwide turns toward mass-urbanization, industrial agriculture, and globalized markets. The Great Acceleration, part of the Anthropocene--a new geologic epoch we have likely entered, which proposes that humans have become a force of geologic change--is used as a conceptual tool for understanding the connections between local and global changes which shaped the park after World War II. The Great Acceleration and its array of novel technologies and hydrocarbon-powered infrastructures produced specific cultures of tourism and management techniques within RMNP. After World War II, the park increasingly became the product and distillation of a fossil fuel-dependent society.

Accelerated testing for studying pavement design and performance (FY 2004) : thin bonded rigid overlay on PCCP and HMA (CISL experiment no. 13).

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2009-03-01

The thirteenth full-scale Accelerated Pavement Test (APT) experiment at the Civil Infrastructure Laboratory (CISL) : of Kansas State University aimed to determine the response and the failure mode of thin concrete overlays. Four : pavement structures...

Data Updating Methods for Spatial Data Infrastructure that Maintain Infrastructure Quality and Enable its Sustainable Operation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murakami, S.; Takemoto, T.; Ito, Y.

2012-07-01

The Japanese government, local governments and businesses are working closely together to establish spatial data infrastructures in accordance with the Basic Act on the Advancement of Utilizing Geospatial Information (NSDI Act established in August 2007). Spatial data infrastructures are urgently required not only to accelerate computerization of the public administration, but also to help restoration and reconstruction of the areas struck by the East Japan Great Earthquake and future disaster prevention and reduction. For construction of a spatial data infrastructure, various guidelines have been formulated. But after an infrastructure is constructed, there is a problem of maintaining it. In one case, an organization updates its spatial data only once every several years because of budget problems. Departments and sections update the data on their own without careful consideration. That upsets the quality control of the entire data system and the system loses integrity, which is crucial to a spatial data infrastructure. To ensure quality, ideally, it is desirable to update data of the entire area every year. But, that is virtually impossible, considering the recent budget crunch. The method we suggest is to update spatial data items of higher importance only in order to maintain quality, not updating all the items across the board. We have explored a method of partially updating the data of these two geographical features while ensuring the accuracy of locations. Using this method, data on roads and buildings that greatly change with time can be updated almost in real time or at least within a year. The method will help increase the availability of a spatial data infrastructure. We have conducted an experiment on the spatial data infrastructure of a municipality using those data. As a result, we have found that it is possible to update data of both features almost in real time.

High-Performance Polyimide Powder Coatings

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2008-01-01

Much of the infrastructure at Kennedy Space Center and other NASA sites has been subjected to outside weathering effects for more than 40 years. Because much of this infrastructure has metallic surfaces, considerable effort is continually devoted to developing methods to minimize the effects of corrosion on these surfaces. These efforts are especially intense at KSC, where offshore salt spray and exhaust from Solid Rocket Boosters accelerate corrosion. Coatings of various types have traditionally been the choice for minimizing corrosion, and improved corrosion control methods are constantly being researched. Recent work at KSC on developing an improved method for repairing Kapton (polyimide)-based electrical wire insulation has identified polyimides with much lower melting points than traditional polyimides used for insulation. These lower melting points and the many other outstanding physical properties of polyimides (thermal stability, chemical resistance, and electrical properties) led us to investigate whether they could be used in powder coatings.

Extreme Light Infrastructure - Nuclear Physics Eli-Np Project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gales, S.

2015-06-01

The development of high power lasers and the combination of such novel devices with accelerator technology has enlarged the science reach of many research fields, in particular High energy, Nuclear and Astrophysics as well as societal applications in Material Science, Nuclear Energy and Medicine. The European Strategic Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) has selected a proposal based on these new premises called "ELI" for Extreme Light Infrastructure. ELI will be built as a network of three complementary pillars at the frontier of laser technologies. The ELI-NP pillar (NP for Nuclear Physics) is under construction near Bucharest (Romania) and will develop a scientific program using two 10 PW class lasers and a Back Compton Scattering High Brilliance and Intense Low Energy Gamma Beam , a marriage of Laser and Accelerator technology at the frontier of knowledge. In the present paper, the technical description of the facility, the present status of the project as well as the science, applications and future perspectives will be discussed.

Simulating the effect of flow path roughness to examine how green infrastructure restores urban runoff timing and magnitude

Treesearch

Yang Yang; Theodore A. Endreny; David J. Nowak

2015-01-01

Impervious land cover was the choice for many urban development projects in order to accelerate runoff and reduce the depth and duration of local flooding, however this led to increases in downstream runoff characterized by large, flashy peak flows. Urban ecosystem restoration now involves slowing down urban runoff to restore local hydrology with green infrastructure,...

Poster — Thur Eve — 28: Enabling trajectory-based radiotherapy on a TrueBeam accelerator with the Eclipse treatment planning system

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

Mullins, J; Asiev, K; DeBlois, F

2014-08-15

The TrueBeam linear accelerator platform has a developer's mode which permits the user dynamic control over many of the machine's mechanical and radiation systems. Using this research tool, synchronous couch and gantry motion can be programmed to simulate isocentric treatment with a shortened SAD, with benefits such as smaller projected MLC leaf widths and an increased dose rate. In this work, water tank measurements were used to commission a virtual linear accelerator with an 85 cm SAD in Eclipse, from which several arc-based radiotherapy treatments were generated, including an inverse optimized VMAT delivery. For each plan, the pertinent treatment deliverymore » information was extracted from control points specified in the Eclipse-exported DICOM files using the pydicom package in Python, allowing construction of an XML control file. The dimensions of the jaws and MLC positions, defined for an 85 cm SAD in Eclipse, were scaled for delivery on a conventional SAD linear accelerator, and translational couch motion was added as a function of gantry angle to simulate delivery at 85 cm SAD. Ionization chamber and Gafchromic film measurements were used to compare the radiation delivery to dose calculations in Eclipse. With the exception of the VMAT delivery, ionization chamber measurements agreed within 3.3% of the Eclipse calculations. For the VMAT delivery, the ionization chamber was located in an inhomogeneous region, but gamma evaluation of the Gafchromic film plane resulted in a 94.5% passing rate using criteria of 3 mm/3%. The results indicate that Eclipse calculation infrastructure can be used.« less

Accelerating Drug Development: Antiviral Therapies for Emerging Viruses as a Model.

PubMed

Everts, Maaike; Cihlar, Tomas; Bostwick, J Robert; Whitley, Richard J

2017-01-06

Drug discovery and development is a lengthy and expensive process. Although no one, simple, single solution can significantly accelerate this process, steps can be taken to avoid unnecessary delays. Using the development of antiviral therapies as a model, we describe options for acceleration that cover target selection, assay development and high-throughput screening, hit confirmation, lead identification and development, animal model evaluations, toxicity studies, regulatory issues, and the general drug discovery and development infrastructure. Together, these steps could result in accelerated timelines for bringing antiviral therapies to market so they can treat emerging infections and reduce human suffering.

Elastic Cloud Computing Infrastructures in the Open Cirrus Testbed Implemented via Eucalyptus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baun, Christian; Kunze, Marcel

Cloud computing realizes the advantages and overcomes some restrictionsof the grid computing paradigm. Elastic infrastructures can easily be createdand managed by cloud users. In order to accelerate the research ondata center management and cloud services the OpenCirrusTM researchtestbed has been started by HP, Intel and Yahoo!. Although commercialcloud offerings are proprietary, Open Source solutions exist in the field ofIaaS with Eucalyptus, PaaS with AppScale and at the applications layerwith Hadoop MapReduce. This paper examines the I/O performance ofcloud computing infrastructures implemented with Eucalyptus in contrastto Amazon S3.

A close inspection and vibration sensing aerial robot for steel structures with an EPM-based landing device

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Takeuchi, Kazuya; Masuda, Arata; Akahori, Shunsuke; Higashi, Yoshiyuki; Miura, Nanako

2017-04-01

This paper proposes an aerial robot that can land on and cling to a steel structure using electric permanent magnets to be- have as a vibration sensor probe for use in vibration-based structural health monitoring. In the last decade, structural health monitoring techniques have been studied intensively to tackle with serious social issues that most of the infrastructures in advanced countries are being deteriorated. In the typical concept of the structural health monitoring, vibration sensors like accelerometers are installed in the structure to continuously collect the dynamical response of the operating structure to find a symptom of the structural damage. It is unreasonable, however, to permanently deploy the sensors to numerous infrastructures because most of the infrastructures except for those of primary importance do not need continuous measurement and evaluation. In this study, the aerial robot plays a role of a mobile detachable sensor unit. The design guidelines of the aerial robot that performs the vibration measurement from the analysis model of the robot is shown. Experiments to evaluate the frequency response function of the acceleration measured by the robot with respect to the acceleration at the point where the robot adheres are carried out. And the experimental results show that the prototype robot can measure the acceleration of the host structure accurately up to 150 Hz.

Data warehousing methods and processing infrastructure for brain recovery research.

PubMed

Gee, T; Kenny, S; Price, C J; Seghier, M L; Small, S L; Leff, A P; Pacurar, A; Strother, S C

2010-09-01

In order to accelerate translational neuroscience with the goal of improving clinical care it has become important to support rapid accumulation and analysis of large, heterogeneous neuroimaging samples and their metadata from both normal control and patient groups. We propose a multi-centre, multinational approach to accelerate the data mining of large samples and facilitate data-led clinical translation of neuroimaging results in stroke. Such data-driven approaches are likely to have an early impact on clinically relevant brain recovery while we simultaneously pursue the much more challenging model-based approaches that depend on a deep understanding of the complex neural circuitry and physiological processes that support brain function and recovery. We present a brief overview of three (potentially converging) approaches to neuroimaging data warehousing and processing that aim to support these diverse methods for facilitating prediction of cognitive and behavioral recovery after stroke, or other types of brain injury or disease.

Cooperative high-performance storage in the accelerated strategic computing initiative

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gary, Mark; Howard, Barry; Louis, Steve; Minuzzo, Kim; Seager, Mark

1996-01-01

The use and acceptance of new high-performance, parallel computing platforms will be impeded by the absence of an infrastructure capable of supporting orders-of-magnitude improvement in hierarchical storage and high-speed I/O (Input/Output). The distribution of these high-performance platforms and supporting infrastructures across a wide-area network further compounds this problem. We describe an architectural design and phased implementation plan for a distributed, Cooperative Storage Environment (CSE) to achieve the necessary performance, user transparency, site autonomy, communication, and security features needed to support the Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI). ASCI is a Department of Energy (DOE) program attempting to apply terascale platforms and Problem-Solving Environments (PSEs) toward real-world computational modeling and simulation problems. The ASCI mission must be carried out through a unified, multilaboratory effort, and will require highly secure, efficient access to vast amounts of data. The CSE provides a logically simple, geographically distributed, storage infrastructure of semi-autonomous cooperating sites to meet the strategic ASCI PSE goal of highperformance data storage and access at the user desktop.

Field Work Proposal: PUBLIC OUTREACH EVENT FOR ACCELERATOR STEWARDSHIP TEST FACILITY PILOT PROGRAM

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

Hutton, Andrew; Areti, Hari

2015-03-05

Jefferson Lab’s outreach efforts towards the goals of Accelerator Stewardship Test Facility Pilot Program consist of the lab’s efforts in three venues. The first venue, at the end of March is to meet with the members of Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center (VTCRC) (http://www.vtcrc.com/tenant-directory/) in Blacksburg, Virginia. Of the nearly 160 members, we expect that many engineering companies (including mechanical, electrical, bio, software) will be present. To this group, we will describe the capabilities of Jefferson Lab’s accelerator infrastructure. The description will include not only the facilities but also the intellectual expertise. No funding is requested for this effort. Themore » second venue is to reach the industrial exhibitors at the 6th International Particle Accelerator Conference (IPAC’15). Jefferson Lab will host a booth at the conference to reach out to the >75 industrial exhibitors (https://www.jlab.org/conferences/ipac2015/SponsorsExhibitors.php) who represent a wide range of technologies. A number of these industries could benefit if they can access Jefferson Lab’s accelerator infrastructure. In addition to the booth, where written material will be available, we plan to arrange a session A/V presentation to the industry exhibitors. The booth will be hosted by Jefferson Lab’s Public Relations staff, assisted on a rotating basis by the lab’s scientists and engineers. The budget with IPAC’15 designations represents the request for funds for this effort. The third venue is the gathering of Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA) university presidents. Here we plan to reach the research departments of the universities who can benefit by availing themselves to the infrastructure (material sciences, engineering, medical schools, material sciences, to name a few). Funding is requested to allow for attendance at the SURA Board Meeting. We are coordinating with DOE regarding these costs to raise the projected conference management cost ceiling in the Conference Management Tool.« less

The LHCb Run Control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alessio, F.; Barandela, M. C.; Callot, O.; Duval, P.-Y.; Franek, B.; Frank, M.; Galli, D.; Gaspar, C.; Herwijnen, E. v.; Jacobsson, R.; Jost, B.; Neufeld, N.; Sambade, A.; Schwemmer, R.; Somogyi, P.

2010-04-01

LHCb has designed and implemented an integrated Experiment Control System. The Control System uses the same concepts and the same tools to control and monitor all parts of the experiment: the Data Acquisition System, the Timing and the Trigger Systems, the High Level Trigger Farm, the Detector Control System, the Experiment's Infrastructure and the interaction with the CERN Technical Services and the Accelerator. LHCb's Run Control, the main interface used by the experiment's operator, provides access in a hierarchical, coherent and homogeneous manner to all areas of the experiment and to all its sub-detectors. It allows for automated (or manual) configuration and control, including error recovery, of the full experiment in its different running modes. Different instances of the same Run Control interface are used by the various sub-detectors for their stand-alone activities: test runs, calibration runs, etc. The architecture and the tools used to build the control system, the guidelines and components provided to the developers, as well as the first experience with the usage of the Run Control will be presented

Progress on the Multiphysics Capabilities of the Parallel Electromagnetic ACE3P Simulation Suite

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

Kononenko, Oleksiy

2015-03-26

ACE3P is a 3D parallel simulation suite that is being developed at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Effectively utilizing supercomputer resources, ACE3P has become a key tool for the coupled electromagnetic, thermal and mechanical research and design of particle accelerators. Based on the existing finite-element infrastructure, a massively parallel eigensolver is developed for modal analysis of mechanical structures. It complements a set of the multiphysics tools in ACE3P and, in particular, can be used for the comprehensive study of microphonics in accelerating cavities ensuring the operational reliability of a particle accelerator.

NSLS-II HIGH LEVEL APPLICATION INFRASTRUCTURE AND CLIENT API DESIGN

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

Shen, G.; Yang; L.

2011-03-28

The beam commissioning software framework of NSLS-II project adopts a client/server based architecture to replace the more traditional monolithic high level application approach. It is an open structure platform, and we try to provide a narrow API set for client application. With this narrow API, existing applications developed in different language under different architecture could be ported to our platform with small modification. This paper describes system infrastructure design, client API and system integration, and latest progress. As a new 3rd generation synchrotron light source with ultra low emittance, there are new requirements and challenges to control and manipulate themore » beam. A use case study and a theoretical analysis have been performed to clarify requirements and challenges to the high level applications (HLA) software environment. To satisfy those requirements and challenges, adequate system architecture of the software framework is critical for beam commissioning, study and operation. The existing traditional approaches are self-consistent, and monolithic. Some of them have adopted a concept of middle layer to separate low level hardware processing from numerical algorithm computing, physics modelling, data manipulating, plotting, and error handling. However, none of the existing approaches can satisfy the requirement. A new design has been proposed by introducing service oriented architecture technology. The HLA is combination of tools for accelerator physicists and operators, which is same as traditional approach. In NSLS-II, they include monitoring applications and control routines. Scripting environment is very important for the later part of HLA and both parts are designed based on a common set of APIs. Physicists and operators are users of these APIs, while control system engineers and a few accelerator physicists are the developers of these APIs. With our Client/Server mode based approach, we leave how to retrieve information to the developers of APIs and how to use them to form a physics application to the users. For example, how the channels are related to magnet and what the current real-time setting of a magnet is in physics unit are the internals of APIs. Measuring chromaticities are the users of APIs. All the users of APIs are working with magnet and instrument names in a physics unit. The low level communications in current or voltage unit are minimized. In this paper, we discussed our recent progress of our infrastructure development, and client API.« less

Hospital nursing leadership-led interventions increased genomic awareness and educational intent in Magnet settings.

PubMed

Calzone, Kathleen A; Jenkins, Jean; Culp, Stacey; Badzek, Laurie

2017-11-13

The Precision Medicine Initiative will accelerate genomic discoveries that improve health care, necessitating a genomic competent workforce. This study assessed leadership team (administrator/educator) year-long interventions to improve registered nurses' (RNs) capacity to integrate genomics into practice. We examined genomic competency outcomes in 8,150 RNs. Awareness and intention to learn more increased compared with controls. Findings suggest achieving genomic competency requires a longer intervention and support strategies such as infrastructure and policies. Leadership played a role in mobilizing staff, resources, and supporting infrastructure to sustain a large-scale competency effort on an institutional basis. Results demonstrate genomic workforce competency can be attained with leadership support and sufficient time. Our study provides evidence of the critical role health-care leaders play in facilitating genomic integration into health care to improve patient outcomes. Genomics' impact on quality, safety, and cost indicate a leader-initiated national competency effort is achievable and warranted. Published by Elsevier Inc.

The future of rapid bridge deck replacement.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2015-06-01

Replacing aging, deteriorated infrastructure often requires road closures and traffic detours which impose : inconvenience and delay on commerce and members of the motoring public. Accelerated bridge construction : techniques often use precast member...

Quantum Accelerators for High-performance Computing Systems

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

Humble, Travis S.; Britt, Keith A.; Mohiyaddin, Fahd A.

We define some of the programming and system-level challenges facing the application of quantum processing to high-performance computing. Alongside barriers to physical integration, prominent differences in the execution of quantum and conventional programs challenges the intersection of these computational models. Following a brief overview of the state of the art, we discuss recent advances in programming and execution models for hybrid quantum-classical computing. We discuss a novel quantum-accelerator framework that uses specialized kernels to offload select workloads while integrating with existing computing infrastructure. We elaborate on the role of the host operating system to manage these unique accelerator resources, themore » prospects for deploying quantum modules, and the requirements placed on the language hierarchy connecting these different system components. We draw on recent advances in the modeling and simulation of quantum computing systems with the development of architectures for hybrid high-performance computing systems and the realization of software stacks for controlling quantum devices. Finally, we present simulation results that describe the expected system-level behavior of high-performance computing systems composed from compute nodes with quantum processing units. We describe performance for these hybrid systems in terms of time-to-solution, accuracy, and energy consumption, and we use simple application examples to estimate the performance advantage of quantum acceleration.« less

Creating an open environment software infrastructure

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jipping, Michael J.

1992-01-01

As the development of complex computer hardware accelerates at increasing rates, the ability of software to keep pace is essential. The development of software design tools, however, is falling behind the development of hardware for several reasons, the most prominent of which is the lack of a software infrastructure to provide an integrated environment for all parts of a software system. The research was undertaken to provide a basis for answering this problem by investigating the requirements of open environments.

New Process Controls for the Hera Cryogenic Plant

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Böckmann, T.; Clausen, M.; Gerke, Chr.; Prüß, K.; Schoeneburg, B.; Urbschat, P.

2010-04-01

The cryogenic plant built for the HERA accelerator at DESY in Hamburg (Germany) is now in operation for more than two decades. The commercial process control system for the cryogenic plant is in operation for the same time period. Ever since the operator stations, the control network and the CPU boards in the process controllers went through several upgrade stages. Only the centralized Input/Output system was kept unchanged. Many components have been running beyond the expected lifetime. The control system for one at the three parts of the cryogenic plant has been replaced recently by a distributed I/O system. The I/O nodes are connected to several Profibus-DP field busses. Profibus provides the infrastructure to attach intelligent sensors and actuators directly to the process controllers which run the open source process control software EPICS. This paper describes the modification process on all levels from cabling through I/O configuration, the process control software up to the operator displays.

15 CFR Supplement No. 8 to Part 742 - Self-Classification Report for Encryption Items

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... forensics (v) Cryptographic accelerator (vi) Data backup and recovery (vii) Database (viii) Disk/drive... (MAN) (xxii) Modem (xxiii) Network convergence or infrastructure n.e.s. (xxiv) Network forensics (xxv...

15 CFR Supplement No. 8 to Part 742 - Self-Classification Report for Encryption Items

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... forensics (v) Cryptographic accelerator (vi) Data backup and recovery (vii) Database (viii) Disk/drive... (MAN) (xxii) Modem (xxiii) Network convergence or infrastructure n.e.s. (xxiv) Network forensics (xxv...

15 CFR Supplement No. 8 to Part 742 - Self-Classification Report for Encryption Items

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... forensics (v) Cryptographic accelerator (vi) Data backup and recovery (vii) Database (viii) Disk/drive... (MAN) (xxii) Modem (xxiii) Network convergence or infrastructure n.e.s. (xxiv) Network forensics (xxv...

15 CFR Supplement No. 8 to Part 742 - Self-Classification Report for Encryption Items

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... forensics (v) Cryptographic accelerator (vi) Data backup and recovery (vii) Database (viii) Disk/drive... (MAN) (xxii) Modem (xxiii) Network convergence or infrastructure n.e.s. (xxiv) Network forensics (xxv...

Implementation status of the extreme light infrastructure - nuclear physics (ELI-NP) project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gales, S.; Zamfir, N. V.

2015-02-01

The Project Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) is part of the European Strategic Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) Roadmap. ELI will be built as a network of three complementary pillars at the frontier of laser technologies. The ELI-NP pillar (NP for Nuclear Physics) is under construction near Bucharest (Romania) and will develop a scientific program using two 10 PW lasers and a Compton back-scattering high-brilliance and intense gamma beam, a marriage of laser and accelerator technology at the frontier of knowledge. In the present paper, the technical description of the facility, the present status of the project as well as the science, applications and future perspectives will be discussed.

Status and Prospects of the Global Automotive Fuel Cell Industry and Plans for Deployment of Fuel Cell Vehicles and Hydrogen Refueling Infrastructure

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

Greene, David L; Duleep, Gopal

2013-06-01

Automobile manufacturers leading the development of mass-market fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) were interviewed in Japan, Korea, Germany and the United States. There is general agreement that the performance of FCVs with respect to durability, cold start, packaging, acceleration, refueling time and range has progressed to the point where vehicles that could be brought to market in 2015 will satisfy customer expectations. However, cost and the lack of refueling infrastructure remain significant barriers. Costs have been dramatically reduced over the past decade, yet are still about twice what appears to be needed for sustainable market success. While all four countries havemore » plans for the early deployment of hydrogen refueling infrastructure, the roles of government, industry and the public in creating a viable hydrogen refueling infrastructure remain unresolved. The existence of an adequate refueling infrastructure and supporting government policies are likely to be the critical factors that determine when and where hydrogen FCVs are brought to market.« less

Green infrastructure and its catchment-scale effects: an emerging science

EPA Science Inventory

Urbanizing environments alter the hydrological cycle by redirecting stream networks for stormwater and wastewater transmission and increasing impermeable surfaces. These changes thereby accelerate the runoff of water and its constituents following precipitation events, alter evap...

Accelerated vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) safety applications : concept of operations document.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2007-01-01

On August 9, 2005, Congress passed the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient, Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU). The legislation specifically continued the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) program, recognizing the cr...

Accelerated determination of ASR susceptibility during concrete prism testing through nonlinear impact resonance ultrasonic spectroscopy.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2013-10-01

"Accurate, reliable, and timely laboratory assessment of concrete mixturesaggregates combined with : cementitious materialsis a critical component in ensuring the durability of concrete infrastructure from the : adverse effects of the alkali-si...

Accelerating Innovation that Enhances Resource Recovery in the Wastewater Sector: Advancing a National Testbed Network.

PubMed

Mihelcic, James R; Ren, Zhiyong Jason; Cornejo, Pablo K; Fisher, Aaron; Simon, A J; Snyder, Seth W; Zhang, Qiong; Rosso, Diego; Huggins, Tyler M; Cooper, William; Moeller, Jeff; Rose, Bob; Schottel, Brandi L; Turgeon, Jason

2017-07-18

This Feature examines significant challenges and opportunities to spur innovation and accelerate adoption of reliable technologies that enhance integrated resource recovery in the wastewater sector through the creation of a national testbed network. The network is a virtual entity that connects appropriate physical testing facilities, and other components needed for a testbed network, with researchers, investors, technology providers, utilities, regulators, and other stakeholders to accelerate the adoption of innovative technologies and processes that are needed for the water resource recovery facility of the future. Here we summarize and extract key issues and developments, to provide a strategy for the wastewater sector to accelerate a path forward that leads to new sustainable water infrastructures.

Maximizing oyster-reef growth supports green infrastructure with accelerating sea-level rise.

PubMed

Ridge, Justin T; Rodriguez, Antonio B; Joel Fodrie, F; Lindquist, Niels L; Brodeur, Michelle C; Coleman, Sara E; Grabowski, Jonathan H; Theuerkauf, Ethan J

2015-10-07

Within intertidal communities, aerial exposure (emergence during the tidal cycle) generates strong vertical zonation patterns with distinct growth boundaries regulated by physiological and external stressors. Forecasted accelerations in sea-level rise (SLR) will shift the position of these critical boundaries in ways we cannot yet fully predict, but landward migration will be impaired by coastal development, amplifying the importance of foundation species' ability to maintain their position relative to rising sea levels via vertical growth. Here we show the effects of emergence on vertical oyster-reef growth by determining the conditions at which intertidal reefs thrive and the sharp boundaries where reefs fail, which shift with changes in sea level. We found that oyster reef growth is unimodal relative to emergence, with greatest growth rates occurring between 20-40% exposure, and zero-growth boundaries at 10% and 55% exposures. Notably, along the lower growth boundary (10%), increased rates of SLR would outpace reef accretion, thereby reducing the depth range of substrate suitable for reef maintenance and formation, and exacerbating habitat loss along developed shorelines. Our results identify where, within intertidal areas, constructed or natural oyster reefs will persist and function best as green infrastructure to enhance coastal resiliency under conditions of accelerating SLR.

Implementation status of the extreme light infrastructure - nuclear physics (ELI-NP) project

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

Gales, S., E-mail: sydney.gales@eli-np.ro; Zamfir, N. V., E-mail: sydney.gales@eli-np.ro

2015-02-24

The Project Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) is part of the European Strategic Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) Roadmap. ELI will be built as a network of three complementary pillars at the frontier of laser technologies. The ELI-NP pillar (NP for Nuclear Physics) is under construction near Bucharest (Romania) and will develop a scientific program using two 10 PW lasers and a Compton back-scattering high-brilliance and intense gamma beam, a marriage of laser and accelerator technology at the frontier of knowledge. In the present paper, the technical description of the facility, the present status of the project as well as themore » science, applications and future perspectives will be discussed.« less

Recruitment experience for a pragmatic randomized controlled trial: Using EMR initiatives and minimizing research infrastructure.

PubMed

Joseph, Christine Lm; Ownby, Dennis R; Zoratti, Edward; Johnson, Dayna; Considine, Shannon; Bourgeois, Renee; Melkonian, Christina; Miree, Cheryl; Johnson, Christine Cole; Lu, Mei

2016-01-01

Modernized approaches to multisite randomized controlled trials (RCT) include the use of electronic medical records (EMR) for recruitment, remote data capture (RDC) for multisite data collection, and strategies to reduce the need for research infrastructure. These features facilitate the conduct of pragmatic trials, or trials conducted in "real life" settings. We describe the recruitment experience of an RCT to evaluate a clinic-based intervention targeting urban youth with asthma. Using encounter and prescription databases, a list of potentially-eligible patients was linked to the Epic appointment scheduling system. Patients were enrolled during a scheduled visit and then electronically randomized to a tailored versus generic online intervention. 1146 appointments for 580 eligible patients visiting 5 clinics were identified, of which 45.9% (266/580) were randomized to reach targeted enrollment (n=250). RDC facilitated multisite enrollment. Intervention content was further personalized through real- time entry of asthma medications prescribed at the clinic visit. EMR monitoring helped with recruitment trouble-shooting. Systemic challenges included a system-wide EMR transition and a system-wide reorganization of clinic staffing. Modernized RCTs can accelerate translation of research findings. Electronic initiatives facilitated implementation of this RCT; however, adaptations to recruitment strategies resulted in a more "explanatory" framework. .

Roadmap to the Future

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Colby, Eric R.; Len, L. K.

Most particle accelerators today are expensive devices found only in the largest laboratories, industries, and hospitals. Using techniques developed nearly a century ago, the limiting performance of these accelerators is often traceable to material limitations, power source capabilities, and the cost tolerance of the application. Advanced accelerator concepts aim to increase the gradient of accelerators by orders of magnitude, using new power sources (e.g. lasers and relativistic beams) and new materials (e.g. dielectrics, metamaterials, and plasmas). Worldwide, research in this area has grown steadily in intensity since the 1980s, resulting in demonstrations of accelerating gradients that are orders of magnitude higher than for conventional techniques. While research is still in the early stages, these techniques have begun to demonstrate the potential to radically change accelerators, making them much more compact, and extending the reach of these tools of science into the angstrom and attosecond realms. Maturation of these techniques into robust, engineered devices will require sustained interdisciplinary, collaborative R&D and coherent use of test infrastructure worldwide. The outcome can potentially transform how accelerators are used.

Roadmap to the Future

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Colby, Eric R.; Len, L. K.

Most particle accelerators today are expensive devices found only in the largest laboratories, industries, and hospitals. Using techniques developed nearly a century ago, the limiting performance of these accelerators is often traceable to material limitations, power source capabilities, and the cost tolerance of the application. Advanced accelerator conceptsa aim to increase the gradient of accelerators by orders of magnitude, using new power sources (e.g. lasers and relativistic beams) and new materials (e.g. dielectrics, metamaterials, and plasmas). Worldwide, research in this area has grown steadily in intensity since the 1980s, resulting in demonstrations of accelerating gradients that are orders of magnitude higher than for conventional techniques. While research is still in the early stages, these techniques have begun to demonstrate the potential to radically change accelerators, making them much more compact, and extending the reach of these tools of science into the angstrom and attosecond realms. Maturation of these techniques into robust, engineered devices will require sustained interdisciplinary, collaborative R&D and coherent use of test infrastructure worldwide. The outcome can potentially transform how accelerators are used.

Rice functional genomics research in China.

PubMed

Han, Bin; Xue, Yongbiao; Li, Jiayang; Deng, Xing-Wang; Zhang, Qifa

2007-06-29

Rice functional genomics is a scientific approach that seeks to identify and define the function of rice genes, and uncover when and how genes work together to produce phenotypic traits. Rapid progress in rice genome sequencing has facilitated research in rice functional genomics in China. The Ministry of Science and Technology of China has funded two major rice functional genomics research programmes for building up the infrastructures of the functional genomics study such as developing rice functional genomics tools and resources. The programmes were also aimed at cloning and functional analyses of a number of genes controlling important agronomic traits from rice. National and international collaborations on rice functional genomics study are accelerating rice gene discovery and application.

Estuarine wetland evolution including sea-level rise and infrastructure effects.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rodriguez, Jose Fernando; Trivisonno, Franco; Rojas, Steven Sandi; Riccardi, Gerardo; Stenta, Hernan; Saco, Patricia Mabel

2015-04-01

Estuarine wetlands are an extremely valuable resource in terms of biotic diversity, flood attenuation, storm surge protection, groundwater recharge, filtering of surface flows and carbon sequestration. On a large scale the survival of these systems depends on the slope of the land and a balance between the rates of accretion and sea-level rise, but local man-made flow disturbances can have comparable effects. Climate change predictions for most of Australia include an accelerated sea level rise, which may challenge the survival of estuarine wetlands. Furthermore, coastal infrastructure poses an additional constraint on the adaptive capacity of these ecosystems. Numerical models are increasingly being used to assess wetland dynamics and to help manage some of these situations. We present results of a wetland evolution model that is based on computed values of hydroperiod and tidal range that drive vegetation preference. Our first application simulates the long term evolution of an Australian wetland heavily constricted by infrastructure that is undergoing the effects of predicted accelerated sea level rise. The wetland presents a vegetation zonation sequence mudflats - mangrove - saltmarsh from the seaward margin and up the topographic gradient but is also affected by compartmentalization due to internal road embankments and culverts that effectively attenuates tidal input to the upstream compartments. For this reason, the evolution model includes a 2D hydrodynamic module which is able to handle man-made flow controls and spatially varying roughness. It continually simulates tidal inputs into the wetland and computes annual values of hydroperiod and tidal range to update vegetation distribution based on preference to hydrodynamic conditions of the different vegetation types. It also computes soil accretion rates and updates roughness coefficient values according to evolving vegetation types. In order to explore in more detail the magnitude of flow attenuation due to roughness and its effects on the computation of tidal range and hydroperiod, we performed numerical experiments simulating floodplain flow on the side of a tidal creek using different roughness values. Even though the values of roughness that produce appreciable changes in hydroperiod and tidal range are relatively high, they are within the range expected for some of the wetland vegetation. Both applications of the model show that flow attenuation can play a major role in wetland hydrodynamics and that its effects must be considered when predicting wetland evolution under climate change scenarios, particularly in situations where existing infrastructure affects the flow.

Real-Time Optimization and Control of Next-Generation Distribution

Science.gov Websites

Infrastructure | Grid Modernization | NREL Real-Time Optimization and Control of Next -Generation Distribution Infrastructure Real-Time Optimization and Control of Next-Generation Distribution Infrastructure This project develops innovative, real-time optimization and control methods for next-generation

Accelerated vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) safety applications : concept of operations document.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2001-12-01

This document summarizes lessons learned through the evaluation of four sites selected in 1996 to serve as national models for deploying and operating intelligent transportation systems (ITS) in metropolitan areas. One of the goals of the Metropolita...

Highly accelerated lifetime for externally applied bond critical fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) infrastructure materials : [summary].

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2014-03-01

The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) uses fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites to repair bridges and strengthen bridge decks. Proven mechanical characteristics make FRP composites cost-effective in extending the life span of bridges o...

Assessing Research Collaboration through Co-Authorship Network Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fagan, Jesse; Eddens, Katherine S.; Dolly, Jennifer; Vanderford, Nathan L.; Weiss, Heidi; Levens, Justin S.

2018-01-01

Interdisciplinary research collaboration is needed to perform transformative science and accelerate innovation. The Science of Team Science strives to investigate, evaluate, and foster team science, including institutional policies that may promote or hinder collaborative interdisciplinary research and the resources and infrastructure needed to…

Accelerated vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) safety applications : system requirements document.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2006-01-01

With nearly 43,0000 deaths a year on U.S. roads, a need exists for countermeasures to reduce the number and severity of crashes. The Federal Highway Administration, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, and National Coop...

18 CFR 35.35 - Transmission infrastructure investment.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... base; (iii) Recovery of prudently incurred pre-commercial operations costs; (iv) Hypothetical capital structure; (v) Accelerated depreciation used for rate recovery; (vi) Recovery of 100 percent of prudently... of the public utility; (vii) Deferred cost recovery; and (viii) Any other incentives approved by the...

18 CFR 35.35 - Transmission infrastructure investment.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... base; (iii) Recovery of prudently incurred pre-commercial operations costs; (iv) Hypothetical capital structure; (v) Accelerated depreciation used for rate recovery; (vi) Recovery of 100 percent of prudently... of the public utility; (vii) Deferred cost recovery; and (viii) Any other incentives approved by the...

18 CFR 35.35 - Transmission infrastructure investment.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... base; (iii) Recovery of prudently incurred pre-commercial operations costs; (iv) Hypothetical capital structure; (v) Accelerated depreciation used for rate recovery; (vi) Recovery of 100 percent of prudently... of the public utility; (vii) Deferred cost recovery; and (viii) Any other incentives approved by the...

Research on public participant urban infrastructure safety monitoring system using smartphone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Xuefeng; Wang, Niannian; Ou, Jinping; Yu, Yan; Li, Mingchu

2017-04-01

Currently more and more people concerned about the safety of major public security. Public participant urban infrastructure safety monitoring and investigation has become a trend in the era of big data. In this paper, public participant urban infrastructure safety protection system based on smart phones is proposed. The system makes it possible to public participant disaster data collection, monitoring and emergency evaluation in the field of disaster prevention and mitigation. Function of the system is to monitor the structural acceleration, angle and other vibration information, and extract structural deformation and implement disaster emergency communications based on smartphone without network. The monitoring data is uploaded to the website to create urban safety information database. Then the system supports big data analysis processing, the structure safety assessment and city safety early warning.

Fine-Tuning ADAS Algorithm Parameters for Optimizing Traffic Safety and Mobility in Connected Vehicle Environment

EPA Science Inventory

With the development of Connected Vehicle Technology that facilitates wireless communication among vehicles and road-side infrastructure, the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) can be adopted as an effective tool for accelerating traffic safety and mobility optimization at...

Nuclear Science and Applications with the Next Generation of High-Power Lasers and Brilliant Low-Energy Gamma Beams at ELI-NP

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gales, S.; ELI-NP Team

2015-10-01

The development of high power lasers and the combination of such novel devices with accelerator technology has enlarged the science reach of many research fields, in particular High Energy, Nuclear and Astrophysics as well as societal applications in Material Science, Nuclear Energy and Medicine. The European Strategic Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) has selected a proposal based on these new premises called "ELI" for Extreme Light Infrastructure. ELI will be built as a network of three complementary pillars at the frontier of laser technologies. The ELI-NP pillar (NP for Nuclear Physics) is under construction near Bucharest (Romania) and will develop a scientific program using two 10 PW class lasers and a Back Compton Scattering High Brilliance and Intense Low Energy Gamma Beam, a marriage of Laser and Accelerator technology at the frontier of knowledge. In the present paper, the technical and scientific status of the project as well as the applications of the gamma source will be discussed.

Long-term outcomes of late course accelerated hyper-fractionated radiotherapy for localized esophageal carcinoma in Mainland China: a meta-analysis.

PubMed

Zhang, Y W; Chen, L; Bai, Y; Zheng, X

2011-09-01

Published data on the long-term survival results of patients with localized esophageal carcinoma receiving late course accelerated hyper-fractionated radiotherapy (LCAF RT) versus conventional fractionated radiotherapy (CF RT) are inconclusive. In order to derive a more precise estimation of the both treatment-regimes, a meta-analysis based on systematic review of published articles was performed. A meta-analysis was performed using trials identified through Pubmed and Chinese national knowledge infrastructure. Results in 5-year survival and 5-year local control were collected from randomized trials comparing LCAF RT with CF RT. Review Manager (The Cochrane Collaboration, Oxford, England) and Stata software (Stata Corporation, College Station, TX, USA) were used for data management. A total of 11 trials were involved in this analysis with 572 cases and 567 controls. Our results showed that LCAF RT, compared with CF RT, significantly improved the 5-year survival (odds ratio [OR]= 2.93, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.15-4.00, P < 0.00001) and 5-year local control (OR = 3.96, 95% CI: 2.91-5.38, P < 0.00001). LCAF RT was more therapeutically beneficial than CF RT in the localized esophageal carcinoma. © 2011 Copyright the Authors. Journal compilation © 2011, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. and the International Society for Diseases of the Esophagus.

Accelerating Innovation in the Creation of Biovalue: The Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult.

PubMed

Gardner, John; Webster, Andrew

2017-09-01

The field of regenerative medicine (RM) has considerable therapeutic promise that is proving difficult to realize. As a result, governments have supported the establishment of intermediary agencies to "accelerate" innovation. This article examines in detail one such agency, the United Kingdom's Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult (CGTC). We describe CGTC's role as an accelerator agency and its value narrative, which combines both "health and wealth." Drawing on the notion of sociotechnical imaginaries, we unpack the tensions within this narrative and its instantiation as the CGTC cell therapy infrastructure is built and engages with other agencies, some of which have different priorities and roles to play within the RM field.

Multi Infrastructure Control and Optimization Toolkit, Resilient Design Module (MICOT-RDT), version 2.X

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

Bent, Russell; Nagarajan, Harsha; Yamangil, Emre

2016-06-24

MICOT is a tool for optimizing and controlling infrastructure systems. In includes modules for optimizing the operations of an infrastructure structure (for example optimal dispatch), designing infrastructure systems, restoring infrastructures systems, resiliency, preparing for natural disasters, interdicting networks, state estimation, sensor placement, and simulation of infrastructure systems. It implements algorithms developed at LANL that have been published in the academic community. This is a release of the of resilient design module of the MICOT.

Maximizing oyster-reef growth supports green infrastructure with accelerating sea-level rise

PubMed Central

Ridge, Justin T.; Rodriguez, Antonio B.; Joel Fodrie, F.; Lindquist, Niels L.; Brodeur, Michelle C.; Coleman, Sara E.; Grabowski, Jonathan H.; Theuerkauf, Ethan J.

2015-01-01

Within intertidal communities, aerial exposure (emergence during the tidal cycle) generates strong vertical zonation patterns with distinct growth boundaries regulated by physiological and external stressors. Forecasted accelerations in sea-level rise (SLR) will shift the position of these critical boundaries in ways we cannot yet fully predict, but landward migration will be impaired by coastal development, amplifying the importance of foundation species’ ability to maintain their position relative to rising sea levels via vertical growth. Here we show the effects of emergence on vertical oyster-reef growth by determining the conditions at which intertidal reefs thrive and the sharp boundaries where reefs fail, which shift with changes in sea level. We found that oyster reef growth is unimodal relative to emergence, with greatest growth rates occurring between 20–40% exposure, and zero-growth boundaries at 10% and 55% exposures. Notably, along the lower growth boundary (10%), increased rates of SLR would outpace reef accretion, thereby reducing the depth range of substrate suitable for reef maintenance and formation, and exacerbating habitat loss along developed shorelines. Our results identify where, within intertidal areas, constructed or natural oyster reefs will persist and function best as green infrastructure to enhance coastal resiliency under conditions of accelerating SLR. PMID:26442712

Big data analytics for the Future Circular Collider reliability and availability studies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Begy, Volodimir; Apollonio, Andrea; Gutleber, Johannes; Martin-Marquez, Manuel; Niemi, Arto; Penttinen, Jussi-Pekka; Rogova, Elena; Romero-Marin, Antonio; Sollander, Peter

2017-10-01

Responding to the European Strategy for Particle Physics update 2013, the Future Circular Collider study explores scenarios of circular frontier colliders for the post-LHC era. One branch of the study assesses industrial approaches to model and simulate the reliability and availability of the entire particle collider complex based on the continuous monitoring of CERN’s accelerator complex operation. The modelling is based on an in-depth study of the CERN injector chain and LHC, and is carried out as a cooperative effort with the HL-LHC project. The work so far has revealed that a major challenge is obtaining accelerator monitoring and operational data with sufficient quality, to automate the data quality annotation and calculation of reliability distribution functions for systems, subsystems and components where needed. A flexible data management and analytics environment that permits integrating the heterogeneous data sources, the domain-specific data quality management algorithms and the reliability modelling and simulation suite is a key enabler to complete this accelerator operation study. This paper describes the Big Data infrastructure and analytics ecosystem that has been put in operation at CERN, serving as the foundation on which reliability and availability analysis and simulations can be built. This contribution focuses on data infrastructure and data management aspects and presents case studies chosen for its validation.

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

Watson, Jean-Paul; Guttromson, Ross; Silva-Monroy, Cesar

This report has been written for the Department of Energy’s Energy Policy and Systems Analysis Office to inform their writing of the Quadrennial Energy Review in the area of energy resilience. The topics of measuring and increasing energy resilience are addressed, including definitions, means of measuring, and analytic methodologies that can be used to make decisions for policy, infrastructure planning, and operations. A risk-based framework is presented which provides a standard definition of a resilience metric. Additionally, a process is identified which explains how the metrics can be applied. Research and development is articulated that will further accelerate the resiliencemore » of energy infrastructures.« less

Using regional freight traffic assignment modeling to quantify the variability of pavement damage for highway cost allocation and revenue analysis.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2014-12-01

While indicative of a vibrant economy, large volumes of freight traffic have been associated with : accelerated wear of pavements particularly. In seeking to adopt operational policies that reduce : undue deterioration of their infrastructure, state ...

ACHP | News

Science.gov Websites

of a comprehensive plan to accelerate and expand permitting reform government-wide. The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) contributed to the development of this plan as a member of the Administration's plan adopts the best practices learned from the initial focus infrastructure projects and calls on

HANDBOOK: SEWER SYSTEM INFRASTRUCTURE ANALYSIS AND REHABILITATION

EPA Science Inventory

Many of our Nation's sewer systems date back to the 19th Century when brick sewers were common. hese and more recent sewer systems can be expected to fail in time, but because they are placed underground, signs of accelerated deterioration and capacity limitations are not readily...

Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium - Testing and Verification

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

Kroposki, Benjamin; Skare, Paul; Pratt, Rob

This paper highlights some of the unique testing capabilities and projects being performed at several national laboratories as part of the U. S. Department of Energy Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium. As part of this effort, the Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium Testing Network isbeing developed to accelerate grid modernization by enablingaccess to a comprehensive testing infrastructure and creating a repository of validated models and simulation tools that will be publicly available. This work is key to accelerating thedevelopment, validation, standardization, adoption, and deployment of new grid technologies to help meet U. S. energy goals.

Integration of Oracle and Hadoop: Hybrid Databases Affordable at Scale

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Canali, L.; Baranowski, Z.; Kothuri, P.

2017-10-01

This work reports on the activities aimed at integrating Oracle and Hadoop technologies for the use cases of CERN database services and in particular on the development of solutions for offloading data and queries from Oracle databases into Hadoop-based systems. The goal and interest of this investigation is to increase the scalability and optimize the cost/performance footprint for some of our largest Oracle databases. These concepts have been applied, among others, to build offline copies of CERN accelerator controls and logging databases. The tested solution allows to run reports on the controls data offloaded in Hadoop without affecting the critical production database, providing both performance benefits and cost reduction for the underlying infrastructure. Other use cases discussed include building hybrid database solutions with Oracle and Hadoop, offering the combined advantages of a mature relational database system with a scalable analytics engine.

The management of large cabling campaigns during the Long Shutdown 1 of LHC

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meroli, S.; Machado, S.; Formenti, F.; Frans, M.; Guillaume, J. C.; Ricci, D.

2014-03-01

The Large Hadron Collider at CERN entered into its first 18 month-long shutdown period in February 2013. During this period the entire CERN accelerator complex will undergo major consolidation and upgrade works, preparing the machines for LHC operation at nominal energy (7 TeV/beam). One of the most challenging activities concerns the cabling infrastructure (copper and optical fibre cables) serving the CERN data acquisition, networking and control systems. About 1000 kilometres of cables, distributed in different machine areas, will be installed, representing an investment of about 15 MCHF. This implies an extraordinary challenge in terms of project management, including resource and activity planning, work execution and quality control. The preparation phase of this project started well before its implementation, by defining technical solutions and setting financial plans for staff recruitment and material supply. Enhanced task coordination was further implemented by deploying selected competences to form a central support team.

Sustainable Transportation: Accelerating Widespread Adoption of Energy Efficient Vehicles & Fuels (Brochure)

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

Not Available

2014-12-01

While energy efficient transportation strategies have the potential to simultaneously slash oil consumption and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, a truly sustainable solution will require more than just putting drivers behind the wheels of new fuel-efficient cars. As the only national laboratory dedicated 100% to renewable energy and energy efficiency, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) accelerates widespread adoption of high-performance, low-emission, energy-efficient passenger and freight vehicles, as well as alternative fuels and related infrastructure. Researchers collaborate closely with industry, government, and research partners, using a whole-systems approach to design better batteries, drivetrains, and engines, as well as thermal management,more » energy storage, power electronic, climate control, alternative fuel, combustion, and emission systems. NREL's sustainable transportation research, development, and deployment (RD&D) efforts are not limited to vehicles, roads, and fueling stations. The lab also explores ways to save energy and reduce GHGs by integrating transportation technology advancements with renewable energy generation, power grids and building systems, urban planning and policy, and fleet operations.« less

Risk and Infrastructure Science Center - Global Security Sciences

Science.gov Websites

delivers scientific tools and methodologies to inform decision making regarding the most challenging Sciences ASD Accelerator Systems AES APS Engineering Support XSD X-ray Science Physical Sciences and Leadership Strategic Alliance for Global Energy Solutions Overview Leadership Systems Science Center Overview

Analysis and estimation of service life of corrosion prevention materials using diffusion, resistivity and accelerated curing for new bridge structures : [summary].

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2014-01-01

Much infrastructure on Floridas coasts relies : on steel-reinforced concrete that is exposed : to seawater. Corrosion of steel reinforcing bars : (rebar) in concrete exposed to seawater has : been documented as a major cause of bridge : deteriorat...

What Were Willie and Xavier Thinking? A Reflection on James Gallagher's Research on Student-Teacher Interaction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gallagher, Shelagh A.; Courtright, Richard D.; Robinson, Linda P.

2015-01-01

James Gallagher is known for framing the broad ideas that drive the field of gifted education; he defined policy, described ideal educational infrastructure, and identified "acceleration," "enrichment," "novelty," and "sophistication" as core attributes of content differentiation (J. J. Gallagher, 1985).…

Green Infrastructure 101

EPA Science Inventory

Green Infrastructure 101 • What is it? What does it do? What doesn’t it do? • Green Infrastructure as a stormwater and combined sewer control • GI Controls and Best Management Practices that make sense for Yonkers o (Include operations and maintenance requirements for each)

International Development of e-Infrastructures and Data Management Priorities for Global Change Research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Allison, M. L.; Gurney, R. J.

2015-12-01

An e-infrastructure that supports data-intensive, multidisciplinary research is needed to accelerate the pace of science to address 21st century global change challenges. Data discovery, access, sharing and interoperability collectively form core elements of an emerging shared vision of e-infrastructure for scientific discovery. The pace and breadth of change in information management across the data lifecycle means that no one country or institution can unilaterally provide the leadership and resources required to use data and information effectively, or needed to support a coordinated, global e-infrastructure. An 18-month long process involving ~120 experts in domain, computer, and social sciences from more than a dozen countries resulted in a formal set of recommendations to the Belmont Forum collaboration of national science funding agencies and others on what they are best suited to implement for development of an e-infrastructure in support of global change research, including: adoption of data principles that promote a global, interoperable e-infrastructure establishment of information and data officers for coordination of global data management and e-infrastructure efforts promotion of effective data planning determination of best practices development of a cross-disciplinary training curriculum on data management and curation The Belmont Forum is ideally poised to play a vital and transformative leadership role in establishing a sustained human and technical international data e-infrastructure to support global change research. The international collaborative process that went into forming these recommendations is contributing to national governments and funding agencies and international bodies working together to execute them.

NIPTE: a multi-university partnership supporting academic drug development.

PubMed

Gurvich, Vadim J; Byrn, Stephen R

2013-10-01

The strategic goal of academic translational research is to accelerate translational science through the improvement and development of resources for moving discoveries across translational barriers through 'first in humans' studies. To achieve this goal, access to drug discovery resources and preclinical IND-enabling infrastructure is crucial. One potential approach of research institutions for coordinating preclinical development, based on a model from the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Technology and Education (NIPTE), can provide academic translational and medical centers with access to a wide variety of enabling infrastructure for developing small molecule clinical candidates in an efficient, cost-effective manner. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Upgrade of the cryogenic infrastructure of SM18, CERN main test facility for superconducting magnets and RF cavities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Perin, A.; Dhalla, F.; Gayet, P.; Serio, L.

2017-12-01

SM18 is CERN main facility for testing superconducting accelerator magnets and superconducting RF cavities. Its cryogenic infrastructure will have to be significantly upgraded in the coming years, starting in 2019, to meet the testing requirements for the LHC High Luminosity project and for the R&D program for superconducting magnets and RF equipment until 2023 and beyond. This article presents the assessment of the cryogenic needs based on the foreseen test program and on past testing experience. The current configuration of the cryogenic infrastructure is presented and several possible upgrade scenarios are discussed. The chosen upgrade configuration is then described and the characteristics of the main newly required cryogenic equipment, in particular a new 35 g/s helium liquefier, are presented. The upgrade implementation strategy and plan to meet the required schedule are then described.

Superconducting RF R&D | Technical Division

Science.gov Websites

Doping Contact: Anna Grassellino annag High quality factors (Q) are extremely important to accelerators with high duty factor, due to the infrastructure and operating costs of the cryogenic plant. In 2012, a process was discovered at FNAL to achieve unprecedented Q values by treating them in a high temperature

The Sanford Science Education Center: Addressing Key Design Challenges in Sharing Complex Science with Diverse Audiences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Inverness Research, 2016

2016-01-01

In facilities throughout the United States and abroad, communities of scientists share infrastructure, instrumentation, and equipment to conduct scientific research. In these large facilities--laboratories, accelerators, telescope arrays, and research vessels--scientists are researching key questions that have the potential to make a significant…

Early Detection Research Network (EDRN) | Division of Cancer Prevention

Cancer.gov

http://edrn.nci.nih.gov/EDRN is a collaborative network that maintains comprehensive infrastructure and resources critical to the discovery, development and validation of biomarkers for cancer risk and early detection. The program comprises a public/private sector consortium to accelerate the development of biomarkers that will change medical practice, ensure data

The Role of a Reference Synthetic Data Generator within the Field of Learning Analytics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berg, Alan\tM.; Mol, Stefan T.; Kismihók, Gábor; Sclater, Niall

2016-01-01

This paper details the anticipated impact of synthetic "big" data on learning analytics (LA) infrastructures, with a particular focus on data governance, the acceleration of service development, and the benchmarking of predictive models. By reviewing two cases, one at the sector-wide level (the Jisc learning analytics architecture) and…

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

Akyol, Bora A.; Allwardt, Craig H.; Beech, Zachary W.

VOLTTRON is a flexible, reliable, and scalable platform for distributed control and sensing. VOLTTRON serves in four primary roles: •A reference platform for researchers to quickly develop control applications for transactive energy. •A reference platform with flexible data store support for energy analytics applications either in academia or in commercial enterprise. •A platform from which commercial enterprise can develop products without license issues and easily integrate into their product line. •An accelerator to drive industry adoption of transactive energy and advanced building energy analytics. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Office, developedmore » and maintains VOLTTRON as an open-source community project. VOLTTRON source code includes agent execution software; agents that perform critical services that enable and enhance VOLTTRON functionality; and numerous agents that utilize the platform to perform a specific function (fault detection, demand response, etc.). The platform supports energy, operational, and financial transactions between networked entities (equipment, organizations, buildings, grid, etc.) and enhance the control infrastructure of existing buildings through the use of open-source device communication, control protocols, and integrated analytics.« less

Laser driven nuclear science and applications: The need of high efficiency, high power and high repetition rate Laser beams

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gales, S.

2015-10-01

Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) is a pan European research initiative selected on the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures Roadmap that aims to close the gap between the existing laboratory-based laser driven research and international facility-grade research centre. The ELI-NP facility, one of the three ELI pillars under construction, placed in Romania and to be operational in 2018, has as core elements a couple of new generation 10 PW laser systems and a narrow bandwidth Compton backscattering gamma source with photon energies up to 19 MeV. ELI-NP will address nuclear photonics, nuclear astrophysics and quantum electrodynamics involving extreme photon fields. Prospective applications of high power laser in nuclear astrophysics, accelerator physics, in particular towards future Accelerator Driven System, as well as in nuclear photonics, for detection and characterization of nuclear material, and for nuclear medicine, will be discussed. Key issues in these research areas will be at reach with significant increase of the repetition rates and of the efficiency at the plug of the high power laser systems as proposed by the ICAN collaboration.

Nuclear Science and Applications with the Next Generation of High-Power Lasers and Brilliant Low-Energy Gamma Beams at ELI-NP

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gales, S.

The development of high power lasers and the combination of such novel devices with accelerator technology has enlarged the science reach of many research fields, in particular Particle and Nuclear Physics, Astrophysics as well as societal applications in Material Science, Nuclear Energy and Medicine. The European Strategic Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) has selected a proposal based on these new premises called "ELI" for Extreme Light Infrastructure. ELI will be built as a network of three complementary pillars at the frontier of laser technologies. The ELI-NP pillar (NP for Nuclear Physics) is under construction near Bucharest (Romania) and will develop a scientific program using two 10 PW lasers and a Compton back-scattering high-brilliance and intense low-energy gamma beam, a marriage of laser and accelerator technology at the frontier of knowledge. In the present paper, the technical description of the facility, the present status of the project as well as the science, applications and future perspectives will be discussed.

Nuclear Science and Applications with the Next Generation of High-Power Lasers and Brilliant Low-Energy Gamma Beams at ELI-NP

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gales, S.

2015-11-01

The development of high-power lasers and the combination of such novel devices with accelerator technology has enlarged the science reach of many research fields, in particular high-energy nuclear physics and astrophysics, as well as societal applications in material science, nuclear energy and medicine. The European Strategic Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) has selected a proposal based on these new premises called "ELI" for Extreme Light Infrastructure. ELI will be built as a network of three complementary pillars at the frontier of laser technologies. The ELI-NP pillar (NP for nuclear physics) is under construction near Bucharest (Romania) and will develop a scientific program using two 10-PW lasers and a Compton back-scattering high-brilliance and intense low-energy gamma beam, a marriage of laser and accelerator technology at the frontier of knowledge. In the present paper, the technical description of the facility, the present status of the project as well as the science, applications and future perspectives will be discussed.

Dynamic linkages between road transport energy consumption, economic growth, and environmental quality: evidence from Pakistan.

PubMed

Danish; Baloch, Muhammad Awais

2018-03-01

The focus of the present research work is to investigate the dynamic relationship between economic growth, road transport energy consumption, and environmental quality. To this end, we rely on time series data for the period 1971 to 2014 in the context of Pakistan. To use sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ) emission from transport sector as a new proxy for measuring environmental quality, the present work employs time series technique ARDL which allows energy consumption from the transport sector, urbanization, and road infrastructure to be knotted by symmetric relationships with SO 2 emissions and economic growth. From the statistical results, we confirm that road infrastructure boosts economic growth. Simultaneously, road infrastructure and urbanization hampers environmental quality and causes to accelerate emission of SO 2 in the atmosphere. Furthermore, economic growth has a diminishing negative impact on total SO 2 emission. Moreover, we did not find any proof of the expected role of transport energy consumption in SO 2 emission. The acquired results directed that care should be taken in the expansion of road infrastructure and green city policies and planning are required in the country.

Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) Systems and Cyber-Security: Best Practices to Secure Critical Infrastructure

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morsey, Christopher

2017-01-01

In the critical infrastructure world, many critical infrastructure sectors use a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system. The sectors that use SCADA systems are the electric power, nuclear power and water. These systems are used to control, monitor and extract data from the systems that give us all the ability to light our homes…

ATLAS Metadata Infrastructure Evolution for Run 2 and Beyond

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van Gemmeren, P.; Cranshaw, J.; Malon, D.; Vaniachine, A.

2015-12-01

ATLAS developed and employed for Run 1 of the Large Hadron Collider a sophisticated infrastructure for metadata handling in event processing jobs. This infrastructure profits from a rich feature set provided by the ATLAS execution control framework, including standardized interfaces and invocation mechanisms for tools and services, segregation of transient data stores with concomitant object lifetime management, and mechanisms for handling occurrences asynchronous to the control framework's state machine transitions. This metadata infrastructure is evolving and being extended for Run 2 to allow its use and reuse in downstream physics analyses, analyses that may or may not utilize the ATLAS control framework. At the same time, multiprocessing versions of the control framework and the requirements of future multithreaded frameworks are leading to redesign of components that use an incident-handling approach to asynchrony. The increased use of scatter-gather architectures, both local and distributed, requires further enhancement of metadata infrastructure in order to ensure semantic coherence and robust bookkeeping. This paper describes the evolution of ATLAS metadata infrastructure for Run 2 and beyond, including the transition to dual-use tools—tools that can operate inside or outside the ATLAS control framework—and the implications thereof. It further examines how the design of this infrastructure is changing to accommodate the requirements of future frameworks and emerging event processing architectures.

77 FR 30589 - SteelRiver Infrastructure Partners LP, SteelRiver Infrastructure Associates LLC, SteelRiver...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-05-23

... DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION Surface Transportation Board [Docket No. FD 35622] SteelRiver Infrastructure Partners LP, SteelRiver Infrastructure Associates LLC, SteelRiver Infrastructure Fund North America LP, and Patriot Funding LLC--Control Exemption--Patriot Rail Corp., et al. SteelRiver...

EPICS-based control and data acquisition for the APS slope profiler (Conference Presentation)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sullivan, Joseph; Assoufid, Lahsen; Qian, Jun; Jemian, Peter R.; Mooney, Tim; Rivers, Mark L.; Goetze, Kurt; Sluiter, Ronald L.; Lang, Keenan

2016-09-01

The motion control, data acquisition and analysis system for APS Slope Measuring Profiler was implemented using the Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS). EPICS was designed as a framework with software tools and applications that provide a software infrastructure used in building distributed control systems to operate devices such as particle accelerators, large experiments and major telescopes. EPICS was chosen to implement the APS Slope Measuring Profiler because it is also applicable to single purpose systems. The control and data handling capability available in the EPICS framework provides the basic functionality needed for high precision X-ray mirror measurement. Those built in capabilities include hardware integration of high-performance motion control systems (3-axis gantry and tip-tilt stages), mirror measurement devices (autocollimator, laser spot camera) and temperature sensors. Scanning the mirror and taking measurements was accomplished with an EPICS feature (the sscan record) which synchronizes motor positioning with measurement triggers and data storage. Various mirror scanning modes were automatically configured using EPICS built-in scripting. EPICS tools also provide low-level image processing (areaDetector). Operation screens were created using EPICS-aware GUI screen development tools.

Sustaining a Focus on Health Equity at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Through Organizational Structures and Functions.

PubMed

Dean, Hazel D; Roberts, George W; Bouye, Karen E; Green, Yvonne; McDonald, Marian

2016-01-01

The public health infrastructure required for achieving health equity is multidimensional and complex. The infrastructure should be responsive to current and emerging priorities and capable of providing the foundation for developing, planning, implementing, and evaluating health initiatives. This article discusses these infrastructure requirements by examining how they are operationalized in the organizational infrastructure for promoting health equity at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, utilizing the nation's premier public health agency as a lens. Examples from the history of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's work in health equity from its centers, institute, and offices are provided to identify those structures and functions that are critical to achieving health equity. Challenges and facilitators to sustaining a health equity organizational infrastructure, as gleaned from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's experience, are noted. Finally, we provide additional considerations for expanding and sustaining a health equity infrastructure, which the authors hope will serve as "food for thought" for practitioners in state, tribal, or local health departments, community-based organizations, or nongovernmental organizations striving to create or maintain an impactful infrastructure to achieve health equity.

Development of a High Precision Displacement Measurement System by Fusing a Low Cost RTK-GPS Sensor and a Force Feedback Accelerometer for Infrastructure Monitoring.

PubMed

Koo, Gunhee; Kim, Kiyoung; Chung, Jun Yeon; Choi, Jaemook; Kwon, Nam-Yeol; Kang, Doo-Young; Sohn, Hoon

2017-11-28

A displacement measurement system fusing a low cost real-time kinematic global positioning system (RTK-GPS) receiver and a force feedback accelerometer is proposed for infrastructure monitoring. The proposed system is composed of a sensor module, a base module and a computation module. The sensor module consists of a RTK-GPS rover and a force feedback accelerometer, and is installed on a target structure like conventional RTK-GPS sensors. The base module is placed on a rigid ground away from the target structure similar to conventional RTK-GPS bases, and transmits observation messages to the sensor module. Then, the initial acceleration, velocity and displacement responses measured by the sensor module are transmitted to the computation module located at a central monitoring facility. Finally, high precision and high sampling rate displacement, velocity, and acceleration are estimated by fusing the acceleration from the accelerometer, the velocity from the GPS rover, and the displacement from RTK-GPS. Note that the proposed displacement measurement system can measure 3-axis acceleration, velocity as well as displacement in real time. In terms of displacement, the proposed measurement system can estimate dynamic and pseudo-static displacement with a root-mean-square error of 2 mm and a sampling rate of up to 100 Hz. The performance of the proposed system is validated under sinusoidal, random and steady-state vibrations. Field tests were performed on the Yeongjong Grand Bridge and Yi Sun-sin Bridge in Korea, and the Xihoumen Bridge in China to compare the performance of the proposed system with a commercial RTK-GPS sensor and other data fusion techniques.

Building Infrastructure to Accelerate Transfer of Basic Research in Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) to Clinical Practice: North American Clinical Trials Network

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-08-01

RISCIS trial. 2. Participation by NACTN sites in the Novartis clinical trial of the monoclonal antibody to Nogo. Martin Schwab, PhD...Martha Horn and Simone Hirsch at Traumacenter, Murnau; Kristin Lorenz and Petra Schatz at Hohe Warte, Bayreuth. 8 Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair

Incubating Innovation: A standard model for nurturing new businesses, the incubator gains prominence in the world of biotech.

PubMed

Grifantini, Kristina

2015-01-01

Incubators, accelerators, innovation centers, launch pads. Everyone defines the idea a bit differently, but, generally, these infrastructures refer to a subsidized space where fledgling companies get support?a combination of mentorship, funding, low rent, networking opportunities, and other training?with the goal of propelling early businesses to success.

Facilitating Data-Intensive Education and Research in Earth Science through Geospatial Web Services

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deng, Meixia

2009-01-01

The realm of Earth science (ES) is increasingly data-intensive. Geoinformatics research attempts to robustly smooth and accelerate the flow of data to information, information to knowledge, and knowledge to decisions and to supply necessary infrastructure and tools for advancing ES. Enabling easy access to and use of large volumes of ES data and…

Collaborative Access Control For Critical Infrastructures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baina, Amine; El Kalam, Anas Abou; Deswarte, Yves; Kaaniche, Mohamed

A critical infrastructure (CI) can fail with various degrees of severity due to physical and logical vulnerabilities. Since many interdependencies exist between CIs, failures can have dramatic consequences on the entire infrastructure. This paper focuses on threats that affect information and communication systems that constitute the critical information infrastructure (CII). A new collaborative access control framework called PolyOrBAC is proposed to address security problems that are specific to CIIs. The framework offers each organization participating in a CII the ability to collaborate with other organizations while maintaining control of its resources and internal security policy. The approach is demonstrated on a practical scenario involving the electrical power grid.

Arid Green Infrastructure for Water Control and Conservation ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Green infrastructure is an approach to managing wet weather flows using systems and practices that mimic natural processes. It is designed to manage stormwater as close to its source as possible and protect the quality of receiving waters. Although most green infrastructure practices were first developed in temperate climates, green infrastructure also can be a cost-effective approach to stormwater management and water conservation in arid and semi-arid regions, such as those found in the western and southwestern United States. Green infrastructure practices can be applied at the site, neighborhood and watershed scales. In addition to water management and conservation, implementing green infrastructure confers many social and economic benefits and can address issues of environmental justice. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) commissioned a literature review to identify the state-of-the science practices dealing with water control and conservation in arid and semi-arid regions, with emphasis on these regions in the United States. The search focused on stormwater control measures or practices that slow, capture, treat, infiltrate and/or store runoff at its source (i.e., green infrastructure). The material in Chapters 1 through 3 provides background to EPA’s current activities related to the application of green infrastructure practices in arid and semi-arid regions. An introduction to the topic of green infrastructure in arid and semi-arid regions i

Network information attacks on the control systems of power facilities belonging to the critical infrastructure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Loginov, E. L.; Raikov, A. N.

2015-04-01

The most large-scale accidents occurred as a consequence of network information attacks on the control systems of power facilities belonging to the United States' critical infrastructure are analyzed in the context of possibilities available in modern decision support systems. Trends in the development of technologies for inflicting damage to smart grids are formulated. A volume matrix of parameters characterizing attacks on facilities is constructed. A model describing the performance of a critical infrastructure's control system after an attack is developed. The recently adopted measures and legislation acts aimed at achieving more efficient protection of critical infrastructure are considered. Approaches to cognitive modeling and networked expertise of intricate situations for supporting the decision-making process, and to setting up a system of indicators for anticipatory monitoring of critical infrastructure are proposed.

Can We Leapfrog? The Potential of Education Innovations to Rapidly Accelerate Progress. Skills for a Changing World

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Winthrop, Rebecca; McGivney, Eileen

2017-01-01

Today, examples of rapid, non-linear progress--sometimes called leapfrogging--are evident in a number of sectors. Often, these instances are most obvious in the developing world, where in telecommunications or banking, for example, whole phases of infrastructure and institution-building that other countries had to go through have been by-passed by…

Development of a Geographic Information System (GIS) tool for the preliminary assessment of the effects of predicted sea level and tidal change on transportation infrastructure : [summary].

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2013-01-01

The longest record of sea levels in the Western Hemisphere began in 1846 in Key West, Florida. It shows a steady and gradually accelerating sea level rise (SLR) nine inches since 1900. The increasing rate of recent years has implications for Flor...

Harnessing person-generated health data to accelerate patient-centered outcomes research: the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America PCORnet Patient Powered Research Network (CCFA Partners)

PubMed Central

Sandler, Robert S; Long, Millie D; Ahrens, Sean; Burris, Jessica L; Martin, Christopher F; Anton, Kristen; Robb, Amber; Caruso, Thomas P; Jaeger, Elizabeth L; Chen, Wenli; Clark, Marshall; Myers, Kelly; Dobes, Angela; Kappelman, Michael D

2016-01-01

The Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America Partners Patient-Powered Research Network (PPRN) seeks to advance and accelerate comparative effectiveness and translational research in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs). Our IBD-focused PCORnet PPRN has been designed to overcome the major obstacles that have limited patient-centered outcomes research in IBD by providing the technical infrastructure, patient governance, and patient-driven functionality needed to: 1) identify, prioritize, and undertake a patient-centered research agenda through sharing person-generated health data; 2) develop and test patient and provider-focused tools that utilize individual patient data to improve health behaviors and inform health care decisions and, ultimately, outcomes; and 3) rapidly disseminate new knowledge to patients, enabling them to improve their health. The Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America Partners PPRN has fostered the development of a community of citizen scientists in IBD; created a portal that will recruit, retain, and engage members and encourage partnerships with external scientists; and produced an efficient infrastructure for identifying, screening, and contacting network members for participation in research. PMID:26911821

Exploratory of society

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cederman, L.-E.; Conte, R.; Helbing, D.; Nowak, A.; Schweitzer, F.; Vespignani, A.

2012-11-01

A huge flow of quantitative social, demographic and behavioral data is becoming available that traces the activities and interactions of individuals, social patterns, transportation infrastructures and travel fluxes. This has caused, together with innovative computational techniques and methods for modeling social actions in hybrid (natural and artificial) societies, a qualitative change in the ways we model socio-technical systems. For the first time, society can be studied in a comprehensive fashion that addresses social and behavioral complexity. In other words we are in the position to envision the development of large data and computational cyber infrastructure defining an exploratory of society that provides quantitative anticipatory, explanatory and scenario analysis capabilities ranging from emerging infectious disease to conflict and crime surges. The goal of the exploratory of society is to provide the basic infrastructure embedding the framework of tools and knowledge needed for the design of forecast/anticipatory/crisis management approaches to socio technical systems, supporting future decision making procedures by accelerating the scientific cycle that goes from data generation to predictions.

Autonomic Management of Application Workflows on Hybrid Computing Infrastructure

DOE PAGES

Kim, Hyunjoo; el-Khamra, Yaakoub; Rodero, Ivan; ...

2011-01-01

In this paper, we present a programming and runtime framework that enables the autonomic management of complex application workflows on hybrid computing infrastructures. The framework is designed to address system and application heterogeneity and dynamics to ensure that application objectives and constraints are satisfied. The need for such autonomic system and application management is becoming critical as computing infrastructures become increasingly heterogeneous, integrating different classes of resources from high-end HPC systems to commodity clusters and clouds. For example, the framework presented in this paper can be used to provision the appropriate mix of resources based on application requirements and constraints.more » The framework also monitors the system/application state and adapts the application and/or resources to respond to changing requirements or environment. To demonstrate the operation of the framework and to evaluate its ability, we employ a workflow used to characterize an oil reservoir executing on a hybrid infrastructure composed of TeraGrid nodes and Amazon EC2 instances of various types. Specifically, we show how different applications objectives such as acceleration, conservation and resilience can be effectively achieved while satisfying deadline and budget constraints, using an appropriate mix of dynamically provisioned resources. Our evaluations also demonstrate that public clouds can be used to complement and reinforce the scheduling and usage of traditional high performance computing infrastructure.« less

Building the European Seismological Research Infrastructure: results from 4 years NERIES EC project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van Eck, T.; Giardini, D.

2010-12-01

The EC Research Infrastructure (RI) project, Network of Research Infrastructures for European Seismology (NERIES), implemented a comprehensive European integrated RI for earthquake seismological data that is scalable and sustainable. NERIES opened a significant amount of additional seismological data, integrated different distributed data archives, implemented and produced advanced analysis tools and advanced software packages and tools. A single seismic data portal provides a single access point and overview for European seismological data available for the earth science research community. Additional data access tools and sites have been implemented to meet user and robustness requirements, notably those at the EMSC and ORFEUS. The datasets compiled in NERIES and available through the portal include among others: - The expanded Virtual European Broadband Seismic Network (VEBSN) with real-time access to more then 500 stations from > 53 observatories. This data is continuously monitored, quality controlled and archived in the European Integrated Distributed waveform Archive (EIDA). - A unique integration of acceleration datasets from seven networks in seven European or associated countries centrally accessible in a homogeneous format, thus forming the core comprehensive European acceleration database. Standardized parameter analysis and actual software are included in the database. - A Distributed Archive of Historical Earthquake Data (AHEAD) for research purposes, containing among others a comprehensive European Macroseismic Database and Earthquake Catalogue (1000 - 1963, M ≥5.8), including analysis tools. - Data from 3 one year OBS deployments at three sites, Atlantic, Ionian and Ligurian Sea within the general SEED format, thus creating the core integrated data base for ocean, sea and land based seismological observatories. Tools to facilitate analysis and data mining of the RI datasets are: - A comprehensive set of European seismological velocity reference model including a standardized model description with several visualisation tools currently adapted on a global scale. - An integrated approach to seismic hazard modelling and forecasting, a community accepted forecasting testing and model validation approach and the core hazard portal developed along the same technologies as the NERIES data portal. - Implemented homogeneous shakemap estimation tools at several large European observatories and a complementary new loss estimation software tool. - A comprehensive set of new techniques for geotechnical site characterization with relevant software packages documented and maintained (www.geopsy.org). - A set of software packages for data mining, data reduction, data exchange and information management in seismology as research and observatory analysis tools NERIES has a long-term impact and is coordinated with related US initiatives IRIS and EarthScope. The follow-up EC project of NERIES, NERA (2010 - 2014), is funded and will integrate the seismological and the earthquake engineering infrastructures. NERIES further provided the proof of concept for the ESFRI2008 initiative: the European Plate Observing System (EPOS). Its preparatory phase (2010 - 2014) is also funded by the EC.

Post-acceleration of laser driven protons with a compact high field linac

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sinigardi, Stefano; Londrillo, Pasquale; Rossi, Francesco; Turchetti, Giorgio; Bolton, Paul R.

2013-05-01

We present a start-to-end 3D numerical simulation of a hybrid scheme for the acceleration of protons. The scheme is based on a first stage laser acceleration, followed by a transport line with a solenoid or a multiplet of quadrupoles, and then a post-acceleration section in a compact linac. Our simulations show that from a laser accelerated proton bunch with energy selection at ~ 30MeV, it is possible to obtain a high quality monochromatic beam of 60MeV with intensity at the threshold of interest for medical use. In the present day experiments using solid targets, the TNSA mechanism describes accelerated bunches with an exponential energy spectrum up to a cut-off value typically below ~ 60MeV and wide angular distribution. At the cut-off energy, the number of protons to be collimated and post-accelerated in a hybrid scheme are still too low. We investigate laser-plasma acceleration to improve the quality and number of the injected protons at ~ 30MeV in order to assure efficient post-acceleration in the hybrid scheme. The results are obtained with 3D PIC simulations using a code where optical acceleration with over-dense targets, transport and post-acceleration in a linac can all be investigated in an integrated framework. The high intensity experiments at Nara are taken as a reference benchmarks for our virtual laboratory. If experimentally confirmed, a hybrid scheme could be the core of a medium sized infrastructure for medical research, capable of producing protons for therapy and x-rays for diagnosis, which complements the development of all optical systems.

75 FR 67989 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Office of Infrastructure Protection; Infrastructure...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-11-04

..., National Protection and Programs Directorate, Office of Infrastructure Protection (IP), will submit the... manner.'' DHS designated IP to lead these efforts. Given that the vast majority of the Nation's critical infrastructure and key resources in most sectors are privately owned or controlled, IP's success in achieving the...

Accelerating the translation of research into practice in long term services and supports: a critical need for federal infrastructure at the nexus of aging and disability.

PubMed

Washko, Michelle M; Campbell, Margaret; Tilly, Jane

2012-01-01

The nexus of aging and disability, characterized by the phenomenon of aging with a disability, will become more visible as the population ages and the number of people with disabilities surviving to midlife increases. This article addresses 3 interrelated issues critical to the fields of aging and disability: increasing demand for community-based long-term services and supports, a paucity of evidence-based programs demonstrating effectiveness in facilitating independence for those aging with a disability, and lack of a federal infrastructure to support coordinated investments in research-to-practice for this population. Suggestions for federal interagency collaborations are given, along with roles for key stakeholders.

Influence of governance structure on green stormwater infrastructure investment

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hopkins, Kristina G.; Grimm, Nancy B.; York, Abigail M.

2018-01-01

Communities are faced with the challenge of meeting regulatory requirements mandating reductions in water pollution from stormwater and combined sewer overflows (CSO). Green stormwater infrastructure and gray stormwater infrastructure are two types of water management strategies communities can use to address water pollution. In this study, we used long-term control plans from 25 U.S. cities to synthesize: the types of gray and green infrastructure being used by communities to address combined sewer overflows; the types of goals set; biophysical characteristics of each city; and factors associated with the governance of stormwater management. These city characteristics were then used to identify common characteristics of “green leader” cities—those that dedicated >20% of the control plan budget in green infrastructure. Five “green leader” cities were identified: Milwaukee, WI, Philadelphia, PA, Syracuse, NY, New York City, NY, and Buffalo, NY. These five cities had explicit green infrastructure goals targeting the volume of stormwater or percentage of impervious cover managed by green infrastructure. Results suggested that the management scale and complexity of the management system are less important factors than the ability to harness a “policy window” to integrate green infrastructure into control plans. Two case studies—Philadelphia, PA, and Milwaukee, WI—indicated that green leader cities have a long history of building momentum for green infrastructure through a series of phases from experimentation, demonstration, and finally—in the case of Philadelphia—a full transition in the approach used to manage CSOs.

Synthesis Study on Transitions in Signal Infrastructure and Control Algorithms for Connected and Automated Transportation

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

Aziz, H. M. Abdul; Wang, Hong; Young, Stan

Documenting existing state of practice is an initial step in developing future control infrastructure to be co-deployed for heterogeneous mix of connected and automated vehicles with human drivers while leveraging benefits to safety, congestion, and energy. With advances in information technology and extensive deployment of connected and automated vehicle technology anticipated over the coming decades, cities globally are making efforts to plan and prepare for these transitions. CAVs not only offer opportunities to improve transportation systems through enhanced safety and efficient operations of vehicles. There are also significant needs in terms of exploring how best to leverage vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) technology,more » vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) technology and vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technology. Both Connected Vehicle (CV) and Connected and Automated Vehicle (CAV) paradigms feature bi-directional connectivity and share similar applications in terms of signal control algorithm and infrastructure implementation. The discussion in our synthesis study assumes the CAV/CV context where connectivity exists with or without automated vehicles. Our synthesis study explores the current state of signal control algorithms and infrastructure, reports the completed and newly proposed CV/CAV deployment studies regarding signal control schemes, reviews the deployment costs for CAV/AV signal infrastructure, and concludes with a discussion on the opportunities such as detector free signal control schemes and dynamic performance management for intersections, and challenges such as dependency on market adaptation and the need to build a fault-tolerant signal system deployment in a CAV/CV environment. The study will serve as an initial critical assessment of existing signal control infrastructure (devices, control instruments, and firmware) and control schemes (actuated, adaptive, and coordinated-green wave). Also, the report will help to identify the future needs for the signal infrastructure to act as the nervous system for urban transportation networks, providing not only signaling, but also observability, surveillance, and measurement capacity. The discussion of the opportunities space includes network optimization and control theory perspectives, and the current states of observability for key system parameters (what can be detected, how frequently can it be reported) as well as controllability of dynamic parameters (this includes adjusting not only the signal phase and timing, but also the ability to alter vehicle trajectories through information or direct control). The perspective of observability and controllability of the dynamic systems provides an appropriate lens to discuss future directions as CAV/CV become more prevalent in the future.« less

A pervasive parallel framework for visualization: final report for FWP 10-014707

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

Moreland, Kenneth D.

2014-01-01

We are on the threshold of a transformative change in the basic architecture of highperformance computing. The use of accelerator processors, characterized by large core counts, shared but asymmetrical memory, and heavy thread loading, is quickly becoming the norm in high performance computing. These accelerators represent significant challenges in updating our existing base of software. An intrinsic problem with this transition is a fundamental programming shift from message passing processes to much more fine thread scheduling with memory sharing. Another problem is the lack of stability in accelerator implementation; processor and compiler technology is currently changing rapidly. This report documentsmore » the results of our three-year ASCR project to address these challenges. Our project includes the development of the Dax toolkit, which contains the beginnings of new algorithms for a new generation of computers and the underlying infrastructure to rapidly prototype and build further algorithms as necessary.« less

George E. Pake Prize Lecture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murray, Cherry

2005-03-01

Over the past decade, a combination of the changes in the regulatory environment coupled with accelerating advances in technology caused the telecommunications industry to experience first an accelerated growth `boom' followed by a major `bust' - perhaps corresponding to the worst downturn in its history. Throughout this turbulent time, Bell Lab’s parent company, Lucent, has transformed itself from a vertically integrated 38B telecomm systems company with 157k employees in 11 separate businesses into a horizontally layered, 9B network infrastructure systems integrator with 32K employees and 100 major customers. My talk will relate to how Bell Labs Research has weathered the `perfect storm', survived, and still maintains its focus on the future of telecommunications science and technology.

Accelerating Innovation in the Creation of Biovalue

PubMed Central

Webster, Andrew

2017-01-01

The field of regenerative medicine (RM) has considerable therapeutic promise that is proving difficult to realize. As a result, governments have supported the establishment of intermediary agencies to “accelerate” innovation. This article examines in detail one such agency, the United Kingdom’s Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult (CGTC). We describe CGTC’s role as an accelerator agency and its value narrative, which combines both “health and wealth.” Drawing on the notion of sociotechnical imaginaries, we unpack the tensions within this narrative and its instantiation as the CGTC cell therapy infrastructure is built and engages with other agencies, some of which have different priorities and roles to play within the RM field. PMID:28845068

Systems Engineering of Electric and Hybrid Vehicles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kurtz, D. W.; Levin, R. R.

1986-01-01

Technical paper notes systems engineering principles applied to development of electric and hybrid vehicles such that system performance requirements support overall program goal of reduced petroleum consumption. Paper discusses iterative design approach dictated by systems analyses. In addition to obvious peformance parameters of range, acceleration rate, and energy consumption, systems engineering also considers such major factors as cost, safety, reliability, comfort, necessary supporting infrastructure, and availability of materials.

COOPEUS - connecting research infrastructures in environmental sciences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koop-Jakobsen, Ketil; Waldmann, Christoph; Huber, Robert

2015-04-01

The COOPEUS project was initiated in 2012 bringing together 10 research infrastructures (RIs) in environmental sciences from the EU and US in order to improve the discovery, access, and use of environmental information and data across scientific disciplines and across geographical borders. The COOPEUS mission is to facilitate readily accessible research infrastructure data to advance our understanding of Earth systems through an international community-driven effort, by: Bringing together both user communities and top-down directives to address evolving societal and scientific needs; Removing technical, scientific, cultural and geopolitical barriers for data use; and Coordinating the flow, integrity and preservation of information. A survey of data availability was conducted among the COOPEUS research infrastructures for the purpose of discovering impediments for open international and cross-disciplinary sharing of environmental data. The survey showed that the majority of data offered by the COOPEUS research infrastructures is available via the internet (>90%), but the accessibility to these data differ significantly among research infrastructures; only 45% offer open access on their data, whereas the remaining infrastructures offer restricted access e.g. do not release raw data or sensible data, demand user registration or require permission prior to release of data. These rules and regulations are often installed as a form of standard practice, whereas formal data policies are lacking in 40% of the infrastructures, primarily in the EU. In order to improve this situation COOPEUS has installed a common data-sharing policy, which is agreed upon by all the COOPEUS research infrastructures. To investigate the existing opportunities for improving interoperability among environmental research infrastructures, COOPEUS explored the opportunities with the GEOSS common infrastructure (GCI) by holding a hands-on workshop. Through exercises directly registering resources, the first steps were taken to implement the GCI as a platform for documenting the capabilities of the COOPEUS research infrastructures. COOPEUS recognizes the potential for the GCI to become an important platform promoting cross-disciplinary approaches in the studies of multifaceted environmental challenges. Recommendations from the workshop participants also revealed that in order to attract research infrastructures to use the GCI, the registration process must be simplified and accelerated. However, also the data policies of the individual research infrastructure, or lack thereof, can prevent the use of the GCI or other portals, due to unclarities regarding data management authority and data ownership. COOPEUS shall continue to promote cross-disciplinary data exchange in the environmental field and will in the future expand to also include other geographical areas.

Data distribution service-based interoperability framework for smart grid testbed infrastructure

DOE PAGES

Youssef, Tarek A.; Elsayed, Ahmed T.; Mohammed, Osama A.

2016-03-02

This study presents the design and implementation of a communication and control infrastructure for smart grid operation. The proposed infrastructure enhances the reliability of the measurements and control network. The advantages of utilizing the data-centric over message-centric communication approach are discussed in the context of smart grid applications. The data distribution service (DDS) is used to implement a data-centric common data bus for the smart grid. This common data bus improves the communication reliability, enabling distributed control and smart load management. These enhancements are achieved by avoiding a single point of failure while enabling peer-to-peer communication and an automatic discoverymore » feature for dynamic participating nodes. The infrastructure and ideas presented in this paper were implemented and tested on the smart grid testbed. A toolbox and application programing interface for the testbed infrastructure are developed in order to facilitate interoperability and remote access to the testbed. This interface allows control, monitoring, and performing of experiments remotely. Furthermore, it could be used to integrate multidisciplinary testbeds to study complex cyber-physical systems (CPS).« less

Use of Green Infrastructure Integrated with Conventional Gray Infrastructure for Combined Sewer Overflow Control: Kansas City, MO

EPA Science Inventory

Advanced design concepts such as Low Impact Development (LID) and Green Solutions (or upland runoff control techniques) are currently being encouraged by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a management practice to contain and control stormwater at the lot ...

Analysing the usage and evidencing the importance of fast chargers for the adoption of battery electric vehicles

DOE PAGES

Neaimeh, Myriam; Salisbury, Shawn D.; Hill, Graeme A.; ...

2017-06-27

An appropriate charging infrastructure is one of the key aspects needed to support the mass adoption of battery electric vehicles (BEVs), and it is suggested that publically available fast chargers could play a key role in this infrastructure. As fast charging is a relatively new technology, very little research is conducted on the topic using real world datasets, and it is of utmost importance to measure actual usage of this technology and provide evidence on its importance to properly inform infrastructure planning. 90,000 fast charge events collected from the first large-scale roll-outs and evaluation projects of fast charging infrastructure inmore » the UK and the US and 12,700 driving days collected from 35 BEVs in the UK were analysed. Using multiple regression analysis, we examined the relationship between daily driving distance and standard and fast charging and demonstrated that fast chargers are more influential. Fast chargers enabled using BEVs on journeys above their single-charge range that would have been impractical using standard chargers. Fast chargers could help overcome perceived and actual range barriers, making BEVs more attractive to future users. At current BEV market share, there is a vital need for policy support to accelerate the development of fast charge networks.« less

Analysing the usage and evidencing the importance of fast chargers for the adoption of battery electric vehicles

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

Neaimeh, Myriam; Salisbury, Shawn D.; Hill, Graeme A.

An appropriate charging infrastructure is one of the key aspects needed to support the mass adoption of battery electric vehicles (BEVs), and it is suggested that publically available fast chargers could play a key role in this infrastructure. As fast charging is a relatively new technology, very little research is conducted on the topic using real world datasets, and it is of utmost importance to measure actual usage of this technology and provide evidence on its importance to properly inform infrastructure planning. 90,000 fast charge events collected from the first large-scale roll-outs and evaluation projects of fast charging infrastructure inmore » the UK and the US and 12,700 driving days collected from 35 BEVs in the UK were analysed. Using multiple regression analysis, we examined the relationship between daily driving distance and standard and fast charging and demonstrated that fast chargers are more influential. Fast chargers enabled using BEVs on journeys above their single-charge range that would have been impractical using standard chargers. Fast chargers could help overcome perceived and actual range barriers, making BEVs more attractive to future users. At current BEV market share, there is a vital need for policy support to accelerate the development of fast charge networks.« less

Evaluating SafeClub: can risk management training improve the safety activities of community soccer clubs?

PubMed

Abbott, K; Klarenaar, P; Donaldson, A; Sherker, S

2008-06-01

To evaluate a sports safety-focused risk-management training programme. Controlled before and after test. Four community soccer associations in Sydney, Australia. 76 clubs (32 intervention, 44 control) at baseline, and 67 clubs (27 intervention, 40 control) at post-season and 12-month follow-ups. SafeClub, a sports safety-focused risk-management training programme (3x2 hour sessions) based on adult-learning principles and injury-prevention concepts and models. Changes in mean policy, infrastructure and overall safety scores as measured using a modified version of the Sports Safety Audit Tool. There was no significant difference in the mean policy, infrastructure and overall safety scores of intervention and control clubs at baseline. Intervention clubs achieved higher post-season mean policy (11.9 intervention vs 7.5 controls), infrastructure (15.2 vs 10.3) and overall safety (27.0 vs 17.8) scores than did controls. These differences were greater at the 12-month follow-up: policy (16.4 vs 7.6); infrastructure (24.7 vs 10.7); and overall safety (41.1 vs 18.3). General linear modelling indicated that intervention clubs achieved statistically significantly higher policy (p<0.001), infrastructure (p<0.001) and overall safety (p<0.001) scores compared with control clubs at the post-season and 12-month follow-ups. There was also a significant linear interaction of time and group for all three scores: policy (p<0.001), infrastructure (p<0.001) and overall safety (p<0.001). SafeClub effectively assisted community soccer clubs to improve their sports safety activities, particularly the foundations and processes for good risk-management practice, in a sustainable way.

Progress Toward Standards for the Seamless Interoperability of Broadband Satellite Communication Networks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ivancic, William D.; Glover, Daniel R.; vonDeak, Thomas C.; Bhasin, Kul B.

1998-01-01

The realization of the full potential of the National Information Infrastructure (NH) and Global Information Infrastructure (GII) requires seamless interoperability of emerging satellite networks with terrestrial networks. This requires a cooperative effort between industry, academia and government agencies to develop and advocate new, satellite-friendly communication protocols and modifications to existing communication protocol standards. These groups have recently come together to actively participating in a number of standards making bodies including: the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) Forum, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Telecommunication Industry Association MA) to ensure that issues regarding efficient use of these protocols over satellite links are not overlooked. This paper will summarize the progress made toward standards development to achieve seamless integration and accelerate the deployment of multimedia applications.

Vehicle-to-infrastructure program cooperative adaptive cruise control.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2015-03-01

This report documents the work completed by the Crash Avoidance Metrics Partners LLC (CAMP) Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I) Consortium during the project titled Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC). Participating companies in the V2I Cons...

Analysis of Emission Effects Related to Drivers' Compliance Rates for Cooperative Vehicle-Infrastructure System at Signalized Intersections.

PubMed

Liao, Ruohua; Chen, Xumei; Yu, Lei; Sun, Xiaofei

2018-01-12

Unknown remaining time of signal phase at a signalized intersection generally results in extra accelerations and decelerations that increase variations of operating conditions and thus emissions. A cooperative vehicle-infrastructure system can reduce unnecessary speed changes by establishing communications between vehicles and the signal infrastructure. However, the environmental benefits largely depend on drivers' compliance behaviors. To quantify the effects of drivers' compliance rates on emissions, this study applied VISSIM 5.20 (Planung Transport Verkehr AG, Karlsruhe, Germany) to develop a simulation model for a signalized intersection, in which light duty vehicles were equipped with a cooperative vehicle-infrastructure system. A vehicle-specific power (VSP)-based model was used to estimate emissions. Based on simulation data, the effects of different compliance rates on VSP distributions, emission factors, and total emissions were analyzed. The results show the higher compliance rate decreases the proportion of VSP bin = 0, which means that the frequencies of braking and idling were lower and light duty vehicles ran more smoothly at the intersection if more light duty vehicles complied with the cooperative vehicle-infrastructure system, and emission factors for light duty vehicles decreased significantly as the compliance rate increased. The case study shows higher total emission reductions were observed with higher compliance rate for all of CO₂, NO x , HC, and CO emissions. CO₂ was reduced most significantly, decreased by 16% and 22% with compliance rates of 0.3 and 0.7, respectively.

Analysis of Emission Effects Related to Drivers’ Compliance Rates for Cooperative Vehicle-Infrastructure System at Signalized Intersections

PubMed Central

Liao, Ruohua; Yu, Lei; Sun, Xiaofei

2018-01-01

Unknown remaining time of signal phase at a signalized intersection generally results in extra accelerations and decelerations that increase variations of operating conditions and thus emissions. A cooperative vehicle-infrastructure system can reduce unnecessary speed changes by establishing communications between vehicles and the signal infrastructure. However, the environmental benefits largely depend on drivers’ compliance behaviors. To quantify the effects of drivers’ compliance rates on emissions, this study applied VISSIM 5.20 (Planung Transport Verkehr AG, Karlsruhe, Germany) to develop a simulation model for a signalized intersection, in which light duty vehicles were equipped with a cooperative vehicle-infrastructure system. A vehicle-specific power (VSP)-based model was used to estimate emissions. Based on simulation data, the effects of different compliance rates on VSP distributions, emission factors, and total emissions were analyzed. The results show the higher compliance rate decreases the proportion of VSP bin = 0, which means that the frequencies of braking and idling were lower and light duty vehicles ran more smoothly at the intersection if more light duty vehicles complied with the cooperative vehicle-infrastructure system, and emission factors for light duty vehicles decreased significantly as the compliance rate increased. The case study shows higher total emission reductions were observed with higher compliance rate for all of CO2, NOx, HC, and CO emissions. CO2 was reduced most significantly, decreased by 16% and 22% with compliance rates of 0.3 and 0.7, respectively. PMID:29329214

LAGUNA DESIGN STUDY, Underground infrastructures and engineering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nuijten, Guido Alexander

2011-07-01

The European Commission has awarded the LAGUNA project a grant of 1.7 million euro for a Design Study from the seventh framework program of research and technology development (FP7-INFRASTRUCTURES - 2007-1) in 2008. The purpose of this two year work is to study the feasibility of the considered experiments and prepare a conceptual design of the required underground infrastructure. It is due to deliver a report that allows the funding agencies to decide on the realization of the experiment and to select the site and the technology. The result of this work is the first step towards fulfilling the goals of LAGUNA. The work will continue with EU funding to study the possibilities more thoroughly. The LAGUNA project is included in the future plans prepared by European funding organizations. (Astroparticle physics in Europe). It is recommended that a new large European infrastructure is put forward, as a future international multi-purpose facility for improved studies on proton decay and low-energy neutrinos from astrophysical origin. The three detection techniques being studied for such large detectors in Europe, Water-Cherenkov (like MEMPHYS), liquid scintillator (like LENA) and liquid argon (like GLACIER), are evaluated in the context of a common design study which should also address the underground infrastructure and the possibility of an eventual detection of future accelerator neutrino beams. The design study is also to take into account worldwide efforts and converge, on a time scale of 2010, to a common proposal.

Situating Green Infrastructure in Context: Adaptive Socio-Hydrology for Sustainable Cities - poster

EPA Science Inventory

The benefits of green infrastructure (GI) in controlling urban hydrologic processes have largely focused on practical matters like stormwater management, which drives the planning stage. Green Infrastructure design and implementation usually takes into account physical site chara...

Computational Materials Science and Chemistry: Accelerating Discovery and Innovation through Simulation-Based Engineering and Science

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

Crabtree, George; Glotzer, Sharon; McCurdy, Bill

This report is based on a SC Workshop on Computational Materials Science and Chemistry for Innovation on July 26-27, 2010, to assess the potential of state-of-the-art computer simulations to accelerate understanding and discovery in materials science and chemistry, with a focus on potential impacts in energy technologies and innovation. The urgent demand for new energy technologies has greatly exceeded the capabilities of today's materials and chemical processes. To convert sunlight to fuel, efficiently store energy, or enable a new generation of energy production and utilization technologies requires the development of new materials and processes of unprecedented functionality and performance. Newmore » materials and processes are critical pacing elements for progress in advanced energy systems and virtually all industrial technologies. Over the past two decades, the United States has developed and deployed the world's most powerful collection of tools for the synthesis, processing, characterization, and simulation and modeling of materials and chemical systems at the nanoscale, dimensions of a few atoms to a few hundred atoms across. These tools, which include world-leading x-ray and neutron sources, nanoscale science facilities, and high-performance computers, provide an unprecedented view of the atomic-scale structure and dynamics of materials and the molecular-scale basis of chemical processes. For the first time in history, we are able to synthesize, characterize, and model materials and chemical behavior at the length scale where this behavior is controlled. This ability is transformational for the discovery process and, as a result, confers a significant competitive advantage. Perhaps the most spectacular increase in capability has been demonstrated in high performance computing. Over the past decade, computational power has increased by a factor of a million due to advances in hardware and software. This rate of improvement, which shows no sign of abating, has enabled the development of computer simulations and models of unprecedented fidelity. We are at the threshold of a new era where the integrated synthesis, characterization, and modeling of complex materials and chemical processes will transform our ability to understand and design new materials and chemistries with predictive power. In turn, this predictive capability will transform technological innovation by accelerating the development and deployment of new materials and processes in products and manufacturing. Harnessing the potential of computational science and engineering for the discovery and development of materials and chemical processes is essential to maintaining leadership in these foundational fields that underpin energy technologies and industrial competitiveness. Capitalizing on the opportunities presented by simulation-based engineering and science in materials and chemistry will require an integration of experimental capabilities with theoretical and computational modeling; the development of a robust and sustainable infrastructure to support the development and deployment of advanced computational models; and the assembly of a community of scientists and engineers to implement this integration and infrastructure. This community must extend to industry, where incorporating predictive materials science and chemistry into design tools can accelerate the product development cycle and drive economic competitiveness. The confluence of new theories, new materials synthesis capabilities, and new computer platforms has created an unprecedented opportunity to implement a "materials-by-design" paradigm with wide-ranging benefits in technological innovation and scientific discovery. The Workshop on Computational Materials Science and Chemistry for Innovation was convened in Bethesda, Maryland, on July 26-27, 2010. Sponsored by the Department of Energy (DOE) Offices of Advanced Scientific Computing Research and Basic Energy Sciences, the workshop brought together 160 experts in materials science, chemistry, and computational science representing more than 65 universities, laboratories, and industries, and four agencies. The workshop examined seven foundational challenge areas in materials science and chemistry: materials for extreme conditions, self-assembly, light harvesting, chemical reactions, designer fluids, thin films and interfaces, and electronic structure. Each of these challenge areas is critical to the development of advanced energy systems, and each can be accelerated by the integrated application of predictive capability with theory and experiment. The workshop concluded that emerging capabilities in predictive modeling and simulation have the potential to revolutionize the development of new materials and chemical processes. Coupled with world-leading materials characterization and nanoscale science facilities, this predictive capability provides the foundation for an innovation ecosystem that can accelerate the discovery, development, and deployment of new technologies, including advanced energy systems. Delivering on the promise of this innovation ecosystem requires the following: Integration of synthesis, processing, characterization, theory, and simulation and modeling. Many of the newly established Energy Frontier Research Centers and Energy Hubs are exploiting this integration. Achieving/strengthening predictive capability in foundational challenge areas. Predictive capability in the seven foundational challenge areas described in this report is critical to the development of advanced energy technologies. Developing validated computational approaches that span vast differences in time and length scales. This fundamental computational challenge crosscuts all of the foundational challenge areas. Similarly challenging is coupling of analytical data from multiple instruments and techniques that are required to link these length and time scales. Experimental validation and quantification of uncertainty in simulation and modeling. Uncertainty quantification becomes increasingly challenging as simulations become more complex. Robust and sustainable computational infrastructure, including software and applications. For modeling and simulation, software equals infrastructure. To validate the computational tools, software is critical infrastructure that effectively translates huge arrays of experimental data into useful scientific understanding. An integrated approach for managing this infrastructure is essential. Efficient transfer and incorporation of simulation-based engineering and science in industry. Strategies for bridging the gap between research and industrial applications and for widespread industry adoption of integrated computational materials engineering are needed.« less

Development and Implementation of Collaborative e-Infrastructures and Data Management for Global Change Research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Allison, M. Lee; Davis, Rowena

2016-04-01

An e-infrastructure that supports data-intensive, multidisciplinary research is needed to accelerate the pace of science to address 21st century global change challenges. Data discovery, access, sharing and interoperability collectively form core elements of an emerging shared vision of e-infrastructure for scientific discovery. The pace and breadth of change in information management across the data lifecycle means that no one country or institution can unilaterally provide the leadership and resources required to use data and information effectively, or needed to support a coordinated, global e-infrastructure. An 18-month long process involving ~120 experts in domain, computer, and social sciences from more than a dozen countries resulted in a formal set of recommendations that were adopted in fall, 2015 by the Belmont Forum collaboration of national science funding agencies and international bodies on what they are best suited to implement for development of an e-infrastructure in support of global change research, including: • adoption of data principles that promote a global, interoperable e-infrastructure, that can be enforced • establishment of information and data officers for coordination of global data management and e-infrastructure efforts • promotion of effective data planning and stewardship • determination of international and community best practices for adoption • development of a cross-disciplinary training curriculum on data management and curation The implementation plan is being executed under four internationally-coordinated Action Themes towards a globally organized, internationally relevant e-infrastructure and data management capability drawn from existing components, protocols, and standards. The Belmont Forum anticipates opportunities to fund additional projects to fill key gaps and to integrate best practices into an e-infrastructure to support their programs but that can also be scaled up and deployed more widely. Background The Belmont Forum is a global consortium established in 2009 to build on the work of the International Group of Funding Agencies for Global Change Research toward furthering collaborative efforts to deliver knowledge needed for action to avoid and adapt to detrimental environmental change, including extreme hazardous events.

Programs | Office of Cancer Genomics

Cancer.gov

OCG facilitates cancer genomics research through a series of highly-focused programs. These programs generate and disseminate genomic data for use by the cancer research community. OCG programs also promote advances in technology-based infrastructure and create valuable experimental reagents and tools. OCG programs encourage collaboration by interconnecting with other genomics and cancer projects in order to accelerate translation of findings into the clinic. Below are OCG’s current, completed, and initiated programs:

Harnessing person-generated health data to accelerate patient-centered outcomes research: the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America PCORnet Patient Powered Research Network (CCFA Partners).

PubMed

Chung, Arlene E; Sandler, Robert S; Long, Millie D; Ahrens, Sean; Burris, Jessica L; Martin, Christopher F; Anton, Kristen; Robb, Amber; Caruso, Thomas P; Jaeger, Elizabeth L; Chen, Wenli; Clark, Marshall; Myers, Kelly; Dobes, Angela; Kappelman, Michael D

2016-05-01

The Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America Partners Patient-Powered Research Network (PPRN) seeks to advance and accelerate comparative effectiveness and translational research in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs). Our IBD-focused PCORnet PPRN has been designed to overcome the major obstacles that have limited patient-centered outcomes research in IBD by providing the technical infrastructure, patient governance, and patient-driven functionality needed to: 1) identify, prioritize, and undertake a patient-centered research agenda through sharing person-generated health data; 2) develop and test patient and provider-focused tools that utilize individual patient data to improve health behaviors and inform health care decisions and, ultimately, outcomes; and 3) rapidly disseminate new knowledge to patients, enabling them to improve their health. The Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America Partners PPRN has fostered the development of a community of citizen scientists in IBD; created a portal that will recruit, retain, and engage members and encourage partnerships with external scientists; and produced an efficient infrastructure for identifying, screening, and contacting network members for participation in research. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Brazil's Cuiabá- Santarém (BR-163) Highway: the environmental cost of paving a soybean corridor through the Amazon.

PubMed

Fearnside, Philip M

2007-05-01

Brazil's Cuiabá-Santarém (BR-163) Highway provides a valuable example of ways in which decision-making procedures for infrastructure projects in tropical forest areas need to be reformulated in order to guarantee that environmental concerns are properly weighed. BR-163, which is slated to be paved as an export corridor for soybeans via the Amazon River, traverses an area that is largely outside of Brazilian government control. A climate of generalized lawlessness and impunity prevails, and matters related to environment and to land tenure are especially unregulated. Deforestation and illegal logging have accelerated in anticipation of highway paving. Paving would further speed forest loss in the area, as well as stimulate migration of land thieves (grileiros) to other frontiers. An argument is made that the highway should not be reconstructed and paved until after a state of law has been established and it has been independently certified that sufficient governance prevails to secure protected areas and enforce environmental legislation. A waiting period is needed after this is achieved before proceeding with the highway paving. Above all, the logical sequence of steps must be followed, whereby environmental costs are assessed, reported, and weighed prior to making de facto decisions on implementation of infrastructure projects. Deviation from this logical sequence is a common occurrence in many parts of the world, especially in tropical areas.

The Impact of a Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae Outbreak on Facilitating Development of a National Infrastructure for Infection Control in Israel.

PubMed

Schwaber, Mitchell J; Carmeli, Yehuda

2017-11-29

In 2006 the Israeli healthcare system faced an unprecedented outbreak of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, primarily involving KPC-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae clonal complex CC258. This public health crisis exposed major gaps in infection control. In response, Israel established a national infection control infrastructure. The steps taken to build this infrastructure and benefits realized from its creation are described here. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Green infrastructure and its catchment-scale effects: an emerging science

PubMed Central

Golden, Heather E.; Hoghooghi, Nahal

2018-01-01

Urbanizing environments alter the hydrological cycle by redirecting stream networks for stormwater and wastewater transmission and increasing impermeable surfaces. These changes thereby accelerate the runoff of water and its constituents following precipitation events, alter evapotranspiration processes, and indirectly modify surface precipitation patterns. Green infrastructure, or low-impact development (LID), can be used as a standalone practice or in concert with gray infrastructure (traditional stormwater management approaches) for cost-efficient, decentralized stormwater management. The growth in LID over the past several decades has resulted in a concomitant increase in research evaluating LID efficiency and effectiveness, but mostly at localized scales. There is a clear research need to quantify how LID practices affect water quantity (i.e., runoff and discharge) and quality at the scale of catchments. In this overview, we present the state of the science of LID research at the local scale, considerations for scaling this research to catchments, recent advances and findings in scaling the effects of LID practices on water quality and quantity at catchment scales, and the use of models as novel tools for these scaling efforts. PMID:29682288

Green infrastructure and its catchment-scale effects: an emerging science.

PubMed

Golden, Heather E; Hoghooghi, Nahal

2018-01-01

Urbanizing environments alter the hydrological cycle by redirecting stream networks for stormwater and wastewater transmission and increasing impermeable surfaces. These changes thereby accelerate the runoff of water and its constituents following precipitation events, alter evapotranspiration processes, and indirectly modify surface precipitation patterns. Green infrastructure, or low-impact development (LID), can be used as a standalone practice or in concert with gray infrastructure (traditional stormwater management approaches) for cost-efficient, decentralized stormwater management. The growth in LID over the past several decades has resulted in a concomitant increase in research evaluating LID efficiency and effectiveness, but mostly at localized scales. There is a clear research need to quantify how LID practices affect water quantity (i.e., runoff and discharge) and quality at the scale of catchments. In this overview, we present the state of the science of LID research at the local scale, considerations for scaling this research to catchments, recent advances and findings in scaling the effects of LID practices on water quality and quantity at catchment scales, and the use of models as novel tools for these scaling efforts.

Control algorithms of SONET integrated self-healing networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hasegawa, Satoshi; Okaoue, Yasuyo; Egawa, Takashi; Sakauchi, Hideki

1994-01-01

As the deployment of high-speed fiber transmission systems has been accelerated, they are widely recognized as a firm infrastructure of information society. Under this circumstance, the importance of network survivability has been increasing rapidly in these days. In SONET, the self-healing networks have been highlighted as one of the most advanced mechanisms to realize SONET survivable networks. Several schemes have been proposed and studied actively due to a rapid progress on the development of highly intelligent NE's. Among them in this paper, a DCS based distributed self-healing network is discussed from a viewpoint of its control algorithms. Specifically, our self-healing algorithm called TRANS is explained in detail, which possesses such desirable features as providing fast and flexible restoration with line and path level restoration applied to an individual STS-1 channel, capability to handle multiple and even node failures, and so on. Both software simulation and hardware experiment verify that TRANS works properly in a real distributed environment, the result of which is shown in the paper. In addition, the combined use of TRANS and the ring restoration control is proposed taking into account the use in a practical SONET.

Controlled Hydrogen Fleet and Infrastructure Demonstration and Validation Project

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

Stottler, Gary

General Motors, LLC and energy partner Shell Hydrogen, LLC, deployed a system of hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles integrated with a hydrogen fueling station infrastructure to operate under real world conditions as part of the U.S. Department of Energy's Controlled Hydrogen Fleet and Infrastructure Validation and Demonstration Project. This technical report documents the performance and describes the learnings from progressive generations of vehicle fuel cell system technology and multiple approaches to hydrogen generation and delivery for vehicle fueling.

Transforming Our Cities: High-Performance Green Infrastructure (WERF Report INFR1R11)

EPA Science Inventory

The objective of this project is to demonstrate that the highly distributed real-time control (DRTC) technologies for green infrastructure being developed by the research team can play a critical role in transforming our nation’s urban infrastructure. These technologies include a...

Collaborative Development of e-Infrastructures and Data Management Practices for Global Change Research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Samors, R. J.; Allison, M. L.

2016-12-01

An e-infrastructure that supports data-intensive, multidisciplinary research is being organized under the auspices of the Belmont Forum consortium of national science funding agencies to accelerate the pace of science to address 21st century global change research challenges. The pace and breadth of change in information management across the data lifecycle means that no one country or institution can unilaterally provide the leadership and resources required to use data and information effectively, or needed to support a coordinated, global e-infrastructure. The five action themes adopted by the Belmont Forum: 1. Adopt and make enforceable Data Principles that establish a global, interoperable e-infrastructure. 2. Foster communication, collaboration and coordination between the wider research community and Belmont Forum and its projects through an e-Infrastructure Coordination, Communication, & Collaboration Office. 3. Promote effective data planning and stewardship in all Belmont Forum agency-funded research with a goal to make it enforceable. 4. Determine international and community best practice to inform Belmont Forum research e-infrastructure policy through identification and analysis of cross-disciplinary research case studies. 5. Support the development of a cross-disciplinary training curriculum to expand human capacity in technology and data-intensive analysis methods. The Belmont Forum is ideally poised to play a vital and transformative leadership role in establishing a sustained human and technical international data e-infrastructure to support global change research. In 2016, members of the 23-nation Belmont Forum began a collaborative implementation phase. Four multi-national teams are undertaking Action Themes based on the recommendations above. Tasks include mapping the landscape, identifying and documenting existing data management plans, and scheduling a series of workshops that analyse trans-disciplinary applications of existing Belmont Forum projects to identify best practices and critical gaps that may be uniquely or best addressed by the Belmont Forum funding model. Concurrent work will define challenges in conducting international and interdisciplinary data management implementation plans and identify sources of relevant expertise and knowledge.

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

Youssef, Tarek A.; Elsayed, Ahmed T.; Mohammed, Osama A.

This study presents the design and implementation of a communication and control infrastructure for smart grid operation. The proposed infrastructure enhances the reliability of the measurements and control network. The advantages of utilizing the data-centric over message-centric communication approach are discussed in the context of smart grid applications. The data distribution service (DDS) is used to implement a data-centric common data bus for the smart grid. This common data bus improves the communication reliability, enabling distributed control and smart load management. These enhancements are achieved by avoiding a single point of failure while enabling peer-to-peer communication and an automatic discoverymore » feature for dynamic participating nodes. The infrastructure and ideas presented in this paper were implemented and tested on the smart grid testbed. A toolbox and application programing interface for the testbed infrastructure are developed in order to facilitate interoperability and remote access to the testbed. This interface allows control, monitoring, and performing of experiments remotely. Furthermore, it could be used to integrate multidisciplinary testbeds to study complex cyber-physical systems (CPS).« less

Matlab fractal techniques used to study the structural degradation caused by alpha radiation to laser mirrors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ioan, M.-R.

2018-01-01

Almost all optical diagnostic systems associated with classical particle accelerators or with new state-of-the-art particle accelerators, such as those developed within the European Collaboration ELI-NP (Extreme Light Infrastructure-Nuclear Physics) (involving extreme power laser beams), contain in their infrastructure high quality laser mirrors, used for their reflectivity and/or their partial transmittance. These high quality mirrors facilitate the extraction and handling of optical signals. When optical mirrors are exposed to high energy ionizing radiation fields, their optical and structural properties will change over time and their functionality will be affected, meaning that they will provide imprecise information. In some experiments, being exposed to mixed laser and accelerated particle beams, the deterioration of laser mirrors is even more acute, since the destruction mechanisms of both types of beams are cumulated. The main task of the work described in this paper was to find a novel specific method to analyse and highlight such degradation processes. By using complex fractal techniques integrated in a MATLAB code, the effects induced by alpha radiation to laser mirrors were studied. The fractal analysis technique represents an alternative approach to the classical Euclidean one. It can be applied for the characterization of the defects occurred in mirrors structure due to their exposure to high energy alpha particle beams. The proposed method may be further integrated into mirrors manufacturing process, as a testing instrument, to obtain better quality mirrors (enhanced resistance to high energy ionizing beams) by using different types of reflective coating materials and different deposition techniques. Moreover, the effect of high energy alpha ionizing particles on the optical properties of the exposed laser mirrors was studied by using spectrophotometric techniques.

Torque-based optimal acceleration control for electric vehicle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lu, Dongbin; Ouyang, Minggao

2014-03-01

The existing research of the acceleration control mainly focuses on an optimization of the velocity trajectory with respect to a criterion formulation that weights acceleration time and fuel consumption. The minimum-fuel acceleration problem in conventional vehicle has been solved by Pontryagin's maximum principle and dynamic programming algorithm, respectively. The acceleration control with minimum energy consumption for battery electric vehicle(EV) has not been reported. In this paper, the permanent magnet synchronous motor(PMSM) is controlled by the field oriented control(FOC) method and the electric drive system for the EV(including the PMSM, the inverter and the battery) is modeled to favor over a detailed consumption map. The analytical algorithm is proposed to analyze the optimal acceleration control and the optimal torque versus speed curve in the acceleration process is obtained. Considering the acceleration time, a penalty function is introduced to realize a fast vehicle speed tracking. The optimal acceleration control is also addressed with dynamic programming(DP). This method can solve the optimal acceleration problem with precise time constraint, but it consumes a large amount of computation time. The EV used in simulation and experiment is a four-wheel hub motor drive electric vehicle. The simulation and experimental results show that the required battery energy has little difference between the acceleration control solved by analytical algorithm and that solved by DP, and is greatly reduced comparing with the constant pedal opening acceleration. The proposed analytical and DP algorithms can minimize the energy consumption in EV's acceleration process and the analytical algorithm is easy to be implemented in real-time control.

Mock Data Challenge for the MPD/NICA Experiment on the HybriLIT Cluster

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gertsenberger, Konstantin; Rogachevsky, Oleg

2018-02-01

Simulation of data processing before receiving first experimental data is an important issue in high-energy physics experiments. This article presents the current Event Data Model and the Mock Data Challenge for the MPD experiment at the NICA accelerator complex which uses ongoing simulation studies to exercise in a stress-testing the distributed computing infrastructure and experiment software in the full production environment from simulated data through the physical analysis.

LHC Computing

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

Lincoln, Don

The LHC is the world’s highest energy particle accelerator and scientists use it to record an unprecedented amount of data. This data is recorded in electronic format and it requires an enormous computational infrastructure to convert the raw data into conclusions about the fundamental rules that govern matter. In this video, Fermilab’s Dr. Don Lincoln gives us a sense of just how much data is involved and the incredible computer resources that makes it all possible.

Clinical Trials Network / Building Infrastructure to Accelerate Transfer of Basic Research in Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) to Clinical Practice

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-05-01

Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) and of associated injuries with the Abbreviated Injury Scale . The American Spinal Injury Association impairment scale (AIS) is...registry protocol includes: the AIS Impairment Scale , and where appropriate, the Functional Independence Measure FIM™, the Spinal Cord Independence...have been achieved with the registry. Enrollment of 762 participants has demonstrated that is feasible to acquire prospective standardized research

Strengthening Software Authentication with the ROSE Software Suite

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

White, G

2006-06-15

Many recent nonproliferation and arms control software projects include a software authentication regime. These include U.S. Government-sponsored projects both in the United States and in the Russian Federation (RF). This trend toward requiring software authentication is only accelerating. Demonstrating assurance that software performs as expected without hidden ''backdoors'' is crucial to a project's success. In this context, ''authentication'' is defined as determining that a software package performs only its intended purpose and performs said purpose correctly and reliably over the planned duration of an agreement. In addition to visual inspections by knowledgeable computer scientists, automated tools are needed to highlightmore » suspicious code constructs, both to aid visual inspection and to guide program development. While many commercial tools are available for portions of the authentication task, they are proprietary and not extensible. An open-source, extensible tool can be customized to the unique needs of each project (projects can have both common and custom rules to detect flaws and security holes). Any such extensible tool has to be based on a complete language compiler. ROSE is precisely such a compiler infrastructure developed within the Department of Energy (DOE) and targeted at the optimization of scientific applications and user-defined libraries within large-scale applications (typically applications of a million lines of code). ROSE is a robust, source-to-source analysis and optimization infrastructure currently addressing large, million-line DOE applications in C and C++ (handling the full C, C99, C++ languages and with current collaborations to support Fortran90). We propose to extend ROSE to address a number of security-specific requirements, and apply it to software authentication for nonproliferation and arms control projects.« less

Cybersecurity Intrusion Detection and Monitoring for Field Area Network: Final Report

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

Pietrowicz, Stanley

This report summarizes the key technical accomplishments, industry impact and performance of the I2-CEDS grant entitled “Cybersecurity Intrusion Detection and Monitoring for Field Area Network”. Led by Applied Communication Sciences (ACS/Vencore Labs) in conjunction with its utility partner Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), the project accelerated research on a first-of-its-kind cybersecurity monitoring solution for Advanced Meter Infrastructure and Distribution Automation field networks. It advanced the technology to a validated, full-scale solution that detects anomalies, intrusion events and improves utility situational awareness and visibility. The solution was successfully transitioned and commercialized for production use as SecureSmart™ Continuous Monitoring. Discoveries made withmore » SecureSmart™ Continuous Monitoring led to tangible and demonstrable improvements in the security posture of the US national electric infrastructure.« less

Pharma Opportunities and Risks Multiply as Regulatory Reform Remakes APAC: Expanded Accelerated Pathways Challenge Developer Value Story, Evidence Collection, and Market Access Strategies.

PubMed

Grignolo, Alberto; Mingping, Zhang

2018-01-01

Sweeping reforms in the largest markets of the Asia-Pacific region are transforming the regulatory and commercial landscape for foreign pharmaceutical companies. Japan, South Korea, and China are leading the charge, establishing mechanisms and infrastructure that both reflect and help drive international regulatory convergence and accelerate delivery of needed, innovative products to patients. In this rapidly evolving regulatory and commercial environment, drug developers can benefit from reforms and proliferating accelerated pathway (AP) frameworks, but only with regulatory and evidence-generation strategies tailored to the region. Otherwise, they will confront significant pricing and reimbursement headwinds. Although APAC economies are at different stages of development, they share a common imperative: to balance pharmaceutical innovation with affordability. Despite the complexity of meeting these sometimes conflicting demands, companies that focus on demonstrating and delivering value for money, and that price new treatments reasonably and sustainably, can succeed both for their shareholders and the region's patient population.

An overview of the impact of rare disease characteristics on research methodology.

PubMed

Whicher, Danielle; Philbin, Sarah; Aronson, Naomi

2018-01-19

About 30 million individuals in the United States are living with a rare disease, which by definition have a prevalence of 200,000 or fewer cases in the United States ([National Organization for Rare Disorders], [About NORD], [2016]). Disease heterogeneity and geographic dispersion add to the difficulty of completing robust studies in small populations. Improving the ability to conduct research on rare diseases would have a significant impact on population health. The purpose of this paper is to raise awareness of methodological approaches that can address the challenges to conducting robust research on rare diseases. We conducted a landscape review of available methodological and analytic approaches to address the challenges of rare disease research. Our objectives were to: 1. identify algorithms for matching study design to rare disease attributes and the methodological approaches applicable to these algorithms; 2. draw inferences on how research communities and infrastructure can contribute to the efficiency of research on rare diseases; and 3. to describe methodological approaches in the rare disease portfolio of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), a funder promoting both rare disease research and research infrastructure. We identified three algorithms for matching study design to rare disease or intervention characteristics (Gagne, et.al, BMJ 349:g6802, 2014); (Gupta, et.al, J Clin Epidemiol 64:1085-1094, 2011); (Cornu, et. al, Orphet J Rare Dis 8:48,2012) and summarized the applicable methodological and analytic approaches. From this literature we were also able to draw inferences on how an effective research infrastructure can set an agenda, prioritize studies, accelerate accrual, catalyze patient engagement and terminate poorly performing studies. Of the 24 rare disease projects in the PCORI portfolio, 11 are randomized controlled trials (RCTs) using standard designs. Thirteen are observational studies using case-control, prospective cohort, or natural history designs. PCORI has supported the development of 9 Patient-Powered Research Networks (PPRNs) focused on rare diseases. Matching research design to attributes of rare diseases and interventions can facilitate the completion of RCTs that are adequately powered. An effective research infrastructure can improve efficiency and avoid waste in rare disease research. Our review of the PCORI research portfolio demonstrates that it is feasible to conduct RCTs in rare disease. However, most of these studies are using standard RCT designs. This suggests that use of a broader array of methodological approaches to RCTs --such as adaptive trials, cross-over trials, and early escape designs can improve the productivity of robust research in rare diseases.

Spatial correlation analysis of seismic noise for STAR X-ray infrastructure design

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

D'Alessandro, Antonino; Agostino, Raffaele; Festa, Lorenzo; Gervasi, Anna; Guerra, Ignazio; Palmer, Dennis T.; Serafini, Luca

2014-05-01

The Italian PON MaTeRiA project is focused on the creation of a research infrastructure open to users based on an innovative and evolutionary X-ray source. This source, named STAR (Southern Europe TBS for Applied Research), exploits the Thomson backscattering process of a laser radiation by fast-electron beams (Thomson Back Scattering - TBS). Its main performances are: X-ray photon flux 109-1010 ph/s, Angular divergence variable between 2 and 10 mrad, X-ray energy continuously variable between 8 keV and 150 keV, Bandwidth ΔE/E variable between 1 and 10%, ps time resolved structure. In order to achieve this performances, bunches of electrons produced by a photo-injector are accelerated to relativistic velocities by a linear accelerator section. The electron beam, few hundreds of micrometer wide, is driven by magnetic fields to the interaction point along a 15 m transport line where it is focused in a 10 micrometer-wide area. In the same area, the laser beam is focused after being transported along a 12 m structure. Ground vibrations could greatly affect the collision probability and thus the emittance by deviating the paths of the beams during their travel in the STAR source. Therefore, the study program to measure ground vibrations in the STAR site can be used for site characterization in relation to accelerator design. The environmental and facility noise may affect the X-ray operation especially if the predominant wavelengths in the microtremor wavefield are much smaller than the size of the linear accelerator. For wavelength much greater, all the accelerator parts move in phase, and therefore also large displacements cannot generate any significant effect. On the other hand, for wavelengths equal or less than half the accelerator size several parts could move in phase opposition and therefore small displacements could affect its proper functioning. Thereafter, it is important to characterize the microtremor wavefield in both frequencies and wavelengths domains. For this reason, we performed some measurements of seismic noise in order to characterize the environmental noise in the site in which the X-ray accelerator arise. For the characterization of the site, we carried out several passive seismic monitoring experiments at different times of the day and in different weather conditions. We recorded microtremor using an array of broadband 3C seismic sensors arranged along the linear accelerator. For each measurement point, we determined the displacement, velocity and acceleration spectrogram and power spectral density of both horizontal and vertical components. We determined also the microtremor horizontal to vertical spectral ratio as function of azimuth to individuate the main ground vibration direction and detect the existence of site or building resonance frequencies. We applied a rotation matrix to transform the North-South and East-West signal components in transversal and radial components, respect to the direction of the linear accelerator. Subsequently, for each couple of seismic stations we determined the coherence function to analyze the seismic noise spatial correlation. These analyses have allowed us to exhaustively characterize the seismic noise of the study area, from the point of view of the power and space-time variability, both in frequency and wavelength.

Demonstration of Green/Gray Infrastructure for Combined Sewer Overflow Control

EPA Science Inventory

This project is a major national demonstration of the integration of green and gray infrastructure for combined sewer overflow (CSO) control in a cost-effective and environmentally friendly manner. It will use Kansas City, MO, as a case example. The project will have a major in...

Arid Green Infrastructure for Water Control and Conservation State of the Science and Research Needs for Arid/Semi-Arid Regions

EPA Science Inventory

Green infrastructure is an approach to managing wet weather flows using systems and practices that mimic natural processes. It is designed to manage stormwater as close to its source as possible and protect the quality of receiving waters. Although most green infrastructure pract...

LIGHT - from laser ion acceleration to future applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roth, Markus; Light Collaboration

2013-10-01

Creation of high intensity multi-MeV ion bunches by high power lasers became a reliable tool during the last 15 years. The laser plasma source provides for TV/m accelerating field gradients and initially sub-ps bunch lengths. However, the large envelope divergence and the continuous exponential energy spectrum are substential drawbacks for many possible applications. To face this problem, the LIGHT collaboration was founded (Laser Ion Generation, Handling and Transport). The collaboration consists of several university groups and research centers, namely TU Darmstadt, JWGU Frankfurt, HI Jena, HZDR Dresden and GSI Darmstadt. The central goal is building a test beamline for merging laser ion acceleration with conventional accelerator infrastructure at the GSI facility. In the latest experiments, low divergent proton bunches with a central energy of up to 10 MeV and containing >109 particles could be provided at up to 2.2 m behind the plasma source, using a pulsed solenoid. In a next step, a radiofrequency cavity will be added to the beamline for phase rotation of these bunches, giving access to sub-ns bunch lengths and reaching highest intensities. An overview of the LIGHT objectives and the recent experimental results will be given. This work was supported by HIC4FAIR.

AstroCloud, a Cyber-Infrastructure for Astronomy Research: Data Archiving and Quality Control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

He, B.; Cui, C.; Fan, D.; Li, C.; Xiao, J.; Yu, C.; Wang, C.; Cao, Z.; Chen, J.; Yi, W.; Li, S.; Mi, L.; Yang, S.

2015-09-01

AstroCloud is a cyber-Infrastructure for Astronomy Research initiated by Chinese Virtual Observatory (China-VO) under funding support from NDRC (National Development and Reform commission) and CAS (Chinese Academy of Sciences)1(Cui et al. 2014). To archive the astronomical data in China, we present the implementation of the astronomical data archiving system (ADAS). Data archiving and quality control are the infrastructure for the AstroCloud. Throughout the data of the entire life cycle, data archiving system standardized data, transferring data, logging observational data, archiving ambient data, And storing these data and metadata in database. Quality control covers the whole process and all aspects of data archiving.

An infrastructure with a unified control plane to integrate IP into optical metro networks to provide flexible and intelligent bandwidth on demand for cloud computing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Wei; Hall, Trevor

2012-12-01

The Internet is entering an era of cloud computing to provide more cost effective, eco-friendly and reliable services to consumer and business users and the nature of the Internet traffic will undertake a fundamental transformation. Consequently, the current Internet will no longer suffice for serving cloud traffic in metro areas. This work proposes an infrastructure with a unified control plane that integrates simple packet aggregation technology with optical express through the interoperation between IP routers and electrical traffic controllers in optical metro networks. The proposed infrastructure provides flexible, intelligent, and eco-friendly bandwidth on demand for cloud computing in metro areas.

Automated and Assistive Tools for Accelerated Code migration of Scientific Computing on to Heterogeneous MultiCore Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-04-13

modelling code, a parallel benchmark , and a communication avoiding version of the QR algorithm. Further, several improvements to the OmpSs model were...movement; and a port of the dynamic load balancing library to OmpSs. Finally, several updates to the tools infrastructure were accomplished, including: an...OmpSs: a basic algorithm on image processing applications, a mini application representative of an ocean modelling code, a parallel benchmark , and a

Co-evolution of electric and telecommunications networks

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

Rivkin, S.R.

1998-05-01

There are potentially significant societal benefits in co-evolution between electricity and telecommunications in the areas of common infrastructure, accelerated deployment of distributed energy, tighter integration of information flow for energy management and distribution, and improved customer care. With due regard for natural processes that are more potent than any regulation and more real than any ideology, the gains from co-evolution would far outweigh the attenuated and speculative savings from restructuring of electricity that is too simplistic.

LHC Computing

ScienceCinema

Lincoln, Don

2018-01-16

The LHC is the world’s highest energy particle accelerator and scientists use it to record an unprecedented amount of data. This data is recorded in electronic format and it requires an enormous computational infrastructure to convert the raw data into conclusions about the fundamental rules that govern matter. In this video, Fermilab’s Dr. Don Lincoln gives us a sense of just how much data is involved and the incredible computer resources that makes it all possible.

Challenges and Opportunities in Propulsion Simulations

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-09-24

leverage Nvidia GPU accelerators •  Release common computational infrastructure as Distro A for collaboration •  Add physics modules as either...Gemini (6.4 GB/s) Dual Rail EDR-IB (23 GB/s) Interconnect Topology 3D Torus Non-blocking Fat Tree Processors AMD Opteron™ NVIDIA Kepler™ IBM...POWER9 NVIDIA Volta™ File System 32 PB, 1 TB/s, Lustre® 120 PB, 1 TB/s, GPFS™ Peak power consumption 9 MW 10 MW Titan vs. Summit Source: R

Safeguarding donors' personal rights and biobank autonomy in biobank networks: the CRIP privacy regime.

PubMed

Schröder, Christina; Heidtke, Karsten R; Zacherl, Nikolaus; Zatloukal, Kurt; Taupitz, Jochen

2011-08-01

Governance, underlying general ICT (Information and Communication Technology) architecture, and workflow of the Central Research Infrastructure for molecular Pathology (CRIP) are discussed as a model enabling biobank networks to form operational "meta biobanks" whilst respecting the donors' privacy, biobank autonomy and confidentiality, and the researchers' needs for appropriate biospecimens and information, as well as confidentiality. Tailored to these needs, CRIP efficiently accelerates and facilitates research with human biospecimens and data.

Cancer pharmacogenomics and pharmacoepidemiology: setting a research agenda to accelerate translation.

PubMed

Freedman, Andrew N; Sansbury, Leah B; Figg, William D; Potosky, Arnold L; Weiss Smith, Sheila R; Khoury, Muin J; Nelson, Stefanie A; Weinshilboum, Richard M; Ratain, Mark J; McLeod, Howard L; Epstein, Robert S; Ginsburg, Geoffrey S; Schilsky, Richard L; Liu, Geoffrey; Flockhart, David A; Ulrich, Cornelia M; Davis, Robert L; Lesko, Lawrence J; Zineh, Issam; Randhawa, Gurvaneet; Ambrosone, Christine B; Relling, Mary V; Rothman, Nat; Xie, Heng; Spitz, Margaret R; Ballard-Barbash, Rachel; Doroshow, James H; Minasian, Lori M

2010-11-17

Recent advances in genomic research have demonstrated a substantial role for genomic factors in predicting response to cancer therapies. Researchers in the fields of cancer pharmacogenomics and pharmacoepidemiology seek to understand why individuals respond differently to drug therapy, in terms of both adverse effects and treatment efficacy. To identify research priorities as well as the resources and infrastructure needed to advance these fields, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) sponsored a workshop titled "Cancer Pharmacogenomics: Setting a Research Agenda to Accelerate Translation" on July 21, 2009, in Bethesda, MD. In this commentary, we summarize and discuss five science-based recommendations and four infrastructure-based recommendations that were identified as a result of discussions held during this workshop. Key recommendations include 1) supporting the routine collection of germline and tumor biospecimens in NCI-sponsored clinical trials and in some observational and population-based studies; 2) incorporating pharmacogenomic markers into clinical trials; 3) addressing the ethical, legal, social, and biospecimen- and data-sharing implications of pharmacogenomic and pharmacoepidemiologic research; and 4) establishing partnerships across NCI, with other federal agencies, and with industry. Together, these recommendations will facilitate the discovery and validation of clinical, sociodemographic, lifestyle, and genomic markers related to cancer treatment response and adverse events, and they will improve both the speed and efficiency by which new pharmacogenomic and pharmacoepidemiologic information is translated into clinical practice.

High Efficiency Water Heating Technology Development Final Report. Part I, Lab/Field Performance Evaluation and Accelerated Life Testing of a Hybrid Electric Heat Pump Water Heater (HPWH)

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

Baxter, Van D.; Murphy, Richard W.; Rice, C. Keith

DOE has supported efforts for many years with the objective of getting a water heater that uses heat pump technology (aka a heat pump water heater or HPWH) successfully on the residential equipment market. The most recent previous effort (1999-2002) produced a product that performed very well in ORNL-led accelerated durability and field tests. The commercial partner for this effort, Enviromaster International (EMI), introduced the product to the market under the trade name Watter$aver in 2002 but ceased production in 2005 due to low sales. A combination of high sales price and lack of any significant infrastructure for service aftermore » the sale were the principal reasons for the failure of this effort. What was needed for market success was a commercial partner with the manufacturing and market distribution capability necessary to allow economies of scale to lead to a viable unit price together with a strong customer service infrastructure. General Electric certainly meets these requirements, and knowing of ORNL s expertise in this area, approached ORNL with the proposal to partner in a CRADA to produce a high efficiency electric water heater. A CRADA with GE was initiated early in Fiscal Year, 2008. GE initially named its product the Hybrid Electric Water Heater (HEWH).« less

Cost Comparison of Conventional Gray Combined Sewer Overflow Control Infrastructure versus a Green/Gray Combination

EPA Science Inventory

This paper outlines a life-cycle cost analysis comparing a green (rain gardens) and gray (tunnels) infrastructure combination to a gray-only option to control combined sewer overflow in the Turkey Creek Combined Sewer Overflow Basin, in Kansas City, MO. The plan area of this Bas...

Common Badging and Access Control System (CBACS)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dischinger, Portia

2005-01-01

This slide presentation presents NASA's Common Badging and Access Control System. NASA began a Smart Card implementation in January 2004. Following site surveys, it was determined that NASA's badging and access control systems required upgrades to common infrastructure in order to provide flexibly, usability, and return on investment prior to a smart card implantation. Common Badging and Access Control System (CBACS) provides the common infrastructure from which FIPS-201 compliant processes, systems, and credentials can be developed and used.

Controlling Infrastructure Costs: Right-Sizing the Mission Control Facility

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Martin, Keith; Sen-Roy, Michael; Heiman, Jennifer

2009-01-01

Johnson Space Center's Mission Control Center is a space vehicle, space program agnostic facility. The current operational design is essentially identical to the original facility architecture that was developed and deployed in the mid-90's. In an effort to streamline the support costs of the mission critical facility, the Mission Operations Division (MOD) of Johnson Space Center (JSC) has sponsored an exploratory project to evaluate and inject current state-of-the-practice Information Technology (IT) tools, processes and technology into legacy operations. The general push in the IT industry has been trending towards a data-centric computer infrastructure for the past several years. Organizations facing challenges with facility operations costs are turning to creative solutions combining hardware consolidation, virtualization and remote access to meet and exceed performance, security, and availability requirements. The Operations Technology Facility (OTF) organization at the Johnson Space Center has been chartered to build and evaluate a parallel Mission Control infrastructure, replacing the existing, thick-client distributed computing model and network architecture with a data center model utilizing virtualization to provide the MCC Infrastructure as a Service. The OTF will design a replacement architecture for the Mission Control Facility, leveraging hardware consolidation through the use of blade servers, increasing utilization rates for compute platforms through virtualization while expanding connectivity options through the deployment of secure remote access. The architecture demonstrates the maturity of the technologies generally available in industry today and the ability to successfully abstract the tightly coupled relationship between thick-client software and legacy hardware into a hardware agnostic "Infrastructure as a Service" capability that can scale to meet future requirements of new space programs and spacecraft. This paper discusses the benefits and difficulties that a migration to cloud-based computing philosophies has uncovered when compared to the legacy Mission Control Center architecture. The team consists of system and software engineers with extensive experience with the MCC infrastructure and software currently used to support the International Space Station (ISS) and Space Shuttle program (SSP).

Integration of utilities infrastructures in a future internet enabled smart city framework.

PubMed

Sánchez, Luis; Elicegui, Ignacio; Cuesta, Javier; Muñoz, Luis; Lanza, Jorge

2013-10-25

Improving efficiency of city services and facilitating a more sustainable development of cities are the main drivers of the smart city concept. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) play a crucial role in making cities smarter, more accessible and more open. In this paper we present a novel architecture exploiting major concepts from the Future Internet (FI) paradigm addressing the challenges that need to be overcome when creating smarter cities. This architecture takes advantage of both the critical communications infrastructures already in place and owned by the utilities as well as of the infrastructure belonging to the city municipalities to accelerate efficient provision of existing and new city services. The paper highlights how FI technologies create the necessary glue and logic that allows the integration of current vertical and isolated city services into a holistic solution, which enables a huge forward leap for the efficiency and sustainability of our cities. Moreover, the paper describes a real-world prototype, that instantiates the aforementioned architecture, deployed in one of the parks of the city of Santander providing an autonomous public street lighting adaptation service. This prototype is a showcase on how added-value services can be seamlessly created on top of the proposed architecture.

Epilepsy informatics and an ontology-driven infrastructure for large database research and patient care in epilepsy.

PubMed

Sahoo, Satya S; Zhang, Guo-Qiang; Lhatoo, Samden D

2013-08-01

The epilepsy community increasingly recognizes the need for a modern classification system that can also be easily integrated with effective informatics tools. The 2010 reports by the United States President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) identified informatics as a critical resource to improve quality of patient care, drive clinical research, and reduce the cost of health services. An effective informatics infrastructure for epilepsy, which is underpinned by a formal knowledge model or ontology, can leverage an ever increasing amount of multimodal data to improve (1) clinical decision support, (2) access to information for patients and their families, (3) easier data sharing, and (4) accelerate secondary use of clinical data. Modeling the recommendations of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) classification system in the form of an epilepsy domain ontology is essential for consistent use of terminology in a variety of applications, including electronic health records systems and clinical applications. In this review, we discuss the data management issues in epilepsy and explore the benefits of an ontology-driven informatics infrastructure and its role in adoption of a "data-driven" paradigm in epilepsy research. Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2013 International League Against Epilepsy.

Integration of Utilities Infrastructures in a Future Internet Enabled Smart City Framework

PubMed Central

Sánchez, Luis; Elicegui, Ignacio; Cuesta, Javier; Muñoz, Luis; Lanza, Jorge

2013-01-01

Improving efficiency of city services and facilitating a more sustainable development of cities are the main drivers of the smart city concept. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) play a crucial role in making cities smarter, more accessible and more open. In this paper we present a novel architecture exploiting major concepts from the Future Internet (FI) paradigm addressing the challenges that need to be overcome when creating smarter cities. This architecture takes advantage of both the critical communications infrastructures already in place and owned by the utilities as well as of the infrastructure belonging to the city municipalities to accelerate efficient provision of existing and new city services. The paper highlights how FI technologies create the necessary glue and logic that allows the integration of current vertical and isolated city services into a holistic solution, which enables a huge forward leap for the efficiency and sustainability of our cities. Moreover, the paper describes a real-world prototype, that instantiates the aforementioned architecture, deployed in one of the parks of the city of Santander providing an autonomous public street lighting adaptation service. This prototype is a showcase on how added-value services can be seamlessly created on top of the proposed architecture. PMID:24233072

Epilepsy informatics and an ontology-driven infrastructure for large database research and patient care in epilepsy

PubMed Central

Sahoo, Satya S.; Zhang, Guo-Qiang; Lhatoo, Samden D.

2013-01-01

Summary The epilepsy community increasingly recognizes the need for a modern classification system that can also be easily integrated with effective informatics tools. The 2010 reports by the United States President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) identified informatics as a critical resource to improve quality of patient care, drive clinical research, and reduce the cost of health services. An effective informatics infrastructure for epilepsy, which is underpinned by a formal knowledge model or ontology, can leverage an ever increasing amount of multimodal data to improve (1) clinical decision support, (2) access to information for patients and their families, (3) easier data sharing, and (4) accelerate secondary use of clinical data. Modeling the recommendations of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) classification system in the form of an epilepsy domain ontology is essential for consistent use of terminology in a variety of applications, including electronic health records systems and clinical applications. In this review, we discuss the data management issues in epilepsy and explore the benefits of an ontology-driven informatics infrastructure and its role in adoption of a “data-driven” paradigm in epilepsy research. PMID:23647220

Managing NIF safety equipment in a high neutron and gamma radiation environment.

PubMed

Datte, Philip; Eckart, Mark; Jackson, Mark; Khater, Hesham; Manuel, Stacie; Newton, Mark

2013-06-01

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a 192 laser beam facility that supports the Inertial Confinement Fusion program. During the ignition experimental campaign, the NIF is expected to perform shots with varying fusion yield producing 14 MeV neutrons up to 20 MJ or 7.1 × 10(18) neutrons per shot and a maximum annual yield of 1,200 MJ. Several infrastructure support systems will be exposed to varying high yield shots over the facility's 30-y life span. In response to this potential exposure, analysis and testing of several facility safety systems have been conducted. A detailed MCNP (Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport Code) model has been developed for the NIF facility, and it includes most of the major structures inside the Target Bay. The model has been used in the simulation of expected neutron and gamma fluences throughout the Target Bay. Radiation susceptible components were identified and tested to fluences greater than 10(13) (n cm(-2)) for 14 MeV neutrons and γ-ray equivalent. The testing includes component irradiation using a 60Co gamma source and accelerator-based irradiation using 4- and 14- MeV neutron sources. The subsystem implementation in the facility is based on the fluence estimates after shielding and survivability guidelines derived from the dose maps and component tests results. This paper reports on the evaluation and implementation of mitigations for several infrastructure safety support systems, including video, oxygen monitoring, pressure monitors, water sensing systems, and access control interfaces found at the NIF.

Materials research at CMAM

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

Zucchiatti, Alessandro

2013-07-18

The Centro de Micro Analisis de Materiales (CMAM) is a research centre of the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid dedicated to the modification and analysis of materials using ion beam techniques. The infrastructure, based on a HVEE 5MV tandem accelerator, provided with a coaxial Cockcroft Walton charging system, is fully open to research groups of the UAM, to other public research institutions and to private enterprises. The CMAM research covers a few important lines such as advanced materials, surface science, biomedical materials, cultural heritage, materials for energy production. The Centre gives as well support to university teaching and technical training. Amore » detail description of the research infrastructures and their use statistics will be given. Some of the main research results will be presented to show the progress of research in the Centre in the past few years and to motivate the strategic plans for the forthcoming.« less

In Situ Methods, Infrastructures, and Applications on High Performance Computing Platforms, a State-of-the-art (STAR) Report

DOE PAGES

Bethel, EW; Bauer, A; Abbasi, H; ...

2016-06-10

The considerable interest in the high performance computing (HPC) community regarding analyzing and visualization data without first writing to disk, i.e., in situ processing, is due to several factors. First is an I/O cost savings, where data is analyzed /visualized while being generated, without first storing to a filesystem. Second is the potential for increased accuracy, where fine temporal sampling of transient analysis might expose some complex behavior missed in coarse temporal sampling. Third is the ability to use all available resources, CPU’s and accelerators, in the computation of analysis products. This STAR paper brings together researchers, developers and practitionersmore » using in situ methods in extreme-scale HPC with the goal to present existing methods, infrastructures, and a range of computational science and engineering applications using in situ analysis and visualization.« less

H2FIRST: A partnership to advance hydrogen fueling station technology driving an optimal consumer experience.

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

Moen, Christopher D.; Dedrick, Daniel E.; Pratt, Joseph William

2014-03-01

The US Department of Energy (DOE) Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Office of Fuel Cell Technologies Office (FCTO) is establishing the Hydrogen Fueling Infrastructure Research and Station Technology (H2FIRST) partnership, led by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL). FCTO is establishing this partnership and the associated capabilities in support of H2USA, the public/private partnership launched in 2013. The H2FIRST partnership provides the research and technology acceleration support to enable the widespread deployment of hydrogen infrastructure for the robust fueling of light-duty fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV). H2FIRST will focus on improving private-sector economics, safety,more » availability and reliability, and consumer confidence for hydrogen fueling. This whitepaper outlines the goals, scope, activities associated with the H2FIRST partnership.« less

Increasing the resilience and security of the United States' power infrastructure

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

Happenny, Sean F.

2015-08-01

The United States' power infrastructure is aging, underfunded, and vulnerable to cyber attack. Emerging smart grid technologies may take some of the burden off of existing systems and make the grid as a whole more efficient, reliable, and secure. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is funding research into several aspects of smart grid technology and grid security, creating a software simulation tool that will allow researchers to test power infrastructure control and distribution paradigms by utilizing different smart grid technologies to determine how the grid and these technologies react under different circumstances. Understanding how these systems behave in real-worldmore » conditions will lead to new ways to make our power infrastructure more resilient and secure. Demonstrating security in embedded systems is another research area PNNL is tackling. Many of the systems controlling the U.S. critical infrastructure, such as the power grid, lack integrated security and the aging networks protecting them are becoming easier to attack.« less

GeoDeepDive: Towards a Machine Reading-Ready Digital Library and Information Integration Resource

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Husson, J. M.; Peters, S. E.; Livny, M.; Ross, I.

2015-12-01

Recent developments in machine reading and learning approaches to text and data mining hold considerable promise for accelerating the pace and quality of literature-based data synthesis, but these advances have outpaced even basic levels of access to the published literature. For many geoscience domains, particularly those based on physical samples and field-based descriptions, this limitation is significant. Here we describe a general infrastructure to support published literature-based machine reading and learning approaches to information integration and knowledge base creation. This infrastructure supports rate-controlled automated fetching of original documents, along with full bibliographic citation metadata, from remote servers, the secure storage of original documents, and the utilization of considerable high-throughput computing resources for the pre-processing of these documents by optical character recognition, natural language parsing, and other document annotation and parsing software tools. New tools and versions of existing tools can be automatically deployed against original documents when they are made available. The products of these tools (text/XML files) are managed by MongoDB and are available for use in data extraction applications. Basic search and discovery functionality is provided by ElasticSearch, which is used to identify documents of potential relevance to a given data extraction task. Relevant files derived from the original documents are then combined into basic starting points for application building; these starting points are kept up-to-date as new relevant documents are incorporated into the digital library. Currently, our digital library stores contains more than 360K documents supplied by Elsevier and the USGS and we are actively seeking additional content providers. By focusing on building a dependable infrastructure to support the retrieval, storage, and pre-processing of published content, we are establishing a foundation for complex, and continually improving, information integration and data extraction applications. We have developed one such application, which we present as an example, and invite new collaborations to develop other such applications.

Increased Flooding Risk - Accelerating Threat and Stakeholder Response

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Atkinson, L. P.; Ezer, T.; De Young, R.; McShane, M. K.; McFarlane, B.

2012-12-01

Coastal cities have been adapting to coastal flooding for centuries. Now, with increased population along the coast combined with increased flooding because of sea level rise (SLR) the vulnerability of coastal cities has increased significantly. In this paper we will discuss the physical threat of accelerating sea level rise and the response of stakeholders. Sallenger et al (2012) stated "... we present evidence of recently accelerated SLR in a unique 1,000-km-long hotspot on the highly populated North American Atlantic coast north of Cape Hatteras and show that it is consistent with a modeled fingerprint of dynamic SLR." In the Northeast Hotspot (NEH) dynamic processes such as Gulf Stream transport can cause local sea level differences (Ezer, 2001). Sweet et al (2009) attributed the anomalously high sea level along the mid-Atlantic in 2009 to dynamic SLR. A recent paper (Ezer and Corlett, 2012 submitted), focused on Chesapeake Bay, confirms Sallenger et al. These accelerations suggest that the higher estimates of SLR in IPCC reports may be better estimates. The combination of local sea level rise and acceleration, even with average coastal storm surge, results in increased vulnerability and economic losses. We will use three examples of stakeholder response to this threat: shipbuilding, cities and insurance. Nuclear aircraft carrier drydock in Newport News, VA - The only drydock where nuclear powered aircraft carriers are built flooded during Hurricane Isabel. A study showed that with a 1 meter sea level rise and no change in storm severity they would have 'Major Flooding' every 4 months rather than every 27 years. Cities infrastructure - In a recent report on sea level rise, the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission (representing nearly 2m people) found that "sea level rise will be a major issue", "there is not yet official state or federal guidance for addressing sea level rise", "…the "…U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has developed guidance…" for their projects, and "…subsidence …. is not well-documented". Studies sponsored by the City of Norfolk for example suggest massive tidal barriers. Flood insurance - Flood insurance is available only from the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), not from private insurers. NFIP has a current deficit of about 18B, which is estimated to increase by about 2B annually. The rates are subsidized and do not reflect the true risk of coastal flooding and do not incorporate the likelihood of future sea-level rise. In effect, the subsidy promotes increased building on the coast, leading to increased deficits in the tax-payer financed program. Risk-based flood insurance pricing would lead to less coastal development, therefore decreasing the tax base of the community. Stakeholder needs - Planning for increased flooding due to sea level rise extends 50 to 100 years given the lifetime of infrastructure. Planners need guidance and error estimates. To make adequate predictions for users we must understand the various components of sea level rise including subsidence, global sea level rise and regional and local dynamic sea level rise. Predictions of regional sea level rise will be presented in the context of existing infrastructure such as NASA research facilities and the city of Norfolk, Virginia.

Tank waste remediation system privatization infrastructure program, configuration management implementation plan

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

Schaus, P.S.

This Configuration Management Implementation Plan (CMIP) was developed to assist in managing systems, structures, and components (SSCS), to facilitate the effective control and statusing of changes to SSCS, and to ensure technical consistency between design, performance, and operational requirements. Its purpose is to describe the approach Privatization Infrastructure will take in implementing a configuration management program, to identify the Program`s products that need configuration management control, to determine the rigor of control, and to identify the mechanisms for that control.

Policy Model of Sustainable Infrastructure Development (Case Study : Bandarlampung City, Indonesia)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Persada, C.; Sitorus, S. R. P.; Marimin; Djakapermana, R. D.

2018-03-01

Infrastructure development does not only affect the economic aspect, but also social and environmental, those are the main dimensions of sustainable development. Many aspects and actors involved in urban infrastructure development requires a comprehensive and integrated policy towards sustainability. Therefore, it is necessary to formulate an infrastructure development policy that considers various dimensions of sustainable development. The main objective of this research is to formulate policy of sustainable infrastructure development. In this research, urban infrastructure covers transportation, water systems (drinking water, storm water, wastewater), green open spaces and solid waste. This research was conducted in Bandarlampung City. This study use a comprehensive modeling, namely the Multi Dimensional Scaling (MDS) with Rapid Appraisal of Infrastructure (Rapinfra), it uses of Analytic Network Process (ANP) and it uses system dynamics model. The findings of the MDS analysis showed that the status of Bandarlampung City infrastructure sustainability is less sustainable. The ANP analysis produces 8 main indicators of the most influential in the development of sustainable infrastructure. The system dynamics model offered 4 scenarios of sustainable urban infrastructure policy model. The best scenario was implemented into 3 policies consist of: the integrated infrastructure management, the population control, and the local economy development.

A Virtual Environment for Resilient Infrastructure Modeling and Design

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-09-01

Security CI Critical Infrastructure CID Center for Infrastructure Defense CSV Comma Separated Value DAD Defender-Attacker-Defender DHS Department...responses to disruptive events (e.g., cascading failure behavior) in a context- rich , controlled environment for exercises, education, and training...The general attacker-defender (AD) and defender-attacker-defender ( DAD ) models for CI are defined in Brown et al. (2006). These models help

Practical Use of the GEOSS Common Infrastructure by Environmental Research Infrastructures - Lessons from a COOPEUS-GEOSS Workshop

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Waldmann, H. C.; Koop-Jakobsen, K.

2014-12-01

The GEOSS Common Infrastructure (GCI) enables earth observations data providers to make their resources available in a global context and allow users of earth observations data to search, access and use data, tools and services available through the Global Earth Observation System of Systems. COOPEUS views the GCI as an important platform promoting cross-disciplinary approaches in the studies of multifaceted environmental challenges, and the research infrastructures (RIs) in COOPEUS are currently in the process of registering resources and services within the GCI. To promote this work, COOPEUS and GEOSS held a joint workshop in July 2014, where the main scope was to get data managers of the COOPEUS RIs involved and establish the GCI as part of the COOPEUS interoperability framework. The workshop revealed that data policies of the individual RIs can often be the first impediment for their use of the GCI. As many RIs are administering data from many sources, permission to distribute the data must be in place before registration in the GCI. Through hands-on exercises registering resources from the COOPEUS RIs, the first steps were taken to implement the GCI as a platform for documenting the capabilities of the COOPEUS RIs. These exercises gave important feedback for the practical implementation of the GCI as well as the challenges lying ahead. For the COOPEUS RIs providing data the benefits includes improved discovery and access to data and information, increased visibility of available data, information and services, which will promote the structuring of the existing environmental research infrastructure landscape and improve the interoperability. However, in order to attract research infrastructures to use the GCI, the registration process must be simplified and accelerated like for instance allowing for bulk data registration; the resource registration and feedback by COOPEUS partners can play an important role in these efforts.

Resurrecting social infrastructure as a determinant of urban tuberculosis control in Delhi, India

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background The key to universal coverage in tuberculosis (TB) management lies in community participation and empowerment of the population. Social infrastructure development generates social capital and addresses the crucial social determinants of TB, thereby improving program performance. Recently, there has been renewed interest in the concept of social infrastructure development for TB control in developing countries. This study aims to revive this concept and highlight the fact that documentation on ways to operationalize urban TB control is required from a holistic development perspective. Further, it explains how development of social infrastructure impacts health and development outcomes, especially with respect to TB in urban settings. Methods A wide range of published Government records pertaining to social development parameters and TB program surveillance, between 2001 and 2011 in Delhi, were studied. Social infrastructure development parameters like human development index along with other indicators reflecting patient profile and habitation in urban settings were selected as social determinants of TB. These include adult literacy rates, per capita income, net migration rates, percentage growth in slum population, and percentage of urban population living in one-room dwelling units. The impact of the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program on TB incidence was assessed as an annual decline in new TB cases notified under the program. Univariate linear regression was employed to examine the interrelationship between social development parameters and TB program outcomes. Results The decade saw a significant growth in most of the social development parameters in the State. TB program performance showed 46% increment in lives saved among all types of TB cases per 100,000 population. The 7% reduction in new TB case notifications from the year 2001 to 2011, translates to a logarithmic decline of 5.4 new TB cases per 100,000 population. Except per capita income, literacy, and net migration rates, other social determinants showed significant correlation with decline in new TB cases per 100,000 population. Conclusions Social infrastructure development leads to social capital generation which engenders positive growth in TB program outcomes. Strategies which promote social infrastructure development should find adequate weightage in the overall policy framework for urban TB control in developing countries. PMID:24438431

Resurrecting social infrastructure as a determinant of urban tuberculosis control in Delhi, India.

PubMed

Chandra, Shivani; Sharma, Nandini; Joshi, Kulanand; Aggarwal, Nishi; Kannan, Anjur Tupil

2014-01-17

The key to universal coverage in tuberculosis (TB) management lies in community participation and empowerment of the population. Social infrastructure development generates social capital and addresses the crucial social determinants of TB, thereby improving program performance. Recently, there has been renewed interest in the concept of social infrastructure development for TB control in developing countries. This study aims to revive this concept and highlight the fact that documentation on ways to operationalize urban TB control is required from a holistic development perspective. Further, it explains how development of social infrastructure impacts health and development outcomes, especially with respect to TB in urban settings. A wide range of published Government records pertaining to social development parameters and TB program surveillance, between 2001 and 2011 in Delhi, were studied. Social infrastructure development parameters like human development index along with other indicators reflecting patient profile and habitation in urban settings were selected as social determinants of TB. These include adult literacy rates, per capita income, net migration rates, percentage growth in slum population, and percentage of urban population living in one-room dwelling units. The impact of the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program on TB incidence was assessed as an annual decline in new TB cases notified under the program. Univariate linear regression was employed to examine the interrelationship between social development parameters and TB program outcomes. The decade saw a significant growth in most of the social development parameters in the State. TB program performance showed 46% increment in lives saved among all types of TB cases per 100,000 population. The 7% reduction in new TB case notifications from the year 2001 to 2011, translates to a logarithmic decline of 5.4 new TB cases per 100,000 population. Except per capita income, literacy, and net migration rates, other social determinants showed significant correlation with decline in new TB cases per 100,000 population. Social infrastructure development leads to social capital generation which engenders positive growth in TB program outcomes. Strategies which promote social infrastructure development should find adequate weightage in the overall policy framework for urban TB control in developing countries.

Bibliography for acid-rock drainage and selected acid-mine drainage issues related to acid-rock drainage from transportation activities

USGS Publications Warehouse

Bradley, Michael W.; Worland, Scott C.

2015-01-01

Acid-rock drainage occurs through the interaction of rainfall on pyrite-bearing formations. When pyrite (FeS2) is exposed to oxygen and water in mine workings or roadcuts, the mineral decomposes and sulfur may react to form sulfuric acid, which often results in environmental problems and potential damage to the transportation infrastructure. The accelerated oxidation of pyrite and other sulfidic minerals generates low pH water with potentially high concentrations of trace metals. Much attention has been given to contamination arising from acid mine drainage, but studies related to acid-rock drainage from road construction are relatively limited. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Tennessee Department of Transportation, is conducting an investigation to evaluate the occurrence and processes controlling acid-rock drainage and contaminant transport from roadcuts in Tennessee. The basic components of acid-rock drainage resulting from transportation activities are described and a bibliography, organized by relevant categories (remediation, geochemical, microbial, biological impact, and secondary mineralization) is presented.

Neural Network Based Models for Fusion Applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meneghini, Orso; Tema Biwole, Arsene; Luda, Teobaldo; Zywicki, Bailey; Rea, Cristina; Smith, Sterling; Snyder, Phil; Belli, Emily; Staebler, Gary; Canty, Jeff

2017-10-01

Whole device modeling, engineering design, experimental planning and control applications demand models that are simultaneously physically accurate and fast. This poster reports on the ongoing effort towards the development and validation of a series of models that leverage neural-­network (NN) multidimensional regression techniques to accelerate some of the most mission critical first principle models for the fusion community, such as: the EPED workflow for prediction of the H-Mode and Super H-Mode pedestal structure the TGLF and NEO models for the prediction of the turbulent and neoclassical particle, energy and momentum fluxes; and the NEO model for the drift-kinetic solution of the bootstrap current. We also applied NNs on DIII-D experimental data for disruption prediction and quantifying the effect of RMPs on the pedestal and ELMs. All of these projects were supported by the infrastructure provided by the OMFIT integrated modeling framework. Work supported by US DOE under DE-SC0012656, DE-FG02-95ER54309, DE-FC02-04ER54698.

Let Slip the Dogs of (CYBER) War: Progressing Towards a Warfighting U.S. Cyber Command

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-04-01

Accelerating Cyberweapon Reseach ,” Washington Post , 18 March 2012. 20 Federal Bureau of Investigation, “What we Investigate - Cyber Crime,” http...on- uk-police-s-anti-terror-hotline (accessed 2 January 2013). 18 Jen Lin-Liu, “Huawei-Cisco Tests China’s Respect for Property Rights,” IEEE... designated as critical infrastructure (CI).19 Securing this CI will be a challenge: most is privately vice publicly owned, and there is limited incentive

Report of the Community Review of EIC Accelerator R&D for the Office of Nuclear Physics

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

None, None

The Nuclear Science Advisory Committee (NSAC) of the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Physics (NP) recommended in the 2015 Long Range Plan (LRP) for Nuclear Science that the proposed Electron Ion Collider (EIC) be the highest priority for new construction. This report noted that, at that time, two independent designs for such a facility had evolved in the United States, each of which proposed using infrastructure already available in the U.S. nuclear science community.

Key Conditions for Successful Serial Entrepreneurship in Healthcare.

PubMed

Piron, Cameron

2017-01-01

As a serial entrepreneur in the medical device industry, the author embraces Snowdon's (2017) effort to create and stimulate dialogue among experts in health system innovation in an effort to define and support Canada's innovation agenda. In this paper, he outlines some of the attributes and skills that companies need to launch their products and scale their companies. He also identifies the main conditions of an innovation ecosystem that create the necessary infrastructure to enable and support highly successful companies while allowing them to accelerate their growth.

Quantifying habitat impacts of natural gas infrastructure to facilitate biodiversity offsetting

PubMed Central

Jones, Isabel L; Bull, Joseph W; Milner-Gulland, Eleanor J; Esipov, Alexander V; Suttle, Kenwyn B

2014-01-01

Habitat degradation through anthropogenic development is a key driver of biodiversity loss. One way to compensate losses is “biodiversity offsetting” (wherein biodiversity impacted is “replaced” through restoration elsewhere). A challenge in implementing offsets, which has received scant attention in the literature, is the accurate determination of residual biodiversity losses. We explore this challenge for offsetting gas extraction in the Ustyurt Plateau, Uzbekistan. Our goal was to determine the landscape extent of habitat impacts, particularly how the footprint of “linear” infrastructure (i.e. roads, pipelines), often disregarded in compensation calculations, compares with “hub” infrastructure (i.e. extraction facilities). We measured vegetation cover and plant species richness using the line-intercept method, along transects running from infrastructure/control sites outward for 500 m, accounting for wind direction to identify dust deposition impacts. Findings from 24 transects were extrapolated to the broader plateau by mapping total landscape infrastructure network using GPS data and satellite imagery. Vegetation cover and species richness were significantly lower at development sites than controls. These differences disappeared within 25 m of the edge of the area physically occupied by infrastructure. The current habitat footprint of gas infrastructure is 220 ± 19 km2 across the Ustyurt (total ∼ 100,000 km2), 37 ± 6% of which is linear infrastructure. Vegetation impacts diminish rapidly with increasing distance from infrastructure, and localized dust deposition does not conspicuously extend the disturbance footprint. Habitat losses from gas extraction infrastructure cover 0.2% of the study area, but this reflects directly eliminated vegetation only. Impacts upon fauna pose a more difficult determination, as these require accounting for behavioral and demographic responses to disturbance by elusive mammals, including threatened species. This study demonstrates that impacts of linear infrastructure in regions such as the Ustyurt should be accounted for not just with respect to development sites but also associated transportation and delivery routes. PMID:24455163

Quantifying habitat impacts of natural gas infrastructure to facilitate biodiversity offsetting.

PubMed

Jones, Isabel L; Bull, Joseph W; Milner-Gulland, Eleanor J; Esipov, Alexander V; Suttle, Kenwyn B

2014-01-01

Habitat degradation through anthropogenic development is a key driver of biodiversity loss. One way to compensate losses is "biodiversity offsetting" (wherein biodiversity impacted is "replaced" through restoration elsewhere). A challenge in implementing offsets, which has received scant attention in the literature, is the accurate determination of residual biodiversity losses. We explore this challenge for offsetting gas extraction in the Ustyurt Plateau, Uzbekistan. Our goal was to determine the landscape extent of habitat impacts, particularly how the footprint of "linear" infrastructure (i.e. roads, pipelines), often disregarded in compensation calculations, compares with "hub" infrastructure (i.e. extraction facilities). We measured vegetation cover and plant species richness using the line-intercept method, along transects running from infrastructure/control sites outward for 500 m, accounting for wind direction to identify dust deposition impacts. Findings from 24 transects were extrapolated to the broader plateau by mapping total landscape infrastructure network using GPS data and satellite imagery. Vegetation cover and species richness were significantly lower at development sites than controls. These differences disappeared within 25 m of the edge of the area physically occupied by infrastructure. The current habitat footprint of gas infrastructure is 220 ± 19 km(2) across the Ustyurt (total ∼ 100,000 km(2)), 37 ± 6% of which is linear infrastructure. Vegetation impacts diminish rapidly with increasing distance from infrastructure, and localized dust deposition does not conspicuously extend the disturbance footprint. Habitat losses from gas extraction infrastructure cover 0.2% of the study area, but this reflects directly eliminated vegetation only. Impacts upon fauna pose a more difficult determination, as these require accounting for behavioral and demographic responses to disturbance by elusive mammals, including threatened species. This study demonstrates that impacts of linear infrastructure in regions such as the Ustyurt should be accounted for not just with respect to development sites but also associated transportation and delivery routes.

Model-based Acceleration Control of Turbofan Engines with a Hammerstein-Wiener Representation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Jiqiang; Ye, Zhifeng; Hu, Zhongzhi; Wu, Xin; Dimirovsky, Georgi; Yue, Hong

2017-05-01

Acceleration control of turbofan engines is conventionally designed through either schedule-based or acceleration-based approach. With the widespread acceptance of model-based design in aviation industry, it becomes necessary to investigate the issues associated with model-based design for acceleration control. In this paper, the challenges for implementing model-based acceleration control are explained; a novel Hammerstein-Wiener representation of engine models is introduced; based on the Hammerstein-Wiener model, a nonlinear generalized minimum variance type of optimal control law is derived; the feature of the proposed approach is that it does not require the inversion operation that usually upsets those nonlinear control techniques. The effectiveness of the proposed control design method is validated through a detailed numerical study.

Green Infrastructure Research and Demonstration at the Edison Environmental Center

EPA Science Inventory

This presentation will review the need for storm water control practices and will present a portion of the green infrastructure research and demonstration being performed at the Edison Environmental Center.

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

Chung, Ching-Yen; Chu, Peter; Gadh, Rajit

Currently, when Electric Vehicles (EVs) are charging, they only have the option to charge at a selected current or not charge. When during the day there is a power shortage, the charging infrastructure should have the options to either shut off the power to the charging stations or to lower the power to the EVs in order to satisfy the needs of the grid. There is a need for technology that controls the current being disbursed to these electric vehicles. This paper proposes a design for a smart charging infrastructure capable of providing power to several EVs from one circuitmore » by multiplexing power and providing charge control. The smart charging infrastructure includes the server and the smart charging station. With this smart charging infrastructure, the shortage of energy in a local grid could be solved by our EV management system« less

Autopilot regulation for the Linac4 H- ion source

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Voulgarakis, G.; Lettry, J.; Mattei, S.; Lefort, B.; Costa, V. J. Correia

2017-08-01

Linac4 is a 160 MeV H- linear accelerator part of the upgrade of the LHC injector chain. Its cesiated surface H- source is designed to provide a beam intensity of 40-50mA. It is operated with periodical Cs-injection at typically 30 days intervals [1] and this implies that the beam parameters will slowly evolve during operation. Autopilot is a control software package extending CERN developed Inspector framework. The aim of Autopilot is to automatize the mandatory optimization and cesiation processes and to derive performance indicators, thus keeping human intervention minimal. Autopilot has been developed by capitalizing on the experience from manually operating the source. It comprises various algorithms running in real-time, which have been devised to: • Optimize the ion source performance by regulation of H2 injection, RF power and frequency. • Describe the performance of the source with performance indicators, which can be easily understood by operators. • Identify failures, try to recover the nominal operation and send warning in case of deviation from nominal operation. • Make the performance indicators remotely available through Web pages.Autopilot is at the same level of hierarchy as an operator, in the CERN infrastructure. This allows the combination of all ion source devices, providing the required flexibility. Autopilot is executed in a dedicated server, ensuring unique and centralized control, yet allowing multiple operators to interact at runtime, always coordinating between them. Autopilot aims at flexibility, adaptability, portability and scalability, and can be extended to other components of CERN's accelerators. In this paper, a detailed description of the Autopilot algorithms is presented, along with first results of operating the Linac4 H- Ion Source with Autopilot.

Nanostructured calcium silicate hydrate seeds accelerate concrete hardening: a combined assessment of benefits and risks.

PubMed

Bräu, Michael; Ma-Hock, Lan; Hesse, Christoph; Nicoleau, Luc; Strauss, Volker; Treumann, Silke; Wiench, Karin; Landsiedel, Robert; Wohlleben, Wendel

2012-07-01

Nanotechnology creates new possibilities to control and improve material properties for civil infrastructure. Special focus in this area is put on Portland cement and gypsum. Together their annual production is by far larger than for any other material worldwide. Nanomodification of these materials can be done during the few hours between dissolution and hardening, especially by nucleation of the re-crystallization with suitable colloids. Here we report first results in homogeneous seeding of the precipitation of calcium silicate hydrates within a real Portland cement composition. The occupational safety during the production phase and during mixing of concrete paste is addressed in detail by in vivo testing. We perform 5-day inhalation with 21-day recovery in rats and analyze organ-specific toxicity and 71 endpoints from bronchoalveolar lavage (BALF) and blood. In BALF parameters, no test-related changes were observed, indicating the generally low toxicity of the test material. Some mild lesions were observed in larynx level. In the lungs, all animals of the 50 mg/m³ concentration group revealed a minimal to mild increase in alveolar macrophages, which recovered back to control level.

Upgrade of the cryogenic CERN RF test facility

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

Pirotte, O.; Benda, V.; Brunner, O.

2014-01-29

With the large number of superconducting radiofrequency (RF) cryomodules to be tested for the former LEP and the present LHC accelerator a RF test facility was erected early in the 1990’s in the largest cryogenic test facility at CERN located at Point 18. This facility consisted of four vertical test stands for single cavities and originally one and then two horizontal test benches for RF cryomodules operating at 4.5 K in saturated helium. CERN is presently working on the upgrade of its accelerator infrastructure, which requires new superconducting cavities operating below 2 K in saturated superfluid helium. Consequently, the RFmore » test facility has been renewed in order to allow efficient cavity and cryomodule tests in superfluid helium and to improve its thermal performances. The new RF test facility is described and its performances are presented.« less

14 CFR 125.225 - Flight data recorders.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... acceleration; (5) Heading; (6) Time of each radio transmission to or from air traffic control; (7) Pitch attitude; (8) Roll attitude; (9) Longitudinal acceleration; (10) Control column or pitch control surface... control; (7) Pitch attitude; (8) Roll attitude; (9) Longitudinal acceleration; (10) Pitch trim position...

Uncertainty in Predicted Neighborhood-Scale Green Stormwater Infrastructure Performance Informed by field monitoring of Hydrologic Abstractions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smalls-Mantey, L.; Jeffers, S.; Montalto, F. A.

2013-12-01

Human alterations to the environment provide infrastructure for housing and transportation but have drastically changed local hydrology. Excess stormwater runoff from impervious surfaces generates erosion, overburdens sewer infrastructure, and can pollute receiving bodies. Increased attention to green stormwater management controls is based on the premise that some of these issues can be mitigated by capturing or slowing the flow of stormwater. However, our ability to predict actual green infrastructure facility performance using physical or statistical methods needs additional validation, and efforts to incorporate green infrastructure controls into hydrologic models are still in their infancy stages. We use more than three years of field monitoring data to derive facility specific probability density functions characterizing the hydrologic abstractions provided by a stormwater treatment wetland, streetside bioretention facility, and a green roof. The monitoring results are normalized by impervious area treated, and incorporated into a neighborhood-scale agent model allowing probabilistic comparisons of the stormwater capture outcomes associated with alternative urban greening scenarios. Specifically, we compare the uncertainty introduced into the model by facility performance (as represented by the variability in the abstraction), to that introduced by both precipitation variability, and spatial patterns of emergence of different types of green infrastructure. The modeling results are used to update a discussion about the potential effectiveness of urban green infrastructure implementation plans.

Integrated multi-parameters Probabilistic Seismic Landslide Hazard Analysis (PSLHA): the case study of Ischia island, Italy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Caccavale, Mauro; Matano, Fabio; Sacchi, Marco; Mazzola, Salvatore; Somma, Renato; Troise, Claudia; De Natale, Giuseppe

2014-05-01

The Ischia island is a large, complex, partly submerged, active volcanic field located about 20 km east to the Campi Flegrei, a major active volcano-tectonic area near Naples. The island is morphologically characterized in its central part by the resurgent block of Mt. Epomeo, controlled by NW-SE and NE-SW trending fault systems, by mountain stream basin with high relief energy and by a heterogeneous coastline with alternation of beach and tuff/lava cliffs in a continuous reshape due to the weather and sea erosion. The volcano-tectonic process is a main factor for slope stability, as it produces seismic activity and generated steep slopes in volcanic deposits (lava, tuff, pumice and ash layers) characterized by variable strength. In the Campi Flegrei and surrounding areas the possible occurrence of a moderate/large seismic event represents a serious threat for the inhabitants, for the infrastructures as well as for the environment. The most relevant seismic sources for Ischia are represented by the Campi Flegrei caldera and a 5 km long fault located below the island north coast. However those sources are difficult to constrain. The first one due to the on-shore and off-shore extension not yet completely defined. The second characterized only by few large historical events is difficult to parameterize in the framework of probabilistic hazard approach. The high population density, the presence of many infrastructures and the more relevant archaeological sites associated with the natural and artistic values, makes this area a strategic natural laboratory to develop new methodologies. Moreover Ischia represents the only sector, in the Campi Flegrei area, with documented historical landslides originated by earthquake, allowing for the possibility of testing the adequacy and stability of the method. In the framework of the Italian project MON.I.C.A (infrastructural coastlines monitoring) an innovative and dedicated probabilistic methodology has been applied to identify the areas with higher susceptibility of landslide occurrence due to the seismic effect. The (PSLHA) combines the probability of exceedance maps for different GM parameters with the geological and geomorphological information, in terms of critical acceleration and dynamic stability factor. Generally the maps are evaluated for Peak Ground Acceleration, Velocity or Intensity, are well related with anthropic infrastructures (e.g. streets, building, etc.). Each ground motion parameter represents a different aspect in the hazard and has a different correlation with the generation of possible damages. Many works pointed out that other GM like Arias and Housner intensity and the absolute displacement could represent a better choice to analyse for example the cliffs stability. The selection of the GM parameter is of crucial importance to obtain the most useful hazard maps. However in the last decades different Ground Motion Prediction Equations for a new set of GM parameters have been published. Based on this information a series of landslide hazard maps can be produced. The new maps will lead to the identification of areas with highest probability of landslide induced by an earthquake. In a strategic site like Ischia this new methodologies will represent an innovative and advanced tool for the landslide hazard mitigation.

Acceleration-Augmented LQG Control of an Active Magnetic Bearing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Feeley, Joseph J.

1993-01-01

A linear-quadratic-gaussian (LQG) regulator controller design for an acceleration-augmented active magnetic bearing (AMB) is outlined. Acceleration augmentation is a key feature in providing improved dynamic performance of the controller. The optimal control formulation provides a convenient method of trading-off fast transient response and force attenuation as control objectives.

The ESS Superconducting RF Cavity and Cryomodule Cryogenic Processes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Darve, C.; Elias, N.; Molloy, S.; Bosland, P.; Renard, B.; Bousson, S.; Olivier, G.; Reynet, D.; Thermeau, J. P.

The European Spallation Source (ESS) is one of Europe's largest research infrastructures, tobring new insights to the grand challenges of science and innovation in fields as diverse as material and life sciences, energy, environmental technology, cultural heritage,solid-state and fundamental physics by the end of the decade. The collaborative project is funded by a collaboration of 17 European countries and is under design and construction in Lund, Sweden. A 5 MW, long pulse proton accelerator is used to reach this goal. The pulsed length is 2.86 ms and the repetition frequency is 14 Hz (4% duty cycle). The choice of SRF technology is a key element in the development of the ESS linear accelerator (linac). The superconducting linacis composed of one section of spoke cavity cryomodules(352.21 MHz) and two sections of elliptical cavity cryomodules (704.42 MHz). These cryomodules contain niobium SRF cavities operating at 2 K, cooled by the accelerator cryoplantthrough the cryogenic distribution system. This paper presents the superconducting RF cavity and cryomodule cryogenic processes, which are developed for the technology demonstrators and to be ultimately integrated for the ESS tunnel operation.

Neural Networks for Modeling and Control of Particle Accelerators

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

Edelen, A. L.; Biedron, S. G.; Chase, B. E.

Myriad nonlinear and complex physical phenomena are host to particle accelerators. They often involve a multitude of interacting systems, are subject to tight performance demands, and should be able to run for extended periods of time with minimal interruptions. Often times, traditional control techniques cannot fully meet these requirements. One promising avenue is to introduce machine learning and sophisticated control techniques inspired by artificial intelligence, particularly in light of recent theoretical and practical advances in these fields. Within machine learning and artificial intelligence, neural networks are particularly well-suited to modeling, control, and diagnostic analysis of complex, nonlinear, and time-varying systems,more » as well as systems with large parameter spaces. Consequently, the use of neural network-based modeling and control techniques could be of significant benefit to particle accelerators. For the same reasons, particle accelerators are also ideal test-beds for these techniques. Moreover, many early attempts to apply neural networks to particle accelerators yielded mixed results due to the relative immaturity of the technology for such tasks. For the purpose of this paper is to re-introduce neural networks to the particle accelerator community and report on some work in neural network control that is being conducted as part of a dedicated collaboration between Fermilab and Colorado State University (CSU). We also describe some of the challenges of particle accelerator control, highlight recent advances in neural network techniques, discuss some promising avenues for incorporating neural networks into particle accelerator control systems, and describe a neural network-based control system that is being developed for resonance control of an RF electron gun at the Fermilab Accelerator Science and Technology (FAST) facility, including initial experimental results from a benchmark controller.« less

Neural Networks for Modeling and Control of Particle Accelerators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Edelen, A. L.; Biedron, S. G.; Chase, B. E.; Edstrom, D.; Milton, S. V.; Stabile, P.

2016-04-01

Particle accelerators are host to myriad nonlinear and complex physical phenomena. They often involve a multitude of interacting systems, are subject to tight performance demands, and should be able to run for extended periods of time with minimal interruptions. Often times, traditional control techniques cannot fully meet these requirements. One promising avenue is to introduce machine learning and sophisticated control techniques inspired by artificial intelligence, particularly in light of recent theoretical and practical advances in these fields. Within machine learning and artificial intelligence, neural networks are particularly well-suited to modeling, control, and diagnostic analysis of complex, nonlinear, and time-varying systems, as well as systems with large parameter spaces. Consequently, the use of neural network-based modeling and control techniques could be of significant benefit to particle accelerators. For the same reasons, particle accelerators are also ideal test-beds for these techniques. Many early attempts to apply neural networks to particle accelerators yielded mixed results due to the relative immaturity of the technology for such tasks. The purpose of this paper is to re-introduce neural networks to the particle accelerator community and report on some work in neural network control that is being conducted as part of a dedicated collaboration between Fermilab and Colorado State University (CSU). We describe some of the challenges of particle accelerator control, highlight recent advances in neural network techniques, discuss some promising avenues for incorporating neural networks into particle accelerator control systems, and describe a neural network-based control system that is being developed for resonance control of an RF electron gun at the Fermilab Accelerator Science and Technology (FAST) facility, including initial experimental results from a benchmark controller.

Neural Networks for Modeling and Control of Particle Accelerators

DOE PAGES

Edelen, A. L.; Biedron, S. G.; Chase, B. E.; ...

2016-04-01

Myriad nonlinear and complex physical phenomena are host to particle accelerators. They often involve a multitude of interacting systems, are subject to tight performance demands, and should be able to run for extended periods of time with minimal interruptions. Often times, traditional control techniques cannot fully meet these requirements. One promising avenue is to introduce machine learning and sophisticated control techniques inspired by artificial intelligence, particularly in light of recent theoretical and practical advances in these fields. Within machine learning and artificial intelligence, neural networks are particularly well-suited to modeling, control, and diagnostic analysis of complex, nonlinear, and time-varying systems,more » as well as systems with large parameter spaces. Consequently, the use of neural network-based modeling and control techniques could be of significant benefit to particle accelerators. For the same reasons, particle accelerators are also ideal test-beds for these techniques. Moreover, many early attempts to apply neural networks to particle accelerators yielded mixed results due to the relative immaturity of the technology for such tasks. For the purpose of this paper is to re-introduce neural networks to the particle accelerator community and report on some work in neural network control that is being conducted as part of a dedicated collaboration between Fermilab and Colorado State University (CSU). We also describe some of the challenges of particle accelerator control, highlight recent advances in neural network techniques, discuss some promising avenues for incorporating neural networks into particle accelerator control systems, and describe a neural network-based control system that is being developed for resonance control of an RF electron gun at the Fermilab Accelerator Science and Technology (FAST) facility, including initial experimental results from a benchmark controller.« less

Soak Up the Rain New England Webinar Series: National ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Presenters will provide an introduction to the most recent EPA green infrastructure tools to R1 stakeholders; and their use in making decisions about implementing green infrastructure. We will discuss structuring your green infrastructure decision, finding appropriate information and tools, evaluating options and selecting the right Best Management Practices mix for your needs.WMOST (Watershed Management Optimization Support Tool)- for screening a wide range of practices for cost-effectiveness in achieving watershed or water utilities management goals.GIWiz (Green Infrastructure Wizard)- a web application connecting communities to EPA Green Infrastructure tools and resources.Opti-Tool-designed to assist in developing technically sound and optimized cost-effective Stormwater management plans. National Stormwater Calculator- a desktop application for estimating the impact of land cover change and green infrastructure controls on stormwater runoff. DASEES-GI (Decision Analysis for a Sustainable Environment, Economy, and Society) – a framework for linking objectives and measures with green infrastructure methods. Presenters will provide an introduction to the most recent EPA green infrastructure tools to R1 stakeholders; and their use in making decisions about implementing green infrastructure. We will discuss structuring your green infrastructure decision, finding appropriate information and tools, evaluating options and selecting the right Best Management Pr

The Component Model of Infrastructure: A Practical Approach to Understanding Public Health Program Infrastructure

PubMed Central

Snyder, Kimberly; Rieker, Patricia P.

2014-01-01

Functioning program infrastructure is necessary for achieving public health outcomes. It is what supports program capacity, implementation, and sustainability. The public health program infrastructure model presented in this article is grounded in data from a broader evaluation of 18 state tobacco control programs and previous work. The newly developed Component Model of Infrastructure (CMI) addresses the limitations of a previous model and contains 5 core components (multilevel leadership, managed resources, engaged data, responsive plans and planning, networked partnerships) and 3 supporting components (strategic understanding, operations, contextual influences). The CMI is a practical, implementation-focused model applicable across public health programs, enabling linkages to capacity, sustainability, and outcome measurement. PMID:24922125

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

Hogan, Mark

Plasma wakefield acceleration has the potential to dramatically shrink the size and cost of particle accelerators. Research at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory has demonstrated that plasmas can provide 1,000 times the acceleration in a given distance compared with current technologies. Developing revolutionary and more efficient acceleration techniques that allow for an affordable high-energy collider is the focus of FACET, a National User Facility at SLAC. The existing FACET National User Facility uses part of SLAC’s two-mile-long linear accelerator to generate high-density beams of electrons and positrons. FACET-II is a new test facility to develop advanced acceleration and coherent radiationmore » techniques with high-energy electron and positron beams. It is the only facility in the world with high energy positron beams. FACET-II provides a major upgrade over current FACET capabilities and the breadth of the potential research program makes it truly unique. It will synergistically pursue accelerator science that is vital to the future of both advanced acceleration techniques for High Energy Physics, ultra-high brightness beams for Basic Energy Science, and novel radiation sources for a wide variety of applications. The design parameters for FACET-II are set by the requirements of the plasma wakefield experimental program. To drive the plasma wakefield requires a high peak current, in excess of 10kA. To reach this peak current, the electron and positron design bunch size is 10μ by 10μ transversely with a bunch length of 10μ. This is more than 200 times better than what has been achieved at the existing FACET. The beam energy is 10 GeV, set by the Linac length available and the repetition rate is up to 30 Hz. The FACET-II project is scheduled to be constructed in three major stages. Components of the project discussed in detail include the following: electron injector, bunch compressors and linac, the positron system, the Sector 20 sailboat and W chicanes, and experimental area and infrastructure.« less

Recent acceleration in coastal cliff retreat rates on the south coast of Great Britain.

PubMed

Hurst, Martin D; Rood, Dylan H; Ellis, Michael A; Anderson, Robert S; Dornbusch, Uwe

2016-11-22

Rising sea levels and increased storminess are expected to accelerate the erosion of soft-cliff coastlines, threatening coastal infrastructure and livelihoods. To develop predictive models of future coastal change we need fundamentally to know how rapidly coasts have been eroding in the past, and to understand the driving mechanisms of coastal change. Direct observations of cliff retreat rarely extend beyond 150 y, during which humans have significantly modified the coastal system. Cliff retreat rates are unknown in prior centuries and millennia. In this study, we derived retreat rates of chalk cliffs on the south coast of Great Britain over millennial time scales by coupling high-precision cosmogenic radionuclide geochronology and rigorous numerical modeling. Measured 10 Be concentrations on rocky coastal platforms were compared with simulations of coastal evolution using a Monte Carlo approach to determine the most likely history of cliff retreat. The 10 Be concentrations are consistent with retreat rates of chalk cliffs that were relatively slow (2-6 cm⋅y -1 ) until a few hundred years ago. Historical observations reveal that retreat rates have subsequently accelerated by an order of magnitude (22-32 cm⋅y -1 ). We suggest that acceleration is the result of thinning of cliff-front beaches, exacerbated by regional storminess and anthropogenic modification of the coast.

Testbeds for Assessing Critical Scenarios in Power Control Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dondossola, Giovanna; Deconinck, Geert; Garrone, Fabrizio; Beitollahi, Hakem

The paper presents a set of control system scenarios implemented in two testbeds developed in the context of the European Project CRUTIAL - CRitical UTility InfrastructurAL Resilience. The selected scenarios refer to power control systems encompassing information and communication security of SCADA systems for grid teleoperation, impact of attacks on inter-operator communications in power emergency conditions, impact of intentional faults on the secondary and tertiary control in power grids with distributed generators. Two testbeds have been developed for assessing the effect of the attacks and prototyping resilient architectures.

Quantifying changes in flooding and habitats in the Tonle Sap Lake (Cambodia) caused by water infrastructure development and climate change in the Mekong Basin.

PubMed

Arias, Mauricio E; Cochrane, Thomas A; Piman, Thanapon; Kummu, Matti; Caruso, Brian S; Killeen, Timothy J

2012-12-15

The economic value of the Tonle Sap Lake Floodplain to Cambodia is arguably among the highest provided to a nation by a single ecosystem around the world. Nonetheless, the Mekong River Basin is changing rapidly due to accelerating water infrastructure development (hydropower, irrigation, flood control, and water supply) and climate change, bringing considerable modifications to the flood pulse of the Tonle Sap Lake in the foreseeable future. This paper presents research conducted to determine how the historical flooding regime, together with human action, influenced landscape patterns of habitats in the Tonle Sap Lake, and how these habitats might shift as a result of hydrological changes. Maps of water depth, annual flood duration, and flood frequency were created for recent historical hydrological conditions and for simulated future scenarios of water infrastructure development and climate change. Relationships were then established between the historical flood maps and land cover, and these were subsequently applied to assess potential changes to habitat cover in future decades. Five habitat groups were clearly distinguishable based on flood regime, physiognomic patterns, and human activity: (1) Open water, flooded for 12 months in an average hydrological year; (2) Gallery forest, with flood duration of 9 months annually; (3) Seasonally flooded habitats, flooded 5-8 months and dominated by shrublands and grasslands; (4) transitional habitats, flooded 1-5 months and dominated by abandoned agricultural fields, receding rice/floating rice, and lowland grasslands; and (5) Rainfed habitats, flooded up to 1 month and consisting mainly of wet season rice fields and village crops. It was found that water infrastructure development could increase the area of open water (+18 to +21%) and the area of rainfed habitats (+10 to +14%), while reducing the area covered with seasonally flooded habitats (-13 to -22%) and gallery forest (-75 to -83%). Habitat cover shifts as a result of climate change include a net increase of open water (2-21%), as well as a reduction of rainfed habitats by 2-5% and seasonally flooded habitats by 5-11%. Findings from this study will help guide on-going and future conservation and restoration efforts throughout this unique and critical ecosystem. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Green infrastructure monitoring in Camden, NJ

EPA Science Inventory

The Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority (CCMUA) installed green infrastructure Stormwater Control Measures (SCMs) at multiple locations around the city of Camden, NJ. The SCMs include raised downspout planter boxes, rain gardens, and cisterns. The cisterns capture water ...

Infrastructure Vulnerability Assessment Model (I-VAM).

PubMed

Ezell, Barry Charles

2007-06-01

Quantifying vulnerability to critical infrastructure has not been adequately addressed in the literature. Thus, the purpose of this article is to present a model that quantifies vulnerability. Vulnerability is defined as a measure of system susceptibility to threat scenarios. This article asserts that vulnerability is a condition of the system and it can be quantified using the Infrastructure Vulnerability Assessment Model (I-VAM). The model is presented and then applied to a medium-sized clean water system. The model requires subject matter experts (SMEs) to establish value functions and weights, and to assess protection measures of the system. Simulation is used to account for uncertainty in measurement, aggregate expert assessment, and to yield a vulnerability (Omega) density function. Results demonstrate that I-VAM is useful to decisionmakers who prefer quantification to qualitative treatment of vulnerability. I-VAM can be used to quantify vulnerability to other infrastructures, supervisory control and data acquisition systems (SCADA), and distributed control systems (DCS).

Security middleware infrastructure for DICOM images in health information systems.

PubMed

Kallepalli, Vijay N V; Ehikioya, Sylvanus A; Camorlinga, Sergio; Rueda, Jose A

2003-12-01

In health care, it is mandatory to maintain the privacy and confidentiality of medical data. To achieve this, a fine-grained access control and an access log for accessing medical images are two important aspects that need to be considered in health care systems. Fine-grained access control provides access to medical data only to authorized persons based on priority, location, and content. A log captures each attempt to access medical data. This article describes an overall middleware infrastructure required for secure access to Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine (DICOM) images, with an emphasis on access control and log maintenance. We introduce a hybrid access control model that combines the properties of two existing models. A trust relationship between hospitals is used to make the hybrid access control model scalable across hospitals. We also discuss events that have to be logged and where the log has to be maintained. A prototype of security middleware infrastructure is implemented.

Critical Infrastructure Protection II, The International Federation for Information Processing, Volume 290.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Papa, Mauricio; Shenoi, Sujeet

The information infrastructure -- comprising computers, embedded devices, networks and software systems -- is vital to day-to-day operations in every sector: information and telecommunications, banking and finance, energy, chemicals and hazardous materials, agriculture, food, water, public health, emergency services, transportation, postal and shipping, government and defense. Global business and industry, governments, indeed society itself, cannot function effectively if major components of the critical information infrastructure are degraded, disabled or destroyed. Critical Infrastructure Protection II describes original research results and innovative applications in the interdisciplinary field of critical infrastructure protection. Also, it highlights the importance of weaving science, technology and policy in crafting sophisticated, yet practical, solutions that will help secure information, computer and network assets in the various critical infrastructure sectors. Areas of coverage include: - Themes and Issues - Infrastructure Security - Control Systems Security - Security Strategies - Infrastructure Interdependencies - Infrastructure Modeling and Simulation This book is the second volume in the annual series produced by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) Working Group 11.10 on Critical Infrastructure Protection, an international community of scientists, engineers, practitioners and policy makers dedicated to advancing research, development and implementation efforts focused on infrastructure protection. The book contains a selection of twenty edited papers from the Second Annual IFIP WG 11.10 International Conference on Critical Infrastructure Protection held at George Mason University, Arlington, Virginia, USA in the spring of 2008.

Implementation of Distributed Services for a Deep Sea Moored Instrument Network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oreilly, T. C.; Headley, K. L.; Risi, M.; Davis, D.; Edgington, D. R.; Salamy, K. A.; Chaffey, M.

2004-12-01

The Monterey Ocean Observing System (MOOS) is a moored observatory network consisting of interconnected instrument nodes on the sea surface, midwater, and deep sea floor. We describe Software Infrastructure and Applications for MOOS ("SIAM"), which implement the management, control, and data acquisition infrastructure for the moored observatory. Links in the MOOS network include fiber-optic and 10-BaseT copper connections between the at-sea nodes. A Globalstar satellite transceiver or 900 MHz Freewave terrestrial line-of-sight RF modem provides the link to shore. All of these links support Internet protocols, providing TCP/IP connectivity throughout a system that extends from shore to sensor nodes at the air-sea interface, through the oceanic water column to a benthic network of sensor nodes extending across the deep sea floor. Exploiting this TCP/IP infrastructure as well as capabilities provided by MBARI's MOOS mooring controller, we use powerful Internet software technologies to implement a distributed management, control and data acquisition system for the moored observatory. The system design meets the demanding functional requirements specified for MOOS. Nodes and their instruments are represented by Java RMI "services" having well defined software interfaces. Clients anywhere on the network can interact with any node or instrument through its corresponding service. A client may be on the same node as the service, may be on another node, or may reside on shore. Clients may be human, e.g. when a scientist on shore accesses a deployed instrument in real-time through a user interface. Clients may also be software components that interact autonomously with instruments and nodes, e.g. for purposes such as system resource management or autonomous detection and response to scientifically interesting events. All electrical power to the moored network is provided by solar and wind energy, and the RF shore-to-mooring links are intermittent and relatively low-bandwidth connections. Thus power and wireless bandwidth are limited resources that constrain our choice of service technologies and wireless access strategy. We describe and evaluate system performance in light of actual deployment of observatory elements in Monterey Bay, and discuss how the system can be developed further. We also consider management and control strategies for the cable-to-shore observatory known as MARS ("Monterey Accelerated Research System"). The MARS cable will provide high power and continuous high-bandwidth connectivity between seafloor instrument nodes and shore, thus removing key limitations of the moored observatory. Moreover MARS functional requirements may differ significantly from MOOS requirements. In light of these differences, we discuss how elements of our MOOS moored observatory architecture might be adapted to MARS.

Configuration management and automatic control of an augmentor wing aircraft with vectored thrust

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cicolani, L. S.; Sridhar, B.; Meyer, G.

1979-01-01

An advanced structure for automatic flight control logic for powered-lift aircraft operating in terminal areas is under investigation at Ames Research Center. This structure is based on acceleration control; acceleration commands are constructed as the sum of acceleration on the reference trajectory and a corrective feedback acceleration to regulate path tracking errors. The central element of the structure, termed a Trimmap, uses a model of the aircraft aerodynamic and engine forces to calculate the control settings required to generate the acceleration commands. This report describes the design criteria for the Trimmap and derives a Trimmap for Ames experimental augmentor wing jet STOL research aircraft.

Tailoring Green Infrastructure Implementation Scenarios based on Stormwater Management Objectives

EPA Science Inventory

Green infrastructure (GI) refers to stormwater management practices that mimic nature by soaking up, storing, and controlling onsite. GI practices can contribute reckonable benefits towards meeting stormwater management objectives, such as runoff peak shaving, volume reduction, f...

Green Infrastructure Models and Tools

EPA Science Inventory

The objective of this project is to modify and refine existing models and develop new tools to support decision making for the complete green infrastructure (GI) project lifecycle, including the planning and implementation of stormwater control in urban and agricultural settings,...

1985 Particle Accelerator Conference: Accelerator Engineering and Technology, 11th, Vancouver, Canada, May 13-16, 1985, Proceedings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Strathdee, A.

1985-10-01

The topics discussed are related to high-energy accelerators and colliders, particle sources and electrostatic accelerators, controls, instrumentation and feedback, beam dynamics, low- and intermediate-energy circular accelerators and rings, RF and other acceleration systems, beam injection, extraction and transport, operations and safety, linear accelerators, applications of accelerators, radiation sources, superconducting supercolliders, new acceleration techniques, superconducting components, cryogenics, and vacuum. Accelerator and storage ring control systems are considered along with linear and nonlinear orbit theory, transverse and longitudinal instabilities and cures, beam cooling, injection and extraction orbit theory, high current dynamics, general beam dynamics, and medical and radioisotope applications. Attention is given to superconducting RF structures, magnet technology, superconducting magnets, and physics opportunities with relativistic heavy ion accelerators.

The role of spatial data infrastructure in disaster recover: An economic case study for Christchurch, New Zealand

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coote, A. M.; Whiteman, B.; Carver, J.; Balakrishnan, A.

2013-12-01

The disastrous earthquake in Christchurch city centre and surrounding parts of the Canterbury region of New Zealand in February 2011 which resulted in over 120 fatalities, highlighted a number of deficiencies in the information systems available to those involved in first response and in the subsequent rebuild. The lack of interoperability of geospatial information systems in particular was highlighted within the Royal Commission report on the disaster. As a result of this high level 'something must be done' call to action, Land Information New Zealand (LINZ), the lead public agency in national geospatial data management, were asked to scope a programme of work to accelerate the creation of a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) for the area. This paper will outline the work undertaken to scope and prioritise a programme addressing the most pressing information infrastructure issues and then prepare the business case setting out the benefit-cost justification for the investment required. The resulting programme encompasses many of the emerging opportunities in the geospatial field including 3D GIS, crowd sourcing and open data leading to challenges in how to evaluate the benefits of innovative and 'ground breaking' solutions. It also considers how to track benefits realisation in a rapidly changing environment requiring an agile approach to programme management.

Building the scholarly society infrastructure in physics in interwar America

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scheiding, Tom

2013-11-01

Starting in the interwar years both the quantity and quality of physics research conducted within the United States increased dramatically. To accommodate these increases there needed to be significant changes to the infrastructure within the scholarly society and particularly to the organization's ability to publish and distribute scholarly journals. Significant changes to the infrastructure in physics in the United States began with the formation of the American Institute of Physics as an umbrella organization for the major scholarly societies in American physics in 1931. The American Institute of Physics played a critical role in bringing about an expansion in the size of and breadth of coverage within scholarly journals in physics. The priority the American Institute of Physics placed on establishing a strong publication program and the creation of the American Institute of Physics itself were stimulated by extensive involvement and financial investments from the Chemical Foundation. It was journals of sufficient size and providing an appropriate level of coverage that were essential after World War II as physicists made use of increased patronage and public support to conduct even more research. The account offered here suggests that in important respects the significant government patronage that resulted from World War II accelerated changes that were already underway.

Plug-in module acceleration feedback control for fast steering mirror-based beam stabilization systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deng, Chao; Ren, Wei; Mao, Yao; Ren, Ge

2017-08-01

A plug-in module acceleration feedback control (Plug-In AFC) strategy based on the disturbance observer (DOB) principle is proposed for charge-coupled device (CCD)-based fast steering mirror (FSM) stabilization systems. In classical FSM tracking systems, dual-loop control (DLC), including velocity feedback and position feedback, is usually utilized to enhance the closed-loop performance. Due to the mechanical resonance of the system and CCD time delay, the closed-loop bandwidth is severely restricted. To solve this problem, cascade acceleration feedback control (AFC), which is a kind of high-precision robust control method, is introduced to strengthen the disturbance rejection property. However, in practical applications, it is difficult to realize an integral algorithm in an acceleration controller to compensate for the quadratic differential contained in the FSM acceleration model, resulting in a challenging controller design and a limited improvement. To optimize the acceleration feedback framework in the FSM system, different from the cascade AFC, the accelerometers are used to construct DOB to compensate for the platform vibrations directly. The acceleration nested loop can be plugged into the velocity loop without changing the system stability, and the controller design is quite simple. A series of comparative experimental results demonstrate that the disturbance rejection property of the CCD-based FSM can be effectively improved by the proposed approach.

A model for simulating adaptive, dynamic flows on networks: Application to petroleum infrastructure

DOE PAGES

Corbet, Thomas F.; Beyeler, Walt; Wilson, Michael L.; ...

2017-10-03

Simulation models can greatly improve decisions meant to control the consequences of disruptions to critical infrastructures. We describe a dynamic flow model on networks purposed to inform analyses by those concerned about consequences of disruptions to infrastructures and to help policy makers design robust mitigations. We conceptualize the adaptive responses of infrastructure networks to perturbations as market transactions and business decisions of operators. We approximate commodity flows in these networks by a diffusion equation, with nonlinearities introduced to model capacity limits. To illustrate the behavior and scalability of the model, we show its application first on two simple networks, thenmore » on petroleum infrastructure in the United States, where we analyze the effects of a hypothesized earthquake.« less

A model for simulating adaptive, dynamic flows on networks: Application to petroleum infrastructure

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

Corbet, Thomas F.; Beyeler, Walt; Wilson, Michael L.

Simulation models can greatly improve decisions meant to control the consequences of disruptions to critical infrastructures. We describe a dynamic flow model on networks purposed to inform analyses by those concerned about consequences of disruptions to infrastructures and to help policy makers design robust mitigations. We conceptualize the adaptive responses of infrastructure networks to perturbations as market transactions and business decisions of operators. We approximate commodity flows in these networks by a diffusion equation, with nonlinearities introduced to model capacity limits. To illustrate the behavior and scalability of the model, we show its application first on two simple networks, thenmore » on petroleum infrastructure in the United States, where we analyze the effects of a hypothesized earthquake.« less

INcreasing Security and Protection through Infrastructure REsilience: The INSPIRE Project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

D'Antonio, Salvatore; Romano, Luigi; Khelil, Abdelmajid; Suri, Neeraj

The INSPIRE project aims at enhancing the European potential in the field of security by ensuring the protection of critical information infrastructures through (a) the identification of their vulnerabilities and (b) the development of innovative techniques for securing networked process control systems. To increase the resilience of such systems INSPIRE will develop traffic engineering algorithms, diagnostic processes and self-reconfigurable architectures along with recovery techniques. Hence, the core idea of the INSPIRE project is to protect critical information infrastructures by appropriately configuring, managing, and securing the communication network which interconnects the distributed control systems. A working prototype will be implemented as a final demonstrator of selected scenarios. Controls/Communication Experts will support project partners in the validation and demonstration activities. INSPIRE will also contribute to standardization process in order to foster multi-operator interoperability and coordinated strategies for securing lifeline systems.

Control System Applicable Use Assessment of the Secure Computing Corporation - Secure Firewall (Sidewinder)

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

Hadley, Mark D.; Clements, Samuel L.

2009-01-01

Battelle’s National Security & Defense objective is, “applying unmatched expertise and unique facilities to deliver homeland security solutions. From detection and protection against weapons of mass destruction to emergency preparedness/response and protection of critical infrastructure, we are working with industry and government to integrate policy, operational, technological, and logistical parameters that will secure a safe future”. In an ongoing effort to meet this mission, engagements with industry that are intended to improve operational and technical attributes of commercial solutions that are related to national security initiatives are necessary. This necessity will ensure that capabilities for protecting critical infrastructure assets aremore » considered by commercial entities in their development, design, and deployment lifecycles thus addressing the alignment of identified deficiencies and improvements needed to support national cyber security initiatives. The Secure Firewall (Sidewinder) appliance by Secure Computing was assessed for applicable use in critical infrastructure control system environments, such as electric power, nuclear and other facilities containing critical systems that require augmented protection from cyber threat. The testing was performed in the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s (PNNL) Electric Infrastructure Operations Center (EIOC). The Secure Firewall was tested in a network configuration that emulates a typical control center network and then evaluated. A number of observations and recommendations are included in this report relating to features currently included in the Secure Firewall that support critical infrastructure security needs.« less

Autonomous watersheds: Reducing flooding and stream erosion through real-time control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kerkez, B.; Wong, B. P.

2017-12-01

We introduce an analytical toolchain, based on dynamical system theory and feedback control, to determine how many control points (valves, gates, pumps, etc.) are needed to transform urban watersheds from static to adaptive. Advances and distributed sensing and control stand to fundamentally change how we manage urban watersheds. In lieu of new and costly infrastructure, the real-time control of stormwater systems will reduce flooding, mitigate stream erosion, and improve the treatment of polluted runoff. We discuss the how open source technologies, in the form of wireless sensor nodes and remotely-controllable valves (open-storm.org), have been deployed to build "smart" stormwater systems in the Midwestern US. Unlike "static" infrastructure, which cannot readily adapt to changing inputs and land uses, these distributed control assets allow entire watersheds to be reconfigured on a storm-by-storm basis. Our results show how the control of even just a few valves within urban catchments (1-10km^2) allows for the real-time "shaping" of hydrographs, which reduces downstream erosion and flooding. We also introduce an equivalence framework that can be used by decision-makers to objectively compare investments into "smart" system to more traditional solutions, such as gray and green stormwater infrastructure.

BIOCONAID System (Bionic Control of Acceleration Induced Dimming). Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rogers, Dana B.; And Others

The system described represents a new technique for enhancing the fidelity of flight simulators during high acceleration maneuvers. This technique forces the simulator pilot into active participation and energy expenditure similar to the aircraft pilot undergoing actual accelerations. The Bionic Control of Acceleration Induced Dimming (BIOCONAID)…

The ADVANCE network: accelerating data value across a national community health center network

PubMed Central

DeVoe, Jennifer E; Gold, Rachel; Cottrell, Erika; Bauer, Vance; Brickman, Andrew; Puro, Jon; Nelson, Christine; Mayer, Kenneth H; Sears, Abigail; Burdick, Tim; Merrell, Jonathan; Matthews, Paul; Fields, Scott

2014-01-01

The ADVANCE (Accelerating Data Value Across a National Community Health Center Network) clinical data research network (CDRN) is led by the OCHIN Community Health Information Network in partnership with Health Choice Network and Fenway Health. The ADVANCE CDRN will ‘horizontally’ integrate outpatient electronic health record data for over one million federally qualified health center patients, and ‘vertically’ integrate hospital, health plan, and community data for these patients, often under-represented in research studies. Patient investigators, community investigators, and academic investigators with diverse expertise will work together to meet project goals related to data integration, patient engagement and recruitment, and the development of streamlined regulatory policies. By enhancing the data and research infrastructure of participating organizations, the ADVANCE CDRN will serve as a ‘community laboratory’ for including disadvantaged and vulnerable patients in patient-centered outcomes research that is aligned with the priorities of patients, clinics, and communities in our network. PMID:24821740

LHC@Home: a BOINC-based volunteer computing infrastructure for physics studies at CERN

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barranco, Javier; Cai, Yunhai; Cameron, David; Crouch, Matthew; Maria, Riccardo De; Field, Laurence; Giovannozzi, Massimo; Hermes, Pascal; Høimyr, Nils; Kaltchev, Dobrin; Karastathis, Nikos; Luzzi, Cinzia; Maclean, Ewen; McIntosh, Eric; Mereghetti, Alessio; Molson, James; Nosochkov, Yuri; Pieloni, Tatiana; Reid, Ivan D.; Rivkin, Lenny; Segal, Ben; Sjobak, Kyrre; Skands, Peter; Tambasco, Claudia; Veken, Frederik Van der; Zacharov, Igor

2017-12-01

The LHC@Home BOINC project has provided computing capacity for numerical simulations to researchers at CERN since 2004, and has since 2011 been expanded with a wider range of applications. The traditional CERN accelerator physics simulation code SixTrack enjoys continuing volunteers support, and thanks to virtualisation a number of applications from the LHC experiment collaborations and particle theory groups have joined the consolidated LHC@Home BOINC project. This paper addresses the challenges related to traditional and virtualized applications in the BOINC environment, and how volunteer computing has been integrated into the overall computing strategy of the laboratory through the consolidated LHC@Home service. Thanks to the computing power provided by volunteers joining LHC@Home, numerous accelerator beam physics studies have been carried out, yielding an improved understanding of charged particle dynamics in the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and its future upgrades. The main results are highlighted in this paper.

Five strategies for accelerating the war on cancer in an era of budget deficits.

PubMed

Doroshow, James H; Croyle, Robert T; Niederhuber, John E

2009-02-01

In recent years, the National Institutes of Health's largest institute, the National Cancer Institute (NCI), has adapted to difficult economic conditions by leveraging its robust infrastructure -- which includes risk factor surveillance and population monitoring, research centers (focused on basic, translation, clinical, and behavioral sciences), clinical trials and health care research networks, and rigorously validated statistical models -- to maximize the impact of scientific progress on the public health. To continue advancement and realize the opportunity of significant, population-level changes in cancer mortality, the NCI recommends that five national-level actions be taken: (1) significantly increase enrollment of Medicare patients into cancer clinical trials through adequate physician reimbursement, (2) increase NCI/Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services collaboration on clinical trials research to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of anticancer drugs, (3) establish a national outcomes research demonstration project to test strategies for measuring and improving health care quality and provide an evidence base for public policy, (4) leverage existing tobacco-control collaborations and possible new authorities at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to realize the outstanding health gains possible from a reduction in tobacco use, and (5) increase colorectal cancer screening rates though intensified collaboration between federal agencies working to address barriers to access and use of screening. These cost-effective strategies provide the opportunity for extraordinary results in an era of budget deficits. Of the chronic diseases, cancer has the strongest national research infrastructure that can be leveraged to produce rapid results to inform budget prioritization and public policy, as well as mobilize new projects to answer critical public health questions.

Addressing regional disparities in pediatric oncology: Results of a collaborative initiative across the Mexican-North American border.

PubMed

Aristizabal, Paula; Fuller, Spencer; Rivera-Gomez, Rebeca; Ornelas, Mario; Nuno, Laura; Rodriguez-Galindo, Carlos; Ribeiro, Raul; Roberts, William

2017-06-01

Cancer is emerging as a major cause of childhood mortality in low- and middle-income countries. In Mexico, cancer is the number one cause of death in children aged 5-14. Until recently, many children with cancer from Baja California, Mexico, went untreated. We reasoned that an initiative inspired by the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (SJCRH) "twinning" model could successfully be applied to the San Diego-Tijuana border region. In 2008, a twinning project was initiated by Rady Children's Hospital, SJCRH, and the General Hospital Tijuana (GHT). Our aim was to establish a pediatric oncology unit in a culturally sensitive manner, adapted to the local healthcare system. An initial assessment revealed that despite existence of basic hospital infrastructure at the GHT, the essential elements of a pediatric cancer unit were lacking, including dedicated space, trained staff, and uniform treatment. A 5-year action plan was designed to offer training, support the staff financially, and improve the infrastructure. After 7 years, accomplishments include the opening of a new inpatient unit with updated technology, fully trained staff, and a dedicated, interdisciplinary team. Over 700 children have benefited from accurate diagnosis and treatment. Initiatives that implement long-term partnerships between institutions along the Mexican-North American border can be highly effective in establishing successful pediatric cancer control programs. The geographic proximity facilitated accelerated training and close monitoring of project development. Similar initiatives across other disciplines may benefit additional patients and synergize with pediatric oncology programs to reduce health disparities in underserved areas. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

ADDRESSING REGIONAL DISPARITIES IN PEDIATRIC ONCOLOGY: RESULTS OF A COLLABORATIVE INITIATIVE ACROSS THE MEXICAN-NORTH AMERICAN BORDER

PubMed Central

Aristizabal, Paula; Fuller, Spencer; Rivera-Gomez, Rebeca; Ornelas, Mario; Nuno, Laura; Rodriguez-Galindo, Carlos; Ribeiro, Raul; Roberts, William

2017-01-01

Background Cancer is emerging as a major cause of childhood mortality in low-income and middle-income countries. In Mexico, cancer is the number one cause of death in children aged 5–14. Until recently, many children with cancer from Baja California, Mexico went untreated. We reasoned that an initiative inspired by the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (SJCRH) “twinning” model could successfully be applied to the San Diego–Tijuana border region. In 2008, a twinning project was initiated by Rady Children’s Hospital, SJCRH and the General Hospital Tijuana (GHT). Our aim was to establish a pediatric oncology unit in a culturally sensitive manner, adapted to the local health care system. Procedure An initial assessment revealed that despite existence of basic hospital infrastructure at the GHT, the essential elements of a pediatric cancer unit were lacking, including dedicated space, trained staff, and uniform treatment. A 5-year action plan was designed to offer training, support the staff financially, and improve the infrastructure. Results After seven years, accomplishments include the opening of a new inpatient unit with updated technology, fully-trained staff and a dedicated, interdisciplinary team. Over 700 children have benefited from accurate diagnosis and treatment. Conclusions Initiatives that implement long-term partnerships between institutions along the Mexican-North American border can be highly effective in establishing successful pediatric cancer control programs. The geographic proximity facilitated accelerated training and close monitoring of project development. Similar initiatives across other disciplines may benefit additional patients and synergize with pediatric oncology programs to reduce health disparities in underserved areas. PMID:28000395

Army Corrosion Prevention and Control (CPC) Program for Facilities and Infrastructure

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-02-01

FY2009 - 2011 • Benefits: Reduced corrosion due to elimination of metallic rebar , reduced weight equates to reduced dead load and increased dynamic...Decks as Replacement for Steel Reinforced Concrete Decks F09AR04: Corrosion Resistant Roofs with Integrated Sustainable PV Power Systems • Where...Army Corrosion Prevention and Control (CPC) Program for Facilities and Infrastructure Dr. Craig E. College Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff for

Tank waste remediation system privatization infrastructure program requirements and document management process guide

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

ROOT, R.W.

1999-05-18

This guide provides the Tank Waste Remediation System Privatization Infrastructure Program management with processes and requirements to appropriately control information and documents in accordance with the Tank Waste Remediation System Configuration Management Plan (Vann 1998b). This includes documents and information created by the program, as well as non-program generated materials submitted to the project. It provides appropriate approval/control, distribution and filing systems.

A Flight Control System Architecture for the NASA AirSTAR Flight Test Infrastructure

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Murch, Austin M.

2008-01-01

A flight control system architecture for the NASA AirSTAR infrastructure has been designed to address the challenges associated with safe and efficient flight testing of research control laws in adverse flight conditions. The AirSTAR flight control system provides a flexible framework that enables NASA Aviation Safety Program research objectives, and includes the ability to rapidly integrate and test research control laws, emulate component or sensor failures, inject automated control surface perturbations, and provide a baseline control law for comparison to research control laws and to increase operational efficiency. The current baseline control law uses an angle of attack command augmentation system for the pitch axis and simple stability augmentation for the roll and yaw axes.

Effects of stormwater management and stream restoration on watershed nitrogen retention

EPA Science Inventory

Restoring urban infrastructure and managing the nitrogen cycle represent emerging challenges for urban water quality. We investigated whether stormwater control measures (SCMs), a form of green infrastructure, integrated into restored and degraded urban stream networks can influ...

First year update on green infrastructure monitoring in Camden, NJ

EPA Science Inventory

The Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority (CCMUA) installed green infrastructure Stormwater Control Measures (SCMs) at multiple locations around the city of Camden, NJ. The SCMs include raised downspout planter boxes, rain gardens, and cisterns. The cisterns capture water ...

Optimal Control Design using an H(sub 2) Method for the Glovebox Integrated Microgravity Isolation Technology (G-Limit)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Calhoun, Philip C.; Hampton, R. David

2002-01-01

The acceleration environment on the International Space Station (ISS) will likely exceed the requirements of many micro-gravity experiments. The Glovebox Integrated Microgravity Isolation Technology (g-LIMIT) is being built by the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center to attenuate the nominal acceleration environment and provide some isolation for microgravity science experiments. G-LIMIT uses Lorentz (voice-coil) magnetic actuators to isolate a platform for mounting science payloads from the nominal acceleration environment. The system utilizes payload acceleration, relative position, and relative orientation measurements in a feedback controller to accomplish the vibration isolation task. The controller provides current commands to six magnetic actuators, producing the required experiment isolation from the ISS acceleration environment. This paper presents the development of a candidate control law to meet the acceleration attenuation requirements for the g-LIMIT experiment platform. The controller design is developed using linear optimal control techniques for frequency-weighted H(sub 2) norms. Comparison of the performance and robustness to plant uncertainty for this control design approach is included in the discussion.

Frequency Weighted H2 Control Design for the Glovebox Integrated Microgravity Isolation Technology (g-LIMIT)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Calhoun, Philip C.; Hampton, R. David

2004-01-01

The acceleration environment on the International Space Station (ISS) exceeds the requirements of many microgravity experiments. The Glovebox Integrated Microgravity Isolation Technology (g-LIMIT) has been built by the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center to attenuate the nominal acceleration environment and provide some isolation for microgravity science experiments. The g-LIMIT uses Lorentz (voice-coil) magnetic actuators to isolate a platform, for mounting science payloads, from the nominal acceleration environment. The system utilizes payload-acceleration, relative-position, and relative-orientation measurements in a feedback controller to accomplish the vibration isolation task. The controller provides current commands to six magnetic actuators, producing the required experiment isolation from the ISS acceleration environment. The present work documents the development of a candidate control law to meet the acceleration attenuation requirements for the g-LIMIT experiment platform. The controller design is developed using linear optimal control techniques for frequency-weighted H2 norms. Comparison of performance and robustness to plant uncertainty for this control design approach is included in the discussion. System performance is demonstrated in the presence of plant modeling error.

Optimal Control Design Using an H2 Method for the Glovebox Integrated Microgravity Isolation Technology (g-LIMIT)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Calhoun, Phillip C.; Hampton, R. David; Whorton, Mark S.

2001-01-01

The acceleration environment on the International Space Station (ISS) will likely exceed the requirements of many micro-gravity experiments. The Glovebox Integrated Microgravity Isolation Technology (g-LIMIT) is being built by the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center to attenuate the nominal acceleration environment and provide some isolation for micro-gravity science experiments. G-LIMIT uses Lorentz (voice-coil) magnetic actuators to isolate a platform for mounting science payloads from the nominal acceleration environment. The system utilizes payload acceleration, relative position, and relative orientation measurements in a feedback controller to accomplish the vibration isolation task. The controller provides current command to six magnetic actuators, producing the required experiment isolation from the ISS acceleration environment. This paper presents the development of a candidate control law to meet the acceleration attenuation requirements for the g-LIMIT experiment platform. The controller design is developed using linear optimal control techniques for both frequency-weighted H(sub 2) and H(sub infinity) norms. Comparison of the performance and robustness to plant uncertainty for these two optimal control design approaches are included in the discussion.

Modeling and Managing Risk in Billing Infrastructures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baiardi, Fabrizio; Telmon, Claudio; Sgandurra, Daniele

This paper discusses risk modeling and risk management in information and communications technology (ICT) systems for which the attack impact distribution is heavy tailed (e.g., power law distribution) and the average risk is unbounded. Systems with these properties include billing infrastructures used to charge customers for services they access. Attacks against billing infrastructures can be classified as peripheral attacks and backbone attacks. The goal of a peripheral attack is to tamper with user bills; a backbone attack seeks to seize control of the billing infrastructure. The probability distribution of the overall impact of an attack on a billing infrastructure also has a heavy-tailed curve. This implies that the probability of a massive impact cannot be ignored and that the average impact may be unbounded - thus, even the most expensive countermeasures would be cost effective. Consequently, the only strategy for managing risk is to increase the resilience of the infrastructure by employing redundant components.

Optimal design of green and grey stormwater infrastructure for small urban catchment based on life-cycle cost-effectiveness analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Y.; Chui, T. F. M.

2016-12-01

Green infrastructure (GI) is identified as sustainable and environmentally friendly alternatives to the conventional grey stormwater infrastructure. Commonly used GI (e.g. green roof, bioretention, porous pavement) can provide multifunctional benefits, e.g. mitigation of urban heat island effects, improvements in air quality. Therefore, to optimize the design of GI and grey drainage infrastructure, it is essential to account for their benefits together with the costs. In this study, a comprehensive simulation-optimization modelling framework that considers the economic and hydro-environmental aspects of GI and grey infrastructure for small urban catchment applications is developed. Several modelling tools (i.e., EPA SWMM model, the WERF BMP and LID Whole Life Cycle Cost Modelling Tools) and optimization solvers are coupled together to assess the life-cycle cost-effectiveness of GI and grey infrastructure, and to further develop optimal stormwater drainage solutions. A typical residential lot in New York City is examined as a case study. The life-cycle cost-effectiveness of various GI and grey infrastructure are first examined at different investment levels. The results together with the catchment parameters are then provided to the optimization solvers, to derive the optimal investment and contributing area of each type of the stormwater controls. The relationship between the investment and optimized environmental benefit is found to be nonlinear. The optimized drainage solutions demonstrate that grey infrastructure is preferred at low total investments while more GI should be adopted at high investments. The sensitivity of the optimized solutions to the prices the stormwater controls is evaluated and is found to be highly associated with their utilizations in the base optimization case. The overall simulation-optimization framework can be easily applied to other sites world-wide, and to be further developed into powerful decision support systems.

The Experiment Factory: Standardizing Behavioral Experiments.

PubMed

Sochat, Vanessa V; Eisenberg, Ian W; Enkavi, A Zeynep; Li, Jamie; Bissett, Patrick G; Poldrack, Russell A

2016-01-01

The administration of behavioral and experimental paradigms for psychology research is hindered by lack of a coordinated effort to develop and deploy standardized paradigms. While several frameworks (Mason and Suri, 2011; McDonnell et al., 2012; de Leeuw, 2015; Lange et al., 2015) have provided infrastructure and methods for individual research groups to develop paradigms, missing is a coordinated effort to develop paradigms linked with a system to easily deploy them. This disorganization leads to redundancy in development, divergent implementations of conceptually identical tasks, disorganized and error-prone code lacking documentation, and difficulty in replication. The ongoing reproducibility crisis in psychology and neuroscience research (Baker, 2015; Open Science Collaboration, 2015) highlights the urgency of this challenge: reproducible research in behavioral psychology is conditional on deployment of equivalent experiments. A large, accessible repository of experiments for researchers to develop collaboratively is most efficiently accomplished through an open source framework. Here we present the Experiment Factory, an open source framework for the development and deployment of web-based experiments. The modular infrastructure includes experiments, virtual machines for local or cloud deployment, and an application to drive these components and provide developers with functions and tools for further extension. We release this infrastructure with a deployment (http://www.expfactory.org) that researchers are currently using to run a set of over 80 standardized web-based experiments on Amazon Mechanical Turk. By providing open source tools for both deployment and development, this novel infrastructure holds promise to bring reproducibility to the administration of experiments, and accelerate scientific progress by providing a shared community resource of psychological paradigms.

The Experiment Factory: Standardizing Behavioral Experiments

PubMed Central

Sochat, Vanessa V.; Eisenberg, Ian W.; Enkavi, A. Zeynep; Li, Jamie; Bissett, Patrick G.; Poldrack, Russell A.

2016-01-01

The administration of behavioral and experimental paradigms for psychology research is hindered by lack of a coordinated effort to develop and deploy standardized paradigms. While several frameworks (Mason and Suri, 2011; McDonnell et al., 2012; de Leeuw, 2015; Lange et al., 2015) have provided infrastructure and methods for individual research groups to develop paradigms, missing is a coordinated effort to develop paradigms linked with a system to easily deploy them. This disorganization leads to redundancy in development, divergent implementations of conceptually identical tasks, disorganized and error-prone code lacking documentation, and difficulty in replication. The ongoing reproducibility crisis in psychology and neuroscience research (Baker, 2015; Open Science Collaboration, 2015) highlights the urgency of this challenge: reproducible research in behavioral psychology is conditional on deployment of equivalent experiments. A large, accessible repository of experiments for researchers to develop collaboratively is most efficiently accomplished through an open source framework. Here we present the Experiment Factory, an open source framework for the development and deployment of web-based experiments. The modular infrastructure includes experiments, virtual machines for local or cloud deployment, and an application to drive these components and provide developers with functions and tools for further extension. We release this infrastructure with a deployment (http://www.expfactory.org) that researchers are currently using to run a set of over 80 standardized web-based experiments on Amazon Mechanical Turk. By providing open source tools for both deployment and development, this novel infrastructure holds promise to bring reproducibility to the administration of experiments, and accelerate scientific progress by providing a shared community resource of psychological paradigms. PMID:27199843

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

Huang, Zhirong; Hogan, Mark

Essentially all we know today and will learn in the future about the fundamental nature of matter is derived from probing it with directed beams of particles such as electrons, protons, neutrons, heavy ions, and photons. The resulting ability to “see” the building blocks of matter has had an immense impact on society and our standard of living. Over the last century, particle accelerators have changed the way we look at nature and the universe we live in and have become an integral part of the Nation’s technical infrastructure. Today, particle accelerators are essential tools of modern science and technology.more » The cost and capabilities of accelerators would be greatly enhanced by breakthroughs in acceleration methods and technology. For the last 32 years, the Advanced Accelerator Concepts (AAC) Workshop has acted as the focal point for discussion and development of the most promising acceleration physics and technology. It is a particularly effective forum where the discussion is leveraged and promoted by the unique and demanding feature of the AAC Workshop: the working group structure, in which participants are asked to consider their contributions in terms of even larger problems to be solved. The 16th Advanced Accelerator Concepts (AAC2014) Workshop was organized by Stanford University from July 13 - 18, 2014 at the Dolce Hays Mansion in San Jose, California. The conference had a record 282 attendees including 62 students. Attendees came from 11 countries representing 66 different institutions. The workshop format consisted of plenary sessions in the morning with topical leaders from around the world presenting the latest breakthroughs to the entire workshop. In the late morning and afternoons attendees broke out into eight different working groups for more detailed presentations and discussions that were summarized on the final day of the workshop. In addition, there were student tutorial presentations on two afternoons to provide in depth education and training for the next generation of accelerator scientists. This is the final technical report on the organization and outcome of AAC2014.« less

Research on Acceleration Compensation Strategy of Electric Vehicle Based on Fuzzy Control Theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhu, Tianjun; Li, Bin; Zong, Changfu; Wei, Zhicheng

2017-09-01

Nowadays, the driving technology of electric vehicle is developing rapidly. There are many kinds of methods in driving performance control technology. The paper studies the acceleration performance of electric vehicle. Under the premise of energy management, an acceleration power compensation method by fuzzy control theory based on driver intention recognition is proposed, which can meet the driver’s subjective feelings better. It avoids the problem that the pedal opening and power output are single correspondence when the traditional vehicle accelerates. Through the simulation test, this method can significantly improve the performance of acceleration and output torque smoothly in non-emergency acceleration to ensure vehicle comfortable and stable.

Convergence of Vehicle and Infrastructure Data for Traffic and Demand Management

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

Young, Stanley E.

The increasing availability of highly granular, vehicle trajectory data combined with ever increasing stores of roadway sensor data has provided unparalleled observability into the operation of our urban roadway networks. These data sources are quickly moving from research and prototype environments into full-scale commercial deployment and data offerings. The observability gained allows for increased control opportunities to enhance transportation mobility, safety and energy efficiency. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is involved in three initiatives to leverage these data for positive outcomes: 1) In 2015 NREL, in cooperation with industry and university partners, was awarded an ARPA-E research grant tomore » research a control architecture to incentivize individual travelers toward more sustainable travel behavior. Based on real-time data on the traveler's destination and state of the system, the traveler is presented with route and/or mode choices and offered incentives to accept sustainable alternatives over less-sustainable ones. The project tests the extent to which small incentives can influence, or tip the balance toward more sustainable travel behavior. 2) Although commercial sources of travel time and speed have emerged in recent years based on vehicle probe data, volume estimates continue to rely primarily on historical count data factored for the time of day, day of week, and season of year. Real-time volume flows would enable better tools, simulation in the loop, and ultimately more effective control outcomes. NREL in cooperation with the University of Maryland and industry traffic data providers (INRIX, HERE and TomTom), are attempting to accelerate the timeframe to a viable real-time vehicle volume data feed based on probe data. 3) Signal control on urban arterials for years has had to rely on models rather than measured data to assess performance. High-resolution controller data and low-cost re-identification data now allows for direct measurement of the quality of progression along a corridor. Though still requiring an investment in equipment and communications, these data sources are transforming traffic signal management to a data driven, performance management basis. Ever increasing availability of granular GPS trace data from automobiles may allow for assessment of traffic signal performance, allowing for signal optimization while minimizing the investment in additional sensors and communication infrastructure.« less

Collaborative Research to Advance Precision Medicine in the Post-Genomic World | Office of Cancer Genomics

Cancer.gov

My name is Subhashini Jagu, and I am the Scientific Program Manager for the Cancer Target Discovery and Development (CTD2) Network at the Office of Cancer Genomics (OCG). In my new role, I help CTD2 work toward its mission, which is to develop new scientific approaches to accelerate the translation of genomic discoveries into new treatments. Collaborative efforts that bring together a variety of expertise and infrastructure are needed to understand and successfully treat cancer, a highly complex disease.

Windows Terminal Servers Orchestration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bukowiec, Sebastian; Gaspar, Ricardo; Smith, Tim

2017-10-01

Windows Terminal Servers provide application gateways for various parts of the CERN accelerator complex, used by hundreds of CERN users every day. The combination of new tools such as Puppet, HAProxy and Microsoft System Center suite enable automation of provisioning workflows to provide a terminal server infrastructure that can scale up and down in an automated manner. The orchestration does not only reduce the time and effort necessary to deploy new instances, but also facilitates operations such as patching, analysis and recreation of compromised nodes as well as catering for workload peaks.

Evaluating Green/Gray Infrastructure for CSO/Stormwater Control

EPA Science Inventory

The NRMRL is conducting this project to evaluate the water quality and quantity benefits of a large-scale application of green infrastructure (low-impact development/best management practices) retrofits in an entire subcatchment. It will document ORD's effort to demonstrate the e...

Safety Practices Followed in ISRO Launch Complex- An Overview

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Krishnamurty, V.; Srivastava, V. K.; Ramesh, M.

2005-12-01

The spaceport of India, Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), is located at Sriharikota, a spindle shaped island on the east coast of southern India.SDSC SHAR has a unique combination of facilities, such as a solid propellant production plant, a rocket motor static test facility, launch complexes for different types of rockets, telemetry, telecommand, tracking, data acquisition and processing facilities and other support services.The Solid Propellant Space Booster Plant (SPROB) located at SDSC SHAR produces composite solid propellant for rocket motors of ISRO. The main ingredients of the propellant produced here are ammonium perchlorate (oxidizer), fine aluminium powder (fuel) and hydroxyl terminated polybutadiene (binder).SDSC SHAR has facilities for testing solid rocket motors, both at ambient conditions and at simulated high altitude conditions. Other test facilities for the environmental testing of rocket motors and their subsystems include Vibration, Shock, Constant Acceleration and Thermal / Humidity.SDSC SHAR has the necessary infrastructure for launching satellites into low earth orbit, polar orbit and geo-stationary transfer orbit. The launch complexes provide complete support for vehicle assembly, fuelling with both earth storable and cryogenic propellants, checkout and launch operations. Apart from these, it has facilities for launching sounding rockets for studying the Earth's upper atmosphere and for controlled reentry and recovery of ISRO's space capsule reentry missions.Safety plays a major role at SDSC SHAR right from the mission / facility design phase to post launch operations. This paper presents briefly the infrastructure available at SDSC SHAR of ISRO for launching sounding rockets, satellite launch vehicles, controlled reentry missions and the built in safety systems. The range safety methodology followed as a part of the real time mission monitoring is presented. The built in safety systems provided onboard the launch vehicle are automatic shut off the propulsion system based on real time mission performance and a passivation system incorporated in the orbit insertion stage are highlighted.

The role of trees in urban stormwater management | Science ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Urban impervious surfaces convert precipitation to stormwater runoff, which causes water quality and quantity problems. While traditional stormwater management has relied on gray infrastructure such as piped conveyances to collect and convey stormwater to wastewater treatment facilities or into surface waters, cities are exploring green infrastructure to manage stormwater at its source. Decentralized green infrastructure leverages the capabilities of soil and vegetation to infiltrate, redistribute, and otherwise store stormwater volume, with the potential to realize ancillary environmental, social, and economic benefits. To date, green infrastructure science and practice have largely focused on infiltration-based technologies that include rain gardens, bioswales, and permeable pavements. However, a narrow focus on infiltration overlooks other losses from the hydrologic cycle, and we propose that arboriculture – the cultivation of trees and other woody plants – deserves additional consideration as a stormwater control measure. Trees interact with the urban hydrologic cycle by intercepting incoming precipitation, removing water from the soil via transpiration, enhancing infiltration, and bolstering the performance of other green infrastructure technologies. However, many of these interactions are inadequately understood, particularly at spatial and temporal scales relevant to stormwater management. As such, the reliable use of trees for stormwater control depe

Optical stabilization for time transfer infrastructure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vojtech, Josef; Altmann, Michal; Skoda, Pavel; Horvath, Tomas; Slapak, Martin; Smotlacha, Vladimir; Havlis, Ondrej; Munster, Petr; Radil, Jan; Kundrat, Jan; Altmannova, Lada; Velc, Radek; Hula, Miloslav; Vohnout, Rudolf

2017-08-01

In this paper, we propose and present verification of all-optical methods for stabilization of the end-to-end delay of an optical fiber link. These methods are verified for deployment within infrastructure for accurate time and stable frequency distribution, based on sharing of fibers with research and educational network carrying live data traffic. Methods range from path length control, through temperature conditioning method to transmit wavelength control. Attention is given to achieve continuous control for relatively broad range of delays. We summarize design rules for delay stabilization based on the character and the total delay jitter.

Multi-Level Data-Security and Data-Protection in a Distributed Search Infrastructure for Digital Medical Samples.

PubMed

Witt, Michael; Krefting, Dagmar

2016-01-01

Human sample data is stored in biobanks with software managing digital derived sample data. When these stand-alone components are connected and a search infrastructure is employed users become able to collect required research data from different data sources. Data protection, patient rights, data heterogeneity and access control are major challenges for such an infrastructure. This dissertation will investigate concepts for a multi-level security architecture to comply with these requirements.

PARTICLE ACCELERATOR AND METHOD OF CONTROLLING THE TEMPERATURE THEREOF

DOEpatents

Neal, R.B.; Gallagher, W.J.

1960-10-11

A method and means for controlling the temperature of a particle accelerator and more particularly to the maintenance of a constant and uniform temperature throughout a particle accelerator is offered. The novel feature of the invention resides in the provision of two individual heating applications to the accelerator structure. The first heating application provided is substantially a duplication of the accelerator heat created from energization, this first application being employed only when the accelerator is de-energized thereby maintaining the accelerator temperature constant with regard to time whether the accelerator is energized or not. The second heating application provided is designed to add to either the first application or energization heat in a manner to create the same uniform temperature throughout all portions of the accelerator.

A Case Study on Nitrogen Uptake and Denitrification in a Restored Urban Stream in Baltimore, Maryland

EPA Science Inventory

Restoring urban infrastructure and managing the nitrogen cycle represent emerging challenges for urban water quality. We investigated whether stormwater control measures (SCMs), a form of green infrastructure, integrated into restored and degraded urban stream networks can influe...

A flexible framework for process-based hydraulic and water quality modeling of stormwater green infrastructure performance

EPA Science Inventory

Background Models that allow for design considerations of green infrastructure (GI) practices to control stormwater runoff and associated contaminants have received considerable attention in recent years. While popular, generally, the GI models are relatively simplistic. However,...

Internal hydrological mechanism of permeable pavement and interaction with subsurface water

EPA Science Inventory

Many communities are implementing green infrastructure stormwater control measures (SCMs) in urban environments across the U.S. to mimic pre-urban, natural hydrology more closely. Permeable pavement is one SCM infrastructure that has been commonly selected for both new and retro...

Ultra-High Gradient Channeling Acceleration in Nanostructures: Design/Progress of Proof-of-Concept (POC) Experiments

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

Shin, Young Min; Green, A.; Lumpkin, A. H.

2016-09-16

A short bunch of relativistic particles or a short-pulse laser perturbs the density state of conduction electrons in a solid crystal and excites wakefields along atomic lattices in a crystal. Under a coupling condition the wakes, if excited, can accelerate channeling particles with TeV/m acceleration gradients in principle since the density of charge carriers (conduction electrons) in solids n 0 = ~ 10 20 – 10 23 cm -3 is significantly higher than what can be obtained in gaseous plasma. Nanostructures have some advantages over crystals for channeling applications of high power beams. The dechanneling rate can be reduced andmore » the beam acceptance increased by the large size of the channels. For beam-driven acceleration, a bunch length with a sufficient charge density would need to be in the range of the plasma wavelength to properly excite plasma wakefields, and channeled particle acceleration with the wakefields must occur before the ions in the lattices move beyond the restoring threshold. In the case of the excitation by short laser pulses, the dephasing length is appreciably increased with the larger channel, which enables channeled particles to gain sufficient amounts of energy. This paper describes simulation analyses on beam- and laser (X-ray)-driven accelerations in effective nanotube models obtained from Vsim and EPOCH codes. Experimental setups to detect wakefields are also outlined with accelerator facilities at Fermilab and NIU. In the FAST facility, the electron beamline was successfully commissioned at 50 MeV and it is being upgraded toward higher energies for electron accelerator R&D. The 50 MeV injector beamline of the facility is used for X-ray crystal-channeling radiation with a diamond target. It has been proposed to utilize the same diamond crystal for a channeling acceleration POC test. Another POC experiment is also designed for the NIU accelerator lab with time-resolved electron diffraction. Recently, a stable generation of single-cycle laser pulses with tens of Petawatt power based on thin film compression (TFC) technique has been investigated for target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) and radiation pressure acceleration (RPA). The experimental plan with a nanometer foil is discussed with an available test facility such as Extreme Light Infrastructure – Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP).« less

Ultra-high gradient channeling acceleration in nanostructures: Design/progress of proof-of-concept (POC) experiments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shin, Y. M.; Green, A.; Lumpkin, A. H.; Thurman-Keup, R. M.; Shiltsev, V.; Zhang, X.; Farinella, D. M.-A.; Taborek, P.; Tajima, T.; Wheeler, J. A.; Mourou, G.

2017-03-01

A short bunch of relativistic particles, or a short-pulse laser, perturb the density state of conduction electrons in a solid crystal and excite wakefields along atomic lattices in a crystal. Under a coupling condition between a driver and plasma, the wakes, if excited, can accelerate channeling particles with TeV/m acceleration gradients [1], in principle, since the density of charge carriers (conduction electrons) in solids n0 = 1020 - 1023 cm-3 is significantly higher than what was considered above in gaseous plasma. Nanostructures have some advantages over crystals for channeling applications of high power beams. The de-channeling rate can be reduced and the beam acceptance increased by the large size of the channels. For beam-driven acceleration, a bunch length with a sufficient charge density would need to be in the range of the plasma wavelength to properly excite plasma wakefields, and channeled particle acceleration with the wakefields must occur before the ions in the lattices move beyond the restoring threshold. In the case of the excitation by short laser pulses, the dephasing length is appreciably increased with the larger channel, which enables channeled particles to gain sufficient amounts of energy. This paper describes simulation analyses on beam- and laser (X-ray)-driven accelerations in effective nanotube models obtained from the Vsim and EPOCH codes. Experimental setups to detect wakefields are also outlined with accelerator facilities at Fermilab and Northern Illinois University (NIU). In the FAST facility, the electron beamline was successfully commissioned at 50 MeV, and it is being upgraded toward higher energies for electron accelerator R&D. The 50 MeV injector beamline of the facility is used for X-ray crystal-channeling radiation with a diamond target. It has been proposed to utilize the same diamond crystal for a channeling acceleration proof-of-concept (POC). Another POC experiment is also designed for the NIU accelerator lab with time-resolved electron diffraction. Recently, a stable generation of single-cycle laser pulses with tens of Petawatt power based on the thin film compression (TFC) technique has been investigated for target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) and radiation pressure acceleration (RPA). The experimental plan with a nanometer foil is discussed with an available test facility such as Extreme Light Infrastructure - Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP).

Cyber Vulnerabilities Within Critical Infrastructure: The Flaws of Industrial Control Systems in the Oil and Gas Industry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alpi, Danielle Marie

The 16 sectors of critical infrastructure in the US are susceptible to cyber-attacks. Potential attacks come from internal and external threats. These attacks target the industrial control systems (ICS) of companies within critical infrastructure. Weakness in the energy sector's ICS, specifically the oil and gas industry, can result in economic and ecological disaster. The purpose of this study was to establish means for oil companies to identify and stop cyber-attacks specifically APT threats. This research reviewed current cyber vulnerabilities and ways in which a cyber-attack may be deterred. This research found that there are insecure devices within ICS that are not regularly updated. Therefore, security issues have amassed. Safety procedures and training thereof are often neglected. Jurisdiction is unclear in regard to critical infrastructure. The recommendations this research offers are further examination of information sharing methods, development of analytic platforms, and better methods for the implementation of defense-in-depth security measures.

High Arctic Coasts At Risk - The Impact of Coastal Hazards on Scientific and Community Infrastructure in Svalbard

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Strzelecki, M. C.; Pawlowski, L.; Jaskolski, M.; Lim, M.; Zagorski, P.; Long, A. J.; Jensen, M.

2015-12-01

The rapid climate warming being observed in the Svalbard is leading to an increase in human activities in the coastal zone, leading to an increased need for coastal hazard assessment. Present-day Svalbard coastal landscapes are modified by increased degradation of permafrost accelerated sediment supply from deglaciated catchments, and prolonged periods of open-water conditions and wave activity. Since the second half of 20thcentury there is also an observed increase in the number and intensity of storms entering the Arctic particularly in summer months when coastlines are free of protective ice cover. Despite the potential significance of these coastal hazards on the security of scientific (research bases and devices) and community (ports, airports, roads, buildings) infrastructure on Svalbard, relatively little is known on the present-day rate of Svalbard coastal zone changes and how they might impact the nearshore infrastructure in the future. Here we report the results of a project that focused on rates of coastal zone changes in Svalbard and examined the impact of extreme coastal processes on scientific and community infrastructure. The project applied combination of remote sensing and field-based mapping techniques to characterise coastal changes observed in the surroundings of main research stations in Svalbard in Hornsund (PPS), Petuniabukta (AMUPS) and Bellsund (Calypsobyen) as well as a major towns: Longyearbyen, Piramiden, Barentsburg and Svea. Our results document dramatic changes of Svalbard coastal zone under intervals characterised by a warming climate, retreating local ice masses, a shortened winter sea-ice season and melting permafrost. The study confirmed the growing importance of extreme processes in shaping coasts of Svalbard and the impact of these changes on human infrastructure. Our study proposes a risk assessment for a development and protection of infrastructure along the coasts of Svalbard under scenarios of climate change, sea level rise, changes to the frequency of storms entering the region and variations in sea ice extent. The study was funded by the Foundation for Polish Science HOMING PLUS grant no.2013-8/12. Proejct leader is also supported by the National Science Centre Postdoctoral Fellowship (2013/08/S/ST10/00585).

Guidance, steering, load relief and control of an asymmetric launch vehicle. M.S. Thesis - MIT

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Boelitz, Frederick W.

1989-01-01

A new guidance, steering, and control concept is described and evaluated for the Third Phase of an asymmetrical configuration of the Advanced Launch System (ALS). The study also includes the consideration of trajectory shaping issues and trajectory design as well as the development of angular rate, angular acceleration, angle of attack, and dynamic pressure estimators. The Third Phase guidance, steering and control system is based on controlling the acceleration-direction of the vehicle after an initial launch maneuver. Unlike traditional concepts, the alignment of the estimated and commanded acceleration-directions is unimpaired by an add-on load relief. Instead, the acceleration-direction steering-control system features a control override that limits the product of estimated dynamic pressure and estimated angle of attack. When this product is not being limited, control is based exclusively on the commanded acceleration-direction without load relief. During limiting, control is based on nulling the error between the limited angle of attack and the estimated angle of attack. This limiting feature provides full freedom to the acceleration-direction steering and control to shape the trajectory within the limit, and also gives full priority to the limiting of angle of attack when necessary. The flight software concepts were analyzed on the basis of their effects on pitch plane motion.

APPARATUS FOR CONTROL OF HIGH-ENERGY ACCELERATORS

DOEpatents

Heard, H.G.

1961-10-24

A particle beam positioning control for a synchrotron or the like is described. The control includes means for selectively impressing a sinusoidal perturbation upon the rising voltage utilized to sweep the frequency of the f-m oscillator which is conventionally coupled to the accelerating electrode of a synchrotron. The perturbation produces a variation in the normal rate of change of frequency of the accelerating voltage applied to the accelerating electrode, resulting in an expansion or contraction of the particle beam orbit diameter during the perturbation. The beam may thus be controlled such that a portion strikes a target positioned close to the expanded or contracted orbit diameter and returns to the original orbit for further acceleration to the final energy. (AEC)

Neuromuscular Control of Rapid Linear Accelerations in Fish

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-06-22

2014 30-Apr-2015 Approved for Public Release; Distribution Unlimited Final Report: Neuromuscular Control of Rapid Linear Accelerations in Fish The...it does not display a currently valid OMB control number. PLEASE DO NOT RETURN YOUR FORM TO THE ABOVE ADDRESS. Tufts University Research... Control of Rapid Linear Accelerations in Fish Report Title In this project, we measured muscle activity, body movements, and flow patterns during linear

Methods of Phase and Power Control in Magnetron Transmitters for Superconducting Accelerators

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

Kazadevich, G.; Johnson, R.; Neubauer, M.

Various methods of phase and power control in magnetron RF sources of superconducting accelerators intended for ADS-class projects were recently developed and studied with conventional 2.45 GHz, 1 kW, CW magnetrons operating in pulsed and CW regimes. Magnetron transmitters excited by a resonant (injection-locking) phasemodulated signal can provide phase and power control with the rates required for precise stabilization of phase and amplitude of the accelerating field in Superconducting RF (SRF) cavities of the intensity-frontier accelerators. An innovative technique that can significantly increase the magnetron transmitter efficiency at the widerange power control required for superconducting accelerators was developed and verifiedmore » with the 2.45 GHz magnetrons operating in CW and pulsed regimes. High efficiency magnetron transmitters of this type can significantly reduce the capital and operation costs of the ADSclass accelerator projects.« less

Managing the future: the Special Virus Leukemia Program and the acceleration of biomedical research.

PubMed

Scheffler, Robin Wolfe

2014-12-01

After the end of the Second World War, cancer virus research experienced a remarkable revival, culminating in the creation in 1964 of the United States National Cancer Institute's Special Virus Leukemia Program (SVLP), an ambitious program of directed biomedical research to accelerate the development of a leukemia vaccine. Studies of cancer viruses soon became the second most highly funded area of research at the Institute, and by far the most generously funded area of biological research. Remarkably, this vast infrastructure for cancer vaccine production came into being before a human leukemia virus was shown to exist. The origins of the SVLP were rooted in as much as shifts in American society as laboratory science. The revival of cancer virus studies was a function of the success advocates and administrators achieved in associating cancer viruses with campaigns against childhood diseases such as polio and leukemia. To address the urgency borne of this new association, the SVLP's architects sought to lessen the power of peer review in favor of centralized Cold War management methods, fashioning viruses as "administrative objects" in order to accelerate the tempo of biomedical research and discovery.

Stochastic Analysis and Forecasts of the Patterns of Speed, Acceleration, and Levels of Material Stock Accumulation in Society.

PubMed

Fishman, Tomer; Schandl, Heinz; Tanikawa, Hiroki

2016-04-05

The recent acceleration of urbanization and industrialization of many parts of the developing world, most notably in Asia, has resulted in a fast-increasing demand for and accumulation of construction materials in society. Despite the importance of physical stocks in society, the empirical assessment of total material stock of buildings and infrastructure and reasons for its growth have been underexplored in the sustainability literature. We propose an innovative approach for explaining material stock dynamics in society and create a country typology for stock accumulation trajectories using the ARIMA (Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average) methodology, a stochastic approach commonly used in business studies and economics to inspect and forecast time series. This enables us to create scenarios for future demand and accumulation of building materials in society, including uncertainty estimates. We find that the so-far overlooked aspect of acceleration trends of material stock accumulation holds the key to explaining material stock growth, and that despite tremendous variability in country characteristics, stock accumulation is limited to only four archetypal growth patterns. The ability of nations to change their pattern will be a determining factor for global sustainability.

78 FR 42482 - Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Pennsylvania; Infrastructure...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-07-16

... Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Pennsylvania; Infrastructure Requirements for the 2008 Lead National Ambient Air Quality Standards AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). ACTION: Proposed rule... Environmental Protection, Bureau of Air Quality Control, P.O. Box 8468, 400 Market Street, Harrisburg...

High Resolution Sensing and Control of Urban Water Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bartos, M. D.; Wong, B. P.; Kerkez, B.

2016-12-01

We present a framework to enable high-resolution sensing, modeling, and control of urban watersheds using (i) a distributed sensor network based on low-cost cellular-enabled motes, (ii) hydraulic models powered by a cloud computing infrastructure, and (iii) automated actuation valves that allow infrastructure to be controlled in real time. This platform initiates two major advances. First, we achieve a high density of measurements in urban environments, with an anticipated 40+ sensors over each urban area of interest. In addition to new measurements, we also illustrate the design and evaluation of a "smart" control system for real-world hydraulic networks. This control system improves water quality and mitigates flooding by using real-time hydraulic models to adaptively control releases from retention basins. We evaluate the potential of this platform through two ongoing deployments: (i) a flood monitoring network in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area that detects and anticipates floods at the level of individual roadways, and (ii) a real-time hydraulic control system in the city of Ann Arbor, MI—soon to be one of the most densely instrumented urban watersheds in the United States. Through these applications, we demonstrate that distributed sensing and control of water infrastructure can improve flash flood predictions, emergency response, and stormwater contaminant mitigation.

Multicenter Collaborative Quality Assurance Program for the Province of Ontario, Canada: First-Year Results

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

Létourneau, Daniel, E-mail: daniel.letourneau@rmp.uh.on.ca; Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario; McNiven, Andrea

2013-05-01

Purpose: The objective of this work was to develop a collaborative quality assurance (CQA) program to assess the performance of intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) planning and delivery across the province of Ontario, Canada. Methods and Materials: The CQA program was designed to be a comprehensive end-to-end test that can be completed on multiple planning and delivery platforms. The first year of the program included a head-and-neck (H and N) planning exercise and on-site visit to acquire dosimetric measurements to assess planning and delivery performance. A single dosimeter was used at each institution, and the planned to measured dose agreementmore » was evaluated for both the H and N plan and a standard plan (linear-accelerator specific) that was created to enable a direct comparison between centers with similar infrastructure. Results: CQA program feasibility was demonstrated through participation of all 13 radiation therapy centers in the province. Planning and delivery was completed on a variety of infrastructure (treatment planning systems and linear accelerators). The planning exercise was completed using both static gantry and rotational IMRT, and planned-to-delivered dose agreement (pass rates) for 3%/3-mm gamma evaluation were greater than 90% (92.6%-99.6%). Conclusions: All centers had acceptable results, but variation in planned to delivered dose agreement for the same planning and delivery platform was noted. The upper end of the range will provide an achievable target for other centers through continued quality improvement, aided by feedback provided by the program through the use of standard plans and simple test fields.« less

Permafrost and urban Development in Norilsk Russia.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shiklomanov, N. I.; Streletskiy, D. A.; Grebenets, V. I.

2017-12-01

The city of Norilsk was established in 1935 as a GULAG mining and metallurgy work camp to explore the rich deposits of non-ferrous metals. By the 1989, the population of Norilsk reached 179,757 people. Two additional cities were developed in proximity to Norilsk in the 1960s-1980s: Talnakh (1989 population 65,710); and Kaerkan (1989 population 29,824) making the Norilsk region a major Arctic metropolis. While such rapid growth is not unusual for developing industrial cities, the geographic location makes Norilsk rather unique among world urban centers. It was built in Central Siberia at 69°51' N latitude (above the Arctic Circle), in region characterized by harsh subarctic climate (mean annual temperature around -10 oC), over forest tundra/tundra transitional landscapes underlined by perennially frozen ground (permafrost). Throughout its existence, the Norilsk region was highly isolated: it is not connected to Russian road and railroad systems. The harsh environmental conditions provided significant and rather unique challenges to Norilsk development. Specifically, the presence of ice-rich permafrost imposed restrictions on application of standard urban planning and engineering practices. This presentation analyzes the history of permafrost construction in Norilsk. It shows how though initial trial and errors, a set of guiding principles and engineering methods of construction on permafrost were developed allowing a rapid urbanization of the area during the 1960-1980s. However, despite significant advances in permafrost engineering, the pronounced permafrost degradation has become evident in Norilsk by the mid 1980s and has accelerated rapidly since the mid 1990s resulting in widespread deformation of buildings. Climatic changes are frequently identified as a major cause of accelerated deterioration of infrastructure build on permafrost. However, we argue that other factors, including the complexity of interactions between deferent components of urban infrastructure and permafrost, quality of construction, operation, and maintenance of infrastructure as well as socio-economic transformations are also responsible for emergence and intensification of the negative permafrost-related geotechnical processes manifested by the structural deformations of buildings in Norilsk.

New mask technology challenges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kimmel, Kurt R.

2001-09-01

Mask technology development has accelerated dramatically in recent years from the glacial pace of the last three decades to the rapid and sometimes simultaneous introductions of new wavelengths and mask-based resolution enhancement techniques. The nature of the semiconductor business has also become one driven by time-to-market as an overwhelming factor in capturing market share and profit. These are among the factors that have created enormous stress on the mask industry to produce masks with enhanced capabilities, such as phase-shifting attenuators, sub-resolution assist bars, and optical proximity correction (OPC) features, while maintaining or reducing cost and cycle time. The mask can no longer be considered a commodity item that is purchased form the lowest-cost supplier. Instead, it must now be promoted as an integral part of the technical and business case for a total lithographic solution. Improving partnership between designer, mask-maker, and wafer lithographer will be the harbinger of success in finding a profitable balance of capability, cost, and cycle time. Likewise for equipment infrastructure development, stronger partnership on the international level is necessary to control development cost and mitigate schedule and technical risks.

Ubiquitous Low-Cost Functionalized Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube Sensors for Distributed Methane Leak Detection

DOE PAGES

Humayun, Md Tanim; Divan, Ralu; Stan, Liliana; ...

2016-06-16

This paper presents a highly sensitive, energy efficient and low-cost distributed methane (CH 4) sensor system (DMSS) for continuous monitoring, detection, and localization of CH 4 leaks in natural gas infrastructure, such as transmission and distribution pipelines, wells, and production pads. The CH 4 sensing element, a key component of the DMSS, consists of a metal oxide nanocrystal (MONC) functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) mesh which, in comparison to existing literature, shows stronger relative resistance change while interacting with lower parts per million (ppm) concentration of CH 4. A Gaussian plume triangulation algorithm has been developed for the DMSS. Givenmore » a geometric model of the surrounding environment the algorithm can precisely detect and localize a CH 4 leak as well as estimate its mass emission rate. A UV-based surface recovery technique making the sensor recover 10 times faster than the reported ones is presented for the DMSS. In conclusion, a control algorithm based on the UV-accelerated recovery is developed which facilitates faster leak detection.« less

Effort to Accelerate MBSE Adoption and Usage at JSC

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wang, Lui; Izygon, Michel; Okron, Shira; Garner, Larry; Wagner, Howard

2016-01-01

This paper describes the authors' experience in adopting Model Based System Engineering (MBSE) at the NASA/Johnson Space Center (JSC). Since 2009, NASA/JSC has been applying MBSE using the Systems Modeling Language (SysML) to a number of advanced projects. Models integrate views of the system from multiple perspectives, capturing the system design information for multiple stakeholders. This method has allowed engineers to better control changes, improve traceability from requirements to design and manage the numerous interactions between components. As the project progresses, the models become the official source of information and used by multiple stakeholders. Three major types of challenges that hamper the adoption of the MBSE technology are described. These challenges are addressed by a multipronged approach that includes educating the main stakeholders, implementing an organizational infrastructure that supports the adoption effort, defining a set of modeling guidelines to help engineers in their modeling effort, providing a toolset that support the generation of valuable products, and providing a library of reusable models. JSC project case studies are presented to illustrate how the proposed approach has been successfully applied.

Analysis of Instrumentation to Monitor the Hydrologic Performance of Green Infrastructure at the Edison Environmental Center

EPA Science Inventory

Infiltration is one of the primary functional mechanisms of green infrastructure stormwater controls, so this study explored selection and placement of embedded soil moisture and water level sensors to monitor surface infiltration and infiltration into the underlying soil for per...

Green Infrastructure for Stormwater Control: Gauging its Effectiveness with Community Partners, Summary of EPA GI Reports

EPA Science Inventory

This document is a summary of the green infrastructure reports, journal articles, and conference proceedings published to date. This summary will be updated as more reports are completed. The Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Research and Development has an ambitious ...

Update on Kansas City Middle Blue River Green Infrastructure Pilot Project - seminar

EPA Science Inventory

In 2010, Kansas City, MO (KCMO) signed a consent degree with EPA on combined sewer overflows. The City decided to use adaptive management in order to extensively utilize green infrastructure (GI) in lieu of, and in addition to, structural controls. KCMO installed 130 GI storm con...

Identifying green infrastructure BMPs for reducing nitrogen export to a Chesapeake Bay agricultural stream: model synthesis and extension of experimental data

EPA Science Inventory

Background/Question/Methods The effectiveness of riparian forest buffers and other green infrastructure for reducing nitrogen export to agricultural streams has been well described experimentally, but a clear understanding of process-level hydrological and biogeochemical control...

Development of a queue warning system utilizing ATM infrastructure system development and field-testing : final report.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2017-06-13

MnDOT has already deployed an extensive infrastructure for Active Traffic Management (ATM) on I-35W and I-94 with plans to expand on other segments of the Twin Cities freeway network. The ATM system includes intelligent lane control signals (ILCS) sp...

Update on Kansas City Middle Blue River Green Infrastructure Pilot Project

EPA Science Inventory

In 2010, Kansas City, MO (KCMO) signed a consent degree with EPA on combined sewer overflows. The City decided to use adaptive management in order to extensively utilize green infrastructure (GI) in lieu of, and in addition to, gray structural controls. KCMO installed 130 GI sto...

Crossing the chasm: information technology to biomedical informatics.

PubMed

Fahy, Brenda G; Balke, C William; Umberger, Gloria H; Talbert, Jeffery; Canales, Denise Niles; Steltenkamp, Carol L; Conigliaro, Joseph

2011-06-01

Accelerating the translation of new scientific discoveries to improve human health and disease management is the overall goal of a series of initiatives integrated in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) "Roadmap for Medical Research." The Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) program is, arguably, the most visible component of the NIH Roadmap providing resources to institutions to transform their clinical and translational research enterprises along the goals of the Roadmap. The CTSA program emphasizes biomedical informatics as a critical component for the accomplishment of the NIH's translational objectives. To be optimally effective, emerging biomedical informatics programs must link with the information technology platforms of the enterprise clinical operations within academic health centers.This report details one academic health center's transdisciplinary initiative to create an integrated academic discipline of biomedical informatics through the development of its infrastructure for clinical and translational science infrastructure and response to the CTSA mechanism. This approach required a detailed informatics strategy to accomplish these goals. This transdisciplinary initiative was the impetus for creation of a specialized biomedical informatics core, the Center for Biomedical Informatics (CBI). Development of the CBI codified the need to incorporate medical informatics including quality and safety informatics and enterprise clinical information systems within the CBI. This article describes the steps taken to develop the biomedical informatics infrastructure, its integration with clinical systems at one academic health center, successes achieved, and barriers encountered during these efforts.

State investments in high-technology job growth.

PubMed

Leicht, Kevin T; Jenkins, J Craig

2017-07-01

Since the early 1970's state and local governments have launched an array of economic development programs designed to promote high-technology development. The question our analysis addresses is whether these programs promote long-term high-technology employment growth net of state location and agglomeration advantages. Proponents talk about an infrastructure strategy that promotes investment in public research and specialized infrastructure to attract and grow new high technology industries in specific locations, and a more decentralized entrepreneurial strategy that reinforces local agglomeration capacities by investing in new enterprises and products, promoting the development of local networks and partnerships. Our results support the entrepreneurial strategy, suggesting that state governments can accelerate high technology development by adopting market-supportive programs that complement private sector initiatives. In addition to positive direct benefits of technology deployment/transfer programs and SBIR programs, entrepreneurial programs affect change in high-technology employment in concert with existing locational and agglomeration advantages. Rural (i.e. low population density) states tend to benefit by technology development programs. Infrastructure strategy programs also facilitate high technology job growth in places where local advantages already exist. Our results suggest that critics of industrial policy are correct that high technology growth is organic and endogenous, yet state governments are able to "pick winners and losers" in ways that grow their local economy. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Flexible services for the support of research.

PubMed

Turilli, Matteo; Wallom, David; Williams, Chris; Gough, Steve; Curran, Neal; Tarrant, Richard; Bretherton, Dan; Powell, Andy; Johnson, Matt; Harmer, Terry; Wright, Peter; Gordon, John

2013-01-28

Cloud computing has been increasingly adopted by users and providers to promote a flexible, scalable and tailored access to computing resources. Nonetheless, the consolidation of this paradigm has uncovered some of its limitations. Initially devised by corporations with direct control over large amounts of computational resources, cloud computing is now being endorsed by organizations with limited resources or with a more articulated, less direct control over these resources. The challenge for these organizations is to leverage the benefits of cloud computing while dealing with limited and often widely distributed computing resources. This study focuses on the adoption of cloud computing by higher education institutions and addresses two main issues: flexible and on-demand access to a large amount of storage resources, and scalability across a heterogeneous set of cloud infrastructures. The proposed solutions leverage a federated approach to cloud resources in which users access multiple and largely independent cloud infrastructures through a highly customizable broker layer. This approach allows for a uniform authentication and authorization infrastructure, a fine-grained policy specification and the aggregation of accounting and monitoring. Within a loosely coupled federation of cloud infrastructures, users can access vast amount of data without copying them across cloud infrastructures and can scale their resource provisions when the local cloud resources become insufficient.

Impact modeling and prediction of attacks on cyber targets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khalili, Aram; Michalk, Brian; Alford, Lee; Henney, Chris; Gilbert, Logan

2010-04-01

In most organizations, IT (information technology) infrastructure exists to support the organization's mission. The threat of cyber attacks poses risks to this mission. Current network security research focuses on the threat of cyber attacks to the organization's IT infrastructure; however, the risks to the overall mission are rarely analyzed or formalized. This connection of IT infrastructure to the organization's mission is often neglected or carried out ad-hoc. Our work bridges this gap and introduces analyses and formalisms to help organizations understand the mission risks they face from cyber attacks. Modeling an organization's mission vulnerability to cyber attacks requires a description of the IT infrastructure (network model), the organization mission (business model), and how the mission relies on IT resources (correlation model). With this information, proper analysis can show which cyber resources are of tactical importance in a cyber attack, i.e., controlling them enables a large range of cyber attacks. Such analysis also reveals which IT resources contribute most to the organization's mission, i.e., lack of control over them gravely affects the mission. These results can then be used to formulate IT security strategies and explore their trade-offs, which leads to better incident response. This paper presents our methodology for encoding IT infrastructure, organization mission and correlations, our analysis framework, as well as initial experimental results and conclusions.

Adaptive Control for Microgravity Vibration Isolation System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yang, Bong-Jun; Calise, Anthony J.; Craig, James I.; Whorton, Mark S.

2005-01-01

Most active vibration isolation systems that try to a provide quiescent acceleration environment for space science experiments have utilized linear design methods. In this paper, we address adaptive control augmentation of an existing classical controller that employs a high-gain acceleration feedback together with a low-gain position feedback to center the isolated platform. The control design feature includes parametric and dynamic uncertainties because the hardware of the isolation system is built as a payload-level isolator, and the acceleration Sensor exhibits a significant bias. A neural network is incorporated to adaptively compensate for the system uncertainties, and a high-pass filter is introduced to mitigate the effect of the measurement bias. Simulations show that the adaptive control improves the performance of the existing acceleration controller and keep the level of the isolated platform deviation to that of the existing control system.

NiftyNet: a deep-learning platform for medical imaging.

PubMed

Gibson, Eli; Li, Wenqi; Sudre, Carole; Fidon, Lucas; Shakir, Dzhoshkun I; Wang, Guotai; Eaton-Rosen, Zach; Gray, Robert; Doel, Tom; Hu, Yipeng; Whyntie, Tom; Nachev, Parashkev; Modat, Marc; Barratt, Dean C; Ourselin, Sébastien; Cardoso, M Jorge; Vercauteren, Tom

2018-05-01

Medical image analysis and computer-assisted intervention problems are increasingly being addressed with deep-learning-based solutions. Established deep-learning platforms are flexible but do not provide specific functionality for medical image analysis and adapting them for this domain of application requires substantial implementation effort. Consequently, there has been substantial duplication of effort and incompatible infrastructure developed across many research groups. This work presents the open-source NiftyNet platform for deep learning in medical imaging. The ambition of NiftyNet is to accelerate and simplify the development of these solutions, and to provide a common mechanism for disseminating research outputs for the community to use, adapt and build upon. The NiftyNet infrastructure provides a modular deep-learning pipeline for a range of medical imaging applications including segmentation, regression, image generation and representation learning applications. Components of the NiftyNet pipeline including data loading, data augmentation, network architectures, loss functions and evaluation metrics are tailored to, and take advantage of, the idiosyncracies of medical image analysis and computer-assisted intervention. NiftyNet is built on the TensorFlow framework and supports features such as TensorBoard visualization of 2D and 3D images and computational graphs by default. We present three illustrative medical image analysis applications built using NiftyNet infrastructure: (1) segmentation of multiple abdominal organs from computed tomography; (2) image regression to predict computed tomography attenuation maps from brain magnetic resonance images; and (3) generation of simulated ultrasound images for specified anatomical poses. The NiftyNet infrastructure enables researchers to rapidly develop and distribute deep learning solutions for segmentation, regression, image generation and representation learning applications, or extend the platform to new applications. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Infrastructural challenges to better health in maternity facilities in rural Kenya: community and healthworker perceptions.

PubMed

Essendi, Hildah; Johnson, Fiifi Amoako; Madise, Nyovani; Matthews, Zoe; Falkingham, Jane; Bahaj, Abubakr S; James, Patrick; Blunden, Luke

2015-11-09

The efforts and commitments to accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goals for maternal and newborn health (MDGs 4 and 5) in low and middle income countries have focused primarily on providing key medical interventions at maternity facilities to save the lives of women at the time of childbirth, as well as their babies. However, in most rural communities in sub-Saharan, access to maternal and newborn care services is still limited and even where services are available they often lack the infrastructural prerequisites to function at the very basic level in providing essential routine health care services, let alone emergency care. Lists of essential interventions for normal and complicated childbirth, do not take into account these prerequisites, thus the needs of most health facilities in rural communities are ignored, although there is enough evidence that maternal and newborn deaths continue to remain unacceptably high in these areas. This study uses data gathered through qualitative interviews in Kitonyoni and Mwania sub-locations of Makueni County in Eastern Kenya to understand community and provider perceptions of the obstacles faced in providing and accessing maternal and newborn care at health facilities in their localities. The study finds that the community perceives various challenges, most of which are infrastructural, including lack of electricity, water and poor roads that adversely impact the provision and access to essential life-saving maternal and newborn care services in the two sub-locations. The findings and recommendations from this study are important for the attention of policy makers and programme managers in order to improve the state of lower-tier health facilities serving rural communities and to strengthen infrastructure with the aim of making basic routine and emergency obstetric and newborn care services more accessible.

Controlling flexible robot arms using a high speed dynamics process

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jain, Abhinandan (Inventor); Rodriguez, Guillermo (Inventor)

1992-01-01

Described here is a robot controller for a flexible manipulator arm having plural bodies connected at respective movable hinges, and flexible in plural deformation modes. It is operated by computing articulated body qualities for each of the bodies from the respective modal spatial influence vectors, obtaining specified body forces for each of the bodies, and computing modal deformation accelerations of the nodes and hinge accelerations of the hinges from the specified body forces, from the articulated body quantities and from the modal spatial influence vectors. In one embodiment of the invention, the controller further operates by comparing the accelerations thus computed to desired manipulator motion to determine a motion discrepancy, and correcting the specified body forces so as to reduce the motion discrepancy. The manipulator bodies and hinges are characterized by respective vectors of deformation and hinge configuration variables. Computing modal deformation accelerations and hinge accelerations is carried out for each of the bodies, beginning with the outermost body by computing a residual body force from a residual body force of a previous body, computing a resultant hinge acceleration from the body force, and then, for each one of the bodies beginning with the innermost body, computing a modal body acceleration from a modal body acceleration of a previous body, computing a modal deformation acceleration and hinge acceleration from the resulting hinge acceleration and from the modal body acceleration.

Cultured Construction: Global Evidence of the Impact of National Values on Piped-to-Premises Water Infrastructure Development.

PubMed

Kaminsky, Jessica A

2016-07-19

In 2016, the global community undertook the Sustainable Development Goals. One of these goals seeks to achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all people by the year 2030. In support of this undertaking, this paper seeks to discover the cultural work done by piped water infrastructure across 33 nations with developed and developing economies that have experienced change in the percentage of population served by piped-to-premises water infrastructure at the national level of analysis. To do so, I regressed the 1990-2012 change in piped-to-premises water infrastructure coverage against Hofstede's cultural dimensions, controlling for per capita GDP, the 1990 baseline level of coverage, percent urban population, overall 1990-2012 change in improved sanitation (all technologies), and per capita freshwater resources. Separate analyses were carried out for the urban, rural, and aggregate national contexts. Hofstede's dimensions provide a measure of cross-cultural difference; high or low scores are not in any way intended to represent better or worse but rather serve as a quantitative way to compare aggregate preferences for ways of being and doing. High scores in the cultural dimensions of Power Distance, Individualism-Collectivism, and Uncertainty Avoidance explain increased access to piped-to-premises water infrastructure in the rural context. Higher Power Distance and Uncertainty Avoidance scores are also statistically significant for increased coverage in the urban and national aggregate contexts. These results indicate that, as presently conceived, piped-to-premises water infrastructure fits best with spatial contexts that prefer hierarchy and centralized control. Furthermore, water infrastructure is understood to reduce uncertainty regarding the provision of individually valued benefits. The results of this analysis identify global trends that enable engineers and policy makers to design and manage more culturally appropriate and socially sustainable water infrastructure by better fitting technologies to user preferences.

Resilience in social insect infrastructure systems

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Both human and insect societies depend on complex and highly coordinated infrastructure systems, such as communication networks, supply chains and transportation networks. Like human-designed infrastructure systems, those of social insects are regularly subject to disruptions such as natural disasters, blockages or breaks in the transportation network, fluctuations in supply and/or demand, outbreaks of disease and loss of individuals. Unlike human-designed systems, there is no deliberate planning or centralized control system; rather, individual insects make simple decisions based on local information. How do these highly decentralized, leaderless systems deal with disruption? What factors make a social insect system resilient, and which factors lead to its collapse? In this review, we bring together literature on resilience in three key social insect infrastructure systems: transportation networks, supply chains and communication networks. We describe how systems differentially invest in three pathways to resilience: resistance, redirection or reconstruction. We suggest that investment in particular resistance pathways is related to the severity and frequency of disturbance. In the final section, we lay out a prospectus for future research. Human infrastructure networks are rapidly becoming decentralized and interconnected; indeed, more like social insect infrastructures. Human infrastructure management might therefore learn from social insect researchers, who can in turn make use of the mature analytical and simulation tools developed for the study of human infrastructure resilience. PMID:26962030

Comparing joint kinematics and center of mass acceleration as feedback for control of standing balance by functional neuromuscular stimulation.

PubMed

Nataraj, Raviraj; Audu, Musa L; Triolo, Ronald J

2012-05-06

The purpose of this study was to determine the comparative effectiveness of feedback control systems for maintaining standing balance based on joint kinematics or total body center of mass (COM) acceleration, and assess their clinical practicality for standing neuroprostheses after spinal cord injury (SCI). In simulation, controller performance was measured according to the upper extremity effort required to stabilize a three-dimensional model of bipedal standing against a variety of postural disturbances. Three cases were investigated: proportional-derivative control based on joint kinematics alone, COM acceleration feedback alone, and combined joint kinematics and COM acceleration feedback. Additionally, pilot data was collected during external perturbations of an individual with SCI standing with functional neuromuscular stimulation (FNS), and the resulting joint kinematics and COM acceleration data was analyzed. Compared to the baseline case of maximal constant muscle excitations, the three control systems reduced the mean upper extremity loading by 51%, 43% and 56%, respectively against external force-pulse perturbations. Controller robustness was defined as the degradation in performance with increasing levels of input errors expected with clinical deployment of sensor-based feedback. At error levels typical for body-mounted inertial sensors, performance degradation due to sensor noise and placement were negligible. However, at typical tracking error levels, performance could degrade as much as 86% for joint kinematics feedback and 35% for COM acceleration feedback. Pilot data indicated that COM acceleration could be estimated with a few well-placed sensors and efficiently captures information related to movement synergies observed during perturbed bipedal standing following SCI. Overall, COM acceleration feedback may be a more feasible solution for control of standing with FNS given its superior robustness and small number of inputs required.

Comparing joint kinematics and center of mass acceleration as feedback for control of standing balance by functional neuromuscular stimulation

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background The purpose of this study was to determine the comparative effectiveness of feedback control systems for maintaining standing balance based on joint kinematics or total body center of mass (COM) acceleration, and assess their clinical practicality for standing neuroprostheses after spinal cord injury (SCI). Methods In simulation, controller performance was measured according to the upper extremity effort required to stabilize a three-dimensional model of bipedal standing against a variety of postural disturbances. Three cases were investigated: proportional-derivative control based on joint kinematics alone, COM acceleration feedback alone, and combined joint kinematics and COM acceleration feedback. Additionally, pilot data was collected during external perturbations of an individual with SCI standing with functional neuromuscular stimulation (FNS), and the resulting joint kinematics and COM acceleration data was analyzed. Results Compared to the baseline case of maximal constant muscle excitations, the three control systems reduced the mean upper extremity loading by 51%, 43% and 56%, respectively against external force-pulse perturbations. Controller robustness was defined as the degradation in performance with increasing levels of input errors expected with clinical deployment of sensor-based feedback. At error levels typical for body-mounted inertial sensors, performance degradation due to sensor noise and placement were negligible. However, at typical tracking error levels, performance could degrade as much as 86% for joint kinematics feedback and 35% for COM acceleration feedback. Pilot data indicated that COM acceleration could be estimated with a few well-placed sensors and efficiently captures information related to movement synergies observed during perturbed bipedal standing following SCI. Conclusions Overall, COM acceleration feedback may be a more feasible solution for control of standing with FNS given its superior robustness and small number of inputs required. PMID:22559852

ibex: An open infrastructure software platform to facilitate collaborative work in radiomics

PubMed Central

Zhang, Lifei; Fried, David V.; Fave, Xenia J.; Hunter, Luke A.; Court, Laurence E.

2015-01-01

Purpose: Radiomics, which is the high-throughput extraction and analysis of quantitative image features, has been shown to have considerable potential to quantify the tumor phenotype. However, at present, a lack of software infrastructure has impeded the development of radiomics and its applications. Therefore, the authors developed the imaging biomarker explorer (ibex), an open infrastructure software platform that flexibly supports common radiomics workflow tasks such as multimodality image data import and review, development of feature extraction algorithms, model validation, and consistent data sharing among multiple institutions. Methods: The ibex software package was developed using the matlab and c/c++ programming languages. The software architecture deploys the modern model-view-controller, unit testing, and function handle programming concepts to isolate each quantitative imaging analysis task, to validate if their relevant data and algorithms are fit for use, and to plug in new modules. On one hand, ibex is self-contained and ready to use: it has implemented common data importers, common image filters, and common feature extraction algorithms. On the other hand, ibex provides an integrated development environment on top of matlab and c/c++, so users are not limited to its built-in functions. In the ibex developer studio, users can plug in, debug, and test new algorithms, extending ibex’s functionality. ibex also supports quality assurance for data and feature algorithms: image data, regions of interest, and feature algorithm-related data can be reviewed, validated, and/or modified. More importantly, two key elements in collaborative workflows, the consistency of data sharing and the reproducibility of calculation result, are embedded in the ibex workflow: image data, feature algorithms, and model validation including newly developed ones from different users can be easily and consistently shared so that results can be more easily reproduced between institutions. Results: Researchers with a variety of technical skill levels, including radiation oncologists, physicists, and computer scientists, have found the ibex software to be intuitive, powerful, and easy to use. ibex can be run at any computer with the windows operating system and 1GB RAM. The authors fully validated the implementation of all importers, preprocessing algorithms, and feature extraction algorithms. Windows version 1.0 beta of stand-alone ibex and ibex’s source code can be downloaded. Conclusions: The authors successfully implemented ibex, an open infrastructure software platform that streamlines common radiomics workflow tasks. Its transparency, flexibility, and portability can greatly accelerate the pace of radiomics research and pave the way toward successful clinical translation. PMID:25735289

IBEX: an open infrastructure software platform to facilitate collaborative work in radiomics.

PubMed

Zhang, Lifei; Fried, David V; Fave, Xenia J; Hunter, Luke A; Yang, Jinzhong; Court, Laurence E

2015-03-01

Radiomics, which is the high-throughput extraction and analysis of quantitative image features, has been shown to have considerable potential to quantify the tumor phenotype. However, at present, a lack of software infrastructure has impeded the development of radiomics and its applications. Therefore, the authors developed the imaging biomarker explorer (IBEX), an open infrastructure software platform that flexibly supports common radiomics workflow tasks such as multimodality image data import and review, development of feature extraction algorithms, model validation, and consistent data sharing among multiple institutions. The IBEX software package was developed using the MATLAB and c/c++ programming languages. The software architecture deploys the modern model-view-controller, unit testing, and function handle programming concepts to isolate each quantitative imaging analysis task, to validate if their relevant data and algorithms are fit for use, and to plug in new modules. On one hand, IBEX is self-contained and ready to use: it has implemented common data importers, common image filters, and common feature extraction algorithms. On the other hand, IBEX provides an integrated development environment on top of MATLAB and c/c++, so users are not limited to its built-in functions. In the IBEX developer studio, users can plug in, debug, and test new algorithms, extending IBEX's functionality. IBEX also supports quality assurance for data and feature algorithms: image data, regions of interest, and feature algorithm-related data can be reviewed, validated, and/or modified. More importantly, two key elements in collaborative workflows, the consistency of data sharing and the reproducibility of calculation result, are embedded in the IBEX workflow: image data, feature algorithms, and model validation including newly developed ones from different users can be easily and consistently shared so that results can be more easily reproduced between institutions. Researchers with a variety of technical skill levels, including radiation oncologists, physicists, and computer scientists, have found the IBEX software to be intuitive, powerful, and easy to use. IBEX can be run at any computer with the windows operating system and 1GB RAM. The authors fully validated the implementation of all importers, preprocessing algorithms, and feature extraction algorithms. Windows version 1.0 beta of stand-alone IBEX and IBEX's source code can be downloaded. The authors successfully implemented IBEX, an open infrastructure software platform that streamlines common radiomics workflow tasks. Its transparency, flexibility, and portability can greatly accelerate the pace of radiomics research and pave the way toward successful clinical translation.

A world of cities and the end of TB

PubMed Central

Prasad, Amit; Ross, Alex; Rosenberg, Paul; Dye, Christopher

2016-01-01

The WHO's End TB Strategy aims to reduce TB deaths by 95% and incidence by 90% between 2015 and 2035. As the world rapidly urbanizes, more people could have access to better infrastructure and services to help combat poverty and infectious diseases, including TB. And yet large numbers of people now live in overcrowded slums, with poor access to urban health services, amplifying the burden of TB. An alignment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for health and for urban development provides an opportunity to accelerate the overall decline in infection and disease, and to create cities free of TB. PMID:26884491

Sustainable Energy in Remote Indonesian Grids. Accelerating Project Development

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

Hirsch, Brian; Burman, Kari; Davidson, Carolyn

2015-06-30

Sustainable Energy for Remote Indonesian Grids (SERIG) is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) funded initiative to support Indonesia’s efforts to develop clean energy and increase access to electricity in remote locations throughout the country. With DOE support, the SERIG implementation team consists of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Winrock International’s Jakarta, Indonesia office. Through technical assistance that includes techno-economic feasibility evaluation for selected projects, government-to-government coordination, infrastructure assessment, stakeholder outreach, and policy analysis, SERIG seeks to provide opportunities for individual project development and a collective framework for national replication office.

Role of information systems in controlling costs: the electronic medical record (EMR) and the high-performance computing and communications (HPCC) efforts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kun, Luis G.

1994-12-01

On October 18, 1991, the IEEE-USA produced an entity statement which endorsed the vital importance of the High Performance Computer and Communications Act of 1991 (HPCC) and called for the rapid implementation of all its elements. Efforts are now underway to develop a Computer Based Patient Record (CBPR), the National Information Infrastructure (NII) as part of the HPCC, and the so-called `Patient Card'. Multiple legislative initiatives which address these and related information technology issues are pending in Congress. Clearly, a national information system will greatly affect the way health care delivery is provided to the United States public. Timely and reliable information represents a critical element in any initiative to reform the health care system as well as to protect and improve the health of every person. Appropriately used, information technologies offer a vital means of improving the quality of patient care, increasing access to universal care and lowering overall costs within a national health care program. Health care reform legislation should reflect increased budgetary support and a legal mandate for the creation of a national health care information system by: (1) constructing a National Information Infrastructure; (2) building a Computer Based Patient Record System; (3) bringing the collective resources of our National Laboratories to bear in developing and implementing the NII and CBPR, as well as a security system with which to safeguard the privacy rights of patients and the physician-patient privilege; and (4) utilizing Government (e.g. DOD, DOE) capabilities (technology and human resources) to maximize resource utilization, create new jobs and accelerate technology transfer to address health care issues.

Accelerator Technology Division annual report, FY 1989

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

Not Available

1990-06-01

This paper discusses: accelerator physics and special projects; experiments and injectors; magnetic optics and beam diagnostics; accelerator design and engineering; radio-frequency technology; accelerator theory and simulation; free-electron laser technology; accelerator controls and automation; and high power microwave sources and effects.

Thermal Modeling for Pulsed Inductive FRC Plasmoid Thrusters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pfaff, Michael

Due to the rising importance of space based infrastructure, long-range robotic space missions, and the need for active attitude control for spacecraft, research into Electric Propulsion is becoming increasingly important. Electric Propulsion (EP) systems utilize electric power to accelerate ions in order to produce thrust. Unlike traditional chemical propulsion, this means that thrust levels are relatively low. The trade-off is that EP thrusters have very high specific impulses (Isp), and can therefore make do with far less onboard propellant than cold gas, monopropellant, or bipropellant engines. As a consequence of the high power levels used to accelerate the ionized propellant, there is a mass and cost penalty in terms of solar panels and a power processing unit. Due to the large power consumption (and waste heat) from electric propulsion thrusters, accurate measurements and predictions of thermal losses are needed. Excessive heating in sensitive locations within a thruster may lead to premature failure of vital components. Between the fixed cost required to purchase these components, as well as the man-hours needed to assemble (or replace) them, attempting to build a high-power thruster without reliable thermal modeling can be expensive. This paper will explain the usage of FEM modeling and experimental tests in characterizing the ElectroMagnetic Plasmoid Thruster (EMPT) and the Electrodeless Lorentz Force (ELF) thruster at the MSNW LLC facility in Redmond, Washington. The EMPT thruster model is validated using an experimental setup, and steady state temperatures are predicted for vacuum conditions. Preliminary analysis of the ELF thruster indicates possible material failure in absence of an active cooling system for driving electronics and for certain power levels.

Impact of organosulfur content on diesel fuel stability and implications for carbon steel corrosion.

PubMed

Lyles, Christopher N; Aktas, Deniz F; Duncan, Kathleen E; Callaghan, Amy V; Stevenson, Bradley S; Suflita, Joseph M

2013-06-04

Ultralow sulfur diesel (ULSD) fuel has been integrated into the worldwide fuel infrastructure to help meet a variety of environmental regulations. However, desulfurization alters the properties of diesel fuel in ways that could potentially impact its biological stability. Fuel desulfurization might predispose ULSD to biodeterioration relative to sulfur-rich fuels and in marine systems accelerate rates of sulfate reduction, sulfide production, and carbon steel biocorrosion. To test such prospects, an inoculum from a seawater-compensated ballast tank was amended with fuel from the same ship or with refinery fractions of ULSD, low- (LSD), and high sulfur diesel (HSD) and monitored for sulfate depletion. The rates of sulfate removal in incubations amended with the refinery fuels were elevated relative to the fuel-unamended controls but statistically indistinguishable (∼50 μM SO4/day), but they were found to be roughly twice as fast (∼100 μM SO4/day) when the ship's own diesel was used as a source of carbon and energy. Thus, anaerobic hydrocarbon metabolism likely occurred in these incubations regardless of fuel sulfur content. Microbial community structure from each incubation was also largely independent of the fuel amendment type, based on molecular analysis of 16S rRNA sequences. Two other inocula known to catalyze anaerobic hydrocarbon metabolism showed no differences in fuel-associated sulfate reduction or methanogenesis rates between ULSD, LSD, and HSD. These findings suggest that the stability of diesel is independent of the fuel organosulfur compound status and reasons for the accelerated biocorrosion associated with the use of ULSD should be sought elsewhere.

The Infrastructure Necessary to Support a Sustainable Material Protection, Control and Accounting (MPC&A) Program in Russia

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

Bachner, Katherine M.; Mladineo, Stephen V.

The NNSA Material Protection, Control, and Accounting (MPC&A) program has been engaged for fifteen years in upgrading the security of nuclear materials in Russia. Part of the effort has been to establish the conditions necessary to ensure the long-term sustainability of nuclear security. A sustainable program of nuclear security requires the creation of an indigenous infrastructure, starting with sustained high level government commitment. This includes organizational development, training, maintenance, regulations, inspections, and a strong nuclear security culture. The provision of modern physical protection, control, and accounting equipment to the Russian Federation alone is not sufficient. Comprehensive infrastructure projects support themore » Russian Federation's ability to maintain the risk reduction achieved through upgrades to the equipment. To illustrate the contributions to security, and challenges of implementation, this paper discusses the history and next steps for an indigenous Tamper Indication Device (TID) program, and a Radiation Portal Monitoring (RPM) program.« less

The Role of Transformative Leadership, ICT-Infrastructure and Learning Climate in Teachers' Use of Digital Learning Materials during Their Classes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vermeulen, Marjan; Kreijns, Karel; van Buuren, Hans; Van Acker, Frederik

2017-01-01

This study investigated whether school organizational variables (ie, transformative leadership (TL), ICT-infrastructure (technical and social) and organizational learning climate were related to teachers' dispositional variables (ie, attitude, perceived norm and perceived behavior control [PBC]). The direct and indirect influences of the…

Creating Technology Infrastructures in a Rural School District: A Partnership Approach.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jensen, Dennis

Rural schools face significant challenges in upgrading their technology infrastructures. Rural school districts tend to have older school buildings that have multiple problems and lack climate control, adequate space, and necessary wiring. In rural districts, it may be difficult to find the leadership and expertise needed to provide professional…

76 FR 19122 - Record of Decision (ROD) for Authorizing the Use of Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Sand Resources...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-04-06

... Aeronautics and Space Administration's Wallops Flight Facility Shoreline Restoration and Infrastructure... authorize the use of OCS sand resources in National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) Wallops... infrastructure on the WFF (such as rocket launch pads, runways, and launch control centers) valued at over $1...

Performance results from Small- and Large-Scale System Monitoring and green Infrastructure in Kansas City - slides

EPA Science Inventory

In 2010, Kansas City, MO (KCMO) signed a consent degree with EPA on combined sewer overflows. The City decided to use adaptive management in order to extensively utilize green infrastructure (GI) in lieu of, and in addition to, structural controls. KCMO installed 130 GI storm co...

77 FR 65125 - Approval and Promulgation of Implementation Plans; Georgia 110(a)(1) and (2) Infrastructure...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-10-25

... controls are enforced through the associated SIP rules or Federal Implementation Plans (FIPs). Any purchase... Promulgation of Implementation Plans; Georgia 110(a)(1) and (2) Infrastructure Requirements for the 1997 and... Agency (EPA). ACTION: Final rule. SUMMARY: EPA is taking final action to approve the State Implementation...

Conception of the system for traffic measurements based on piezoelectric foils

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Płaczek, M.

2016-08-01

A concept of mechatronic system for traffic measurements based on the piezoelectric transducers used as sensors is presented. The aim of the work project is to theoretically and experimentally analyse the dynamic response of road infrastructure forced by vehicles motion. The subject of the project is therefore on the borderline of civil engineering and mechanical and covers a wide range of issues in both these areas. To measure the dynamic response of the tested pieces of road infrastructure application of piezoelectric, in particular piezoelectric transducers in the form of piezoelectric films (MFC - Macro Fiber Composite) is proposed. The purpose is to verify the possibility to use composite piezoelectric transducers as sensors used in traffic surveillance systems - innovative methods of controlling the road infrastructure and traffic. Presented paper reports works that were done in order to receive the basic information about analysed systems and their behaviour under excitation by passing vehicles. It is very important to verify if such kind of systems can be controlled by the analysis of the dynamic response of road infrastructure measured using piezoelectric transducers. Obtained results show that it could be possible.

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

Chung, Ching-Yen; Youn, Edward; Chynoweth, Joshua

As Electric Vehicles (EVs) increase, charging infrastructure becomes more important. When during the day there is a power shortage, the charging infrastructure should have the options to either shut off the power to the charging stations or to lower the power to the EVs in order to satisfy the needs of the grid. This paper proposes a design for a smart charging infrastructure capable of providing power to several EVs from one circuit by multiplexing power and providing charge control and safety systems to prevent electric shock. The safety design is implemented in different levels that include both the servermore » and the smart charging stations. With this smart charging infrastructure, the shortage of energy in a local grid could be solved by our EV charging management system.« less

Innovative neuro-fuzzy system of smart transport infrastructure for road traffic safety

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beinarovica, Anna; Gorobetz, Mikhail; Levchenkov, Anatoly

2017-09-01

The proposed study describes applying of neural network and fuzzy logic in transport control for safety improvement by evaluation of accidents’ risk by intelligent infrastructure devices. Risk evaluation is made by following multiple-criteria: danger, changeability and influence of changes for risk increasing. Neuro-fuzzy algorithms are described and proposed for task solution. The novelty of the proposed system is proved by deep analysis of known studies in the field. The structure of neuro-fuzzy system for risk evaluation and mathematical model is described in the paper. The simulation model of the intelligent devices for transport infrastructure is proposed to simulate different situations, assess the risks and propose the possible actions for infrastructure or vehicles to minimize the risk of possible accidents.

The EGI-Engage EPOS Competence Center - Interoperating heterogeneous AAI mechanisms and Orchestrating distributed computational resources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bailo, Daniele; Scardaci, Diego; Spinuso, Alessandro; Sterzel, Mariusz; Schwichtenberg, Horst; Gemuend, Andre

2016-04-01

The mission of EGI-Engage project [1] is to accelerate the implementation of the Open Science Commons vision, where researchers from all disciplines have easy and open access to the innovative digital services, data, knowledge and expertise they need for collaborative and excellent research. The Open Science Commons is grounded on three pillars: the e-Infrastructure Commons, an ecosystem of services that constitute the foundation layer of distributed infrastructures; the Open Data Commons, where observations, results and applications are increasingly available for scientific research and for anyone to use and reuse; and the Knowledge Commons, in which communities have shared ownership of knowledge, participate in the co-development of software and are technically supported to exploit state-of-the-art digital services. To develop the Knowledge Commons, EGI-Engage is supporting the work of a set of community-specific Competence Centres, with participants from user communities (scientific institutes), National Grid Initiatives (NGIs), technology and service providers. Competence Centres collect and analyse requirements, integrate community-specific applications into state-of-the-art services, foster interoperability across e-Infrastructures, and evolve services through a user-centric development model. One of these Competence Centres is focussed on the European Plate Observing System (EPOS) [2] as representative of the solid earth science communities. EPOS is a pan-European long-term plan to integrate data, software and services from the distributed (and already existing) Research Infrastructures all over Europe, in the domain of the solid earth science. EPOS will enable innovative multidisciplinary research for a better understanding of the Earth's physical and chemical processes that control earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, ground instability and tsunami as well as the processes driving tectonics and Earth's surface dynamics. EPOS will improve our ability to better manage the use of the subsurface of the Earth. EPOS started its Implementation Phase in October 2015 and is now actively working in order to integrate multidisciplinary data into a single e-infrastructure. Multidisciplinary data are organized and governed by the Thematic Core Services (TCS) - European wide organizations and e-Infrastructure providing community specific data and data products - and are driven by various scientific communities encompassing a wide spectrum of Earth science disciplines. TCS data, data products and services will be integrated into the Integrated Core Services (ICS) system, that will ensure their interoperability and access to these services by the scientific community as well as other users within the society. The EPOS competence center (EPOS CC) goal is to tackle two of the main challenges that the ICS are going to face in the near future, by taking advantage of the technical solutions provided by EGI. In order to do this, we will present the two pilot use cases the EGI-EPOS CC is developing: 1) The AAI pilot, dealing with the provision of transparent and homogeneous access to the ICS infrastructure to users owning different kind of credentials (e.g. eduGain, OpenID Connect, X509 certificates etc.). Here the focus is on the mechanisms which allow the credential delegation. 2) The computational pilot, Improve the back-end services of an existing application in the field of Computational Seismology, developed in the context of the EC funded project VERCE. The application allows the processing and the comparison of data resulting from the simulation of seismic wave propagation following a real earthquake and real measurements recorded by seismographs. While the simulation data is produced directly by the users and stored in a Data Management System, the observations need to be pre-staged from institutional data-services, which are maintained by the community itself. This use case aims at exploiting the EGI FedCloud e-infrastructure for Data Intensive analysis and also explores possible interaction with other Common Data Infrastructure initiatives as EUDAT. In the presentation, the state of the art of the two use cases, together with the open challenges and the future application will be discussed. Also, possible integration of EGI solutions with EPOS and other e-infrastructure providers will be considered. [1] EGI-ENGAGE https://www.egi.eu/about/egi-engage/ [2] EPOS http://www.epos-eu.org/

ISHN Ion Source Control System. First Steps Toward an EPICS Based ESS-Bilbao Accelerator Control System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eguiraun, M.; Jugo, J.; Arredondo, I.; del Campo, M.; Feuchtwanger, J.; Etxebarria, V.; Bermejo, F. J.

2013-04-01

ISHN (Ion Source Hydrogen Negative) consists of a Penning type ion source in operation at ESS-Bilbao facilities. From the control point of view, this source is representative of the first steps and decisions taken towards the general control architecture of the whole accelerator to be built. The ISHN main control system is based on a PXI architecture, under a real-time controller which is programmed using LabVIEW. This system, with additional elements, is connected to the general control system. The whole system is based on EPICS for the control network, and the modularization of the communication layers of the accelerator plays an important role in the proposed control architecture.

Decay-Accelerating Factor Mitigates Controlled Hemorrhage-Instigated Intestinal and Lung Tissue Damage and Hyperkalemia in Swine

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-07-01

Decay-Accelerating Factor Mitigates Controlled Hemorrhage- Instigated Intestinal and Lung Tissue Damage and Hyperkalemia in Swine Jurandir J. Dalle...DAF treatment improved hemorrhage- induced hyperkalemia . The protective effects of DAF appear to be related to its ability to reduce tissue complement...Decay-accelerating factor mitigates controlled hemorrhage-instigated intestinal and lung tissue damage and hyperkalemia in swine 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER

Optimization of motion control laws for tether crawler or elevator systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Swenson, Frank R.; Von Tiesenhausen, Georg

1988-01-01

Based on the proposal of a motion control law by Lorenzini (1987), a method is developed for optimizing motion control laws for tether crawler or elevator systems in terms of the performance measures of travel time, the smoothness of acceleration and deceleration, and the maximum values of velocity and acceleration. The Lorenzini motion control law, based on powers of the hyperbolic tangent function, is modified by the addition of a constant-velocity section, and this modified function is then optimized by parameter selections to minimize the peak acceleration value for a selected travel time or to minimize travel time for the selected peak values of velocity and acceleration. It is shown that the addition of a constant-velocity segment permits further optimization of the motion control law performance.

Systems and methods for cylindrical hall thrusters with independently controllable ionization and acceleration stages

DOEpatents

Diamant, Kevin David; Raitses, Yevgeny; Fisch, Nathaniel Joseph

2014-05-13

Systems and methods may be provided for cylindrical Hall thrusters with independently controllable ionization and acceleration stages. The systems and methods may include a cylindrical channel having a center axial direction, a gas inlet for directing ionizable gas to an ionization section of the cylindrical channel, an ionization device that ionizes at least a portion of the ionizable gas within the ionization section to generate ionized gas, and an acceleration device distinct from the ionization device. The acceleration device may provide an axial electric field for an acceleration section of the cylindrical channel to accelerate the ionized gas through the acceleration section, where the axial electric field has an axial direction in relation to the center axial direction. The ionization section and the acceleration section of the cylindrical channel may be substantially non-overlapping.

Accelerating gradient improvement using shape-tailor laser front in radiation pressure acceleration progress

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, W. P.; Shen, B. F.; Xu, Z. Z.

2017-05-01

The accelerating gradient of a proton beam is crucial for stable radiation pressure acceleration (RPA) because the multi-dimensional instabilities increase γ times slower in the relativistic region. In this paper, a shape-tailored laser is proposed to significantly accelerate the ions in a controllable high accelerating gradient. In this method, the fastest ions initially rest in the middle of the foil are controlled to catch the compressed electron layer at the end of the hole-boring stage, thus the light-sail stage can start as soon as possible. Then the compressed electron layer is accelerated tightly together with the fastest ions by the shaped laser intensity, which further increases the accelerating gradient in the light-sail stage. Such tailored pulse may be beneficial for the RPA driven by the 10-fs 10 petawatt laser in the future.

New 'patent accelerated care environment' aims to facilitate work flow, free up ED for acute care needs.

PubMed

2012-02-01

Faced with rising acuity levels and surging demand, Virginia Mason Medical Center modified the Clinical Decision Unit concept used in many EDs, and developed a new Patient Accelerated Care Environment (PACE) to care for observation patients, process patients for discharge, and to prepare patients for admission.The approach is designed to utilize ED beds for initial processing of patients, allowing resuscitative care if needed, and treating and releasing the patients with quick care needs. Using the Virginia Mason Production System, a methodology that is modeled after Toyota production techniques, developers designed an optimal work flow pattern and then built infrastructure to facilitate that process. All patients who present to the ED for care are seen by the ED team through a "team greet" approach. Approximately 35% to 40% of patients who come to the ED for care are transferred to the PACE unit. Patients assigned to the PACE unit typically remain there for 4 to 48 hours, depending on their care needs.

Engaging local industry in the development of basic research infrastructure and instrumentation – The case of HIE-ISOLDE and ESS Scandinavia

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

Fahlander, Claes, E-mail: claes.fahlander@nuclear.lu.se

Two world-class research facilities, the European Spallation Source, ESS, and the light-source facility MAX-IV, are being built in southern Sweden. They will primarily, when completed, be used for research in the fields of material sciences, life sciences, medicine and pharmacology. Their construction and the operation and maintenance of them for many years will create new business opportunities for companies in Europe in general and in Sweden, Denmark and Norway in particular in many different sectors. A project, CATE, Cluster for Accelerator Technology, was set up with the aim to strengthen the skills of companies in the Öresund-Kattegat-Skagerrak region in Scandinaviamore » in the field of accelerator technology such that they will become competitive and be able to take advantage of the potential of these two research facilities. CATE was strategically important and has helped to create partnerships between companies and new business opportunities in the region.« less

High-performance parallel approaches for three-dimensional light detection and ranging point clouds gridding

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rizki, Permata Nur Miftahur; Lee, Heezin; Lee, Minsu; Oh, Sangyoon

2017-01-01

With the rapid advance of remote sensing technology, the amount of three-dimensional point-cloud data has increased extraordinarily, requiring faster processing in the construction of digital elevation models. There have been several attempts to accelerate the computation using parallel methods; however, little attention has been given to investigating different approaches for selecting the most suited parallel programming model for a given computing environment. We present our findings and insights identified by implementing three popular high-performance parallel approaches (message passing interface, MapReduce, and GPGPU) on time demanding but accurate kriging interpolation. The performances of the approaches are compared by varying the size of the grid and input data. In our empirical experiment, we demonstrate the significant acceleration by all three approaches compared to a C-implemented sequential-processing method. In addition, we also discuss the pros and cons of each method in terms of usability, complexity infrastructure, and platform limitation to give readers a better understanding of utilizing those parallel approaches for gridding purposes.

Detection of the local sliding in the tyre-road contact by measuring vibrations on the inner liner of the tyre

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Niskanen, Arto J.; Tuononen, Ari J.

2017-04-01

Intelligent tyres can provide vital information from the tyre-road contact, especially for autonomous cars and intelligent infrastructure. In this paper, the acceleration measured on the inner liner of a tyre is used to detect the local sliding in the tyre-road contact. The Hilbert-Huang transform is utilized to extract the relevant vibration components and localize them in the wheel rotation angle domain. The energy of the vibration in the trailing part of the contact is shown to increase in low-friction conditions which can be related to the sliding of the tread part as a result of the shear stresses exceeding the local friction limit. To separate the effect of the surface roughness and the friction, different road surfaces were used in the measurements. In addition, the effects of different driving manoeuvres on the measured accelerations and the propagation of the sliding zone in the contact patch during braking are illustrated.

Final Report: Conceptual Design of an Electron Accelerator for Bio-Solid Waste Treatment

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

Cooper, Charles

Several studies have identified electron beam (EB) irradiation of municipal wastewater and bio-solids as an effective and promising approach to the environmental remediation of the enormous quantities of human waste created by a growing world-wide population and increased urbanization. However, despite the technical success of experimental and pilot programs over the last several decades, the technique is still not in commercial use anywhere in the world. In addition, the report also identifies the need for “Financial and infrastructure participation from a utility for demonstration project” and “Education and awareness of safety of utilizing electron beam technology” as two additional roadblocksmore » preventing technology adoption of EB treatment for bio-solids. In this concept design, we begin to address these barriers by working with Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) and by the applying the latest accelerator technologies developed at Fermilab and within the DOE Office of Science laboratory complex.« less

Engaging local industry in the development of basic research infrastructure and instrumentation - The case of HIE-ISOLDE and ESS Scandinavia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fahlander, Claes

2016-07-01

Two world-class research facilities, the European Spallation Source, ESS, and the light-source facility MAX-IV, are being built in southern Sweden. They will primarily, when completed, be used for research in the fields of material sciences, life sciences, medicine and pharmacology. Their construction and the operation and maintenance of them for many years will create new business opportunities for companies in Europe in general and in Sweden, Denmark and Norway in particular in many different sectors. A project, CATE, Cluster for Accelerator Technology, was set up with the aim to strengthen the skills of companies in the Öresund-Kattegat-Skagerrak region in Scandinavia in the field of accelerator technology such that they will become competitive and be able to take advantage of the potential of these two research facilities. CATE was strategically important and has helped to create partnerships between companies and new business opportunities in the region.

Urbanization accelerates long-term salinization and alkalinization of fresh water

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kaushal, S.; Duan, S.; Doody, T.; Haq, S.; Smith, R. M.; Newcomer Johnson, T. A.; Delaney Newcomb, K.; Gorman, J. K.; Bowman, N.; Mayer, P. M.; Wood, K. L.; Belt, K.; Stack, W.

2017-12-01

Human dominated land-use increases transport a major ions in streams due to anthropogenic salts and accelerated weathering. We show long-term trends in calcium, magnesium, sodium, alkalinity, and hardness over 50 years in the Baltimore metropolitan region and elsewhere. We also examine how major ion concentrations have increased significantly with impervious surface cover in watersheds across land use. Base cations show strong relationships with acid anions, which illustrates the coupling of major biogeochemical cycles in urban watersheds over time. Longitudinal patterns in major ions can also show increasing trends from headwaters to coastal waters, which suggests coupled biogeochemical cycles over space. We present new results from manipulative experiments and long-term monitoring across different urban regions regarding patterns and processes of salinization and alkalinization. Overall, our work demonstrates that urbanization dramatically increases major ions, ionic strength, and pH over decades from headwaters to coastal waters, which impacts the integrity of aquatic life, infrastructure, drinking water, and coastal ocean alkalinization.

A marked correlation function for constraining modified gravity models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

White, Martin

2016-11-01

Future large scale structure surveys will provide increasingly tight constraints on our cosmological model. These surveys will report results on the distance scale and growth rate of perturbations through measurements of Baryon Acoustic Oscillations and Redshift-Space Distortions. It is interesting to ask: what further analyses should become routine, so as to test as-yet-unknown models of cosmic acceleration? Models which aim to explain the accelerated expansion rate of the Universe by modifications to General Relativity often invoke screening mechanisms which can imprint a non-standard density dependence on their predictions. This suggests density-dependent clustering as a `generic' constraint. This paper argues that a density-marked correlation function provides a density-dependent statistic which is easy to compute and report and requires minimal additional infrastructure beyond what is routinely available to such survey analyses. We give one realization of this idea and study it using low order perturbation theory. We encourage groups developing modified gravity theories to see whether such statistics provide discriminatory power for their models.

Effects of energy chirp on bunch length measurement in linear accelerator beams

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sabato, L.; Arpaia, P.; Giribono, A.; Liccardo, A.; Mostacci, A.; Palumbo, L.; Vaccarezza, C.; Variola, A.

2017-08-01

The effects of assumptions about bunch properties on the accuracy of the measurement method of the bunch length based on radio frequency deflectors (RFDs) in electron linear accelerators (LINACs) are investigated. In particular, when the electron bunch at the RFD has a non-negligible energy chirp (i.e. a correlation between the longitudinal positions and energies of the particle), the measurement is affected by a deterministic intrinsic error, which is directly related to the RFD phase offset. A case study on this effect in the electron LINAC of a gamma beam source at the Extreme Light Infrastructure-Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP) is reported. The relative error is estimated by using an electron generation and tracking (ELEGANT) code to define the reference measurements of the bunch length. The relative error is proved to increase linearly with the RFD phase offset. In particular, for an offset of {{7}\\circ} , corresponding to a vertical centroid offset at a screen of about 1 mm, the relative error is 4.5%.

NINR Centers of Excellence: A logic model for sustainability, leveraging resources and collaboration to accelerate cross-disciplinary science

PubMed Central

Dorsey, Susan G.; Schiffman, Rachel; Redeker, Nancy S.; Heitkemper, Margaret; McCloskey, Donna Jo; Weglicki, Linda S.; Grady, Patricia A.

2014-01-01

The NINR Centers of Excellence program is a catalyst enabling institutions to develop infrastructure and administrative support for creating cross-disciplinary teams that bring multiple strategies and expertise to bear on common areas of science. Centers are increasingly collaborative with campus partners and reflect an integrated team approach to advance science and promote the development of scientists in these areas. The purpose of this paper is to present a NINR Logic Model for Center Sustainability. The components of the logic model were derived from the presentations and robust discussions at the 2013 NINR Center Directors’ meeting focused on best practices for leveraging resources and collaboration as methods to promote center sustainability. Collaboration through development and implementation of cross-disciplinary research teams is critical to accelerate the generation of new knowledge for solving fundamental health problems. Sustainability of centers as a long-term outcome beyond the initial funding can be enhanced by thoughtful planning of inputs, activities, and leveraging resources across multiple levels. PMID:25085328

Integrating Reconfigurable Hardware-Based Grid for High Performance Computing

PubMed Central

Dondo Gazzano, Julio; Sanchez Molina, Francisco; Rincon, Fernando; López, Juan Carlos

2015-01-01

FPGAs have shown several characteristics that make them very attractive for high performance computing (HPC). The impressive speed-up factors that they are able to achieve, the reduced power consumption, and the easiness and flexibility of the design process with fast iterations between consecutive versions are examples of benefits obtained with their use. However, there are still some difficulties when using reconfigurable platforms as accelerator that need to be addressed: the need of an in-depth application study to identify potential acceleration, the lack of tools for the deployment of computational problems in distributed hardware platforms, and the low portability of components, among others. This work proposes a complete grid infrastructure for distributed high performance computing based on dynamically reconfigurable FPGAs. Besides, a set of services designed to facilitate the application deployment is described. An example application and a comparison with other hardware and software implementations are shown. Experimental results show that the proposed architecture offers encouraging advantages for deployment of high performance distributed applications simplifying development process. PMID:25874241

The Alto Tandem and Isol Facility at IPN Orsay

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Franchoo, Serge

Alto is an infrastructure for experimental nuclear physics in France that comprises both an on-line isotope-separation facility based on the photofission of uranium and a stable-ion beam facility based on a 14.5-MV tandem accelerator. The isotope-separation on-line section of Alto is dedicated to the production of neutron-rich radioactive ion beams (RIB) from the interaction of the γ-flux induced by a 50-MeV 10-µA electron beam in a uranium-carbide target. It is dimensioned for 1011 fissions per second. The RIB facility is exploited in alternating mode with the tandem-based section of Alto, capable of accelerating both light ions for nuclear astrophysics and heavy ions for γ-spectroscopy. The facility thereby offers the opportunity to deliver beams to a large range of physics programmes from nuclear to interdisciplinary physics. In this article, we present the Alto facility as well as some of the highlights and prospects of the experimental programme.

Pulsed-focusing recirculating linacs for muon acceleration

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

Johnson, Rolland

2014-12-31

Since the muon has a short lifetime, fast acceleration is essential for high-energy applications such as muon colliders, Higgs factories, or neutrino factories. The best one can do is to make a linear accelerator with the highest possible accelerating gradient to make the accelerating time as short as possible. However, the cost of such a single linear accelerator is prohibitively large due to expensive power sources, cavities, tunnels, and related infrastructure. As was demonstrated in the Thomas Jefferson Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab) Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF), an elegant solution to reduce cost is to use magnetic return arcsmore » to recirculate the beam through the accelerating RF cavities many times, where they gain energy on each pass. In such a Recirculating Linear Accelerator (RLA), the magnetic focusing strength diminishes as the beam energy increases in a conventional linac that has constant strength quadrupoles. After some number of passes the focusing strength is insufficient to keep the beam from going unstable and being lost. In this project, the use of fast pulsed quadrupoles in the linac sections was considered for stronger focusing as a function of time to allow more successive passes of a muon beam in a recirculating linear accelerator. In one simulation, it was shown that the number of passes could be increased from 8 to 12 using pulsed magnet designs that have been developed and tested. This could reduce the cost of linac sections of a muon RLA by 8/12, where more improvement is still possible. The expense of a greater number of passes and corresponding number of return arcs was also addressed in this project by exploring the use of ramped or FFAG-style magnets in the return arcs. A better solution, invented in this project, is to use combined-function dipole-quadrupole magnets to simultaneously transport two beams of different energies through one magnet string to reduce costs of return arcs by almost a factor of two. A patent application was filed for this invention and a detailed report published in Physical Review Special Topics. A scaled model using an electron beam was developed and proposed to test the concept of a dog bone RLA with combined-function return arcs. The efforts supported by this grant were reported in a series of contributions to particle accelerator conferences that are reproduced in the appendices and summarized in the body of this report.« less

Modernized build and test infrastructure for control software at ESO: highly flexible building, testing, and automatic quality practices for telescope control software

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pellegrin, F.; Jeram, B.; Haucke, J.; Feyrin, S.

2016-07-01

The paper describes the introduction of a new automatized build and test infrastructure, based on the open-source software Jenkins1, into the ESO Very Large Telescope control software to replace the preexisting in-house solution. A brief introduction to software quality practices is given, a description of the previous solution, the limitations of it and new upcoming requirements. Modifications required to adapt the new system are described, how these were implemented to current software and the results obtained. An overview on how the new system may be used in future projects is also presented.

US-CERT Control System Center Input/Output (I/O) Conceputal Design

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

Not Available

2005-02-01

This document was prepared for the US-CERT Control Systems Center of the National Cyber Security Division (NCSD) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). DHS has been tasked under the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to coordinate the overall national effort to enhance the protection of the national critical infrastructure. Homeland Security Presidential Directive HSPD-7 directs the federal departments to identify and prioritize critical infrastructure and protect it from terrorist attack. The US-CERT National Strategy for Control Systems Security was prepared by the NCSD to address the control system security component addressed in the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace andmore » the National Strategy for the Physical Protection of Critical Infrastructures and Key Assets. The US-CERT National Strategy for Control Systems Security identified five high-level strategic goals for improving cyber security of control systems; the I/O upgrade described in this document supports these goals. The vulnerability assessment Test Bed, located in the Information Operations Research Center (IORC) facility at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), consists of a cyber test facility integrated with multiple test beds that simulate the nation's critical infrastructure. The fundamental mission of the Test Bed is to provide industry owner/operators, system vendors, and multi-agency partners of the INL National Security Division a platform for vulnerability assessments of control systems. The Input/Output (I/O) upgrade to the Test Bed (see Work Package 3.1 of the FY-05 Annual Work Plan) will provide for the expansion of assessment capabilities within the IORC facility. It will also provide capabilities to connect test beds within the Test Range and other Laboratory resources. This will allow real time I/O data input and communication channels for full replications of control systems (Process Control Systems [PCS], Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition Systems [SCADA], and components). This will be accomplished through the design and implementation of a modular infrastructure of control system, communications, networking, computing and associated equipment, and measurement/control devices. The architecture upgrade will provide a flexible patching system providing a quick ''plug and play''configuration through various communication paths to gain access to live I/O running over specific protocols. This will allow for in-depth assessments of control systems in a true-to-life environment. The full I/O upgrade will be completed through a two-phased approach. Phase I, funded by DHS, expands the capabilities of the Test Bed by developing an operational control system in two functional areas, the Science & Technology Applications Research (STAR) Facility and the expansion of various portions of the Test Bed. Phase II (see Appendix A), funded by other programs, will complete the full I/O upgrade to the facility.« less

Summary Report of Mission Acceleration Measurements for STS-73, Launched October 20, 1995

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rogers, Melissa J. B.; DeLombard, Richard

1996-01-01

The microgravity environment of the Space Shuttle Columbia was measured during the STS-73 mission using accelerometers from five different instruments: the Orbital Acceleration Research Experiment, the Space Acceleration Measurement System, the Three-dimensional Microgravity Accelerometer, the Microgravity Measuring Device, and Suppression of Transient Accelerations by Levitation Evaluation System. The Microgravity Analysis Workstation quasi-steady environment calculation and comparison of this calculation with Orbital Acceleration Research Experiment data was used to assess how appropriate a planned attitude was expected to be for one Crystal Growth Facility experiment sample. The microgravity environment related to several different Orbiter, crew, and experiment operations is presented and interpreted in this report. Data are examined to show the effects of vernier reaction control system jet firings for Orbiter attitude control. This is compared to examples of data when no thrusters were firing, when the primary reaction control system jets were used for attitude control, and when single vernier jets were fired for test purposes. In general, vernier jets, when used for attitude control, cause accelerations in the 3 x 10(exp -4) g to 7 x 10(exp -4) g range. Primary jets used in this manner cause accelerations in the 0.01 to 0.025 g range. Other significant disturbance sources characterized are water dump operations, with Y(sub b) axis acceleration deviations of about 1 x 10(exp -6) g; payload bay door opening motion, with Y(sub o) and Z(sub o) axis accelerations of frequency 0.4 Hz; and probable Glovebox fan operations with notable frequency components at 20, 38, 43, 48, and 53 Hz. The STS-73 microgravity environment is comparable to the environments measured on earlier microgravity science missions.

Department of Energy's Virtual Lab Infrastructure for Integrated Earth System Science Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Williams, D. N.; Palanisamy, G.; Shipman, G.; Boden, T.; Voyles, J.

2014-12-01

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) Climate and Environmental Sciences Division (CESD) produces a diversity of data, information, software, and model codes across its research and informatics programs and facilities. This information includes raw and reduced observational and instrumentation data, model codes, model-generated results, and integrated data products. Currently, most of this data and information are prepared and shared for program specific activities, corresponding to CESD organization research. A major challenge facing BER CESD is how best to inventory, integrate, and deliver these vast and diverse resources for the purpose of accelerating Earth system science research. This talk provides a concept for a CESD Integrated Data Ecosystem and an initial roadmap for its implementation to address this integration challenge in the "Big Data" domain. Towards this end, a new BER Virtual Laboratory Infrastructure will be presented, which will include services and software connecting the heterogeneous CESD data holdings, and constructed with open source software based on industry standards, protocols, and state-of-the-art technology.

Analytical instrumentation infrastructure for combinatorial and high-throughput development of formulated discrete and gradient polymeric sensor materials arrays

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Potyrailo, Radislav A.; Hassib, Lamyaa

2005-06-01

Multicomponent polymer-based formulations of optical sensor materials are difficult and time consuming to optimize using conventional approaches. To address these challenges, our long-term goal is to determine relationships between sensor formulation and sensor response parameters using new scientific methodologies. As the first step, we have designed and implemented an automated analytical instrumentation infrastructure for combinatorial and high-throughput development of polymeric sensor materials for optical sensors. Our approach is based on the fabrication and performance screening of discrete and gradient sensor arrays. Simultaneous formation of multiple sensor coatings into discrete 4×6, 6×8, and 8×12 element arrays (3-15μL volume per element) and their screening provides not only a well-recognized acceleration in the screening rate, but also considerably reduces or even eliminates sources of variability, which are randomly affecting sensors response during a conventional one-at-a-time sensor coating evaluation. The application of gradient sensor arrays provides additional capabilities for rapid finding of the optimal formulation parameters.

On the longitudinal distribution of electric field in the acceleration zones of plasma accelerators and thrusters with closed electron drift

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, V. P.

2017-04-01

The long-term experience in controlling the electric field distribution in the discharge gaps of plasma accelerators and thrusters with closed electron drift and the key ideas determining the concepts of these devices and tendencies of their development are analyzed. It is shown that an electrostatic mechanism of ion acceleration in plasma by an uncompensated space charge of the cloud of magnetized electrons "kept" to the magnetic field takes place in the acceleration zones and that the electric field distribution can be controlled by varying the magnetic field in the discharge gap. The role played by the space charge makes the mechanism of ion acceleration in this type of thrusters is fundamentally different from the acceleration mechanism operating in purely electrostatic thrusters.

Low Level RF Control for the PIP-II Accelerator

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

Edelen, J. P.; Chase, B. E.; Cullerton, E.

The PIP-II accelerator is a proposed upgrade to the Fermilab accelerator complex that will replace the existing, 400 MeV room temperature LINAC with an 800 MeV superconducting LINAC. Part of this upgrade includes a new injection scheme into the booster that levies tight requirements on the LLRF control system for the cavities. In this paper we discuss the challenges of the PIP-II accelerator and the present status of the LLRF system for this project.

The Forgotten Side of School Finance Equity: The Role of Infrastructure Funding in Student Success

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crampton, Faith E.; Thompson, David C.; Vesely, Randall S.

2004-01-01

Traditionally, local school districts have shouldered the burden of funding school infrastructure in the name of local control, relying upon local property tax revenues and the willingness of local voters to approve bond issues. Given vast disparities in school districts' property wealth, gross inequities in school facilities will remain without…

Developing an Information Infrastructure To Support Information Retrieval: Towards a Theory of Clustering Based in Classification.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Micco, Mary; Popp, Rich

Techniques for building a world-wide information infrastructure by reverse engineering existing databases to link them in a hierarchical system of subject clusters to create an integrated database are explored. The controlled vocabulary of the Library of Congress Subject Headings is used to ensure consistency and group similar items. Each database…

Closing the Gap: Cybersecurity for U.S. Forces and Commands

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-03-30

Dickson, Ph.D. Professor of Military Studies , JAWS Thesis Advisor Kevin Therrien, Col, USAF Committee Member Stephen Rogers, Colonel, USA Director...infrastructures, and includes the Internet, telecommunications networks, computer systems, and embedded processors and controllers in critical industries.”5...of information technology infrastructures, including the Internet, telecommunications networks, computer systems, and embedded processors and

WeaselBoard :

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

Mulder, John C.; Schwartz, Moses Daniel; Berg, Michael J.

2013-10-01

Critical infrastructures, such as electrical power plants and oil refineries, rely on programmable logic controllers (PLCs) to control essential processes. State of the art security cannot detect attacks on PLCs at the hardware or firmware level. This renders critical infrastructure control systems vulnerable to costly and dangerous attacks. WeaselBoard is a PLC backplane analysis system that connects directly to the PLC backplane to capture backplane communications between modules. WeaselBoard forwards inter-module traffic to an external analysis system that detects changes to process control settings, sensor values, module configuration information, firmware updates, and process control program (logic) updates. WeaselBoard provides zero-daymore » exploit detection for PLCs by detecting changes in the PLC and the process. This approach to PLC monitoring is protected under U.S. Patent Application 13/947,887.« less

Software defined networking (SDN) over space division multiplexing (SDM) optical networks: features, benefits and experimental demonstration.

PubMed

Amaya, N; Yan, S; Channegowda, M; Rofoee, B R; Shu, Y; Rashidi, M; Ou, Y; Hugues-Salas, E; Zervas, G; Nejabati, R; Simeonidou, D; Puttnam, B J; Klaus, W; Sakaguchi, J; Miyazawa, T; Awaji, Y; Harai, H; Wada, N

2014-02-10

We present results from the first demonstration of a fully integrated SDN-controlled bandwidth-flexible and programmable SDM optical network utilizing sliceable self-homodyne spatial superchannels to support dynamic bandwidth and QoT provisioning, infrastructure slicing and isolation. Results show that SDN is a suitable control plane solution for the high-capacity flexible SDM network. It is able to provision end-to-end bandwidth and QoT requests according to user requirements, considering the unique characteristics of the underlying SDM infrastructure.

Wireless intelligent network: infrastructure before services?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chu, Narisa N.

1996-01-01

The Wireless Intelligent Network (WIN) intends to take advantage of the Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) concepts and products developed from wireline communications. However, progress of the AIN deployment has been slow due to the many barriers that exist in the traditional wireline carriers' deployment procedures and infrastructure. The success of AIN has not been truly demonstrated. The AIN objectives and directions are applicable to the wireless industry although the plans and implementations could be significantly different. This paper points out WIN characteristics in architecture, flexibility, deployment, and value to customers. In order to succeed, the technology driven AIN concept has to be reinforced by the market driven WIN services. An infrastructure suitable for the WIN will contain elements that are foreign to the wireline network. The deployment process is expected to seed with the revenue generated services. Standardization will be achieved by simplifying and incorporating the IS-41C, AIN, and Intelligent Network CS-1 recommendations. Integration of the existing and future systems impose the biggest challenge of all. Service creation has to be complemented with service deployment process which heavily impact the carriers' infrastructure. WIN deployment will likely start from an Intelligent Peripheral, a Service Control Point and migrate to a Service Node when sufficient triggers are implemented in the mobile switch for distributed call control. The struggle to move forward will not be based on technology, but rather on the impact to existing infrastructure.

More Than 1,000 Fuel Cell Units Deployed Through DOE ARRA Funding (Fact Sheet)

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

Not Available

This NREL Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technical Highlight describes how early market end users are operating 1,111 fuel cell units at 301 sites in 20 states with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy Fuel Cell Technologies Program and analysis by NREL. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funded the deployment of approximately 1,000 fuel cell systems in key early markets to accelerate the commercialization and deployment of fuel cells and fuel cell manufacturing, installation, maintenance, and support services. In support of the ARRA fuel cell deployment objectives, NREL analyzes and validates the technology in real-world applications, reports onmore » the technology status, and facilitates the development of fuel cell technologies, manufacturing, and operations in strategic markets-including material handling equipment, backup power, and stationary power-where fuel cells can compete with conventional technologies. NREL is validating hydrogen and fuel cell systems in real-world settings through data collection, analysis, and reporting. The fuel cell and infrastructure analysis provides an independent, third-party assessment that focuses on fuel cell system and hydrogen infrastructure performance, operation, maintenance, use, and safety. An objective of the ARRA fuel cell project-to deploy approximately 1,000 fuel cell systems in key early markets - has been met in two years. By the end of 2011, 504 material handling equipment (MHE) fuel cell units were operating at 8 facilities and 607 backup power fuel cell units were operating at 293 sites. MHE and backup power are two markets where fuel cells are capable of meeting the operating demands, and deployments can be leveraged to accelerate fuel cell commercialization.« less

Resilience in social insect infrastructure systems.

PubMed

Middleton, Eliza J T; Latty, Tanya

2016-03-01

Both human and insect societies depend on complex and highly coordinated infrastructure systems, such as communication networks, supply chains and transportation networks. Like human-designed infrastructure systems, those of social insects are regularly subject to disruptions such as natural disasters, blockages or breaks in the transportation network, fluctuations in supply and/or demand, outbreaks of disease and loss of individuals. Unlike human-designed systems, there is no deliberate planning or centralized control system; rather, individual insects make simple decisions based on local information. How do these highly decentralized, leaderless systems deal with disruption? What factors make a social insect system resilient, and which factors lead to its collapse? In this review, we bring together literature on resilience in three key social insect infrastructure systems: transportation networks, supply chains and communication networks. We describe how systems differentially invest in three pathways to resilience: resistance, redirection or reconstruction. We suggest that investment in particular resistance pathways is related to the severity and frequency of disturbance. In the final section, we lay out a prospectus for future research. Human infrastructure networks are rapidly becoming decentralized and interconnected; indeed, more like social insect infrastructures. Human infrastructure management might therefore learn from social insect researchers, who can in turn make use of the mature analytical and simulation tools developed for the study of human infrastructure resilience. © 2016 The Author(s).

Experience with a three-axis side-located controller during a static and centrifuge simulation of the piloted launch of a manned multistage vehicle

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Andrews, William H.; Holleman, Euclid C.

1960-01-01

An investigation was conducted to determine a human pilot's ability to control a multistage vehicle through the launch trajectory. The simulation was performed statically and dynamically by utilizing a human centrifuge. An interesting byproduct of the program was the three-axis side-located controller incorporated for pilot control inputs. This method of control proved to be acceptable for the successful completion of the tracking task during the simulation. There was no apparent effect of acceleration on the mechanical operation of the controller, but the pilot's control feel deteriorated as his dexterity decreased at high levels of acceleration. The application of control in a specific control mode was not difficult. However, coordination of more than one mode was difficult, and, in many instances, resulted in inadvertent control inputs. The acceptable control harmony at an acceleration level of 1 g became unacceptable at higher acceleration levels. Proper control-force harmony for a particular control task appears to be more critical for a three-axis controller than for conventional controllers. During simulations in which the pilot wore a pressure suit, the nature of the suit gloves further aggravated this condition.

Laser driven ion accelerator

DOEpatents

Tajima, Toshiki

2006-04-18

A system and method of accelerating ions in an accelerator to optimize the energy produced by a light source. Several parameters may be controlled in constructing a target used in the accelerator system to adjust performance of the accelerator system. These parameters include the material, thickness, geometry and surface of the target.

Preparing for Sea-level Rise: Conflicts and Opportunities in Coastal Wetlands Coexisting with Infrastructure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rodriguez, J. F.; Saco, P. M.; Sandi, S. G.; Saintilan, N.; Riccardi, G.

2017-12-01

Even though on a large scale the sustainability and resilience of coastal wetlands to sea-level rise depends on the slope of the landscape and a balance between the rates of soil accretion and the sea-level rise, local man-made flow disturbances can have comparable effects. Coastal infrastructure controlling flow in the wetlands can pose an additional constraint on the adaptive capacity of these ecosystems, but can also present opportunities for targeted flow management to increase their resilience. Coastal wetlands in SE Australia are heavily managed and typically present infrastructure including flow control devices. How these flow control structures are operated respond to different ecological conservation objectives (i.e. bird, frog or fish habitat) that can sometimes be mutually exclusive. For example, promoting mangrove establishment to enhance fish habitat results in saltmarsh decline thus affecting bird habitat. Moreover, sea-level rise will change hydraulic conditions in wetlands and may result in some flow control structures and strategies becoming obsolete or even counterproductive. In order to address these problems and in support of future management of flows in coastal wetlands, we have developed a predictive tool for long-term wetland evolution that incorporates the effects of infrastructure and other perturbations to the tidal flow within the wetland (i.e. vegetation resistance) and determines how these flow conditions affect vegetation establishment and survival. We use the model to support management and analyse different scenarios of sea-level rise and flow control measures aimed at preserving bird habitat. Our results show that sea-level rise affects the efficiency of management measures and in some cases may completely override their effect. It also shows the potential of targeted flow management to compensate for the effects of sea-level rise.

NASA World Wind: Infrastructure for Spatial Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hogan, Patrick

2011-01-01

The world has great need for analysis of Earth observation data, be it climate change, carbon monitoring, disaster response, national defense or simply local resource management. To best provide for spatial and time-dependent information analysis, the world benefits from an open standards and open source infrastructure for spatial data. In the spirit of NASA's motto "for the benefit of all" NASA invites the world community to collaboratively advance this core technology. The World Wind infrastructure for spatial data both unites and challenges the world for innovative solutions analyzing spatial data while also allowing absolute command and control over any respective information exchange medium.

The National Biological Information Infrastructure: Coming of age

USGS Publications Warehouse

Cotter, G.; Frame, M.; Sepic, R.; Zolly, L.

2000-01-01

Coordinated by the US Geological Survey, the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) is a Web-based system that provides increased access to data and information on the nation's biological resources. The NBII can be viewed from a variety of perspectives. This article - an individual case study and not a broad survey with extensive references to the literature - addresses the structure of the NBII related to thematic sections, infrastructure sections and place-based sections, and other topics such as the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (one of our more innovative tools) and the development of our controlled vocabulary.

75 FR 57385 - Internal Control Over Financial Reporting in Exchange Act Periodic Reports of Non-Accelerated Filers

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-09-21

... attestation report of its registered public accounting firm on internal control over financial reporting in... definition of either an ``accelerated filer'' or a ``large accelerated filer'' under Exchange Act Rule 12b-2..., for both definitions, the issuer needs to have been subject to reporting requirements for at least...

Telepsychiatry: assessment of televideo psychiatric interview reliability with present- and next-generation internet infrastructures.

PubMed

Yoshino, A; Shigemura, J; Kobayashi, Y; Nomura, S; Shishikura, K; Den, R; Wakisaka, H; Kamata, S; Ashida, H

2001-09-01

We assessed the reliability of remote video psychiatric interviews conducted via the internet using narrow and broad bandwidths. Televideo psychiatric interviews conducted with 42 in-patients with chronic schizophrenia using two bandwidths (narrow, 128 kilobits/s; broad, 2 megabits/s) were assessed in terms of agreement with face-to-face interviews in a test-retest fashion. As a control, agreement was assessed between face-to-face interviews. Psychiatric symptoms were rated using the Oxford version of the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), and agreement between interviews was estimated as the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). The ICC was significantly lower in the narrow bandwidth than in the broad bandwidth and the control for both positive symptoms score and total score. While reliability of televideo psychiatric interviews is insufficient using the present narrow-band internet infrastructure, the next generation of infrastructure (broad-band) may permit reliable diagnostic interviews.

A Programmable SDN+NFV Architecture for UAV Telemetry Monitoring

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

White, Kyle J. S.; Pezaros, Dimitrios P.; Denney, Ewen; Knudson, Matt D.

2017-01-01

With the explosive growth in UAV numbers forecast worldwide, a core concern is how to manage the ad-hoc network configuration required for mobility management. As UAVs migrate among ground control stations, associated network services, routing and operational control must also rapidly migrate to ensure a seamless transition. In this paper, we present a novel, lightweight and modular architecture which supports high mobility, resilience and flexibility through the application of SDN and NFV principles on top of the UAV infrastructure. By combining SDN programmability and Network Function Virtualization we can achieve resilient infrastructure migration of network services, such as network monitoring and anomaly detection, coupled with migrating UAVs to enable high mobility management. Our container-based monitoring and anomaly detection Network Functions (NFs) can be tuned to specific UAV models providing operators better insight during live, high-mobility deployments. We evaluate our architecture against telemetry from over 80flights from a scientific research UAV infrastructure.

Controllability in Multi-Stage Laser Ion Acceleration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kawata, S.; Kamiyama, D.; Ohtake, Y.; Barada, D.; Ma, Y. Y.; Kong, Q.; Wang, P. X.; Gu, Y. J.; Li, X. F.; Yu, Q.

2015-11-01

The present paper shows a concept for a future laser ion accelerator, which should have an ion source, ion collimators, ion beam bunchers and ion post acceleration devices. Based on the laser ion accelerator components, the ion particle energy and the ion energy spectrum are controlled, and a future compact laser ion accelerator would be designed for ion cancer therapy or for ion material treatment. In this study each component is designed to control the ion beam quality. The energy efficiency from the laser to ions is improved by using a solid target with a fine sub-wavelength structure or a near-critical density gas plasma. The ion beam collimation is performed by holes behind the solid target or a multi-layered solid target. The control of the ion energy spectrum and the ion particle energy, and the ion beam bunching are successfully realized by a multi-stage laser-target interaction. A combination of each component provides a high controllability of the ion beam quality to meet variable requirements in various purposes in the laser ion accelerator. The work was partly supported by MEXT, JSPS, ASHULA project/ ILE, Osaka University, CORE (Center for Optical Research and Education, Utsunomiya University, Japan), Fudan University and CDI (Creative Dept. for Innovation) in CCRD, Utsunomiya University.

Scenario-based water resources planning for utilities in the Lake Victoria region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mehta, Vishal K.; Aslam, Omar; Dale, Larry; Miller, Norman; Purkey, David R.

Urban areas in the Lake Victoria (LV) region are experiencing the highest growth rates in Africa. As efforts to meet increasing demand accelerate, integrated water resources management (IWRM) tools provide opportunities for utilities and other stakeholders to develop a planning framework comprehensive enough to include short term (e.g. landuse change), as well as longer term (e.g. climate change) scenarios. This paper presents IWRM models built using the Water Evaluation And Planning (WEAP) decision support system, for three towns in the LV region - Bukoba (Tanzania), Masaka (Uganda), and Kisii (Kenya). Each model was calibrated under current system performance based on site visits, utility reporting and interviews. Projected water supply, demand, revenues and costs were then evaluated against a combination of climate, demographic and infrastructure scenarios up to 2050. Our results show that water supply in all three towns is currently infrastructure limited; achieving existing design capacity could meet most projected demand until 2020s in Masaka beyond which new supply and conservation strategies would be needed. In Bukoba, reducing leakages would provide little performance improvement in the short-term, but doubling capacity would meet all demands until 2050. In Kisii, major infrastructure investment is urgently needed. In Masaka, streamflow simulations show that wetland sources could satisfy all demand until 2050, but at the cost of almost no water downstream of the intake. These models demonstrate the value of IWRM tools for developing water management plans that integrate hydroclimatology-driven supply to demand projections on a single platform.

Crossing the Chasm: Information Technology to Biomedical Informatics

PubMed Central

Fahy, Brenda G.; Balke, C. William; Umberger, Gloria H.; Talbert, Jeffery; Canales, Denise Niles; Steltenkamp, Carol L.; Conigliaro, Joseph

2011-01-01

Accelerating the translation of new scientific discoveries to improve human health and disease management is the overall goal of a series of initiatives integrated in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) “Roadmap for Medical Research.” The Clinical and Translational Research Award (CTSA) program is, arguably, the most visible component of the NIH Roadmap providing resources to institutions to transform their clinical and translational research enterprises along the goals of the Roadmap. The CTSA program emphasizes biomedical informatics as a critical component for the accomplishment of the NIH’s translational objectives. To be optimally effective, emerging biomedical informatics programs must link with the information technology (IT) platforms of the enterprise clinical operations within academic health centers. This report details one academic health center’s transdisciplinary initiative to create an integrated academic discipline of biomedical informatics through the development of its infrastructure for clinical and translational science infrastructure and response to the CTSA mechanism. This approach required a detailed informatics strategy to accomplish these goals. This transdisciplinary initiative was the impetus for creation of a specialized biomedical informatics core, the Center for Biomedical Informatics (CBI). Development of the CBI codified the need to incorporate medical informatics including quality and safety informatics and enterprise clinical information systems within the CBI. This paper describes the steps taken to develop the biomedical informatics infrastructure, its integration with clinical systems at one academic health center, successes achieved, and barriers encountered during these efforts. PMID:21383632

Migrating EO/IR sensors to cloud-based infrastructure as service architectures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berglie, Stephen T.; Webster, Steven; May, Christopher M.

2014-06-01

The Night Vision Image Generator (NVIG), a product of US Army RDECOM CERDEC NVESD, is a visualization tool used widely throughout Army simulation environments to provide fully attributed synthesized, full motion video using physics-based sensor and environmental effects. The NVIG relies heavily on contemporary hardware-based acceleration and GPU processing techniques, which push the envelope of both enterprise and commodity-level hypervisor support for providing virtual machines with direct access to hardware resources. The NVIG has successfully been integrated into fully virtual environments where system architectures leverage cloudbased technologies to various extents in order to streamline infrastructure and service management. This paper details the challenges presented to engineers seeking to migrate GPU-bound processes, such as the NVIG, to virtual machines and, ultimately, Cloud-Based IAS architectures. In addition, it presents the path that led to success for the NVIG. A brief overview of Cloud-Based infrastructure management tool sets is provided, and several virtual desktop solutions are outlined. A discrimination is made between general purpose virtual desktop technologies compared to technologies that expose GPU-specific capabilities, including direct rendering and hard ware-based video encoding. Candidate hypervisor/virtual machine configurations that nominally satisfy the virtualized hardware-level GPU requirements of the NVIG are presented , and each is subsequently reviewed in light of its implications on higher-level Cloud management techniques. Implementation details are included from the hardware level, through the operating system, to the 3D graphics APls required by the NVIG and similar GPU-bound tools.

Interdependent Network Recovery Games.

PubMed

Smith, Andrew M; González, Andrés D; Dueñas-Osorio, Leonardo; D'Souza, Raissa M

2017-10-30

Recovery of interdependent infrastructure networks in the presence of catastrophic failure is crucial to the economy and welfare of society. Recently, centralized methods have been developed to address optimal resource allocation in postdisaster recovery scenarios of interdependent infrastructure systems that minimize total cost. In real-world systems, however, multiple independent, possibly noncooperative, utility network controllers are responsible for making recovery decisions, resulting in suboptimal decentralized processes. With the goal of minimizing recovery cost, a best-case decentralized model allows controllers to develop a full recovery plan and negotiate until all parties are satisfied (an equilibrium is reached). Such a model is computationally intensive for planning and negotiating, and time is a crucial resource in postdisaster recovery scenarios. Furthermore, in this work, we prove this best-case decentralized negotiation process could continue indefinitely under certain conditions. Accounting for network controllers' urgency in repairing their system, we propose an ad hoc sequential game-theoretic model of interdependent infrastructure network recovery represented as a discrete time noncooperative game between network controllers that is guaranteed to converge to an equilibrium. We further reduce the computation time needed to find a solution by applying a best-response heuristic and prove bounds on ε-Nash equilibrium, where ε depends on problem inputs. We compare best-case and ad hoc models on an empirical interdependent infrastructure network in the presence of simulated earthquakes to demonstrate the extent of the tradeoff between optimality and computational efficiency. Our method provides a foundation for modeling sociotechnical systems in a way that mirrors restoration processes in practice. © 2017 Society for Risk Analysis.

The detrimental effect of friction on space microgravity robotics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Newman, Wyatt S.; Glosser, Gregory D.; Miller, Jeffrey H.; Rohn, Douglas

1992-01-01

The authors present an analysis of why control systems are ineffective in compensating for acceleration disturbances due to Coulomb friction. Linear arguments indicate that the effects of Coulomb friction on a body are most difficult to reject when the control actuator is separated from the body of compliance. The linear arguments were illustrated in a nonlinear simulation of optimal linear tracking control in the presence of nonlinear friction. The results of endpoint acceleration measurements for four robot designs are presented and are compared with simulation and to equivalent measurements on a human. It is concluded that Coulomb friction in common bearings and transmission induces unacceptable levels of endpoint acceleration, that these accelerations cannot be adequately attenuated by control, and that robots for microgravity work will require special design considerations for inherently low friction.

Alternative Attitude Commanding and Control for Precise Spacecraft Landing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Singh, Gurkirpal

2004-01-01

A report proposes an alternative method of control for precision landing on a remote planet. In the traditional method, the attitude of a spacecraft is required to track a commanded translational acceleration vector, which is generated at each time step by solving a two-point boundary value problem. No requirement of continuity is imposed on the acceleration. The translational acceleration does not necessarily vary smoothly. Tracking of a non-smooth acceleration causes the vehicle attitude to exhibit undesirable transients and poor pointing stability behavior. In the alternative method, the two-point boundary value problem is not solved at each time step. A smooth reference position profile is computed. The profile is recomputed only when the control errors get sufficiently large. The nominal attitude is still required to track the smooth reference acceleration command. A steering logic is proposed that controls the position and velocity errors about the reference profile by perturbing the attitude slightly about the nominal attitude. The overall pointing behavior is therefore smooth, greatly reducing the degree of pointing instability.

National Infrastructure Protection Plan

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-01-01

effective and efficient CI/KR protection; and • Provide a system for continuous measurement and improvement of CI/KR...information- based core processes, a top-down system -, network-, or function- based approach may be more appropri- ate. A bottom-up approach normally... e - commerce , e -mail, and R&D systems . • Control Systems : Cyber systems used within many infrastructure and industries to monitor and

Security Engineering and Educational Initiatives for Critical Information Infrastructures

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-06-01

standard for cryptographic protection of SCADA communications. The United Kingdom’s National Infrastructure Security Co-ordination Centre (NISCC...has released a good practice guide on firewall deployment for SCADA systems and process control networks [17]. Meanwhile, National Institute for ...report. APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE; DISTRIBUTION UNLIMITED 18 The SCADA gateway collects the data gathered by sensors, translates them from

Assured communications and combat resiliency: the relationship between effective national communications and combat efficiency

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Allgood, Glenn O.; Kuruganti, Phani Teja; Nutaro, James; Saffold, Jay

2009-05-01

Combat resiliency is the ability of a commander to prosecute, control, and consolidate his/her's sphere of influence in adverse and changing conditions. To support this, an infrastructure must exist that allows the commander to view the world in varying degrees of granularity with sufficient levels of detail to permit confidence estimates to be levied against decisions and course of actions. An infrastructure such as this will include the ability to effectively communicate context and relevance within and across the battle space. To achieve this will require careful thought, planning, and understanding of a network and its capacity limitations in post-event command and control. Relevance and impact on any existing infrastructure must be fully understood prior to deployment to exploit the system's full capacity and capabilities. In this view, the combat communication network is considered an integral part of or National communication network and infrastructure. This paper will describe an analytical tool set developed at ORNL and RNI incorporating complexity theory, advanced communications modeling, simulation, and visualization technologies that could be used as a pre-planning tool or post event reasoning application to support response and containment.

Neural Network Based Intrusion Detection System for Critical Infrastructures

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

Todd Vollmer; Ondrej Linda; Milos Manic

2009-07-01

Resiliency and security in control systems such as SCADA and Nuclear plant’s in today’s world of hackers and malware are a relevant concern. Computer systems used within critical infrastructures to control physical functions are not immune to the threat of cyber attacks and may be potentially vulnerable. Tailoring an intrusion detection system to the specifics of critical infrastructures can significantly improve the security of such systems. The IDS-NNM – Intrusion Detection System using Neural Network based Modeling, is presented in this paper. The main contributions of this work are: 1) the use and analyses of real network data (data recordedmore » from an existing critical infrastructure); 2) the development of a specific window based feature extraction technique; 3) the construction of training dataset using randomly generated intrusion vectors; 4) the use of a combination of two neural network learning algorithms – the Error-Back Propagation and Levenberg-Marquardt, for normal behavior modeling. The presented algorithm was evaluated on previously unseen network data. The IDS-NNM algorithm proved to be capable of capturing all intrusion attempts presented in the network communication while not generating any false alerts.« less

Vibration acceleration promotes bone formation in rodent models

PubMed Central

Uchida, Ryohei; Nakata, Ken; Kawano, Fuminori; Yonetani, Yasukazu; Ogasawara, Issei; Nakai, Naoya; Mae, Tatsuo; Matsuo, Tomohiko; Tachibana, Yuta; Yokoi, Hiroyuki; Yoshikawa, Hideki

2017-01-01

All living tissues and cells on Earth are subject to gravitational acceleration, but no reports have verified whether acceleration mode influences bone formation and healing. Therefore, this study was to compare the effects of two acceleration modes, vibration and constant (centrifugal) accelerations, on bone formation and healing in the trunk using BMP 2-induced ectopic bone formation (EBF) mouse model and a rib fracture healing (RFH) rat model. Additionally, we tried to verify the difference in mechanism of effect on bone formation by accelerations between these two models. Three groups (low- and high-magnitude vibration and control-VA groups) were evaluated in the vibration acceleration study, and two groups (centrifuge acceleration and control-CA groups) were used in the constant acceleration study. In each model, the intervention was applied for ten minutes per day from three days after surgery for eleven days (EBF model) or nine days (RFH model). All animals were sacrificed the day after the intervention ended. In the EBF model, ectopic bone was evaluated by macroscopic and histological observations, wet weight, radiography and microfocus computed tomography (micro-CT). In the RFH model, whole fracture-repaired ribs were excised with removal of soft tissue, and evaluated radiologically and histologically. Ectopic bones in the low-magnitude group (EBF model) had significantly greater wet weight and were significantly larger (macroscopically and radiographically) than those in the other two groups, whereas the size and wet weight of ectopic bones in the centrifuge acceleration group showed no significant difference compared those in control-CA group. All ectopic bones showed calcified trabeculae and maturated bone marrow. Micro-CT showed that bone volume (BV) in the low-magnitude group of EBF model was significantly higher than those in the other two groups (3.1±1.2mm3 v.s. 1.8±1.2mm3 in high-magnitude group and 1.3±0.9mm3 in control-VA group), but BV in the centrifuge acceleration group had no significant difference compared those in control-CA group. Union rate and BV in the low-magnitude group of RFH model were also significantly higher than those in the other groups (Union rate: 60% v.s. 0% in the high-magnitude group and 10% in the control-VA group, BV: 0.69±0.30mm3 v.s. 0.15±0.09mm3 in high-magnitude group and 0.22±0.17mm3 in control-VA group). BV/TV in the low-magnitude group of RFH model was significantly higher than that in control-VA group (59.4±14.9% v.s. 35.8±13.5%). On the other hand, radiographic union rate (10% in centrifuge acceleration group v.s. 20% in control-CA group) and micro-CT parameters in RFH model were not significantly different between two groups in the constant acceleration studies. Radiographic images of non-union rib fractures showed cartilage at the fracture site and poor new bone formation, whereas union samples showed only new bone. In conclusion, low-magnitude vibration acceleration promoted bone formation at the trunk in both BMP-induced ectopic bone formation and rib fracture healing models. However, the micro-CT parameters were not similar between two models, which suggested that there might be difference in the mechanism of effect by vibration between two models. PMID:28264058

Vibration acceleration promotes bone formation in rodent models.

PubMed

Uchida, Ryohei; Nakata, Ken; Kawano, Fuminori; Yonetani, Yasukazu; Ogasawara, Issei; Nakai, Naoya; Mae, Tatsuo; Matsuo, Tomohiko; Tachibana, Yuta; Yokoi, Hiroyuki; Yoshikawa, Hideki

2017-01-01

All living tissues and cells on Earth are subject to gravitational acceleration, but no reports have verified whether acceleration mode influences bone formation and healing. Therefore, this study was to compare the effects of two acceleration modes, vibration and constant (centrifugal) accelerations, on bone formation and healing in the trunk using BMP 2-induced ectopic bone formation (EBF) mouse model and a rib fracture healing (RFH) rat model. Additionally, we tried to verify the difference in mechanism of effect on bone formation by accelerations between these two models. Three groups (low- and high-magnitude vibration and control-VA groups) were evaluated in the vibration acceleration study, and two groups (centrifuge acceleration and control-CA groups) were used in the constant acceleration study. In each model, the intervention was applied for ten minutes per day from three days after surgery for eleven days (EBF model) or nine days (RFH model). All animals were sacrificed the day after the intervention ended. In the EBF model, ectopic bone was evaluated by macroscopic and histological observations, wet weight, radiography and microfocus computed tomography (micro-CT). In the RFH model, whole fracture-repaired ribs were excised with removal of soft tissue, and evaluated radiologically and histologically. Ectopic bones in the low-magnitude group (EBF model) had significantly greater wet weight and were significantly larger (macroscopically and radiographically) than those in the other two groups, whereas the size and wet weight of ectopic bones in the centrifuge acceleration group showed no significant difference compared those in control-CA group. All ectopic bones showed calcified trabeculae and maturated bone marrow. Micro-CT showed that bone volume (BV) in the low-magnitude group of EBF model was significantly higher than those in the other two groups (3.1±1.2mm3 v.s. 1.8±1.2mm3 in high-magnitude group and 1.3±0.9mm3 in control-VA group), but BV in the centrifuge acceleration group had no significant difference compared those in control-CA group. Union rate and BV in the low-magnitude group of RFH model were also significantly higher than those in the other groups (Union rate: 60% v.s. 0% in the high-magnitude group and 10% in the control-VA group, BV: 0.69±0.30mm3 v.s. 0.15±0.09mm3 in high-magnitude group and 0.22±0.17mm3 in control-VA group). BV/TV in the low-magnitude group of RFH model was significantly higher than that in control-VA group (59.4±14.9% v.s. 35.8±13.5%). On the other hand, radiographic union rate (10% in centrifuge acceleration group v.s. 20% in control-CA group) and micro-CT parameters in RFH model were not significantly different between two groups in the constant acceleration studies. Radiographic images of non-union rib fractures showed cartilage at the fracture site and poor new bone formation, whereas union samples showed only new bone. In conclusion, low-magnitude vibration acceleration promoted bone formation at the trunk in both BMP-induced ectopic bone formation and rib fracture healing models. However, the micro-CT parameters were not similar between two models, which suggested that there might be difference in the mechanism of effect by vibration between two models.

Building a Generic Virtual Research Environment Framework for Multiple Earth and Space Science Domains and a Diversity of Users.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wyborn, L. A.; Fraser, R.; Evans, B. J. K.; Friedrich, C.; Klump, J. F.; Lescinsky, D. T.

2017-12-01

Virtual Research Environments (VREs) are now part of academic infrastructures. Online research workflows can be orchestrated whereby data can be accessed from multiple external repositories with processing taking place on public or private clouds, and centralised supercomputers using a mixture of user codes, and well-used community software and libraries. VREs enable distributed members of research teams to actively work together to share data, models, tools, software, workflows, best practices, infrastructures, etc. These environments and their components are increasingly able to support the needs of undergraduate teaching. External to the research sector, they can also be reused by citizen scientists, and be repurposed for industry users to help accelerate the diffusion and hence enable the translation of research innovations. The Virtual Geophysics Laboratory (VGL) in Australia was started in 2012, built using a collaboration between CSIRO, the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) and Geoscience Australia, with support funding from the Australian Government Department of Education. VGL comprises three main modules that provide an interface to enable users to first select their required data; to choose a tool to process that data; and then access compute infrastructure for execution. VGL was initially built to enable a specific set of researchers in government agencies access to specific data sets and a limited number of tools. Over the years it has evolved into a multi-purpose Earth science platform with access to an increased variety of data (e.g., Natural Hazards, Geochemistry), a broader range of software packages, and an increasing diversity of compute infrastructures. This expansion has been possible because of the approach to loosely couple data, tools and compute resources via interfaces that are built on international standards and accessed as network-enabled services wherever possible. Built originally for researchers that were not fussy about general usability, increasing emphasis on User Interfaces (UIs) and stability will lead to increased uptake in the education and industry sectors. Simultaneously, improvements are being added to facilitate access to data and tools by experienced researchers who want direct access to both data and flexible workflows.

Ferroelectric Based High Power Components for L-Band Accelerator Applications

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

Kanareykin, Alex; Jing, Chunguang; Kostin, Roman

2018-01-16

We are developing a new electronic device to control the power in particle accelerators. The key technology is a new nanostructured material developed by Euclid that changes its properties with an applied electric field. Both superconducting and conventional accelerating structures require fast electronic control of the input rf power. A fast controllable phase shifter would allow for example the control of the rf power delivered to multiple accelerating cavities from a single power amplifier. Nonlinear ferroelectric microwave components can control the tuning or the input power coupling for rf cavities. Applying a bias voltage across a nonlinear ferroelectric changes itsmore » permittivity. This effect can be used to cause a phase change of a propagating rf signal or change the resonant frequency of a cavity. The key is the development of a low loss highly tunable ferroelectric material.« less

Jerk Minimization Method for Vibration Control in Buildings

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Abatan, Ayo O.; Yao, Leummim

1997-01-01

In many vibration minimization control problems for high rise buildings subject to strong earthquake loads, the emphasis has been on a combination of minimizing the displacement, the velocity and the acceleration of the motion of the building. In most cases, the accelerations that are involved are not necessarily large but the change in them (jerk) are abrupt. These changes in magnitude or direction are responsible for most building damage and also create discomfort like motion sickness for inhabitants of these structures because of the element of surprise. We propose a method of minimizing also the jerk which is the sudden change in acceleration or the derivative of the acceleration using classical linear quadratic optimal controls. This was done through the introduction of a quadratic performance index involving the cost due to the jerk; a special change of variable; and using the jerk as a control variable. The values of the optimal control are obtained using the Riccati equation.

The path to successful commercialization of cell and gene therapies: empowering patient advocates.

PubMed

Bauer, Gerhard; Abou-El-Enein, Mohamed; Kent, Alastair; Poole, Brian; Forte, Miguel

2017-02-01

Often, novel gene and cell therapies provide hope for many people living with incurable diseases. To facilitate and accelerate a successful regulatory approval and commercialization path for effective, safe and affordable cell and gene therapies, the involvement of patient advocacy groups (PAGs) should be considered early in the development process. This report provides a thorough overview of the various roles PAGs play in the clinical translation of cell and gene therapies and how they can bring about positive changes in the regulatory process, infrastructure improvements and market stability. Copyright © 2017 International Society for Cellular Therapy. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Using an integrated knowledge translation approach to build a public health research agenda.

PubMed

Kothari, Anita; Regan, Sandra; Gore, Dana; Valaitis, Ruta; Garcia, John; Manson, Heather; O'Mara, Linda

2014-01-29

Public Health Systems Research is an emerging field of research that is gaining importance in Canada. On October 22 and 23, 2012, public health researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers came together at the Accelerating Public Health Systems Research in Ontario: Building an Agenda think tank to develop a research agenda for the province. This agenda included the identification of the six top priorities for research in Ontario: public health performance, evidence-based practice, public health organization and structure, public health human resources, public health infrastructure, and partnerships/linkages. This paper explores the priorities in detail and hopes to bring more attention to this area of research.

Toward a patient-centric medical information model: issues and challenges for US adoption.

PubMed

Lorence, Daniel; Monatesti, Sabatini; Margenthaler, Robert; Hoadley, Ellen

2005-01-01

As the USA moves, incrementally, toward evidence-based medicine, there is growing awareness of the importance of innovation in information management. Mandates for change include improved use of resources, accelerated diffusion of knowledge and an advanced consumer role. Key among these requirements is the need for a fundamentally different patient information recording system. Within the challenges identified in the most recent national health information technology initiative, we propose a model for an electronic, patient-centric medical information infrastructure, highlighting a transportable, scalable and integrated resource. We identify resources available for technology transfer, promoting consumers as integral parts of the collaborative medical decision-making process.

New infrastructure for studies of transmutation and fast systems concepts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Panza, Fabio; Firpo, Gabriele; Lomonaco, Guglielmo; Osipenko, Mikhail; Ricco, Giovanni; Ripani, Marco; Saracco, Paolo; Viberti, Carlo Maria

2017-09-01

In this work we report initial studies on a low power Accelerator-Driven System as a possible experimental facility for the measurement of relevant integral nuclear quantities. In particular, we performed Monte Carlo simulations of minor actinides and fission products irradiation and estimated the fission rate within fission chambers in the reactor core and the reflector, in order to evaluate the transmutation rates and the measurement sensitivity. We also performed a photo-peak analysis of available experimental data from a research reactor, in order to estimate the expected sensitivity of this analysis method on the irradiation of samples in the ADS considered.

Online Analysis Enhances Use of NASA Earth Science Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Acker, James G.; Leptoukh, Gregory

2007-01-01

Giovanni, the Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC) Interactive Online Visualization and Analysis Infrastructure, has provided researchers with advanced capabilities to perform data exploration and analysis with observational data from NASA Earth observation satellites. In the past 5-10 years, examining geophysical events and processes with remote-sensing data required a multistep process of data discovery, data acquisition, data management, and ultimately data analysis. Giovanni accelerates this process by enabling basic visualization and analysis directly on the World Wide Web. In the last two years, Giovanni has added new data acquisition functions and expanded analysis options to increase its usefulness to the Earth science research community.

Fermilab computing at the Intensity Frontier

DOE PAGES

Group, Craig; Fuess, S.; Gutsche, O.; ...

2015-12-23

The Intensity Frontier refers to a diverse set of particle physics experiments using high- intensity beams. In this paper I will focus the discussion on the computing requirements and solutions of a set of neutrino and muon experiments in progress or planned to take place at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory located near Chicago, Illinois. In addition, the experiments face unique challenges, but also have overlapping computational needs. In principle, by exploiting the commonality and utilizing centralized computing tools and resources, requirements can be satisfied efficiently and scientists of individual experiments can focus more on the science and less onmore » the development of tools and infrastructure.« less

Acceleration and torque feedback for robotic control - Experimental results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mclnroy, John E.; Saridis, George N.

1990-01-01

Gross motion control of robotic manipulators typically requires significant on-line computations to compensate for nonlinear dynamics due to gravity, Coriolis, centripetal, and friction nonlinearities. One controller proposed by Luo and Saridis avoids these computations by feeding back joint acceleration and torque. This study implements the controller on a Puma 600 robotic manipulator. Joint acceleration measurement is obtained by measuring linear accelerations of each joint, and deriving a computationally efficient transformation from the linear measurements to the angular accelerations. Torque feedback is obtained by using the previous torque sent to the joints. The implementation has stability problems on the Puma 600 due to the extremely high gains inherent in the feedback structure. Since these high gains excite frequency modes in the Puma 600, the algorithm is modified to decrease the gain inherent in the feedback structure. The resulting compensator is stable and insensitive to high frequency unmodeled dynamics. Moreover, a second compensator is proposed which uses acceleration and torque feedback, but still allows nonlinear terms to be fed forward. Thus, by feeding the increment in the easily calculated gravity terms forward, improved responses are obtained. Both proposed compensators are implemented, and the real time results are compared to those obtained with the computed torque algorithm.

Knowledge engineering for PACES, the particle accelerator control expert system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lind, P. C.; Poehlman, W. F. S.; Stark, J. W.; Cousins, T.

1992-04-01

The KN-3000 used at Defense Research Establishment Ottawa is a Van de Graaff particle accelerator employed primarily to produce monoenergetic neutrons for calibrating radiation detectors. To provide training and assistance for new operators, it was decided to develop an expert system for accelerator operation. Knowledge engineering aspects of the expert system are reviewed. Two important issues are involved: the need to encapsulate expert knowledge into the system in a form that facilitates automatic accelerator operation and to partition the system so that time-consuming inferencing is minimized in favor of faster, more algorithmic control. It is seen that accelerator control will require fast, narrowminded decision making for rapid fine tuning, but slower and broader reasoning for machine startup, shutdown, fault diagnosis, and correction. It is also important to render the knowledge base in a form conducive to operator training. A promising form of the expert system involves a hybrid system in which high level reasoning is performed on the host machine that interacts with the user, while an embedded controller employs neural networks for fast but limited adjustment of accelerator performance. This partitioning of duty facilitates a hierarchical chain of command yielding an effective mixture of speed and reasoning ability.

Access Control Management for SCADA Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hong, Seng-Phil; Ahn, Gail-Joon; Xu, Wenjuan

The information technology revolution has transformed all aspects of our society including critical infrastructures and led a significant shift from their old and disparate business models based on proprietary and legacy environments to more open and consolidated ones. Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems have been widely used not only for industrial processes but also for some experimental facilities. Due to the nature of open environments, managing SCADA systems should meet various security requirements since system administrators need to deal with a large number of entities and functions involved in critical infrastructures. In this paper, we identify necessary access control requirements in SCADA systems and articulate access control policies for the simulated SCADA systems. We also attempt to analyze and realize those requirements and policies in the context of role-based access control that is suitable for simplifying administrative tasks in large scale enterprises.

A Study to Compare the Failure Rates of Current Space Shuttle Ground Support Equipment with the New Pathfinder Equipment and Investigate the Effect that the Proposed GSE Infrastructure Upgrade Might Have to Reduce GSE Infrastructure Failures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kennedy, Barbara J.

2004-01-01

The purposes of this study are to compare the current Space Shuttle Ground Support Equipment (GSE) infrastructure with the proposed GSE infrastructure upgrade modification. The methodology will include analyzing the first prototype installation equipment at Launch PAD B called the "Pathfinder". This study will begin by comparing the failure rate of the current components associated with the "Hardware interface module (HIM)" at the Kennedy Space Center to the failure rate of the neW Pathfinder components. Quantitative data will be gathered specifically on HIM components and the PAD B Hypergolic Fuel facility and Hypergolic Oxidizer facility areas which has the upgraded pathfinder equipment installed. The proposed upgrades include utilizing industrial controlled modules, software, and a fiber optic network. The results of this study provide evidence that there is a significant difference in the failure rates of the two studied infrastructure equipment components. There is also evidence that the support staff for each infrastructure system is not equal. A recommendation to continue with future upgrades is based on a significant reduction of failures in the new' installed ground system components.

Slip Ratio Estimation and Regenerative Brake Control for Decelerating Electric Vehicles without Detection of Vehicle Velocity and Acceleration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suzuki, Toru; Fujimoto, Hiroshi

In slip ratio control systems, it is necessary to detect the vehicle velocity in order to obtain the slip ratio. However, it is very difficult to measure this velocity directly. We have proposed slip ratio estimation and control methods that do not require the vehicle velocity with acceleration. In this paper, the slip ratio estimation and control methods are proposed without detecting the vehicle velocity and acceleration when it is decelerating. We carried out simulations and experiments by using an electric vehicle to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.

A framework for quantifying and optimizing the value of seismic monitoring of infrastructure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Omenzetter, Piotr

2017-04-01

This paper outlines a framework for quantifying and optimizing the value of information from structural health monitoring (SHM) technology deployed on large infrastructure, which may sustain damage in a series of earthquakes (the main and the aftershocks). The evolution of the damage state of the infrastructure without or with SHM is presented as a time-dependent, stochastic, discrete-state, observable and controllable nonlinear dynamical system. The pre-posterior Bayesian analysis and the decision tree are used for quantifying and optimizing the value of SHM information. An optimality problem is then formulated how to decide on the adoption of SHM and how to manage optimally the usage and operations of the possibly damaged infrastructure and its repair schedule using the information from SHM. The objective function to minimize is the expected total cost or risk.

Cycling infrastructure for reducing cycling injuries in cyclists.

PubMed

Mulvaney, Caroline A; Smith, Sherie; Watson, Michael C; Parkin, John; Coupland, Carol; Miller, Philip; Kendrick, Denise; McClintock, Hugh

2015-12-10

Cycling is an attractive form of transport. It is beneficial to the individual as a form of physical activity that may fit more readily into an individual's daily routine, such as for cycling to work and to the shops, than other physical activities such as visiting a gym. Cycling is also beneficial to the wider community and the environment as a result of fewer motorised journeys. Cyclists are seen as vulnerable road users who are frequently in close proximity to larger and faster motorised vehicles. Cycling infrastructure aims to make cycling both more convenient and safer for cyclists. This review is needed to guide transport planning. To:1. evaluate the effects of different types of cycling infrastructure on reducing cycling injuries in cyclists, by type of infrastructure;2. evaluate the effects of cycling infrastructure on reducing the severity of cycling injuries in cyclists;3. evaluate the effects of cycling infrastructure on reducing cycling injuries in cyclists with respect to age, sex and social group. We ran the most recent search on 2nd March 2015. We searched the Cochrane Injuries Group Specialised Register, CENTRAL (The Cochrane Library), MEDLINE (OvidSP), Embase Classic + Embase(OvidSP), PubMed and 10 other databases. We searched websites, handsearched conference proceedings, screened reference lists of included studies and previously published reviews and contacted relevant organisations. We included randomised controlled trials, cluster randomised controlled trials, controlled before-after studies, and interrupted time series studies which evaluated the effect of cycling infrastructure (such as cycle lanes, tracks or paths, speed management, roundabout design) on cyclist injury or collision rates. Studies had to include a comparator, that is, either no infrastructure or a different type of infrastructure. We excluded studies that assessed collisions that occurred as a result of competitive cycling. Two review authors examined the titles and abstracts of papers obtained from searches to determine eligibility. Two review authors extracted data from the included trials and assessed the risk of bias. We carried out a meta-analysis using the random-effects model where at least three studies reported the same intervention and outcome. Where there were sufficient studies, as a secondary analysis we accounted for changes in cyclist exposure in the calculation of the rate ratios. We rated the quality of the evidence as 'high', 'moderate', 'low' or 'very low' according to the GRADE approach for the installation of cycle routes and networks. We identified 21 studies for inclusion in the review: 20 controlled before-after (CBA) studies and one interrupted time series (ITS) study. These evaluated a range of infrastructure including cycle lanes, advanced stop lines, use of colour, cycle tracks, cycle paths, management of the road network, speed management, cycle routes and networks, roundabout design and packages of measures. No studies reported medically-attended or self-reported injuries. There was no evidence that cycle lanes reduce the rate of cycle collisions (rate ratio 1.21, 95% CI 0.70 to 2.08). Taking into account cycle flow, there was no difference in collisions for cyclists using cycle routes and networks compared with cyclists not using cycle routes and networks (RR 0.40, 95% CI 0.15 to 1.05). There was statistically significant heterogeneity between the studies (I² = 75%, Chi² = 8.00 df = 2, P = 0.02) for the analysis adjusted for cycle flow. We judged the quality of the evidence regarding cycle routes and networks as very low and we are very uncertain about the estimate. These analyses are based on findings from CBA studies.From data presented narratively, the use of 20 mph speed restrictions in urban areas may be effective at reducing cyclist collisions. Redesigning specific parts of cycle routes that may be particularly busy or complex in terms of traffic movement may be beneficial to cyclists in terms of reducing the risk of collision. Generally, the conversion of intersections to roundabouts may increase the number of cycle collisions. In particular, the conversion of intersections to roundabouts with cycle lanes marked as part of the circulating carriageway increased cycle collisions. However, the conversion of intersections with and without signals to roundabouts with cycle paths may reduce the odds of collision. Both continuing a cycle lane across the mouth of a side road with a give way line onto the main road, and cycle tracks, may increase the risk of injury collisions in cyclists. However, these conclusions are uncertain, being based on a narrative review of findings from included studies. There is a lack of evidence that cycle paths or advanced stop lines either reduce or increase injury collisions in cyclists. There is also insufficient evidence to draw any robust conclusions concerning the effect of cycling infrastructure on cycling collisions in terms of severity of injury, sex, age, and level of social deprivation of the casualty.In terms of quality of the evidence, there was little matching of intervention and control sites. In many studies, the comparability of the control area to the intervention site was unclear and few studies provided information on other cycling infrastructures that may be in place in the control and intervention areas. The majority of studies analysed data routinely collected by organisations external to the study team, thus reducing the risk of bias in terms of systematic differences in assessing outcomes between the control and intervention groups. Some authors did not take regression-to-mean effects into account when examining changes in collisions. Longer data collection periods pre- and post-installation would allow for regression-to-mean effects and also seasonal and time trends in traffic volume to be observed. Few studies adjusted cycle collision rates for exposure. Generally, there is a lack of high quality evidence to be able to draw firm conclusions as to the effect of cycling infrastructure on cycling collisions. There is a lack of rigorous evaluation of cycling infrastructure.

European seismological data exchange, access and processing: current status of the Research Infrastructure project NERIES

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Giardini, D.; van Eck, T.; Bossu, R.; Wiemer, S.

2009-04-01

The EC Research infrastructure project NERIES, an Integrated Infrastructure Initiative in seismology for 2006-2010 has passed its mid-term point. We will present a short concise overview of the current state of the project, established cooperation with other European and global projects and the planning for the last year of the project. Earthquake data archiving and access within Europe has dramatically improved during the last two years. This concerns earthquake parameters, digital broadband and acceleration waveforms and historical data. The Virtual European Broadband Seismic Network (VEBSN) consists currently of more then 300 stations. A new distributed data archive concept, the European Integrated Waveform Data Archive (EIDA), has been implemented in Europe connecting the larger European seismological waveform data. Global standards for earthquake parameter data (QuakeML) and tomography models have been developed and are being established. Web application technology has been and is being developed to make a jump start to the next generation data services. A NERIES data portal provides a number of services testing the potential capacities of new open-source web technologies. Data application tools like shakemaps, lossmaps, site response estimation and tools for data processing and visualisation are currently available, although some of these tools are still in an alpha version. A European tomography reference model will be discussed at a special workshop in June 2009. Shakemaps, coherent with the NEIC application, are implemented in, among others, Turkey, Italy, Romania, Switzerland, several countries. The comprehensive site response software is being distributed and used both inside and outside the project. NERIES organises several workshops inviting both consortium and non-consortium participants and covering a wide range of subjects: ‘Seismological observatory operation tools', ‘Tomography', ‘Ocean bottom observatories', 'Site response software training', ‘Historical earthquake catalogues', ‘Distribution of acceleration data', etc. Some of these workshops are coordinated with other organisations/projects, like ORFEUS, ESONET, IRIS, etc. NERIES still offers grants to individual researchers or groups to work at facilities such as the Swiss national seismological network (SED/ETHZ, Switzerland), the CEA/DASE facilities in France, the data scanning facilities at INGV (SISMOS), the array facilities of NORSAR (Norway) and the new Conrad Facility in Austria.

Cancellation control law for lateral-directional dynamics of a supermaneuverable aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Snell, Antony

1993-01-01

Cancellation control laws are designed which reduce the high levels of lateral acceleration encountered during aggressive rolling maneuvers executed at high angle of attack. Two independent problem are examined. One is to reduce lateral acceleration at the mass center, while the other focuses on lateral acceleration at the pilot's station, located 7.0 m forward of the mass center. Both of these problems are challenging and somewhat different in their limitations. In each case the design is based on a linearization of the lateral-directional dynamics about a high angle of attack condition. The controllers incorporate dynamic inversion inner loops to provide control of stability-axis roll- and yaw-rates and then employ cancellation filters in both feed-forward and feed-back signal paths. The relative simplicity of the control laws should allow nonlinear generalizations to be devised. Although it is shown that lateral acceleration can be reduced substantially by such control laws, this is at the cost of slowed roll response, poor dutch-roll damping or a combination of the two.

Helix Nebula: Enabling federation of existing data infrastructures and data services to an overarching cross-domain e-infrastructure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lengert, Wolfgang; Farres, Jordi; Lanari, Riccardo; Casu, Francesco; Manunta, Michele; Lassalle-Balier, Gerard

2014-05-01

Helix Nebula has established a growing public private partnership of more than 30 commercial cloud providers, SMEs, and publicly funded research organisations and e-infrastructures. The Helix Nebula strategy is to establish a federated cloud service across Europe. Three high-profile flagships, sponsored by CERN (high energy physics), EMBL (life sciences) and ESA/DLR/CNES/CNR (earth science), have been deployed and extensively tested within this federated environment. The commitments behind these initial flagships have created a critical mass that attracts suppliers and users to the initiative, to work together towards an "Information as a Service" market place. Significant progress in implementing the following 4 programmatic goals (as outlined in the strategic Plan Ref.1) has been achieved: × Goal #1 Establish a Cloud Computing Infrastructure for the European Research Area (ERA) serving as a platform for innovation and evolution of the overall infrastructure. × Goal #2 Identify and adopt suitable policies for trust, security and privacy on a European-level can be provided by the European Cloud Computing framework and infrastructure. × Goal #3 Create a light-weight governance structure for the future European Cloud Computing Infrastructure that involves all the stakeholders and can evolve over time as the infrastructure, services and user-base grows. × Goal #4 Define a funding scheme involving the three stake-holder groups (service suppliers, users, EC and national funding agencies) into a Public-Private-Partnership model to implement a Cloud Computing Infrastructure that delivers a sustainable business environment adhering to European level policies. Now in 2014 a first version of this generic cross-domain e-infrastructure is ready to go into operations building on federation of European industry and contributors (data, tools, knowledge, ...). This presentation describes how Helix Nebula is being used in the domain of earth science focusing on geohazards. The so called "Supersite Exploitation Platform" (SSEP) provides scientists an overarching federated e-infrastructure with a very fast access to (i) large volume of data (EO/non-space data), (ii) computing resources (e.g. hybrid cloud/grid), (iii) processing software (e.g. toolboxes, RTMs, retrieval baselines, visualization routines), and (iv) general platform capabilities (e.g. user management and access control, accounting, information portal, collaborative tools, social networks etc.). In this federation each data provider remains in full control of the implementation of its data policy. This presentation outlines the Architecture (technical and services) supporting very heterogeneous science domains as well as the procedures for new-comers to join the Helix Nebula Market Place. Ref.1 http://cds.cern.ch/record/1374172/files/CERN-OPEN-2011-036.pdf

Shear Bond Strength of Composite and Ceromer Superstructures to Direct Laser Sintered and Ni-Cr-Based Infrastructures Treated with KTP, Nd:YAG, and Er:YAG Lasers: An Experimental Study.

PubMed

Gorler, Oguzhan; Hubbezoglu, Ihsan; Ulgey, Melih; Zan, Recai; Guner, Kubra

2018-04-01

The aim of this study was to examine the shear bond strength (SBS) of ceromer and nanohybrid composite to direct laser sintered (DLS) Cr-Co and Ni-Cr-based metal infrastructures treated with erbium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Er:YAG), neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd:YAG), and potassium titanyl phosphate (KTP) laser modalities in in vitro settings. Experimental specimens had four sets (n = 32) including two DLS infrastructures with ceromer and nanohybrid composite superstructures and two Ni-Cr-based infrastructures with ceromer and nanohybrid composite superstructures. Of each infrastructure set, the specimens randomized into four treatment modalities (n = 8): no treatment (controls) and Er:YAG, Nd:YAG, and KTP lasers. The infrastructures were prepared in the final dimensions of 7 × 3 mm. Ceromer and nanohybrid composite was applied to the infrastructures after their surface treatments according to randomization. The SBS of specimens was measured to test the efficacy of surface treatments. Representative scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images after laser treatments were obtained. Overall, in current experimental settings, Nd:YAG, KTP, and Er:YAG lasers, in order of efficacy, are effective to improve the bonding of ceromer and nanohybrid composite to the DLS and Ni-Cr-based infrastructures (p < 0.05). Nd:YAG laser is more effective in the DLS/ceromer infrastructures (p < 0.05). KTP laser, as second more effective preparation, is more effective in the DLS/ceromer infrastructures (p < 0.05). SEM findings presented moderate accordance with these findings. The results of this study supported the bonding of ceromer and nanohybrid composite superstructures to the DLS and Ni-Cr-based infrastructures suggesting that laser modalities, in order of success, Nd:YAG, KTP, and Er:YAG, are effective to increase bonding of these structures.

Laser wakefield accelerated electron beam monitoring and control

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

Koga, J. K.; Mori, M.; Kotaki, H.

2016-03-25

We will discuss our participation in the ImPACT project, which has as one of its goals the development of an ultra-compact electron accelerator using lasers (< 1 GeV, < 10   m) and the generation of an x-ray beam from the accelerated electrons. Within this context we will discuss our investigation into electron beam monitoring and control. Since laser accelerated electrons will be used for x-ray beam generation combined with an undulator, we will present investigation into the possibilities of the improvement of electron beam emittance through cooling.

Modernization of B-2 Data, Video, and Control Systems Infrastructure

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cmar, Mark D.; Maloney, Christian T.; Butala, Vishal D.

2012-01-01

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Glenn Research Center (GRC) Plum Brook Station (PBS) Spacecraft Propulsion Research Facility, commonly referred to as B-2, is NASA s third largest thermal-vacuum facility with propellant systems capability. B-2 has completed a modernization effort of its facility legacy data, video and control systems infrastructure to accommodate modern integrated testing and Information Technology (IT) Security requirements. Integrated systems tests have been conducted to demonstrate the new data, video and control systems functionality and capability. Discrete analog signal conditioners have been replaced by new programmable, signal processing hardware that is integrated with the data system. This integration supports automated calibration and verification of the analog subsystem. Modern measurement systems analysis (MSA) tools are being developed to help verify system health and measurement integrity. Legacy hard wired digital data systems have been replaced by distributed Fibre Channel (FC) network connected digitizers where high speed sampling rates have increased to 256,000 samples per second. Several analog video cameras have been replaced by digital image and storage systems. Hard-wired analog control systems have been replaced by Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC), fiber optic networks (FON) infrastructure and human machine interface (HMI) operator screens. New modern IT Security procedures and schemes have been employed to control data access and process control flows. Due to the nature of testing possible at B-2, flexibility and configurability of systems has been central to the architecture during modernization.

Modernization of B-2 Data, Video, and Control Systems Infrastructure

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cmar, Mark D.; Maloney, Christian T.; Butala, Vishal D.

2012-01-01

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Glenn Research Center (GRC) Plum Brook Station (PBS) Spacecraft Propulsion Research Facility, commonly referred to as B-2, is NASA's third largest thermal-vacuum facility with propellant systems capability. B-2 has completed a modernization effort of its facility legacy data, video and control systems infrastructure to accommodate modern integrated testing and Information Technology (IT) Security requirements. Integrated systems tests have been conducted to demonstrate the new data, video and control systems functionality and capability. Discrete analog signal conditioners have been replaced by new programmable, signal processing hardware that is integrated with the data system. This integration supports automated calibration and verification of the analog subsystem. Modern measurement systems analysis (MSA) tools are being developed to help verify system health and measurement integrity. Legacy hard wired digital data systems have been replaced by distributed Fibre Channel (FC) network connected digitizers where high speed sampling rates have increased to 256,000 samples per second. Several analog video cameras have been replaced by digital image and storage systems. Hard-wired analog control systems have been replaced by Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC), fiber optic networks (FON) infrastructure and human machine interface (HMI) operator screens. New modern IT Security procedures and schemes have been employed to control data access and process control flows. Due to the nature of testing possible at B-2, flexibility and configurability of systems has been central to the architecture during modernization.

Large funding inflows, limited local capacity and emerging disease control priorities: a situational assessment of tuberculosis control in Myanmar.

PubMed

Khan, Mishal S; Schwanke-Khilji, Sara; Yoong, Joanne; Tun, Zaw Myo; Watson, Samantha; Coker, Richard James

2017-10-01

There are numerous challenges in planning and implementing effective disease control programmes in Myanmar, which is undergoing internal political and economic transformations whilst experiencing massive inflows of external funding. The objective of our study-involving key informant discussions, participant observations and linked literature reviews-was to analyse how tuberculosis (TB) control strategies in Myanmar are influenced by the broader political, economic, epidemiological and health systems context using the Systemic Rapid Assessment conceptual and analytical framework. Our findings indicate that the substantial influx of donor funding, in the order of one billion dollars over a 5-year period, may be too rapid for the country's infrastructure to effectively utilize. TB control strategies thus far have tended to favour medical or technological approaches rather than infrastructure development, and appear to be driven more by perceived urgency to 'do something' rather informed by evidence of cost-effectiveness and sustainable long-term impact. Progress has been made towards ambitious targets for scaling up treatment of drug-resistant TB, although there are concerns about ensuring quality of care. We also find substantial disparities in health and funding allocation between regions and ethnic groups, which are related to the political context and health system infrastructure. Our situational assessment of emerging TB control strategies in this transitioning health system indicates that large investments by international donors may be pushing Myanmar to scale up TB and drug-resistant TB services too quickly, without due consideration given to the health system (service delivery infrastructure, human resource capacity, quality of care, equity) and epidemiological (evidence of effectiveness of interventions, prevention of new cases) context. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press in association with The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Extended Task Space Control for Robotic Manipulators

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Backes, Paul G. (Inventor); Long, Mark K. (Inventor)

1996-01-01

The invention is a method of operating a robot in successive sampling intervals to perform a task, the robot having joints and joint actuators with actuator control loops, by decomposing the task into behavior forces, accelerations, velocities and positions of plural behaviors to be exhibited by the robot simultaneously, computing actuator accelerations of the joint actuators for the current sampling interval from both behavior forces, accelerations velocities and positions of the current sampling interval and actuator velocities and positions of the previous sampling interval, computing actuator velocities and positions of the joint actuators for the current sampling interval from the actuator velocities and positions of the previous sampling interval, and, finally, controlling the actuators in accordance with the actuator accelerations, velocities and positions of the current sampling interval. The actuator accelerations, velocities and positions of the current sampling interval are stored for use during the next sampling interval.

A New Concept of Controller for Accelerators' Magnet Power Supplies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Visintini, Roberto; Cleva, Stefano; Cautero, Marco; Ciesla, Tomasz

2016-04-01

The complexity of a particle accelerator implies the remote control of very large numbers of devices, with many different typologies, either distributed along the accelerator or concentrated in locations, often far away from each other. Local and global control systems handle the devices through dedicated communication channels and interfaces. Each controlled device is practically a “smart node” performing a specific task. In addition, very often, those tasks are managed in real-time mode. The performances required to the control interface has an influence on the cost of the distributed nodes as well as on their hardware and software implementation. In large facilities (e.g. CERN) the “smart nodes” derive from specific in-house developments. Alternatively, it is possible to find on the market commercial devices, whose performances (and prices) are spread over a broad range, and spanning from proprietary design (customizable to the user's needs) to open source/design. In this paper, we will describe some applications of smart nodes in the particle accelerators field, with special focus on the power supplies for magnets. In modern accelerators, in fact, magnets and their associated power supplies constitute systems distributed along the accelerator itself, and strongly interfaced with the remote control system as well as with more specific (and often more demanding) orbit/trajectory feedback systems. We will give examples of actual systems, installed and operational on two light sources, Elettra and FERMI, located in the Elettra Research Center in Trieste, Italy.

Cyber-Critical Infrastructure Protection Using Real-Time Payload-Based Anomaly Detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Düssel, Patrick; Gehl, Christian; Laskov, Pavel; Bußer, Jens-Uwe; Störmann, Christof; Kästner, Jan

With an increasing demand of inter-connectivity and protocol standardization modern cyber-critical infrastructures are exposed to a multitude of serious threats that may give rise to severe damage for life and assets without the implementation of proper safeguards. Thus, we propose a method that is capable to reliably detect unknown, exploit-based attacks on cyber-critical infrastructures carried out over the network. We illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method by conducting experiments on network traffic that can be found in modern industrial control systems. Moreover, we provide results of a throughput measuring which demonstrate the real-time capabilities of our system.

Infrastructure and equipment for radiation oncology in the Spanish National Health System: analysis of external beam radiotherapy 2015-2020.

PubMed

Rodríguez, A; Algara, M; Monge, D; López-Torrecilla, J; Caballero, F; Morera, R; Escó, R; Pérez-Montero, H; Ferrer, C; Lara, P C

2018-03-01

Planning for radiation oncology requires reliable estimates of both demand for radiotherapy and availability of technological resources. This study compares radiotherapy resources in the 17 regions of the decentralised Spanish National Health System (SNHS). The Sociedad Española de Oncología Radioterápica (SEOR) performed a cross-sectional survey of all Spanish radiation oncology services (ROS) in 2015. We collected data on SNHS radiotherapy units, recording the year of installation, specific features of linear accelerators (LINACs) and other treatment units, and radiotherapeutic techniques implemented by region. Any machine over 10 years old or lacking a multileaf collimator or portal imaging system was considered obsolete. We performed a k-means clustering analysis using the Hartigan-Wong method to test associations between the gross domestic regional product (GDRP), the number of LINACs per million population and the percentage of LINACs over 10 years old. The SNHS controls 72 (61%) of the 118 Spanish ROS and has 180 LINACs, or 72.5% of the total public and private resources. The mean rate of LINACs per million population is 3.9 for public ROS, and 42% (n = 75) of the public accelerators were obsolete in 2015: 61 due to age and 14 due to technological capability. There was considerable regional variation in terms of the number and technological capacity of radiotherapy units; correlation between GRDP and resource availability was moderate. Despite improvements, new investments are still needed to replace obsolete units and increase access to modern radiotherapy. Regular analysis of ROS in each Spanish region is the only strategy for monitoring progress in radiotherapy capacity.

Permafrost thaw in a nested groundwater-flow system

USGS Publications Warehouse

McKenzie, Jeffery M.; Voss, Clifford I.

2013-01-01

Groundwater flow in cold regions containing permafrost accelerates climate-warming-driven thaw and changes thaw patterns. Simulation analyses of groundwater flow and heat transport with freeze/thaw in typical cold-regions terrain with nested flow indicate that early thaw rate is particularly enhanced by flow, the time when adverse environmental impacts of climate-warming-induced permafrost loss may be severest. For the slowest climate-warming rate predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), once significant groundwater flow begins, thick permafrost layers can vanish in several hundred years, but survive over 1,000 years where flow is minimal. Large-scale thaw depends mostly on the balance of heat advection and conduction in the supra-permafrost zone. Surface-water bodies underlain by open taliks allow slow sub-permafrost flow, with lesser influence on regional thaw. Advection dominance over conduction depends on permeability and topography. Groundwater flow around permafrost and flow through permafrost impact thaw differently; the latter enhances early thaw rate. Air-temperature seasonality also increases early thaw. Hydrogeologic heterogeneity and topography strongly affect thaw rates/patterns. Permafrost controls the groundwater/surface-water-geomorphology system; hence, prediction and mitigation of impacts of thaw on ecology, chemical exports and infrastructure require improved hydrogeology/permafrost characterization and understanding

HIMAC RF system with a digital synthesizer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kanazawa, M.; Sato, K.; Itano, A.; Sudou, M.; Noda, K.; Takada, E.; Kumada, M.; Yamazaki, C.; Yamagishi, T.; Morii, Y.; Toyoda, E.; Tsuzuki, N.; Yagi, T.

2000-04-01

An RF acceleration system, in which digital control with a direct digital synthesizer (DDS) is applied, has been developed for the Heavy Ion Medical Accelerator in Chiba (HIMAC) synchrotron. This digital system allows us to obtain stable operation of the acceleration system over a wide frequency range from 1.04 to 7.9 MHz. In this paper the designed digital RF control system and its performance are described.

Acceleration characteristics of human ocular accommodation.

PubMed

Bharadwaj, Shrikant R; Schor, Clifton M

2005-01-01

Position and velocity of accommodation are known to increase with stimulus magnitude, however, little is known about acceleration properties. We investigated three acceleration properties: peak acceleration, time-to-peak acceleration and total duration of acceleration to step changes in defocus. Peak velocity and total duration of acceleration increased with response magnitude. Peak acceleration and time-to-peak acceleration remained independent of response magnitude. Independent first-order and second-order dynamic components of accommodation demonstrate that neural control of accommodation has an initial open-loop component that is independent of response magnitude and a closed-loop component that increases with response magnitude.

Method of controlling cyclic variation in engine combustion

DOEpatents

Davis, L.I. Jr.; Daw, C.S.; Feldkamp, L.A.; Hoard, J.W.; Yuan, F.; Connolly, F.T.

1999-07-13

Cyclic variation in combustion of a lean burning engine is reduced by detecting an engine combustion event output such as torsional acceleration in a cylinder (i) at a combustion event (k), using the detected acceleration to predict a target acceleration for the cylinder at the next combustion event (k+1), modifying the target output by a correction term that is inversely proportional to the average phase of the combustion event output of cylinder (i) and calculating a control output such as fuel pulse width or spark timing necessary to achieve the target acceleration for cylinder (i) at combustion event (k+1) based on anti-correlation with the detected acceleration and spill-over effects from fueling. 27 figs.

Method of controlling cyclic variation in engine combustion

DOEpatents

Davis, Jr., Leighton Ira; Daw, Charles Stuart; Feldkamp, Lee Albert; Hoard, John William; Yuan, Fumin; Connolly, Francis Thomas

1999-01-01

Cyclic variation in combustion of a lean burning engine is reduced by detecting an engine combustion event output such as torsional acceleration in a cylinder (i) at a combustion event (k), using the detected acceleration to predict a target acceleration for the cylinder at the next combustion event (k+1), modifying the target output by a correction term that is inversely proportional to the average phase of the combustion event output of cylinder (i) and calculating a control output such as fuel pulse width or spark timing necessary to achieve the target acceleration for cylinder (i) at combustion event (k+1) based on anti-correlation with the detected acceleration and spill-over effects from fueling.

Comparison of trunk acceleration ratios during stair negotiation in old-old females.

PubMed

Shin, Sun-Shil; Yoo, Won-Gyu

2016-06-01

[Purpose] This study compared trunk acceleration ratios in old-old adult females during stair negotiation. [Subjects and Methods] Twelve old-old adult females who could walk independently volunteered for this study. This study measured gait time and trunk acceleration ratios using an accelerometer during ascending and descending stairs [Results] The trunk acceleration ratio when descending stairs was significantly higher than that when ascending stairs. [Conclusion] These findings suggest that old-old females have greater deterioration of upper trunk control function for descending than for ascending stairs, regardless of task time. In addition, the trunk acceleration ratio during stair negotiation is a useful clinical marker to predict function and balance control ability in old-old females.

Development and application of compact and on-chip electron linear accelerators for dynamic tracking cancer therapy and DNA damage/repair analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Uesaka, M.; Demachi, K.; Fujiwara, T.; Dobashi, K.; Fujisawa, H.; Chhatkuli, R. B.; Tsuda, A.; Tanaka, S.; Matsumura, Y.; Otsuki, S.; Kusano, J.; Yamamoto, M.; Nakamura, N.; Tanabe, E.; Koyama, K.; Yoshida, M.; Fujimori, R.; Yasui, A.

2015-06-01

We are developing compact electron linear accelerators (hereafter linac) with high RF (Radio Frequency) frequency (9.3 GHz, wavelength 32.3 mm) of X-band and applying to medicine and non-destructive testing. Especially, potable 950 keV and 3.95 MeV linac X-ray sources have been developed for on-site transmission testing at several industrial plants and civil infrastructures including bridges. 6 MeV linac have been made for pinpoint X-ray dynamic tracking cancer therapy. The length of the accelerating tube is ∼600 mm. The electron beam size at the X-ray target is less than 1 mm and X-ray spot size at the cancer is less than 3 mm. Several hardware and software are under construction for dynamic tracking therapy for moving lung cancer. Moreover, as an ultimate compact linac, we are designing and manufacturing a laser dielectric linac of ∼1 MeV with Yr fiber laser (283 THz, wavelength 1.06 pm). Since the wavelength is 1.06 μm, the length of one accelerating strcture is tens pm and the electron beam size is in sub-micro meter. Since the sizes of cell and nuclear are about 10 and 1 μm, respectively, we plan to use this “On-chip” linac for radiation-induced DNA damage/repair analysis. We are thinking a system where DNA in a nucleus of cell is hit by ∼1 μm electron or X-ray beam and observe its repair by proteins and enzymes in live cells in-situ.

Analytical study of beam handling and emittance control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thompson, James R.; Sloan, M. L.

1993-12-01

The thrust of our research on beam handling and emittance control was to explore how one might design high current electron accelerators, with the preservation of high beam quality designed as the primary design consideration. We considered high current, induction linacs in the parameter class of the ETA/ATA accelerators at LLNL, but with improvements to the accelerator gap design and other features to permit a significant increase in the deliverable beam brightness. Our approach for beam quality control centered on the use of solenoidal magnetic focusing through such induction accelerators, together with gently-shaped (adiabatic) acceleration gaps. This approach offers several tools for the control of beam quality. The strength and axial variation in the solenoidal magnetic field may be designed, as may the length and shape of the acceleration gaps, the loading of the gaps, and the axial spacing from gap to gap. This research showed that each of these design features may individually be optimized to contribute to improved beam quality control, and by exploiting these features, it appears feasible to produce high current, high energy electron beams possessing breakthrough beam quality and brightness. Applications which have been technologically unachievable may for the first time become possible. One such application is the production of high performance free electron lasers at very short wavelengths, extending down to the optical (less than 1 micron) regime.

A Novel Method for Vertical Acceleration Noise Suppression of a Thrust-Vectored VTOL UAV.

PubMed

Li, Huanyu; Wu, Linfeng; Li, Yingjie; Li, Chunwen; Li, Hangyu

2016-12-02

Acceleration is of great importance in motion control for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), especially during the takeoff and landing stages. However, the measured acceleration is inevitably polluted by severe noise. Therefore, a proper noise suppression procedure is required. This paper presents a novel method to reduce the noise in the measured vertical acceleration for a thrust-vectored tail-sitter vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) UAV. In the new procedure, a Kalman filter is first applied to estimate the UAV mass by using the information in the vertical thrust and measured acceleration. The UAV mass is then used to compute an estimate of UAV vertical acceleration. The estimated acceleration is finally fused with the measured acceleration to obtain the minimum variance estimate of vertical acceleration. By doing this, the new approach incorporates the thrust information into the acceleration estimate. The method is applied to the data measured in a VTOL UAV takeoff experiment. Two other denoising approaches developed by former researchers are also tested for comparison. The results demonstrate that the new method is able to suppress the acceleration noise substantially. It also maintains the real-time performance in the final estimated acceleration, which is not seen in the former denoising approaches. The acceleration treated with the new method can be readily used in the motion control applications for UAVs to achieve improved accuracy.

A Novel Method for Vertical Acceleration Noise Suppression of a Thrust-Vectored VTOL UAV

PubMed Central

Li, Huanyu; Wu, Linfeng; Li, Yingjie; Li, Chunwen; Li, Hangyu

2016-01-01

Acceleration is of great importance in motion control for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), especially during the takeoff and landing stages. However, the measured acceleration is inevitably polluted by severe noise. Therefore, a proper noise suppression procedure is required. This paper presents a novel method to reduce the noise in the measured vertical acceleration for a thrust-vectored tail-sitter vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) UAV. In the new procedure, a Kalman filter is first applied to estimate the UAV mass by using the information in the vertical thrust and measured acceleration. The UAV mass is then used to compute an estimate of UAV vertical acceleration. The estimated acceleration is finally fused with the measured acceleration to obtain the minimum variance estimate of vertical acceleration. By doing this, the new approach incorporates the thrust information into the acceleration estimate. The method is applied to the data measured in a VTOL UAV takeoff experiment. Two other denoising approaches developed by former researchers are also tested for comparison. The results demonstrate that the new method is able to suppress the acceleration noise substantially. It also maintains the real-time performance in the final estimated acceleration, which is not seen in the former denoising approaches. The acceleration treated with the new method can be readily used in the motion control applications for UAVs to achieve improved accuracy. PMID:27918422

A cyber infrastructure for the SKA Telescope Manager

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barbosa, Domingos; Barraca, João. P.; Carvalho, Bruno; Maia, Dalmiro; Gupta, Yashwant; Natarajan, Swaminathan; Le Roux, Gerhard; Swart, Paul

2016-07-01

The Square Kilometre Array Telescope Manager (SKA TM) will be responsible for assisting the SKA Operations and Observation Management, carrying out System diagnosis and collecting Monitoring and Control data from the SKA subsystems and components. To provide adequate compute resources, scalability, operation continuity and high availability, as well as strict Quality of Service, the TM cyber-infrastructure (embodied in the Local Infrastructure - LINFRA) consists of COTS hardware and infrastructural software (for example: server monitoring software, host operating system, virtualization software, device firmware), providing a specially tailored Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) solution. The TM infrastructure provides services in the form of computational power, software defined networking, power, storage abstractions, and high level, state of the art IaaS and PaaS management interfaces. This cyber platform will be tailored to each of the two SKA Phase 1 telescopes (SKA_MID in South Africa and SKA_LOW in Australia) instances, each presenting different computational and storage infrastructures and conditioned by location. This cyber platform will provide a compute model enabling TM to manage the deployment and execution of its multiple components (observation scheduler, proposal submission tools, MandC components, Forensic tools and several Databases, etc). In this sense, the TM LINFRA is primarily focused towards the provision of isolated instances, mostly resorting to virtualization technologies, while defaulting to bare hardware if specifically required due to performance, security, availability, or other requirement.

Acceleration feedback improves balancing against reflex delay

PubMed Central

Insperger, Tamás; Milton, John; Stépán, Gábor

2013-01-01

A model for human postural balance is considered in which the time-delayed feedback depends on position, velocity and acceleration (proportional–derivative–acceleration (PDA) feedback). It is shown that a PDA controller is equivalent to a predictive controller, in which the prediction is based on the most recent information of the state, but the control input is not involved into the prediction. A PDA controller is superior to the corresponding proportional–derivative controller in the sense that the PDA controller can stabilize systems with approximately 40 per cent larger feedback delays. The addition of a sensory dead zone to account for the finite thresholds for detection by sensory receptors results in highly intermittent, complex oscillations that are a typical feature of human postural sway. PMID:23173196

Infrastructural requirements for local implementation of safety policies: the discordance between top-down and bottom-up systems of action.

PubMed

Timpka, Toomas; Nordqvist, Cecilia; Lindqvist, Kent

2009-03-09

Safety promotion is planned and practised not only by public health organizations, but also by other welfare state agencies, private companies and non-governmental organizations. The term 'infrastructure' originally denoted the underlying resources needed for warfare, e.g. roads, industries, and an industrial workforce. Today, 'infrastructure' refers to the physical elements, organizations and people needed to run projects in different societal arenas. The aim of this study was to examine associations between infrastructure and local implementation of safety policies in injury prevention and safety promotion programs. Qualitative data on municipalities in Sweden designated as Safe Communities were collected from focus group interviews with municipal politicians and administrators, as well as from policy documents, and materials published on the Internet. Actor network theory was used to identify weaknesses in the present infrastructure and determine strategies that can be used to resolve these. The weakness identification analysis revealed that the factual infrastructure available for effectuating national strategies varied between safety areas and approaches, basically reflecting differences between bureaucratic and network-based organizational models. At the local level, a contradiction between safety promotion and the existence of quasi-markets for local public service providers was found to predispose for a poor local infrastructure diminishing the interest in integrated inter-agency activities. The weakness resolution analysis showed that development of an adequate infrastructure for safety promotion would require adjustment of the legal framework regulating injury data exchange, and would also require rational financial models for multi-party investments in local infrastructures. We found that the "silo" structure of government organization and assignment of resources was a barrier to collaborative action for safety at a community level. It may therefore be overly optimistic to take for granted that different approaches to injury control, such as injury prevention and safety promotion, can share infrastructure. Similarly, it may be unrealistic to presuppose that safety promotion can reach its potential in terms of injury rate reductions unless the critical infrastructure for this is in place. Such an alignment of the infrastructure to organizational processes requires more than financial investments.

Prototyping the E-ELT M1 local control system communication infrastructure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Argomedo, J.; Kornweibel, N.; Grudzien, T.; Dimmler, M.; Andolfato, L.; Barriga, P.

2016-08-01

The primary mirror of the E-ELT is composed of 798 hexagonal segments of about 1.45 meters across. Each segment can be moved in piston and tip-tilt using three position actuators. Inductive edge sensors are used to provide feedback for global reconstruction of the mirror shape. The E-ELT M1 Local Control System will provide a deterministic infrastructure for collecting edge sensor and actuators readings and distribute the new position actuators references while at the same time providing failure detection, isolation and notification, synchronization, monitoring and configuration management. The present paper describes the prototyping activities carried out to verify the feasibility of the E-ELT M1 local control system communication architecture design and assess its performance and potential limitations.

Influence of custom-made and prefabricated insoles before and after an intense run

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Each time the foot contacts the ground during running there is a rapid deceleration that results in a shock wave that is transmitted from the foot to the head. The fatigue of the musculoskeletal system during running may decrease the ability of the body to absorb those shock waves and increase the risk of injury. Insoles are commonly prescribed to prevent injuries, and both custom-made and prefabricated insoles have been observed to reduce shock accelerations during running. However, no study to date has included a direct comparison of their behaviour measured over the same group of athletes, and therefore great controversy still exists regarding their effectiveness in reducing impact loading during running. The aim of the study was to analyse the acute differences in stride and shock parameters while running on a treadmill with custom-made and prefabricated insoles. Stride parameters (stride length, stride rate) and shock acceleration parameters (head and tibial peak acceleration, shock magnitude, acceleration rate, and shock attenuation) were measured using two triaxial accelerometers in 38 runners at 3.33 m/s before and after a 15-min intense run while using the sock liner of the shoe (control condition), prefabricated insoles and custom-made insoles. No differences in shock accelerations were found between the custom-made and the control insoles. The prefabricated insoles increased the head acceleration rate (post-fatigue, p = 0.029) compared to the control condition. The custom-made reduced tibial (pre-fatigue, p = 0.041) and head acceleration rates (pre-fatigue and post-fatigue, p = 0.01 and p = 0.046) compared to the prefabricated insoles. Neither the stride nor the acceleration parameters were modified as a result of the intense run. In the present study, the acute use of insoles (custom-made, prefabricated) did not reduce shock accelerations compared to the control insoles. Therefore, their effectiveness at protecting against injuries associated with elevated accelerations is not supported and remains unclear. PMID:28245273

Physiological Effects of Acceleration Observed During a Centrifuge Study of Pilot Performance

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smedal, Harald A.; Creer, Brent Y.; Wingrove, Rodney C.

1960-01-01

An investigation was conducted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Ames Research Center, and the Naval Air Development Center, Aviation Medical Acceleration Laboratory, to study the effects of acceleration on pilot performance and to obtain some meaningful data for use in establishing tolerance to acceleration levels. The flight simulator used in the study was the Johnsville centrifuge operated as a closed loop system. The pilot was required to perform a control task in various sustained acceleration fields typical of those that Might be encountered by a pilot flying an entry vehicle in which he is seated in a forward-facing position. A special restraint system was developed and designed to increase the pilot's tolerance to these accelerations. The results of this study demonstrated that a well-trained subject, such as a test pilot, can adequately carry out a control task during moderately high accelerations for prolonged periods of time. The maximum levels of acceleration tolerated were approximately 6 times that of gravity for approximately 6 minutes, and varied slightly with the acceleration direction. The tolerance runs were in each case terminated by the subject. In all but two instances, the cause was extreme fatigue. On two occasions the subject terminated the run when he "grayed out." Although there were subjective and objective findings involving the visual and cardiovascular systems, the respiratory system yielded the more critical limiting factors. It would appear that these limiting factors were less severe during the "eyeballs-out" accelerations when compared with the "eyeballs-in" accelerations. These findings are explained on the basis of the influence that the inertial forces of acceleration have on the mechanics of respiration. A condensed version of this report was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Aerospace Medical Association, Miami Beach, May 5-11, 1960, in a paper entitled "Ability of Pilots to Perform a Control Task in Various Sustained Acceleration Fields."

National Stormwater Calculator: Low Impact Development ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Stormwater discharges continue to cause impairment of our Nation’s waterbodies. EPA has developed the National Stormwater Calculator (SWC) to help support local, state, and national stormwater management objectives to reduce runoff through infiltration and retention using green infrastructure practices as low impact development (LID) controls. The primary focus of the SWC is to inform site developers on how well they can meet a desired stormwater retention target with and without the use of green infrastructure. It can also be used by landscapers and homeowners. Platform. The SWC is a Windows-based desktop program that requires an internet connection. A mobile web application version that will be compatible with all operating systems is currently being developed and is expected to be released in the fall of 2017.Cost Module. An LID cost estimation module within the application allows planners and managers to evaluate LID controls based on comparison of regional and national project planning level cost estimates (capital and average annual maintenance) and predicted LID control performance. Cost estimation is accomplished based on user-identified size configuration of the LID control infrastructure and other key project and site-specific variables. This includes whether the project is being applied as part of new development or redevelopment and if there are existing site constraints.Climate Scenarios. The SWC allows users to consider how runoff may vary based

Climate Change, Degradation of Permafrost, and Hazards to Infrastructure in the Circumpolar Arctic.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anisimov, O.

2001-12-01

Warming, thawing and disappearance of permafrost have accelerated in recent decades damaging engineered structures and raising public concerns. By the middle of the 21st century anthropogenic climate change may cause 2 to 3 C warming of the frozen ground, 10% to 16% reduction of the total permafrost area, 30% to 50% deepening of the active-layer thickness, and shifts between the permafrost zones due to cumulative effect of changing surface temperature, soil moisture, and vegetation. Such changes will have important implications for northern engineering and infrastructure built upon permafrost. The foundations supporting engineered structures are designed for the constant climatic conditions with construction-specific safety factor, which in the practice of the cold-region engineering varies typically from 5% to 60% with respect to the bearing capacity. In the zone of discontinuous permafrost a 2.0 C rise in air temperature may decrease the bearing capacity of frozen ground under buildings by more than a half. This may have important consequences for the infrastructure and particularly for residential buildings constructed in the permafrost zone between 1950 and 1990 in northern Russian cities Vorkuta, Yakytsk, Norylsk, and Magadan. Many of them are already weakened or damaged, which may in part be attributed to the effect of climate change. Susceptibility of permafrost to environmental hazards associated with thermokarst, ground settlement, and other destructive cryogenic processes may be crudely evaluated using the geocryological hazard index, which is the combination of the predicted for the future climate relative change in the active-layer thickness and the ground ice content. Predictive maps constructed for scenarios of climate change indicated that several population centers (Barrow, Inuvik), river terminals on the arctic coast of Russia (Salekhard, Igarka, Dudinka, Tiksi), and gas production complexes with associated infrastructure in northwest Siberia fall in the high-risk category with respect to potential environmental hazards associated with degradation of permafrost.

Enabling Research without Geographical Boundaries via Collaborative Research Infrastructures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gesing, S.

2016-12-01

Collaborative research infrastructures on global scale for earth and space sciences face a plethora of challenges from technical implementations to organizational aspects. Science gateways - also known as virtual research environments (VREs) or virtual laboratories - address part of such challenges by providing end-to-end solutions to aid researchers to focus on their specific research questions without the need to become acquainted with the technical details of the complex underlying infrastructures. In general, they provide a single point of entry to tools and data irrespective of organizational boundaries and thus make scientific discoveries easier and faster. The importance of science gateways has been recognized on national as well as on international level by funding bodies and by organizations. For example, the US NSF has just funded a Science Gateways Community Institute, which offers support, consultancy and open accessible software repositories for users and developers; Horizon 2020 provides funding for virtual research environments in Europe, which has led to projects such as VRE4EIC (A Europe-wide Interoperable Virtual Research Environment to Empower Multidisciplinary Research Communities and Accelerate Innovation and Collaboration); national or continental research infrastructures such as XSEDE in the USA, Nectar in Australia or EGI in Europe support the development and uptake of science gateways; the global initiatives International Coalition on Science Gateways, the RDA Virtual Research Environment Interest Group as well as the IEEE Technical Area on Science Gateways have been founded to provide global leadership on future directions for science gateways in general and facilitate awareness for science gateways. This presentation will give an overview on these projects and initiatives aiming at supporting domain researchers and developers with measures for the efficient creation of science gateways, for increasing their usability and sustainability under consideration of the breadth of topics in the context of science gateways. It will go into detail for the challenges the community faces for collaborative research on global scale without geographical boundaries and will provide suggestions for further enhancing the outreach to domain researchers.

The Role of the Polio Program Infrastructure in Response to Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak in Nigeria 2014

PubMed Central

Vaz, Rui G.; Mkanda, Pascal; Banda, Richard; Komkech, William; Ekundare-Famiyesin, Olubowale O.; Onyibe, Rosemary; Abidoye, Sunday; Nsubuga, Peter; Maleghemi, Sylvester; Hannah-Murele, Bolatito; Tegegne, Sisay G.

2016-01-01

Background. The current West African outbreak of the Ebola virus disease (EVD) began in Guinea in December 2013 and rapidly spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone. On 20 July 2014, a sick individual flew into Lagos, Nigeria, from Monrovia, Liberia, setting off an outbreak in Lagos and later in Port Harcourt city. The government of Nigeria, supported by the World Health Organization and other partners, mounted a response to the outbreak relying on the polio program experiences and infrastructure. On 20 October 2014, the country was declared free of EVD. Methods. We examined the organization and operations of the response to the 2014 EVD outbreak in Nigeria and how experiences and support from the country's polio program infrastructure accelerated the outbreak response. Results. The deputy incident manager of the National Polio Emergency Operations Centre was appointed the incident manager of the Ebola Emergency Operations Centre (EEOC), the body that coordinated and directed the response to the EVD outbreak in the country. A total of 892 contacts were followed up, and blood specimens were collected from 61 persons with suspected EVD and tested in designated laboratories. Of these, 19 (31%) were positive for Ebola, and 11 (58%) of the case patients were healthcare workers. The overall case-fatality rate was 40%. EVD sensitization and training were conducted during the outbreak and for 2 months after the outbreak ended. The World Health Organization deployed its surveillance and logistics personnel from non–Ebola-infected states to support response activities in Lagos and Rivers states. Conclusions. The support from the polio program infrastructure, particularly the coordination mechanism adopted (the EEOC), the availability of skilled personnel in the polio program, and lessons learned from managing the polio eradication program greatly contributed to the speedy containment of the 2014 EVD outbreak in Nigeria. PMID:26908718

Application accelerator system having bunch control

DOEpatents

Wang, Dunxiong; Krafft, Geoffrey Arthur

1999-01-01

An application accelerator system for monitoring the gain of a free electron laser. Coherent Synchrotron Radiation (CSR) detection techniques are used with a bunch length monitor for ultra short, picosec to several tens of femtosec, electron bunches. The monitor employs an application accelerator, a coherent radiation production device, an optical or beam chopping device, an infrared radiation collection device, a narrow-banding filter, an infrared detection device, and a control.

A new algorithm for grid-based hydrologic analysis by incorporating stormwater infrastructure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Choi, Yosoon; Yi, Huiuk; Park, Hyeong-Dong

2011-08-01

We developed a new algorithm, the Adaptive Stormwater Infrastructure (ASI) algorithm, to incorporate ancillary data sets related to stormwater infrastructure into the grid-based hydrologic analysis. The algorithm simultaneously considers the effects of the surface stormwater collector network (e.g., diversions, roadside ditches, and canals) and underground stormwater conveyance systems (e.g., waterway tunnels, collector pipes, and culverts). The surface drainage flows controlled by the surface runoff collector network are superimposed onto the flow directions derived from a DEM. After examining the connections between inlets and outfalls in the underground stormwater conveyance system, the flow accumulation and delineation of watersheds are calculated based on recursive computations. Application of the algorithm to the Sangdong tailings dam in Korea revealed superior performance to that of a conventional D8 single-flow algorithm in terms of providing reasonable hydrologic information on watersheds with stormwater infrastructure.

Microgravity vibration isolation: An optimal control law for the one-dimensional case

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hampton, Richard D.; Grodsinsky, Carlos M.; Allaire, Paul E.; Lewis, David W.; Knospe, Carl R.

1991-01-01

Certain experiments contemplated for space platforms must be isolated from the accelerations of the platform. An optimal active control is developed for microgravity vibration isolation, using constant state feedback gains (identical to those obtained from the Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) approach) along with constant feedforward gains. The quadratic cost function for this control algorithm effectively weights external accelerations of the platform disturbances by a factor proportional to (1/omega) exp 4. Low frequency accelerations are attenuated by greater than two orders of magnitude. The control relies on the absolute position and velocity feedback of the experiment and the absolute position and velocity feedforward of the platform, and generally derives the stability robustness characteristics guaranteed by the LQR approach to optimality. The method as derived is extendable to the case in which only the relative positions and velocities and the absolute accelerations of the experiment and space platform are available.

Microgravity vibration isolation: An optimal control law for the one-dimensional case

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hampton, R. D.; Grodsinsky, C. M.; Allaire, P. E.; Lewis, D. W.; Knospe, C. R.

1991-01-01

Certain experiments contemplated for space platforms must be isolated from the accelerations of the platforms. An optimal active control is developed for microgravity vibration isolation, using constant state feedback gains (identical to those obtained from the Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) approach) along with constant feedforward (preview) gains. The quadratic cost function for this control algorithm effectively weights external accelerations of the platform disturbances by a factor proportional to (1/omega)(exp 4). Low frequency accelerations (less than 50 Hz) are attenuated by greater than two orders of magnitude. The control relies on the absolute position and velocity feedback of the experiment and the absolute position and velocity feedforward of the platform, and generally derives the stability robustness characteristics guaranteed by the LQR approach to optimality. The method as derived is extendable to the case in which only the relative positions and velocities and the absolute accelerations of the experiment and space platform are available.

Analytical investigation of the dynamics of tethered constellations in Earth orbit, phase 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lorenzini, Enrico C.

1987-01-01

A control law was developed to control the elevator during short-distance maneuvers along the tether of a 4-mass tethered system. This control law (called retarded exponential or RE) was analyzed parametrically in order to assess which control parameters provide a good dynamic response and a smooth time history of the acceleration on board the elevator. The short-distance maneuver under investigation consists of a slow crawling of the elevator over the distance of 10 m that represents a typical maneuver for fine tuning the acceleration level on board the elevator. The contribution of aerodynamic and thermal perturbations upon acceleration levels was also evaluated and acceleration levels obtained when such pertubations are taken into account were compared to those obtained by neglecting the thermal and aerodynamic forces. In addition, the preparation of a tether simulation questionnaire is illustrated. Analytic solutions to be compared to numerical cases and simulator test cases are also discussed.

Improved Magnetron Stability and Reduced Noise in Efficient Transmitters for Superconducting Accelerators

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

Kazakevich, G.; Johnson, R.; Lebedev, V.

State of the art high-current superconducting accelerators require efficient RF sources with a fast dynamic phase and power control. This allows for compensation of the phase and amplitude deviations of the accelerating voltage in the Superconducting RF (SRF) cavities caused by microphonics, etc. Efficient magnetron transmitters with fast phase and power control are attractive RF sources for this application. They are more cost effective than traditional RF sources such as klystrons, IOTs and solid-state amplifiers used with large scale accelerator projects. However, unlike traditional RF sources, controlled magnetrons operate as forced oscillators. Study of the impact of the controlling signalmore » on magnetron stability, noise and efficiency is therefore important. This paper discusses experiments with 2.45 GHz, 1 kW tubes and verifies our analytical model which is based on the charge drift approximation.« less

Real-time contaminant sensing and control in civil infrastructure systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rimer, Sara; Katopodes, Nikolaos

2014-11-01

A laboratory-scale prototype has been designed and implemented to test the feasibility of real-time contaminant sensing and control in civil infrastructure systems. A blower wind tunnel is the basis of the prototype design, with propylene glycol smoke as the ``contaminant.'' A camera sensor and compressed-air vacuum nozzle system is set up at the test section portion of the prototype to visually sense and then control the contaminant; a real-time controller is programmed to read in data from the camera sensor and administer pressure to regulators controlling the compressed air operating the vacuum nozzles. A computational fluid dynamics model is being integrated in with this prototype to inform the correct pressure to supply to the regulators in order to optimally control the contaminant's removal from the prototype. The performance of the prototype has been evaluated against the computational fluid dynamics model and is discussed in this presentation. Furthermore, the initial performance of the sensor-control system implemented in the test section of the prototype is discussed. NSF-CMMI 0856438.

Is the work flow model a suitable candidate for an observatory supervisory control infrastructure?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Daly, Philip N.; Schumacher, Germán.

2016-08-01

This paper reports on the early investigation of using the work flow model for observatory infrastructure software. We researched several work ow engines and identified 3 for further detailed, study: Bonita BPM, Activiti and Taverna. We discuss the business process model and how it relates to observatory operations and identify a path finder exercise to further evaluate the applicability of these paradigms.

Critical Infrastructure Protection: How to Assess and Provide Remedy to Vulnerabilities in Telecom Hotels

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-09-01

Telecommunications and Information Administration Telecom Telecommunications Telco Telecommunications Company VBIED Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive... effect the damage to one system or sector would have on another. These concentrations of the sector’s key assets are becoming attractive targets even...critical U.S. infrastructures, such as the nation’s telephone system . Companies make it easier to control their networks from remote locations to save

Systems engineering considerations for operational support systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Aller, Robert O.

1993-01-01

Operations support as considered here is the infrastructure of people, procedures, facilities and systems that provide NASA with the capability to conduct space missions. This infrastructure involves most of the Centers but is concentrated principally at the Johnson Space Center, the Kennedy Space Center, the Goddard Space Flight Center, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It includes mission training and planning, launch and recovery, mission control, tracking, communications, data retrieval and data processing.

National Institute of Nursing Research Centers of Excellence: a logic model for sustainability, leveraging resources, and collaboration to accelerate cross-disciplinary science.

PubMed

Dorsey, Susan G; Schiffman, Rachel; Redeker, Nancy S; Heitkemper, Margaret; McCloskey, Donna Jo; Weglicki, Linda S; Grady, Patricia A

2014-01-01

The National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) Centers of Excellence program is a catalyst enabling institutions to develop infrastructure and administrative support for creating cross-disciplinary teams that bring multiple strategies and expertise to bear on common areas of science. Centers are increasingly collaborative with campus partners and reflect an integrated team approach to advance science and promote the development of scientists in these areas. The purpose of this paper is to present the NINR Logic Model for Center Sustainability. The components of the logic model were derived from the presentations and robust discussions at the 2013 NINR center directors' meeting focused on best practices for leveraging resources and collaboration as methods to promote center sustainability. Collaboration through development and implementation of cross-disciplinary research teams is critical to accelerate the generation of new knowledge for solving fundamental health problems. Sustainability of centers as a long-term outcome beyond the initial funding can be enhanced by thoughtful planning of inputs, activities, and leveraging resources across multiple levels. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From days to hours: reporting clinically actionable variants from whole genome sequencing.

PubMed

Middha, Sumit; Baheti, Saurabh; Hart, Steven N; Kocher, Jean-Pierre A

2014-01-01

As the cost of whole genome sequencing (WGS) decreases, clinical laboratories will be looking at broadly adopting this technology to screen for variants of clinical significance. To fully leverage this technology in a clinical setting, results need to be reported quickly, as the turnaround rate could potentially impact patient care. The latest sequencers can sequence a whole human genome in about 24 hours. However, depending on the computing infrastructure available, the processing of data can take several days, with the majority of computing time devoted to aligning reads to genomics regions that are to date not clinically interpretable. In an attempt to accelerate the reporting of clinically actionable variants, we have investigated the utility of a multi-step alignment algorithm focused on aligning reads and calling variants in genomic regions of clinical relevance prior to processing the remaining reads on the whole genome. This iterative workflow significantly accelerates the reporting of clinically actionable variants with no loss of accuracy when compared to genotypes obtained with the OMNI SNP platform or to variants detected with a standard workflow that combines Novoalign and GATK.

Techniques for hazard analysis and their use at CERN.

PubMed

Nuttall, C; Schönbacher, H

2001-01-01

CERN, The European Organisation for Nuclear Research is situated near Geneva and has its accelerators and experimental facilities astride the Swiss and French frontiers attracting physicists from all over the world to this unique laboratory. The main accelerator is situated in a 27 km underground ring and the experiments take place in huge underground caverns in order to detect the fragments resulting from the collision of subatomic particles at speeds approaching that of light. These detectors contain many hundreds of tons of flammable materials, mainly plastics in cables and structural components, flammable gases in the detectors themselves, and cryogenic fluids such as helium and argon. The experiments consume high amounts of electrical power, thus the dangers involved have necessitated the use of analytical techniques to identify the hazards and quantify the risks to personnel and the infrastructure. The techniques described in the paper have been developed in the process industries where they have been to be of great value. They have been successfully applied to CERN industrial and experimental installations and, in some cases, have been instrumental in changing the philosophy of the experimentalists and their detectors.

Integrative taxonomy detects cryptic and overlooked fish species in a neotropical river basin.

PubMed

Gomes, Laís Carvalho; Pessali, Tiago Casarim; Sales, Naiara Guimarães; Pompeu, Paulo Santos; Carvalho, Daniel Cardoso

2015-10-01

The great freshwater fish diversity found in the neotropical region makes management and conservation actions challenging. Due to shortage of taxonomists and insufficient infrastructure to deal with such great biodiversity (i.e. taxonomic impediment), proposed remedies to accelerate species identification and descriptions include techniques that combine DNA-based identification and concise morphological description. The building of a DNA barcode reference database correlating meristic and genetic data was developed for 75 % of the Mucuri River basin's freshwater fish. We obtained a total of 141 DNA barcode sequences from 37 species belonging to 30 genera, 19 families, and 5 orders. Genetic distances within species, genera, and families were 0.74, 9.5, and 18.86 %, respectively. All species could be clearly identified by the DNA barcodes. Divergences between meristic morphological characteristics and DNA barcodes revealed two cryptic species among the Cyphocharax gilbert and Astyanax gr. bimaculatus specimens, and helped to identify two overlooked species within the Gymnotus and Astyanax taxa. Therefore, using a simplified model of neotropical biodiversity, we tested the efficiency of an integrative taxonomy approach for species discovery, identification of cryptic diversity, and accelerating biodiversity descriptions.

Muscle contributions to knee extension in the early stance phase in patients with knee osteoarthritis.

PubMed

Ogaya, Shinya; Kubota, Ryo; Chujo, Yuta; Hirooka, Eiko; Kwang-Ho, Kim; Hase, Kimitaka

2017-10-01

The aim of this study was to analyze individual muscle contributions to knee angular acceleration using a musculoskeletal simulation analysis and evaluate knee extension mechanics in the early stance phase in patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA). The subjects comprised 15 patients with medial knee OA and 14 healthy elderly individuals. All participants underwent gait performance test using 8 infrared cameras and two force plates to measure the kinetic and kinematic data. The simulation was driven by 92 Hill-type muscle-tendon units of the lower extremities and a trunk with 23° of freedom. We analyzed each muscle contribution to knee angular acceleration in the 5%-15% and 15%-25% periods of the stance phase (% SP) using an induced acceleration analysis. We compared accelerations by individual muscles between the two groups using an analysis of covariance for controlling gait speed. Patients with knee OA had a significantly lesser knee extension acceleration by the vasti muscles and higher knee acceleration by hip adductors than those in controls in 5-15% SP. In addition, knee OA resulted in significantly lesser knee extension acceleration by the vasti muscles in 15-25% SP. These results indicate that patients with knee OA have decreased dependency on the vasti muscles to control knee movements during early stance phase. Hip adductor muscles, which mainly control mediolateral motion, partly compensate for the weak knee extension by the vasti muscles in patients with knee OA. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Susceptibility of materials processing experiments to low-level accelerations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Naumann, R. J.

1981-01-01

The types of material processing experiments being considered for shuttle can be grouped into four categories: (1) contained solidification experiment; (2) quasicontainerless experiments; (3) containerless experiments; and (4) fluids experiments. Low level steady acceleration, compensated and uncompensated transient accelerations, and rotation induced flow factors that must be considered in the acceleration environment of a space vehicle whose importance depends on the type of experiment being performed. Some control of these factors may be exercised by the location and orientation of the experiment relative to shuttle and by the orbit vehicle attitude chosen for mission. The effects of the various residual accelerations can have serious consequence to the control of the experiment and must be factored into the design and operation of the apparatus.

Accelerator-based tests of radiation shielding properties of materials used in human space infrastructures.

PubMed

Lobascio, C; Briccarello, M; Destefanis, R; Faraud, M; Gialanella, G; Grossi, G; Guarnieri, V; Manti, L; Pugliese, M; Rusek, A; Scampoli, P; Durante, M

2008-03-01

Shielding is the only practical countermeasure for the exposure to cosmic radiation during space travel. It is well known that light, hydrogenated materials, such as water and polyethylene, provide the best shielding against space radiation. Kevlar and Nextel are two materials of great interest for spacecraft shielding because of their known ability to protect human space infrastructures from meteoroids and debris. We measured the response to simulated heavy-ion cosmic radiation of these shielding materials and compared it to polyethylene, Lucite (PMMA), and aluminum. As proxy to galactic nuclei we used 1 GeV n iron or titanium ions. Both physics and biology tests were performed. The results show that Kevlar, which is rich in carbon atoms (about 50% in number), is an excellent space radiation shielding material. Physics tests show that its effectiveness is close (80-90%) to that of polyethylene, and biology data suggest that it can reduce the chromosomal damage more efficiently than PMMA. Nextel is less efficient as a radiation shield, and the expected reduction on dose is roughly half that provided by the same mass of polyethylene. Both Kevlar and Nextel are more effective than aluminum in the attenuation of heavy-ion dose.

Infrastructure for Rapid Development of Java GUI Programs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jones, Jeremy; Hostetter, Carl F.; Wheeler, Philip

2006-01-01

The Java Application Shell (JAS) is a software framework that accelerates the development of Java graphical-user-interface (GUI) application programs by enabling the reuse of common, proven GUI elements, as distinguished from writing custom code for GUI elements. JAS is a software infrastructure upon which Java interactive application programs and graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for those programs can be built as sets of plug-ins. JAS provides an application- programming interface that is extensible by application-specific plugins that describe and encapsulate both specifications of a GUI and application-specific functionality tied to the specified GUI elements. The desired GUI elements are specified in Extensible Markup Language (XML) descriptions instead of in compiled code. JAS reads and interprets these descriptions, then creates and configures a corresponding GUI from a standard set of generic, reusable GUI elements. These elements are then attached (again, according to the XML descriptions) to application-specific compiled code and scripts. An application program constructed by use of JAS as its core can be extended by writing new plug-ins and replacing existing plug-ins. Thus, JAS solves many problems that Java programmers generally solve anew for each project, thereby reducing development and testing time.

Tintina Gold Province Study, Alaska and Yukon Territory, 2002-2007

USGS Publications Warehouse

Gough, Larry P.; Day, Warren C.

2007-01-01

The Tintina gold province is an arc-shaped 2,000-kilometer-long metallogenic province that extends from northern British Columbia, through the Yukon Territory, and across and into southwestern Alaska. In the United States, the province remains a prime area for gold exploration and includes such large gold deposits as Pogo, Fort Knox-True North, and Donlin Creek. In recent years, gold exploration and development and mining activity have accelerated in the area. Plans have been discussed for public and private projects and infrastructures associated with development. A U.S. Geological Survey study undertaken from 2002 to 2007 provides a context for understanding why and how the mineral resources of the area were formed, why this area is so abundantly endowed, and how the environmental signatures that are characteristic of the area are related to the development of mineral resources. Characterization of natural baseline metal concentrations in the area's watersheds is necessary to address future land-use issues related to mining and/or infrastructure activities. A thorough understanding of water-rock and element-bioavailability processes will help predict the possible environmental impact of development. The five tasks of this study add to the science of defining and understanding an 'intrusion-related gold system.'

77 FR 43216 - Denial of Motor Vehicle Defect Petition and Petition for a Hearing

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-07-24

... Tribute vehicles with certain cruise control cables. The Center for Auto Safety has also petitioned for a... cruise) control cable can result if the accelerator cable is not properly removed. Mazda, however, did... cruise) control cables may have been damaged during the accelerator cable replacements conducted in...

Controlling factors of the parental safety perception on children's travel mode choice.

PubMed

Nevelsteen, Kristof; Steenberghen, Thérèse; Van Rompaey, Anton; Uyttersprot, Liesbeth

2012-03-01

The travel mode of children changed significantly over the last 20 years, with a decrease of children travelling as pedestrians or cyclists. This study focuses on six to twelve year old children. Parents determine to a large extent the mode choice of children in this age category. Based on the analysis of an extensive survey, the research shows that traffic infrastructure has a significant impact on parental decision making concerning children's travel mode choice, by affecting both the real and the perceived traffic safety. Real traffic safety is quantified in terms of numbers of accidents and road infrastructure. For the perceived traffic safety a parental allowance probability is calculated per road type to show that infrastructure characteristics influence parental decision making on the children's mode choice. A binary logistic model shows that this allowance is determined by age, gender and traffic infrastructure near the child's home or near destinations frequently visited by children. Since both real and perceived traffic safety are influenced by infrastructure characteristics, a spatial analysis of parental perception and accident statistics can be used to indicate the locations where infrastructure improvements will be most effective to increase the number of children travelling - safely - as pedestrians or cyclists. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Low-cost composited accelerants for anaerobic digestion of dairy manure: Focusing on methane yield, digestate utilization and energy evaluation.

PubMed

Zhang, Chen; Yun, Sining; Li, Xue; Wang, Ziqi; Xu, Hongfei; Du, Tingting

2018-05-11

To improve the methane yield and digestate utilization of anaerobic digestion (AD), low-cost composited accelerants consisting of urea (0.2-0.5%), bentonite (0.5-0.8%), active carbon (0.6-0.9%), and plant ash (0.01-0.3%) were designed and tested in batch experiments. Total biogas yield (485.7-681.9 mL/g VS) and methane content (63.0-66.6%) were remarkably enhanced in AD systems by adding accelerants compared to those of control group (361.9 mL/g VS, 59.4%). Composited accelerant addition led to the highest methane yield (454.1 mL/g VS), more than double that of control group. The TS, VS, and CODt removal rates (29.7-55.3%, 50.9-63.0%, and 46.8-69.1%) for AD with accelerants were much higher than control group (26.2%, 37.1%, and 39.6%). The improved digestate stability and enhanced fertilizer nutrient content (4.95-5.66%) confirmed that the digestate of AD systems with composited accelerants could safely serve as a potential component of bioorganic fertilizer. These findings open innovative avenues in composited accelerant development and application. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mission possible: creating a technology infrastructure to help reduce administrative costs.

PubMed

Alper, Michael

2003-01-01

Controlling administrative costs associated with managed care benefits has traditionally been considered a "mission impossible" in healthcare, with the unreasonably high cost of paperwork and administration pushing past the $420 billion mark. Why administrative costs remain a critical problem in healthcare while other industries have alleviated their administrative burdens must be carefully examined. This article looks at the key factors contributing to high administrative costs and how these costs can be controlled in the future with "mission possible" tools, including business process outsourcing, IT outsourcing, technology that helps to bring "consumerism" to managed care, and an IT infrastructure that improves quality and outcomes.

Validation of Storm Water Management Model Storm Control Measures Modules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Simon, M. A.; Platz, M. C.

2017-12-01

EPA's Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) is a computational code heavily relied upon by industry for the simulation of wastewater and stormwater infrastructure performance. Many municipalities are relying on SWMM results to design multi-billion-dollar, multi-decade infrastructure upgrades. Since the 1970's, EPA and others have developed five major releases, the most recent ones containing storm control measures modules for green infrastructure. The main objective of this study was to quantify the accuracy with which SWMM v5.1.10 simulates the hydrologic activity of previously monitored low impact developments. Model performance was evaluated with a mathematical comparison of outflow hydrographs and total outflow volumes, using empirical data and a multi-event, multi-objective calibration method. The calibration methodology utilized PEST++ Version 3, a parameter estimation tool, which aided in the selection of unmeasured hydrologic parameters. From the validation study and sensitivity analysis, several model improvements were identified to advance SWMM LID Module performance for permeable pavements, infiltration units and green roofs, and these were performed and reported herein. Overall, it was determined that SWMM can successfully simulate low impact development controls given accurate model confirmation, parameter measurement, and model calibration.

Access to emergency and surgical care in sub-Saharan Africa: the infrastructure gap.

PubMed

Hsia, Renee Y; Mbembati, Naboth A; Macfarlane, Sarah; Kruk, Margaret E

2012-05-01

The effort to increase access to emergency and surgical care in low-income countries has received global attention. While most of the literature on this issue focuses on workforce challenges, it is critical to recognize infrastructure gaps that hinder the ability of health systems to make emergency and surgical care a reality. This study reviews key barriers to the provision of emergency and surgical care in sub-Saharan Africa using aggregate data from the Service Provision Assessments and Demographic and Health Surveys of five countries: Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. For hospitals and health centres, competency was assessed in six areas: basic infrastructure, equipment, medicine storage, infection control, education and quality control. Percentage of compliant facilities in each country was calculated for each of the six areas to facilitate comparison of hospitals and health centres across the five countries. The percentage of hospitals with dependable running water and electricity ranged from 22% to 46%. In countries analysed, only 19-50% of hospitals had the ability to provide 24-hour emergency care. For storage of medication, only 18% to 41% of facilities had unexpired drugs and current inventories. Availability of supplies to control infection and safely dispose of hazardous waste was generally poor (less than 50%) across all facilities. As few as 14% of hospitals (and as high as 76%) among those surveyed had training and supervision in place. No surveyed hospital had enough infrastructure to follow minimum standards and practices that the World Health Organization has deemed essential for the provision of emergency and surgical care. The countries where these hospitals are located may be representative of other low-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Thus, the results suggest that increased attention to building up the infrastructure within struggling health systems is necessary for improvements in global access to medical care.

The safety of high-hazard water infrastructures in the U.S. Pacific Northwest in a changing climate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, X.; Hossain, F.; Leung, L. R.

2017-12-01

The safety of large and aging water infrastructures is gaining attention in water management given the accelerated rate of change in landscape, climate and society. In current engineering practice, such safety is ensured by the design of infrastructure for the Probable Maximum Precipitation (PMP). Recently, several numerical modeling approaches have been proposed to modernize the conventional and ad hoc PMP estimation approach. However, the underlying physics have not been investigated and thus differing PMP estimates are obtained without clarity on their interpretation. In this study, we present a hybrid approach that takes advantage of both traditional engineering practice and modern climate science to estimate PMP for current and future climate conditions. The traditional PMP approach is improved and applied to five statistically downscaled CMIP5 model outputs, producing an ensemble of PMP estimates in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) during the historical (1970-2016) and future (2050-2099) time periods. The new historical PMP estimates are verified against the traditional estimates. PMP in the PNW will increase by 50%±30% of the current level by 2099 under the RCP8.5 scenario. Most of the increase is caused by warming, which mainly affects moisture availability through increased sea surface temperature, with minor contributions from changes in storm efficiency in the future. Moist track change tends to reduce the future PMP. Compared with extreme precipitation, PMP exhibits higher internal variability. Thus long-time records of high-quality data in both precipitation and related meteorological fields (temperature, wind fields) are required to reduce uncertainties in the ensemble PMP estimates.

Charging Electric Vehicles in Smart Cities: An EVI-Pro Analysis of Columbus, Ohio

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

Wood, Eric W.; Rames, Clement L.; Muratori, Matteo

With the support of the U.S. Department of Energy's Vehicle Technologies Office, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) worked with the City of Columbus, Ohio, to develop a plan for the expansion of the region's network of charging stations to support increased adoption of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) in the local market. NREL's Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Projection (EVI-Pro) model was used to generate scenarios of regional charging infrastructure to support consumer PEV adoption. Results indicate that approximately 400 Level 2 plugs at multi-unit dwellings and 350 Level 2 plugs at non-residential locations are required to support Columbus' primary PEV goalmore » of 5,300 PEVs on the road by the end of 2019. This analysis finds that while consumer demand for fast charging is expected to remain low (due to modest anticipated adoption of short-range battery electric vehicles), a minimum level of fast charging coverage across the city is required to ease consumer range anxiety concerns by providing a safety net for unexpected charging events. Sensitivity analyses around some key assumptions have also been performed; of these, consumer preference for PHEV versus BEV and for their electric driving range, ambient conditions, and availability of residential charging at multi-unit dwellings were identified as key determinants of the non-residential PEV charging infrastructure required to support PEV adoption. The results discussed in this report can be leveraged by similar U.S. cities as part of a strategy to accelerate PEV adoption in the light-duty vehicle market.« less

High Temporal Resolution Permafrost Monitoring Using a Multiple Stack Insar Technique

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eppler, J.; Kubanski, M.; Sharma, J.; Busler, J.

2015-04-01

The combined effect of climate change and accelerated economic development in Northern regions increases the threat of permafrost related surface deformation to buildings and transportation infrastructure. Satellite based InSAR provides a means for monitoring infrastructure that may be both remote and spatially extensive. However, permafrost poses challenges for InSAR monitoring due to the complex temporal deformation patterns caused by both seasonal active layer fluctuations and long-term changes in permafrost thickness. These dynamics suggest a need for increasing the temporal resolution of multi-temporal InSAR methods. To address this issue we have developed a method that combines and jointly processes two or more same side geometry InSAR stacks to provide a high-temporal resolution estimate of surface deformation. The method allows for combining stacks from more than a single SAR sensor and for a combination of frequency bands. Data for this work have been collected and analysed for an area near the community of Umiujaq, Quebec in Northern Canada and include scenes from RADARSAT-2, TerraSAR-X and COSMO-SkyMed. Multiple stack based surface deformation estimates are compared for several cases including results from the three sensors individually and for all sensors combined. The test cases show substantially similar surface deformation results which correlate well with surficial geology. The best spatial coverage of coherent targets was achieved when data from all sensors were combined. The proposed multiple stack method is demonstrated to improve the estimation of surface deformation in permafrost affected areas and shows potential for deriving InSAR based permafrost classification maps to aid in the monitoring of Northern infrastructure.

Application accelerator system having bunch control

DOEpatents

Wang, D.; Krafft, G.A.

1999-06-22

An application accelerator system for monitoring the gain of a free electron laser is disclosed. Coherent Synchrotron Radiation (CSR) detection techniques are used with a bunch length monitor for ultra short, picosec to several tens of femtosec, electron bunches. The monitor employs an application accelerator, a coherent radiation production device, an optical or beam chopping device, an infrared radiation collection device, a narrow-banding filter, an infrared detection device, and a control. 1 fig.

Advanced Metering Infrastructure based on Smart Meters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suzuki, Hiroshi

By specifically designating penetrations rates of advanced meters and communication technologies, devices and systems, this paper introduces that the penetration of advanced metering is important for the future development of electric power system infrastructure. It examines the state of the technology and the economical benefits of advanced metering. One result of the survey is that advanced metering currently has a penetration of about six percent of total installed electric meters in the United States. Applications to the infrastructure differ by type of organization. Being integrated with emerging communication technologies, smart meters enable several kinds of features such as, not only automatic meter reading but also distribution management control, outage management, remote switching, etc.

Accelerant-related burns and drug abuse: Challenging combination.

PubMed

Leung, Leslie T F; Papp, Anthony

2018-05-01

Accelerants are flammable substances that may cause explosion when added to existing fires. The relationships between drug abuse and accelerant-related burns are not well elucidated in the literature. Of these burns, a portion is related to drug manufacturing, which have been shown to be associated with increased burn complications. 1) To evaluate the demographics and clinical outcomes of accelerant-related burns in a Provincial Burn Centre. 2) To compare the clinical outcomes with a control group of non-accelerant related burns. 3) To analyze a subgroup of patients with history of drug abuse and drug manufacturing. Retrospective case control study. Patient data associated with accelerant-related burns from 2009 to 2014 were obtained from the British Columbia Burn Registry. These patients were compared with a control group of non-accelerant related burns. Clinical outcomes that were evaluated include inhalational injury, ICU length of stay, ventilator support, surgeries needed, and burn complications. Chi-square test was used to evaluate categorical data and Student's t-test was used to evaluate mean quantitative data with the p value set at 0.05. A logistic regression model was used to evaluate factors affecting burn complications. Accelerant-related burns represented 28.2% of all burn admissions (N=532) from 2009 to 2014. The accelerant group had higher percentage of patients with history of drug abuse and was associated with higher TBSA burns, ventilator support, ICU stay and pneumonia rates compared to the non-accelerant group. Within the accelerant group, there was no difference in clinical outcomes amongst people with or without history of drug abuse. Four cases were associated with methamphetamine manufacturing, all of which underwent ICU stay and ventilator support. Accelerant-related burns cause significant burden to the burn center. A significant proportion of these patients have history of drug abuse. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd and ISBI. All rights reserved.

Constraints on Long-Term Seismic Hazard From Vulnerable Stalagmites

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gribovszki, Katalin; Bokelmann, Götz; Mónus, Péter; Kovács, Károly; Konecny, Pavel; Lednicka, Marketa; Bednárik, Martin; Brimich, Ladislav

2015-04-01

Earthquakes hit urban centers in Europe infrequently, but occasionally with disastrous effects. This raises the important issue for society, how to react to the natural hazard: potential damages are huge, but infrastructure costs for addressing these hazards are huge as well. Furthermore, seismic hazard is only one of the many hazards facing society. Societal means need to be distributed in a reasonable manner - to assure that all of these hazards (natural as well as societal) are addressed appropriately. Obtaining an unbiased view of seismic hazard (and risk) is very important therefore. In principle, the best way to test PSHA models is to compare with observations that are entirely independent of the procedure used to produce the PSHA models. Arguably, the most valuable information in this context should be information on long-term hazard, namely maximum intensities (or magnitudes) occuring over time intervals that are at least as long as a seismic cycle - if that exists. Such information would be very valuable, even if it concerned only a single site, namely that of a particularly sensitive infrastructure. Such a request may seem hopeless - but it is not. Long-term information can in principle be gained from intact stalagmites in natural caves. These have survived all earthquakes that have occurred, over thousands of years - depending on the age of the stalagmite. Their "survival" requires that the horizontal ground acceleration has never exceeded a certain critical value within that period. We are focusing here on case studies in Austria, which has moderate seismicity, but a well-documented history of major earthquake-induced damage, e.g., Villach in 1348 and 1690, Vienna in 1590, Leoben in 1794, and Innsbruck in 1551, 1572, and 1589. Seismic intensities have reached levels up to 10. It is clearly important to know which "worst-case" damages to expect. We have identified sets of particularly sensitive stalagmites in the general vicinity of two major cities in Austria (Vienna and Graz). Non-destructive in-situ measurements have been performed for these and other caves in Austria and Slovakia, in order to determine the horizontal ground accelerations that would result in failure of these stalagmites. These specially-shaped intact stalagmites allow estimating the upper limit on horizontal peak ground acceleration generated by paleoearthquakes. Such information can help make the right strategic decisions.

Testbed-based Performance Evaluation of Attack Resilient Control for AGC

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

Ashok, Aditya; Sridhar, Siddharth; McKinnon, Archibald D.

The modern electric power grid is a complex cyber-physical system whose reliable operation is enabled by a wide-area monitoring and control infrastructure. This infrastructure, supported by an extensive communication backbone, enables several control applications functioning at multiple time scales to ensure the grid is maintained within stable operating limits. Recent events have shown that vulnerabilities in this infrastructure may be exploited to manipulate the data being exchanged. Such a scenario could cause the associated control application to mis-operate, potentially causing system-wide instabilities. There is a growing emphasis on looking beyond traditional cybersecurity solutions to mitigate such threats. In this papermore » we perform a testbed-based validation of one such solution - Attack Resilient Control (ARC) - on Iowa State University's \\textit{PowerCyber} testbed. ARC is a cyber-physical security solution that combines domain-specific anomaly detection and model-based mitigation to detect stealthy attacks on Automatic Generation Control (AGC). In this paper, we first describe the implementation architecture of the experiment on the testbed. Next, we demonstrate the capability of stealthy attack templates to cause forced under-frequency load shedding in a 3-area test system. We then validate the performance of ARC by measuring its ability to detect and mitigate these attacks. Our results reveal that ARC is efficient in detecting stealthy attacks and enables AGC to maintain system operating frequency close to its nominal value during an attack. Our studies also highlight the importance of testbed-based experimentation for evaluating the performance of cyber-physical security and control applications.« less

Wideband Motion Control by Position and Acceleration Input Based Disturbance Observer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Irie, Kouhei; Katsura, Seiichiro; Ohishi, Kiyoshi

The disturbance observer can observe and suppress the disturbance torque within its bandwidth. Recent motion systems begin to spread in the society and they are required to have ability to contact with unknown environment. Such a haptic motion requires much wider bandwidth. However, since the conventional disturbance observer attains the acceleration response by the second order derivative of position response, the bandwidth is limited due to the derivative noise. This paper proposes a novel structure of a disturbance observer. The proposed disturbance observer uses an acceleration sensor for enlargement of bandwidth. Generally, the bandwidth of an acceleration sensor is from 1Hz to more than 1kHz. To cover DC range, the conventional position sensor based disturbance observer is integrated. Thus, the performance of the proposed Position and Acceleration input based disturbance observer (PADO) is superior to the conventional one. The PADO is applied to position control (infinity stiffness) and force control (zero stiffness). The numerical and experimental results show viability of the proposed method.

31 CFR 800.503 - Determination of whether to undertake an investigation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... government-controlled transaction; or (2) Would result in control by a foreign person of critical infrastructure of or within the United States, if the Committee determines that the transaction could impair the...

31 CFR 800.503 - Determination of whether to undertake an investigation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... government-controlled transaction; or (2) Would result in control by a foreign person of critical infrastructure of or within the United States, if the Committee determines that the transaction could impair the...

31 CFR 800.503 - Determination of whether to undertake an investigation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... government-controlled transaction; or (2) Would result in control by a foreign person of critical infrastructure of or within the United States, if the Committee determines that the transaction could impair the...

31 CFR 800.503 - Determination of whether to undertake an investigation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... government-controlled transaction; or (2) Would result in control by a foreign person of critical infrastructure of or within the United States, if the Committee determines that the transaction could impair the...

31 CFR 800.503 - Determination of whether to undertake an investigation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... government-controlled transaction; or (2) Would result in control by a foreign person of critical infrastructure of or within the United States, if the Committee determines that the transaction could impair the...

Strengthening tactical planning and operational frameworks for vector control: the roadmap for malaria elimination in Namibia.

PubMed

Chanda, Emmanuel; Ameneshewa, Birkinesh; Angula, Hans A; Iitula, Iitula; Uusiku, Pentrina; Trune, Desta; Islam, Quazi M; Govere, John M

2015-08-05

Namibia has made tremendous gains in malaria control and the epidemiological trend of the disease has changed significantly over the past years. In 2010, the country reoriented from the objective of reducing disease morbidity and mortality to the goal of achieving malaria elimination by 2020. This manuscript outlines the processes undertaken in strengthening tactical planning and operational frameworks for vector control to facilitate expeditious malaria elimination in Namibia. The information sources for this study included all available data and accessible archived documentary records on malaria vector control in Namibia. A methodical assessment of published and unpublished documents was conducted via a literature search of online electronic databases, Google Scholar, PubMed and WHO, using a combination of search terms. To attain the goal of elimination in Namibia, systems are being strengthened to identify and clear all infections, and significantly reduce human-mosquito contact. Particularly, consolidating vector control for reducing transmission at the identified malaria foci will be critical for accelerated malaria elimination. Thus, guarding against potential challenges and the need for evidence-based and sustainable vector control instigated the strengthening of strategic frameworks by: adopting the integrated vector management (IVM) strategy; initiating implementation of the global plan for insecticide resistance management (GPIRM); intensifying malaria vector surveillance; improving data collection and reporting systems on DDT; updating the indoor residual spraying (IRS) data collection and reporting tool; and, improving geographical reconnaissance using geographical information system-based satellite imagery. Universal coverage with IRS and long-lasting insecticidal nets, supplemented by larval source management in the context of IVM and guided by vector surveillance coupled with rational operationalization of the GPIRM, will enable expeditious attainment of elimination in Namibia. However, national capacity to plan, implement, monitor and evaluate interventions will require adequate and sustained support for technical, physical infrastructure, and human and financial resources for entomology and vector control operations.

Using a commercial mathematics software package for on-line analysis at the BNL Accelerator Test Facility

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

Malone, R.; Wang, X.J.

BY WRITING BOTH A CUSTOM WINDOWS(NTTM) DYNAMIC LINK LIBRARY AND GENERIC COMPANION SERVER SOFTWARE, THE INTRINSIC FUNCTIONS OF MATHSOFT MATHCAD(TM) HAVE BEEN EXTENDED WITH NEW CAPABILITIES WHICH PERMIT DIRECT ACCESS TO THE CONTROL SYSTEM DATABASES OF BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL LABORATORY ACCELERATOR TEST FACILITY. UNDER THIS SCHEME, A MATHCAD WORKSHEET EXECUTING ON A PERSONAL COMPUTER BECOMES A CLIENT WHICH CAN BOTH IMPORT AND EXPORT DATA TO A CONTROL SYSTEM SERVER VIA A NETWORK STREAM SOCKET CONNECTION. THE RESULT IS AN ALTERNATIVE, MATHEMATICALLY ORIENTED VIEW OF CONTROLLING THE ACCELERATOR INTERACTIVELY.

Sled Control and Safety System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Forrest, L. J.

1982-01-01

Computerized system for controlling motion of linear-track accelerator applied to other automated equipment, such as numerically-controlled machine tools and robot manipulators on assembly lines. System controls motions of sled with sine-wave signal created digitally by microprocessor. Dynamic parameters of sled motion are monitored so sled may be stopped safely if malfunction occurs. Sled is capable of sinusoidal accelerations up to 0.5 g with 125-kg load.

Route Infrastructure and the Risk of Injuries to Bicyclists: A Case-Crossover Study

PubMed Central

Harris, M. Anne; Reynolds, Conor C. O.; Winters, Meghan; Babul, Shelina; Chipman, Mary; Cusimano, Michael D.; Brubacher, Jeff R.; Hunte, Garth; Friedman, Steven M.; Monro, Melody; Shen, Hui; Vernich, Lee; Cripton, Peter A.

2012-01-01

Objectives. We compared cycling injury risks of 14 route types and other route infrastructure features. Methods. We recruited 690 city residents injured while cycling in Toronto or Vancouver, Canada. A case-crossover design compared route infrastructure at each injury site to that of a randomly selected control site from the same trip. Results. Of 14 route types, cycle tracks had the lowest risk (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 0.11; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.02, 0.54), about one ninth the risk of the reference: major streets with parked cars and no bike infrastructure. Risks on major streets were lower without parked cars (adjusted OR = 0.63; 95% CI = 0.41, 0.96) and with bike lanes (adjusted OR = 0.54; 95% CI = 0.29, 1.01). Local streets also had lower risks (adjusted OR = 0.51; 95% CI = 0.31, 0.84). Other infrastructure characteristics were associated with increased risks: streetcar or train tracks (adjusted OR = 3.0; 95% CI = 1.8, 5.1), downhill grades (adjusted OR = 2.3; 95% CI = 1.7, 3.1), and construction (adjusted OR = 1.9; 95% CI = 1.3, 2.9). Conclusions. The lower risks on quiet streets and with bike-specific infrastructure along busy streets support the route-design approach used in many northern European countries. Transportation infrastructure with lower bicycling injury risks merits public health support to reduce injuries and promote cycling. PMID:23078480

Multimedia courseware in an open-systems environment: a DoD strategy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Welsch, Lawrence A.

1991-03-01

The federal government is about to invest billions of dollars to develop multimedia training materials for delivery on computer-based interactive training systems. Acquisition of a variety of computers and peripheral devices hosting various operating systems and suites of authoring system software will be necessary to facilitate the development of this courseware. There is no single source that will satisfy all needs. Although high-performance, low-cost interactive training hardware is available, the products have proprietary software interfaces. Because the interfaces are proprietary, expensive reprogramming is usually required to adapt such software products to other platforms. This costly reprogramming could be eliminated by adopting standard software interfaces. DoD's Portable Courseware Project (PORTCO) is typical of projects worldwide that require standard software interfaces. This paper articulates the strategy whereby PORTCO leverages the open systems movement and the new realities of information technology. These realities encompass changes in the pace at which new technology becomes available, changes in organizational goals and philosophy, new roles of vendors and users, changes in the procurement process, and acceleration toward open system environments. The PORTCO strategy is applicable to all projects and systems that require open systems to achieve mission objectives. The federal goal is to facilitate the creation of an environment in which high quality portable courseware is available as commercial off-the-shelf products and is competitively supplied by a variety of vendors. In order to achieve this goal a system architecture incorporating standards to meet the users' needs must be established. The Request for Architecture (RFA) developed cooperatively by DoD and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will generate the PORTCO systems architecture. This architecture must freely integrate the courseware and authoring software from the lower levels of machine architecture and systems service implementation. In addition, the systems architecture will establish how the application-specific technologies relate to other technologies. Further, a computer-based interactive training applications profile must be developed. This profile, along with the systems architecture derived as a result of the RFA, provides the basis for identifying the needed standards. NIST will then accelerate the development of these standards using, but not restricted to, existing standards activities within established standards forums. The federal multimedia courseware effort has adopted the Interactive Multimedia Association (INA) Recommended Practices for Interactive Video Portability as the baseline for the migration of computer-based interactive training systems to an open systems environment based upon international standards. The PORTCO strategy includes an evolutionary migration to a standards-based, Open System Environments (OSE). An important aspect of this migration strategy is to move to open systems via stepwise evolution rather than via quantum leaps. Another area of concern is that of infrastructure issues, such as maintaining and supporting the technologies required for computer-based interactive training. The federal multimedia initiative will use the RFA-based architecture to differentiate between those technologies that can be maintained and supported by existing infrastructure mechanisms and those that require new mechanisms. Existing infrastructure mechanisms will be used and where infrastructure mechanisms do not exist, the approach will be to place high priority on establishing the appropriate mechanisms. Establishing an infrastructure mechanism is a nontrivial task requiring sustained investment of resources.

An Anaylsis of Control Requirements and Control Parameters for Direct-Coupled Turbojet Engines

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Novik, David; Otto, Edward W.

1947-01-01

Requirements of an automatic engine control, as affected by engine characteristics, have been analyzed for a direct-coupled turbojet engine. Control parameters for various conditions of engine operation are discussed. A hypothetical engine control is presented to illustrate the use of these parameters. An adjustable speed governor was found to offer a desirable method of over-all engine control. The selection of a minimum value of fuel flow was found to offer a means of preventing unstable burner operation during steady-state operation. Until satisfactory high-temperature-measuring devices are developed, air-fuel ratio is considered to be a satisfactory acceleration-control parameter for the attainment of the maximum acceleration rates consistent with safe turbine temperatures. No danger of unstable burner operation exists during acceleration if a temperature-limiting acceleration control is assumed to be effective. Deceleration was found to be accompanied by the possibility of burner blow-out even if a minimum fuel-flow control that prevents burner blow-out during steady-state operation is assumed to be effective. Burner blow-out during deceleration may be eliminated by varying the value of minimum fuel flow as a function of compressor-discharge pressure, but in no case should the fuel flow be allowed to fall below the value required for steady-state burner operation.

Toward smartphone applications for geoparks information and interpretation systems in China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Qian; Tian, Mingzhong; Li, Xingle; Shi, Yihua; Zhou, Xu

2015-11-01

Geopark information and interpretation systems are both necessary infrastructure in geopark planning and construction program, and they are also essential for geoeducation and geoconservation in geopark tourism. The current state and development of information and interpretation systems in China's geoparks were presented and analyzed in this paper. Statistics showed that fewer than half of geoparks run websites, and less than that amount maintained database, and less than one percent of all Internet/smartphone applications were used for geopark tourism. The results of our analysis indicated that smartphone applications in geopark information and interpretation systems would provide benefits such as accelerated geopark science popularization and education and facilitated interactive communication between geoparks and tourists.

Using an integrated knowledge translation approach to build a public health research agenda

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Public Health Systems Research is an emerging field of research that is gaining importance in Canada. Methods On October 22 and 23, 2012, public health researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers came together at the Accelerating Public Health Systems Research in Ontario: Building an Agenda think tank to develop a research agenda for the province. Results This agenda included the identification of the six top priorities for research in Ontario: public health performance, evidence-based practice, public health organization and structure, public health human resources, public health infrastructure, and partnerships/linkages. Conclusions This paper explores the priorities in detail and hopes to bring more attention to this area of research. PMID:24475759

Exploiting microRNA Specificity and Selectivity: Paving a Sustainable Path Towards Precision Medicine.

PubMed

Santulli, Gaetano

2015-01-01

In his State of the Union address before both chambers of the US Congress, President Barack Obama called for increased investment in US infrastructure and research and announced the launch of a new Precision Medicine Initiative, aiming to accelerate biomedical discovery. Due to their well-established selectivity and specificity, microRNAs can represent a useful tool, both in diagnosis and therapy, in forging the path towards the achievement of precision medicine. This introductory chapter represents a guide for the Reader in examining the functional roles of microRNAs in the most diverse aspects of clinical practice, which will be explored in this third volume of the microRNA trilogy.

Exploiting microRNA Specificity and Selectivity: Paving a Sustainable Path Towards Precision Medicine

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

In his State of the Union address before both chambers of the US Congress, President Barack Obama called for increased investment in US infrastructure and research and announced the launch of a new Precision Medicine Initiative, aiming to accelerate biomedical discovery. Due to their well-established selectivity and specificity, microRNAs can represent a useful tool, both in diagnosis and therapy, in forging the path towards the achievement of precision medicine. This introductory chapter represents a guide for the Reader in examining the functional roles of microRNAs in the most diverse aspects of clinical practice, which will be explored in this third volume of the microRNA trilogy. PMID:26663175

Timely, Granular, and Actionable: Informatics in the Public Health 3.0 Era.

PubMed

Wang, Y Claire; DeSalvo, Karen

2018-07-01

Ensuring the conditions for all people to be healthy, though always the core mission of public health, has evolved in approaches in response to the changing epidemiology and challenges. In the Public Health 3.0 era, multisectorial efforts are essential in addressing not only infectious or noncommunicable diseases but also upstream social determinants of health. In this article, we argue that actionable, geographically granular, and timely intelligence is an essential infrastructure for the protection of our health today. Even though local and state efforts are key, there are substantial federal roles in accelerating data access, connecting existing data systems, providing guidance, incentivizing nonproprietary analytic tools, and coordinating measures that matter most.

A Survey of Plasmas and Their Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Eastman, Timothy E.; Grabbe, C. (Editor)

2006-01-01

Plasmas are everywhere and relevant to everyone. We bath in a sea of photons, quanta of electromagnetic radiation, whose sources (natural and artificial) are dominantly plasma-based (stars, fluorescent lights, arc lamps.. .). Plasma surface modification and materials processing contribute increasingly to a wide array of modern artifacts; e.g., tiny plasma discharge elements constitute the pixel arrays of plasma televisions and plasma processing provides roughly one-third of the steps to produce semiconductors, essential elements of our networking and computing infrastructure. Finally, plasmas are central to many cutting edge technologies with high potential (compact high-energy particle accelerators; plasma-enhanced waste processors; high tolerance surface preparation and multifuel preprocessors for transportation systems; fusion for energy production).

Lunar Radio Telescopes: A Staged Approach for Lunar Science, Heliophysics, Astrobiology, Cosmology, and Exploration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lazio, Joseph; Bowman, Judd D.; Burns, Jack O.; Farrell, W. M.; Jones, D. L.; Kasper, J. C.; MacDowall, R. J.; Stewart, K. P.; Weiler, K.

2012-01-01

Observations with radio telescopes address key problems in cosmology, astrobiology, heliophysics, and planetary science including the first light in the Universe (Cosmic Dawn), magnetic fields of extrasolar planets, particle acceleration mechanisms, and the lunar ionosphere. The Moon is a unique science platform because it allows access to radio frequencies that do not penetrate the Earth's ionosphere and because its far side is shielded from intense terrestrial emissions. The instrument packages and infrastructure needed for radio telescopes can be transported and deployed as part of Exploration activities, and the resulting science measurements may inform Exploration (e.g., measurements of lunar surface charging). An illustrative roadmap for the staged deployment of lunar radio telescopes

U.S. Department of Energy's EV Everywhere Workplace Charging Challenge, Mid-Program Review: Employees Plug In

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

2015-12-01

This Program Review takes an unprecedented look at the state of workplace charging in the United States -- a report made possible by U.S. Department of Energy leadership and valuable support from our partners as they share their progress in developing robust workplace charging programs. Through the Workplace Charging Challenge, more than 250 participants are accelerating the development the nation's worksite PEV charging infrastructure and are supporting cleaner, more convenient transportation options within their communities. Challenge partners are currently providing access to PEV charging stations at more than 440 worksites across the country and are influencing countless other organizations tomore » do the same.« less

CDP - Adaptive Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) Technology for Infrastructure Protection

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

Marco Carvalho; Richard Ford

2012-05-14

Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) Systems are a type of Industrial Control System characterized by the centralized (or hierarchical) monitoring and control of geographically dispersed assets. SCADA systems combine acquisition and network components to provide data gathering, transmission, and visualization for centralized monitoring and control. However these integrated capabilities, especially when built over legacy systems and protocols, generally result in vulnerabilities that can be exploited by attackers, with potentially disastrous consequences. Our research project proposal was to investigate new approaches for secure and survivable SCADA systems. In particular, we were interested in the resilience and adaptability of large-scale mission-criticalmore » monitoring and control infrastructures. Our research proposal was divided in two main tasks. The first task was centered on the design and investigation of algorithms for survivable SCADA systems and a prototype framework demonstration. The second task was centered on the characterization and demonstration of the proposed approach in illustrative scenarios (simulated or emulated).« less

Application of large-scale computing infrastructure for diverse environmental research applications using GC3Pie

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maffioletti, Sergio; Dawes, Nicholas; Bavay, Mathias; Sarni, Sofiane; Lehning, Michael

2013-04-01

The Swiss Experiment platform (SwissEx: http://www.swiss-experiment.ch) provides a distributed storage and processing infrastructure for environmental research experiments. The aim of the second phase project (the Open Support Platform for Environmental Research, OSPER, 2012-2015) is to develop the existing infrastructure to provide scientists with an improved workflow. This improved workflow will include pre-defined, documented and connected processing routines. A large-scale computing and data facility is required to provide reliable and scalable access to data for analysis, and it is desirable that such an infrastructure should be free of traditional data handling methods. Such an infrastructure has been developed using the cloud-based part of the Swiss national infrastructure SMSCG (http://www.smscg.ch) and Academic Cloud. The infrastructure under construction supports two main usage models: 1) Ad-hoc data analysis scripts: These scripts are simple processing scripts, written by the environmental researchers themselves, which can be applied to large data sets via the high power infrastructure. Examples of this type of script are spatial statistical analysis scripts (R-based scripts), mostly computed on raw meteorological and/or soil moisture data. These provide processed output in the form of a grid, a plot, or a kml. 2) Complex models: A more intense data analysis pipeline centered (initially) around the physical process model, Alpine3D, and the MeteoIO plugin; depending on the data set, this may require a tightly coupled infrastructure. SMSCG already supports Alpine3D executions as both regular grid jobs and as virtual software appliances. A dedicated appliance with the Alpine3D specific libraries has been created and made available through the SMSCG infrastructure. The analysis pipelines are activated and supervised by simple control scripts that, depending on the data fetched from the meteorological stations, launch new instances of the Alpine3D appliance, execute location-based subroutines at each grid point and store the results back into the central repository for post-processing. An optional extension of this infrastructure will be to provide a 'ring buffer'-type database infrastructure, such that model results (e.g. test runs made to check parameter dependency or for development) can be visualised and downloaded after completion without submitting them to a permanent storage infrastructure. Data organization Data collected from sensors are archived and classified in distributed sites connected with an open-source software middleware, GSN. Publicly available data are available through common web services and via a cloud storage server (based on Swift). Collocation of the data and processing in the cloud would eventually eliminate data transfer requirements. Execution control logic Execution of the data analysis pipelines (for both the R-based analysis and the Alpine3D simulations) has been implemented using the GC3Pie framework developed by UZH. (https://code.google.com/p/gc3pie/). This allows large-scale, fault-tolerant execution of the pipelines to be described in terms of software appliances. GC3Pie also allows supervision of the execution of large campaigns of appliances as a single simulation. This poster will present the fundamental architectural components of the data analysis pipelines together with initial experimental results.

Compliance control for a hydraulic bouncing system.

PubMed

Chen, Guangrong; Wang, Junzheng; Wang, Shoukun; Zhao, Jiangbo; Shen, Wei

2018-05-17

This paper is to reduce the contact impact, control the leg stiffness and bouncing height. Firstly, the combining position/force active compliance control was involved in the deceleration phase to decrease the impact force and improve the leg compliance capacity. Then a reasonable velocity control of cylinder was addressed to control the bouncing height to the given value in the acceleration phase. Due to the model uncertainties and disturbances in the deceleration and acceleration phase, a near inverse like controller with a proportional and differential control (PD) was added into the velocity control of acceleration phase to compensate the bouncing height control error. Finally, the effectiveness of proposed controller was validated by experiments. Experimental results showed the impact force could be reduced effectively and a significant bouncing height control performance could be achieved. The influences of initial energy, preload of spring and velocity of cylinder on the bouncing height were addressed as well. Copyright © 2018 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cyber-physical security of Wide-Area Monitoring, Protection and Control in a smart grid environment

PubMed Central

Ashok, Aditya; Hahn, Adam; Govindarasu, Manimaran

2013-01-01

Smart grid initiatives will produce a grid that is increasingly dependent on its cyber infrastructure in order to support the numerous power applications necessary to provide improved grid monitoring and control capabilities. However, recent findings documented in government reports and other literature, indicate the growing threat of cyber-based attacks in numbers and sophistication targeting the nation’s electric grid and other critical infrastructures. Specifically, this paper discusses cyber-physical security of Wide-Area Monitoring, Protection and Control (WAMPAC) from a coordinated cyber attack perspective and introduces a game-theoretic approach to address the issue. Finally, the paper briefly describes how cyber-physical testbeds can be used to evaluate the security research and perform realistic attack-defense studies for smart grid type environments. PMID:25685516

Cyber-physical security of Wide-Area Monitoring, Protection and Control in a smart grid environment.

PubMed

Ashok, Aditya; Hahn, Adam; Govindarasu, Manimaran

2014-07-01

Smart grid initiatives will produce a grid that is increasingly dependent on its cyber infrastructure in order to support the numerous power applications necessary to provide improved grid monitoring and control capabilities. However, recent findings documented in government reports and other literature, indicate the growing threat of cyber-based attacks in numbers and sophistication targeting the nation's electric grid and other critical infrastructures. Specifically, this paper discusses cyber-physical security of Wide-Area Monitoring, Protection and Control (WAMPAC) from a coordinated cyber attack perspective and introduces a game-theoretic approach to address the issue. Finally, the paper briefly describes how cyber-physical testbeds can be used to evaluate the security research and perform realistic attack-defense studies for smart grid type environments.

Applications of CCSDS recommendations to Integrated Ground Data Systems (IGDS)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mizuta, Hiroshi; Martin, Daniel; Kato, Hatsuhiko; Ihara, Hirokazu

1993-01-01

This paper describes an application of the CCSDS Principle Network (CPH) service model to communications network elements of a postulated Integrated Ground Data System (IGDS). Functions are drawn principally from COSMICS (Cosmic Information and Control System), an integrated space control infrastructure, and the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Core System (ECS). From functional requirements, this paper derives a set of five communications network partitions which, taken together, support proposed space control infrastructures and data distribution systems. Our functional analysis indicates that the five network partitions derived in this paper should effectively interconnect the users, centers, processors, and other architectural elements of an IGDS. This paper illustrates a useful application of the CCSDS (Consultive Committee for Space Data Systems) Recommendations to ground data system development.

The use of test structures for reliability prediction and process control of integrated circuits and photovoltaics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trachtenberg, I.

How a reliability model might be developed with new data from accelerated stress testing, failure mechanisms, process control monitoring, and test structure evaluations is illustrated. The effects of the acceleration of temperature on operating life is discussed. Test structures that will further accelerate the failure rate are discussed. Corrosion testing is addressed. The uncoated structure is encapsulated in a variety of mold compounds and subjected to pressure-cooker testing.

Lateralized Motor Control Processes Determine Asymmetry of Interlimb Transfer

PubMed Central

Sainburg, Robert L.; Schaefer, Sydney Y.; Yadav, Vivek

2016-01-01

This experiment tested the hypothesis that interlimb transfer of motor performance depends on recruitment of motor control processes that are specialized to the hemisphere contralateral to the arm that is initially trained. Right-handed participants performed a single-joint task, in which reaches were targeted to 4 different distances. While the speed and accuracy was similar for both hands, the underlying control mechanisms used to vary movement speed with distance were systematically different between the arms: The amplitude of the initial acceleration profiles scaled greater with movement speed for the right-dominant arm, while the duration of the initial acceleration profile scaled greater with movement speed for the left-non-dominant arm. These two processes were previously shown to be differentially disrupted by left and right hemisphere damage, respectively. We now hypothesize that task practice with the right arm might reinforce left-hemisphere mechanisms that vary acceleration amplitude with distance, while practice with the left arm might reinforce right-hemisphere mechanisms that vary acceleration duration with distance. We thus predict that following right arm practice, the left arm should show increased contributions of acceleration amplitude to peak velocities, and following left arm practice, the right arm should show increased contributions of acceleration duration to peak velocities. Our findings support these predictions, indicating that asymmetry in interlimb transfer of motor performance, at least in the task used here, depends on recruitment of lateralized motor control processes. PMID:27491479

A case analysis of INFOMED: the Cuban national health care telecommunications network and portal.

PubMed

Séror, Ann C

2006-01-27

The Internet and telecommunications technologies contribute to national health care system infrastructures and extend global health care services markets. The Cuban national health care system offers a model to show how a national information portal can contribute to system integration, including research, education, and service delivery as well as international trade in products and services. The objectives of this paper are (1) to present the context of the Cuban national health care system since the revolution in 1959, (2) to identify virtual institutional infrastructures of the system associated with the Cuban National Health Care Telecommunications Network and Portal (INFOMED), and (3) to show how they contribute to Cuban trade in international health care service markets. Qualitative case research methods were used to identify the integrated virtual infrastructure of INFOMED and to show how it reflects socialist ideology. Virtual institutional infrastructures include electronic medical and information services and the structure of national networks linking such services. Analysis of INFOMED infrastructures shows integration of health care information, research, and education as well as the interface between Cuban national information networks and the global Internet. System control mechanisms include horizontal integration and coordination through virtual institutions linked through INFOMED, and vertical control through the Ministry of Public Health and the government hierarchy. Telecommunications technology serves as a foundation for a dual market structure differentiating domestic services from international trade. INFOMED is a model of interest for integrating health care information, research, education, and services. The virtual infrastructures linked through INFOMED support the diffusion of Cuban health care products and services in global markets. Transferability of this model is contingent upon ideology and interpretation of values such as individual intellectual property and confidentiality of individual health information. Future research should focus on examination of these issues and their consequences for global markets in health care.

A Case Analysis of INFOMED: The Cuban National Health Care Telecommunications Network and Portal

PubMed Central

2006-01-01

Background The Internet and telecommunications technologies contribute to national health care system infrastructures and extend global health care services markets. The Cuban national health care system offers a model to show how a national information portal can contribute to system integration, including research, education, and service delivery as well as international trade in products and services. Objective The objectives of this paper are (1) to present the context of the Cuban national health care system since the revolution in 1959, (2) to identify virtual institutional infrastructures of the system associated with the Cuban National Health Care Telecommunications Network and Portal (INFOMED), and (3) to show how they contribute to Cuban trade in international health care service markets. Methods Qualitative case research methods were used to identify the integrated virtual infrastructure of INFOMED and to show how it reflects socialist ideology. Virtual institutional infrastructures include electronic medical and information services and the structure of national networks linking such services. Results Analysis of INFOMED infrastructures shows integration of health care information, research, and education as well as the interface between Cuban national information networks and the global Internet. System control mechanisms include horizontal integration and coordination through virtual institutions linked through INFOMED, and vertical control through the Ministry of Public Health and the government hierarchy. Telecommunications technology serves as a foundation for a dual market structure differentiating domestic services from international trade. Conclusions INFOMED is a model of interest for integrating health care information, research, education, and services. The virtual infrastructures linked through INFOMED support the diffusion of Cuban health care products and services in global markets. Transferability of this model is contingent upon ideology and interpretation of values such as individual intellectual property and confidentiality of individual health information. Future research should focus on examination of these issues and their consequences for global markets in health care. PMID:16585025